Tacos

Someone once told me that when you are a baby inside your mothers womb magic happens and you get taste buds just like that.  I don't remember her exact words, but it boiled down to you usually enjoy whatever it was your mother was eating at the time.  I think mine was tacos.  I love tacos; fish, chicken, beef, bean tacos are all good to me.  So as you can imagine I have continued to enhance my taco experience throughout my life.  None are as good as my mothers however.  When I have company I usually get the request for tacos and I am truly flattered.  Now, because I love tacos so much I often get a hankering for them.  This is usually once a month, but sometimes twice and I have been known to eat them every week for awhile too, but shhhhh that is our secret.  The disadvantage for me is they require a lot of work.  Not as much as fried chicken, but between all the slicing, dicing, chopping, frying it gets messy.  The other disadvantage is I can't eat as many as I used to.  When my family would get together we would have taco eating competitions.  The record holder ate 12, that was NOT me.  I didn't even come close, my max has been 6.  So enough about tacos for now, I had my hankering and I made some. Holly and I are planning a little cook-off so at that time we will share our recipes.  Let you decide whose tacos rain supreme.         

Roasted Garlic Taco Salads

My day was not simple.  I may put on a great coverup (I use Clinique by the way) but I sometimes feel so overwhelmed.  I am the worst kind of procrastinator, but I also get my best work done this way.  I am in a catch 22 because I do inadvertently put things aside to do this or that.  For example I am planting a semi- edible  garden.  It is mostly flowers, but some are edible by me and not just for the hummingbirds.  I also have a lettuce border for said garden.  Now, I need to be composting it, mulching it planting and weeding it.  I also need to be harvesting my vegetable garden, instead I waited to the last minute to put together my photos for the fair.  So the plants wait to go into the ground because I am running helter skelter to get the photos done and mounted.  Should've done that during my weekend.  I did clean my pantry, and I mean deep cleaned for the weekend and It sparkles!  So after stressing and getting that done, working an 8 hour shift, come home walk my two sweet dogs and I still have to make dinner.  It just so happens Garlic is in season.  It also happens that my co worker grows an abundant amount of garlic and gave me plenty.  Lucky me I cook with garlic, A LOT.  It is so good for you, the health benefits out way any bad breath I may have. So I have garlic, I have lettuce from the garden, I have hamburger from eastern WA without any hormones and grass fed and I have cheese from Costco.  I also cooked up a big batch of black beans recently.  What am I envisioning.......  a healthy taco salad that's what.

Home Grown Garlic from a wonderful friend's beautiful garden

Now as most of you know I don't measure often.  Unless I am baking I rarely follow a recipe either.  I get ideas and then roll with it.  So bare with me and remember you really can't go wrong with adding or substituting.  Some of my best creations come out from doing just that.  So without further delay let me share my Roasted Garlic Taco Salad with you.


Roast Garlic, depending on the size this could be about 10 minutes to  nearly half an hour (I had large garlic) at 350 in the oven.  If you have one of those garlic roasters great, of not remember to put it on aluminum foil or the oil will drip and make a mess in your oven 

Meanwhile go out to the garden and pick lettuce, spinach or whatever you got.  Place it directly into the salad spinner so you can rinse and spin.  Easy as that.  A colander just doesn't get all the water out trust me.  I also prep my other ingredients.  Chop up a tomato or two, slice an avocado or two ;-)

Take out your hamburger, brown in skillet with 1/2 onion and a few peppers, which I also grow.  I used a mix of mini sweet bell peppers and a serrano pepper for a bit of kick.  If you are into spice punch it up with some cherry bomb's or jalapenos.

Hamburger is browning, lettuce is done, garlic is roasted so I throw it in with my hamburger for the final impact.  Leave it whole or mash as I do.  Work it in with the hamburger really good.  And finishing browning.  Turn off the stove,but not the oven.  Meanwhile I crunch chips (because those taco salad shells are really not that tasty) in a baking dish.  Grate cheese over chips, top with hamburger mix and black beans, put in the oven for about 5 minutes at the most.  Just enough to let the cheese melt.  Bring out your plate, put mix on top of your bed of salad.  Then I added all the other goodies.  The tomato, the cilantro, some extra peppers, avocado, chopped black olives and just a splash of fresh lime juice. Dinner is ready.  Yummmm O says this Country Girl.

See y'all tomorrow.  My menu says we will be having Pesto Salmon.  Tonight y'all have to sit tight.  There is a little cook off planned between my fellow blogger  http://www.hollidaysmtncafe.blogspot.com/ and I.  We are saving it for a later date, but I am making my very popular tacos tonight.  I can't share the recipe until the cook off ;-)  It will be worth it though, just keep on reading. 

Hello

Well hello all. Come on and cook with me as I cook my way through life. I get through life one day at a time.  Sometimes I am lavash and other days I just want to break down and cry. 

So I suppose you want to know a little about me first.  I am a regular girl from all over.  I recently moved to Washington from my beloved state of Montana for numerous reasons, but mostly because of family.  I love horseback riding, hiking, camping, fishing, photography is my sidekick, and recently I have become the proud owner of a therapy dog.  But mostly, I want to make a difference in whatever small way I can, if I can.  I want to show the kindnesses that others have bestowed upon me and pay it forward.  It hasn't been easy for me, I have lost a lot of loved ones in my shorter life (yikes I am not 30).  My best friend was the hardest, she was my hero, my inspiration my bosom friend (as they say in Anne of Green Gables).  We were going to grow old and raise our kids together, they were going to be best friends just like us.  It just didn't work out that way.  So here I am, cooking because it is what I know how I do and what I love.  I love sitting in the kitchen figuring out my menu for the week, and smelling the food as it melds together in mouthwatering fashion.  I love shopping for ingredients, the smell of fresh food from the farmers market.  The nutrients going into my body, and mostly seeing others smile over the good food they were served.  So here we go through some bumbled recipes they call life.  Cheers!