Taco Pie

I find my love hate relationship with tacos amusing. I love to make tacos and eat Taco Bell here and there; however, I hate to eat tacos from a Mexican restaurant. I am baffled by this. To the point, Tacos are wonderful. They are inexpensive to make, great for when friends come over, and very versatile. I stumbled upon the humble taco pie when I was scavenging through my kitchen. I had taken to ordering Chinese take-out, so there wasn't much. I had:

• 9" deep pie shell 
• 1lb of lean ground beef 
• 1 of the steamer bags of southwestern rice 
• 1 random pouch of taco seasoning 
• 1 small can of salsa con queso 

I was hesitant, but my stomach was threatening to eat my kidneys if I didn't feed it soon. I took a fork and scored my pie shell and par baked it for 15 minutes at 400 (it was the temperature the packaging said to use, so I did). I cooked the meat as if I was making tacos, and I had the rice cooking in the microwave. [I like to mix 1 tablespoon of corn into the water for my taco seasoning. It just makes it thicker, and is not needed if you don't have it. I went to school to be a pastry chef so I have corn starch handy.] Once the meat and rice were done I mixed them together and placed them in the pie shell. I then completely covered my rice meat mixture with the cheese dip and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes (or when the cheese had browned to my liking). After letting it cool for 5 minutes, it cut myself a piece. I cut just like a piece of pie. Another good thing about it is when you reheat it the next day it tastes just as good. [I have never seen the point in food that tastes horrible when heated the next day.] I hope try it, and if you love it or hate it let me know.