Burrito Pie — The Birthday Table That Feeds a Decade of Growing

March 2026. Diane turns forty-six. Ten years since the farm sold. A decade. The decade contained: a move to Des Moines, three children growing up, a mother's death, a father's decline, a career change, sixty-eight jars of canning per year, and the persistent, stubborn, Weber belief that you plant things and they grow and the growing is the point.

The ISFA has become my place. Not my job — my place, the way the kitchen is my place, the way the garden is Jack's place. I drive to Ames three days a week. I sit at kitchen tables. I deliver possibilities. The tables keep multiplying. Fifty-three families now. The number is a harvest count and I track it the way Roger tracked bushels — precisely, proudly, with the understanding that the number is not just a number, it's a family that stayed, a farm that held, a door that didn't close.

Kevin is steady. Kevin is always steady. The man who eats steak on his birthday and holds your hand at concerts and fixes things in the garage. Dale is gone. Phyllis is fading. The Holloway side is diminishing. But Kevin is steady and the steadiness is the gift and the gift is the marriage and the marriage is twenty-two years of a man and a steak and a woman who cooks it.

I made pot roast for my birthday. More carrots. The carrots are the candles now. The more is the wish. The wish is the same every year: let the growing continue. Let the harvest hold. Let the frosting be extra. Always extra. Always more.

The pot roast was mine alone—my birthday wish, my carrots, my quiet. But this Burrito Pie is what I make when the whole table needs feeding, when I come home from Ames with fifty-three families still turning over in my mind and Kevin’s steadiness waiting in the kitchen. It layers the way a good year layers: ground, stacked, held together by heat and time. I started making it the same year I started driving to Ames, and somewhere along the way it became its own kind of harvest count—the kind of meal that tells everyone at the table that the door is still open, the farm still holds, and there is always more.

Burrito Pie

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef (85/15)
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (10 oz) red enchilada sauce, divided
• 1 cup jarred salsa
• 1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 6 flour tortillas (8-inch)
• 2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese, divided
• 3/4 cup sour cream, divided
• Sliced green onions and fresh cilantro, for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a deep 9-inch round baking dish or springform pan with cooking spray.
2. Brown the beef. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook ground beef, breaking it apart with a spoon, until fully browned, about 8 minutes. Drain excess fat.
3. Build the filling. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in black beans, green chiles, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer 3–4 minutes until slightly thickened, then remove from heat.
4. Start layering. Spread 2 tablespoons of the remaining enchilada sauce across the bottom of the prepared pan. Place one tortilla on top, trimming edges if needed to fit.
5. Build the layers. Spoon roughly 1/2 cup of the beef mixture over the tortilla. Add a thin layer of sour cream, a spoonful of salsa, and a handful of shredded cheese. Repeat the tortilla-filling-sour cream-salsa-cheese sequence until all ingredients are used, finishing with a tortilla topped generously with remaining enchilada sauce and the last of the cheese.
6. Bake covered. Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake for 25 minutes, until heated through and cheese has begun to melt.
7. Bake uncovered. Remove foil and continue baking 12–15 minutes, until the top is bubbly and the edges are golden.
8. Rest and serve. Let the pie rest 8–10 minutes before slicing—this helps the layers hold. Top with green onions and cilantro if desired, and serve with extra sour cream on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 415 | Protein: 23g | Fat: 21g | Carbs: 33g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 790mg