The Kitchen Illiterate

I have been experiencing a bit of the old writer’s block lately. Hence, it’s taken me three days to write about Taco Thursday, and I still don’t really know what what to say other than “We made tacos! Hurray!”

I’d been planning tacos for weeks–I wanted to make them just the way my dad did when I was growing up. Taco dinners were a special treat, and because they’re also a pain in the arse, dad didn’t make tacos too often. There’s a lot of oil involved, and standing over the stove, not to mention chopping of vegetables and doing all the dishes when you’re done. But it is so, so worth it. This being the first time I made tacos myself I was a little unsure about the tortilla frying, but after the first two chewy mishaps, I finally perfected the technique and managed to pull off some crispy, delicious shells to hold all kinds of yummy food stuffs. Just like dad used to make.

Continue reading Taco Thursday

If you’re anything like me, you probably end up with tons of leftovers after any social gathering that involves food. And in the summertime, a lot of those leftovers are probably grilled. Our Fourth of July gathering was attended solely by people who believe it’s better to have too much than not enough, and the refrigerator at the end of the night, stuffed full of grilled sausages and hamburgers and hot dogs and steak, was a staggering sight. I mean, the guys manning the grill outside cooked up twelve hamburgers and two pounds of sausages and a whole, huge Tri-tip steak for about eight people. No one can eat that much meat.

As the resident chef in our humble abode, it fell to me to figure out what to do with all that leftover meat. I mean, no one wants to eat microwaved hamburgers all week. Of course there is the obvious: barbecue-sauce slathered grilled chicken breasts can be shredded for chicken salad sandwiches. Steak can be sliced up and added to salads or slapped between two pieces of bread. But who wants to be obvious?

Continue reading Too much beautiful meat?