Well, lads… new year, new me.

That’s a bald-faced lie. New year, same ol’ me. Actually, I’m a bit worse than usual, truth be told.

When Starkville teachers returned to school last Monday, we discovered that the district had become the victim of a malware attack. In short, school Wi-Fi was unavailable.

That was no big deal to me, as I started teaching before the internet was widely available in schools. I was, after all, born way back in the 1900s, as my students would say.

But a few things have happened since the last time I taught without computers: one, whiteboards went by the wayside. I have one smallish whiteboard in my classroom and two blackboards, one of which is covered in contact paper.

Secondarily, today’s projection systems require Wi-Fi as well. I haven’t had an overhead projector in many moons and usually mirror my iPad to my TV to teach.

But most importantly, copiers rely on Wi-Fi now, too.

In short, I have been using markers, giant sticky notes and textbooks to teach for the past week.

Thankfully, our internet is back up and running now, but you can be sure I needed to take some shortcuts at home while I was playing Laura Ingalls Wilder at work.

One of those shortcuts was this giant Crunchwrap Supreme knockoff.

The first time I tried it, it fell far short of my expectations. I had put fresh Romaine lettuce in it, and hot, wilty lettuce is just not it.

I also made my crunchwraps individually and then tried to bake them sandwiched between two sheet pans.

The result was – edible. But considering it did require more work than the average taco, I wanted the result to taste better than the average taco.

After that fail, I kept seeing the YouTube cooks I follow singing the praises of this dish, showing they made it and talking about how it was in their families’ regular rotations.

Plus, I had meat left over from my first attempt. It was already cooked and seasoned for tacos. And I had flour tortillas that needed to be eaten.

So I decided to go in for round two.

This time, I ditched the lettuce altogether, though you could easily add it as a topping after baking. I also substituted a can of tomatoes and chilies for the fresh tomatoes and increased the nacho cheese dip.

(Did you know they sell nacho cheese in a can? I know. The thought is disgusting, but it’s perfect for this recipe. I mean, this is a knockoff of a Taco Bell recipe, so if you were expecting homemade cheese dip, you have come to the wrong place.)

And, of course, I added butter.

Repeat after me: if the food you cook tastes bad, add salt. If you are sure it is salty enough, add butter. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

CRUNCHWRAPPED CASSEROLE

Ingredients
7-8 extra-large flour tortillas
1 stick butter, melted
1-2 pounds ground beef (cooked, crumbled and seasoned with taco seasoning)
1 can nacho cheese sauce
1 can tomatoes with green chilis (drained)
5-6 tostada flats or taco shells or about 1/3 bag unflavored tortilla chips
3/4 cup Mexican style shredded cheese
1 cup sour cream
Optional: 1 can black beans (drained), 1 can corn (drained)
Cold toppings as desired: pico de gallo, lettuce, guacamole, etc.

Directions
■ Preheat oven to 375 degrees. If you have not already cooked your ground beef, cook it in a skillet over medium heat. When beef is browned through and crumbly, drain grease from the skillet. Add a pouch of taco seasoning and as much water as the packet calls for. If you are not using a packet, add about 1/3 cup of water and your own seasonings. Simmer until most of the water has cooked off. Remove beef from heat and set aside while you assemble the remaining ingredients. (And next time, go ahead and make several pounds of taco meat at a time and freeze the extra. You won’t be sad you did it.)
■ Pour about half of the stick of melted butter into the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch pan. Use a pastry brush or similar to coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Lay flour tortillas on bottom of casserole dish in such a way that about a third of the tortilla rests on the bottom of the dish and the other portion rests outside the dish. Be sure the entire bottom and sides are covered, overlapping as necessary. (Your end result will be essentially a casserole-sized quesadilla.) This took 6 tortillas in my 9-by-13-inch pan, with one tortilla on each short edge and two on each long edge.
■ Begin by spreading the contents of the can of nacho cheese evenly over the bottom layer of tortilla. Sprinkle on the seasoned, cooked beef. Add a single layer of the tostadas, taco shells (broken in half at the fold) or tortilla chips. On top of this layer, add sour cream and the can of drained tomatoes and chilis. You can also add drained corn or drained black beans at this point. Sprinkle shredded cheese over all this. To create the final layer, fold over the top of the flour tortillas that have been hanging over the sides of the pan. If the tortilla layer has a gap, add a tortilla (or even just a portion of a tortilla) to the middle of the pan and then fold over the rest of the tortillas to make a complete layer of flour tortilla. Drizzle on the rest of the melted butter. If the tortillas will not stay down, place a pan over the top of them. Bake in the preheated oven until tortillas are toasted, about 30 minutes. Cut into squares to serve and top with your favorite taco toppings: lettuce, guacamole, taco sauce,etc.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.