There's probably a recipe this time

Here's some stuff we ate:

A trio of hard shells from Pineda. They look the same, but they're steak,
bbq pork, and chicken with green sauce and potatoes. It's a great place.

Cuban tacos. Pork tenderloin, ham, swiss, pickles,
onions, and mustard. Baked in the oven.

Taqueria La Hacienda is 2legit2quit.

Buffalo chicken. I'm sure I've written the recipe here before. It is, in
my opinion, a fantastic way to fill a taco shell. Shred some chicken, stir in
some buffalo sauce, top with cheese and celery. Devour.

Okok, and here's one that I can give you a recipe for. This recipe is inspired by this one. To make me sound more cullinarily legitimate, we'll call it the Deconstructed Stuffed Zucchini Taco, or perhaps Unstuffed Zucchini Taco.

ingredients: 

1 lb chorizo

1/2 smallish onion, diced

1/2 cup spaghetti sauce

3 smallish zucchini (isn't it hard to find "small" vegetables in the midwest? The smallest I feel like I can ever expect to get is what other parts of the country might call "large." Wow...that may be the First Worldiest First World Problem ever.)

1/2 tomato, chopped

shredded cheddar cheese

feta cheese

8 tortillas, warmed.

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 425. Cut zucchini in half crosswise and then into sticks. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper (they aren't listed as ingredients because, as adults, I think we can all agree that olive oil, salt, and pepper can be assumed to be in every single recipe that is not desert.)

Roast zucchini on baking sheet for 10-15 minutes (I didn't 20-25 and ended up with mushy sticks, which was not was I was looking for. A little crunchy would certainly be better.)

Meanwhile, brown the chorizo and onion over medium high heat. when cooked through, add the spaghetti sauce, lower heat to medium, and cook for an additional 5 minutes, or until whatever side dish you're making is ready.

Also meanwhile, shred the cheddar, dice the tomato, and microwave the shells. I suggest wrapping them in a damp paper towel in the microwave, but whatever blows your skirt up is fine with me.

To assemble, stack a few sticks of zucchini and some chorizo mixture in a warmed tortilla. Sprinkle tomato and cheese. NOM.

Chorizo and zucchini tacos.

By the way, the Cuban tacos (along with a great number of other tacos I'll be making, phone photographing, Instagraming, Facebooking, Tweeting, explaining to the dog why she cannot have, and eventually eating (after I get up and go get the fork I forgot while I was in the kitchen) are recipes from this totally great book called 300 Best Taco Recipes, by Kelley Cleary Coffeen.  We got it as a gift, and it's turned out to be a totally fantastic resource. Everthing I've tried cooking out of it has been easy and tasty. The Steak Carnitas from the last blog post was a recipe from it, and they were something pretty special.

Here ends today's post. 

IT'S TACO TIME!

  

Hey, party people!

(Quick side bar: I'm typing on a little tiny laptop, and the shift key is, like, really close to the home key. Consequently, almost every time I try to capitalize a word by shifting with my right hand I end up with a cursor at the beginning of the line. Ugh. #firstworldproblems)

So I was thinking that this year I'd do something a little different (read easier) and use recipes from the fabulous taco books we've received over the last couple of years. Since I don't really know the rules about the internet and posting content from someone else's work (I know I wouldn't like it), I'm not going to write out the recipes for most of these. Sorry. In some cases I'll be really sorry because we're only on day 3 and already we've had some pretty great tacos.

Day 1:
LittleTijauana's

Go here. Get a Paloma to drink. My favorite thing to order is the fajita salad (although the tacos are all pretty rad) but I'm sure whatever you get will be fine, too. While you're there, take a moment to feel like the Hip Hipster from Hipsville that you are.

Day 2:
Thai Chicken Tacos

This recipe is actually from Pinterest. Find it here. Make it. Use store-bought Thai peanut sauce. It'll take MINUTES for you to make dinner, which is always sweet. Take the leftovers as a salad to work tomorrow. Use the store-bought Thai peanut sauce as salad dressing.

You're welcome.

I feel like this might be a good time to point out that I do realize that I'm posting Instagram pictures. It's just that my cell phone pictures look better with Instagram filters. Which reminds me, my Instagram handles are becky_lyle and nerdpoetry. Go like some pictures if you want me to feel good about myself in an internety kind of a way.

Day 3:
Sirloin Carnitas

There was a little confusion at our house, since one or more of us thought that "carnitas" meant "pork." Turns out it may or may not. I think we got bored before we got to the bottom of that one. Anyways, that's what it was called in the cookbook. It was awesome. Well seasoned steak cooked and tossed into a shell with pico de gallo, cheese, and cilantro. SO GOOD. Also good was the carrot fries that went with our tacos this evening. Carrots + cumin + salt + pepper + olive oil, 425 degrees, 30 minutes. Go make some.


Also, please be aware that I'm going to be even worse than years past at blogging in a timely fashion. In January, this (most) beautiful (ever) doggy came into our lives from Indiana.

 Her name is Ripley. She's the sweetest, and I spend as much time as I can snuggling with her. At the moment, she's crashed out in her chair (she called dibs) because she had a big day at daycare today. Playing with all the other pups is hard work!

Also please be aware that this is probably not the last time you'll see that face on this blog. You probably love that since it's such a cute face.

Again, you're welcome.