totally stolen recipe

Back on the scene after trip to the store and dinner. We had a tasty tamale pie that we saw put together on America's Test Kitchen the other day. Recipe follows (as I remembered it):

Ingredients:
Half a good sized onion (whatever your preference) chopped
2 Tablespoons chili powder
2 cloves garlic minced (more/less whatever you like)
1 lb ground beef (90% lean)
1 can black beans drained and rinsed
1 can dice tomatoes drained
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
handful chopped fresh cilantro
1 package jiffy muffin mix

1. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees (that's Fahrenheit for all my European friends)
2. Grab 1 12" oven-proof skillet (10" probably good if you're stuck)
3. Get started over MEDIUM heat and throw some canola/veggie oil in there to coat the bottom
4. After oil starts to smoke, ADD onion and Chili Powder. Mix it up and cook the onions for 5-7 mins.
5. Once onions have cooked down a bit, ADD garlic and whoosh around.
6. When you can smell garlic (30 sec - 1 minute) ADD tomatoes and beans. Mix it up.
7. ADD beef and break it up into smaller pieces. COOK for about 10 minutes until beef is cooked.
8. While beef is cooking, make Jiffy muffin mix (it's really easy).
9. After beef has cooked, ADD cheese and cilantro. Mix. Season with salt and pepper (don't forget this step).
10. Dollop jiffy mix on top of beef and evenly spread to cover most of pan (will be hard to reach edges, but it's no big deal).
11. Place in oven and cook until muffin top has browned (10-15 minutes).
12. Serve with dollop of sour cream on top. Good stuff and only one pan to clean.

Spoke to Doug on his ride back from the track and he said that Nautical Agent cooled out really well and seemed pretty satisfied with herself after the race. We'll see how she bounces back over the next few days and map out a plan from there. I had been counting on a better price next time out, but she might have tipped our hand with the solid effort today. I'll have to talk to her during the week about the importance of playing things close to the vest from time to time...Hard not to really appreciate a filly like this one. She might not be the fastest, but as Doug and I were talking about, you'd be hard-pressed to find one with more try. A cool, little girl. We'll have to get down with some carrots during the week.