Street Tacos. Or, I'm Homesick.

I have a weakness for street tacos. I always have. It's one of the things I miss most about my home state of California. I'm sure you can get them just about anywhere these days, but I have fond memories of my dad taking us to work with him and at lunchtime, he knew where his favorite taco stands were. We're talking, taco stands that sold brain tacos, tongue, and whatever else. My dad is an adventurous eater. He eats anything and everything. I don't even want to go into the foods I have tried that I wouldn't now because I know better. But I trusted him. And it makes for some good stories now. Anyway, back to the tacos. I developed a fondness for a basic street taco and I crave often the flavors. It hit me that I could make my own So Cal style street tacos. So I did. And the results are delicious and surprisingly easy to do!

First, I wanted chicken. You want to make Pollo Asado. This usually consists of oil, vinegar, lime juice, garlic, orange juice, salt, spices such as Achiote paste, etc. You can find a good recipe online. I am lazy and lucky because we have a local indoor farmer's market that sells Pollo Asado al carbon by the pound for pretty cheap so that's where I got this. It is delicious. All I had to do was cook it and chop it into bite size pieces.

Here is my chopped white onions and chopped cilantro.

You can leave the tacos as is with just the juicy, flavorful meat and the onions and cilantro, or you can add a dollop or two of guacamole. Some people like to put pico de gallo and queso fresco, but then it turns into something else entirely and not a street taco.

 To make guacamole in a jiffy, just mash the avocados and add salsa to taste and voila. There you go.

 Everything you need right here to compile your tacos.

Mmmmm! These were delicious. Usually I use white corn tortillas, but I was curious about yellow. I would recommend sticking with white. You may also want to use 2 tortillas to make your taco as they fall apart easily. Make sure the tortillas are warm when serving. I'm discovering that putting guacamole on everything is maybe a west coast thing? People always seem weirded out when I offer them guacamole as a topping, and HF's family back east never had it until they visited us here. What do you think? Do you put guacamole as a side with all your mexican food? Also, these can be as healthy or unhealthy as you want depending on the ingredients in your asado and toppings you add. I consider these pretty healthy for a family meal. And HF was thrilled to be eating meat. We average maybe once a week eating meat these days.

dinner is served: Macho Nachos

Nachos. This is one of our go-to meals when I have zero desire to think of what to make for dinner. I usually have these ingredients on hand.

Basic Ingredients:
Tortilla chips (we used Costco's organic)
Shredded cheese (Mexican blend, cheddar, Monterey Jack, etc.)
Beans (we used S&W chipotle pinto beans for flavor, we also like just black beans)

Optional Toppings:
2 Chopped fresh tomatoes (we used organic)
2 Avocados (a must have for me)
2 finely chopped green onions
a small bunch of cilantro, or to taste
1 cup chopped meat (we used grilled chicken in the ones pictured above, but I prefer mine meatless)
Sour Cream
lime wedges

Preheat oven to 350°. Spread tortilla chips evenly on foil-covered and rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle desired amount of cheese evenly over chips, about 1-2 cups. If using meat, we put the warmed meat on and then the cheese and then bake. Bake for 5-6 minutes or until cheese is melted. While cheese is melting, heat beans in microwave or on stove top. Spread evenly over nachos. Top with desired toppings. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a lime wedge. Squeeze lime wedge evenly over all and enjoy!

If you don't mind the extra calories, try queso in place of the shredded cheese. Then you don't need to heat anything up in the oven, just make sure your queso, beans, and meat are warm or hot when topping your chips. Delicious. And I love that I can just plop down one pan on the table and everyone can go to town.

Avocado and Black Bean Salsa

This is HF's new favorite salsa. We are addicted. I've concluded that this salsa tastes good on everything from chips to salads. I got this recipe from a good friend, Kate, who is the queen of amazing salsas. She doesn't have a food blog so it is up to me to share this with the rest of the world. I hope you like it. It makes a lot and is great for all ocassions and gatherings.



Combine the following ingredients in order:

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 large can diced tomatoes, drained
1 can white shoepeg corn, drained
1/2 red onion finely chopped
1 bunch fresh cilantro finely chopped
Juice from 2-3 limes
4-5 ripe avocados diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 package Good Seasons Italian Dressing, made according to the package directions
1/2 cup sugar

Kate suggests you serve it with Lime flavor tortilla chips. She also said that the ingredients must be added in the order listed or it won't turn out. I don't see why it wouldn't, but it's true she says.

fajitas

My mom made fajitas at least once a week growing up. I thought it was disgusting! Onions and peppers? I would rather die than eat onions and peppers. Well I don't know how it happened, but the things that I hated eating growing up, are the very things I crave and eat often now. They have become my comfort foods. Fajitas are one of these. Except I never make them the same way. I'm always searching and tweaking to come up with the perfect flavor. Right now, I'm pretty happy with what we've come up with. This is from McCormick’s Garlic Lime Fajitas Recipe Inspirations package. I'm kind of an herb and spice snob and don't like certain things dried like onions and garlic and cilantro. I've included my notes in blue.

Garlic Lime Chicken Fajitas

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Marinate: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Makes 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup each lime and orange juices (I've used lemon juice in place of the lime and it was still good)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried minced garlic (I used 3-4 fresh cloves, pressed)
1 teaspoon dried minced onions (I used 1 Tablespoon fresh white onion, minced)
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried cilantro leaves (I used 1-2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced)
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
(a couple shakes of chipotle chili pepper)
1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1 medium green or red bell pepper, cut into thin strips (I use red, yellow, and green, or a bunch of the mini sweet peppers)
1 medium onion, thinly sliced (I always use a big yellow Texas Sweet onion. I really think sweet onions make all the difference, but that's just me)
8 flour tortillas (8-inch) (these are really good on corn tortillas as well)

DIRECTIONS:
1.  Mix juices, oil, all of the spices and salt in small bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup of the marinade. Place chicken in large resealable plastic bag or glass dish. Add remaining marinade; turn to coat well. Refrigerate 30 minutes or longer for extra flavor.

2.  Cook and stir chicken in large heated skillet on medium-high heat 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from skillet. Add bell pepper, onion and reserved marinade; cook and stir 5 minutes or until tender. Return chicken to skillet. Cook 2 to 3 minutes or until heated through. (I always have to cook my chicken much longer than the directions say to make sure they are done)

3.  Spoon chicken mixture into warmed tortillas. Serve with assorted toppings, if desired. (We serve it with sour cream, avocados, salsa, and lime wedges)

elote

locally grown sweet corn

mayonnaise and cayenne pepper

This is my favorite way to eat corn. I think it was made even more popular by the movie Nacho Libre which we happen to love as well. One of the characters, Esqueleto is always eating elote.

We usually grill it inside the husks and then pull the husks back when they are charred and use the husk as a handle. It's just as good boiled though. I found two recipes online. I've tried them both and they are good.

Nacho Libre-style corn from Chow

Here's a recipe from all recipes

My way is much easier I must say. Even the cooking the corn part. Here's what you need:

• 4 ears of corn
• 1/4 cup- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 teaspoon or more to taste of cayenne pepper
• 1 lime
• freshly shredded parmesan cheese

1. Remove husks and silk from ears of corn. Rinse.
2. In a large pot, filled 3/4 with water, bring to boil a boil on high heat. (some people put sugar in their water to boil, but we never do because our local corn is fresh and sweet).
3. Once the water is boiling, lower cobs into the water. Boil rapidly for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and drain. While corn is cooling down, mix mayo with cayenne. (must use mayonnaise. No miracle whip, or reduced fat recipes. It is best withplain ol' mayonnaise.
   
4. Place corn holders on each end of your cob and then slather mayonnaise mixture evenly over cob. Sprinkle or roll in the parmesan cheese (cotija cheese is the most commonly used cheese for elote, but I like it a little more mild. That's why I use pamesan. I also leave out the butter, salt, and garlic. It doesn't need it!).
   
5. Serve with lime wedges. I usually squeeze the lime evenly over cob and then dig in!
   

This is so good! At least I think so. But here's what our kids did when we tried to get them to eat it.