You're The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me

Taco Salads could very well turn up on my last meal list, if we were provided separate breakfast, lunch and dinner options, that is.  Its more impressive when simpler ingredients come together so awesomely, like iceberg lettuce, ground beef, cheddar cheese and corn chips.   

A well dressed tossed salad underneath with chunks of avocado is often better than anything you could come up with at that moment.  

Heading Out This morning, Into the Sun

Freshly made guacamole

Homemade hot sauce, or salsa as the locals say

My own invention of a fresh green apple, tomatillo, jalapeno, avocado sauce for dipping, salad dressing or over meats.

My visiting buddy left.  I put her in an Uber and waved goodbye and she drove off into the sun.  I rushed to a much needed physical therapy session but when I came back, I realized I had a fridge full of fun food to play with.  I bought all of this to entertain and delight her but we never got to it. 

Having this bounty, it became necessary to create a worthy salad.  I grilled up some shrimp over an arugula and cilantro mix and turned it into a taco bowl. 

You know it's spring when your dinner plates become as colorful as the outdoors

For breakfast, yogurt, granola and berries 

Limitless Undying Love Which Shines Around Me Like a Million Suns

There is sadness or hardship around many of the days in winter I imagine for most people, especially in cold weather towns.  I'm not sure how others feel but also getting older wouldn't be so bad if you didn't look so haggard, feel like crap half the time and more people you loved hadn't passed.  Today was another death anniversary, my father's.  These days are inevitable but come with loads of emotion.  This morning I watched videos and remembered my dad's giant sense of humor and big love of food.  On these sad occasion days, one must work at not filling up with self deprecating thoughts instead of simply honoring the deceased. 

Make your own chips and salsa but when you can't, these brands are second best

I thought a Taco Salad for lunch could be made more memorable by adding roasted grape tomatoes and chick peas.  I put tons of cilantro into the lettuce mix, sweet onions, black beans, cheddar cheese and chips.  I used a great salsa for the dressing and I think my dad would have said, That's all you're making?!?  and most likely hated it. There in lies the humor.  

Using salsa as dressing is so much better than you'd imagine.

Food wise it was hard to impress my folks but to their credit, they were such great cooks both of them, like presenting a song to Paul and John. 

Everything feels related to the Beatles in one way or another since watching Get Back, the Peter Jackson documentary.  It's comforting to obsess on subjects in order to work through tough times in your life.  So I continued the trend by watching one of my favorite movies, I Am Sam which features accurate witty insightful Fab Four related gems by Annie, played by Dianne Wiest, an awesome Beatles covers soundtrack as well as being filled with tear-jerking zingers.   It was 65 degrees in February today but I felt more comfortable in a dark room being still and getting my feels out.  

Annie is relatable in that she is comfortable giving advice from her home but struggles with leaving it.  This movie is a must for Beatles fans. 

During this period, P handmade a frame and Ringo was erected in order to recall the calm Tao of Pooh vibes that he emitted in the footage above all 4. 

You Say Why and I Say I Don't Know

Taco Salad Bowl

I don't know why I call these taco bowls.  They aren't.  This is chili beans with cheese, sauteed summer squash and corn, tomatoes and guacamole over a bunch of chopped romaine lettuce.  With chips. So it has little to do with a taco at all.  Now I'm guilty of the exact thing I hate about many of those wifey recipe sites.  Everything is categorized incorrectly. Like burritos are called enchiladas and everything is a damn taco something or other no matter what if it has beans in it.  Which makes no sense since tacos don't have beans in them.  Ugh!!!

Wish You Were Here

I've done several takes on taco salad before and I will again.  This was an especially good one as it was both hot and cold, and featured fresh blended hot sauce on top.

Seasoned ground turkey, celery, onion, garlic, green onions, black beans were plopped onto a big plate of crisp romaine lettuce, cilantro, onion, carrot and tomato.

This was like an offering to the god of spring.  I don't remember having to summon her before but just in case she needs some coaxing out of hiding, I wanted to be clear that we are ready out here in Brooklyn.  Yes, spring, you can come out whenever you're ready dear because we are definitely ready.

Don't Need a Watch to Waste Your Time, Oh No, Oh No

A million years ago when I lived back in Fort Wayne, Indiana my oldest sister M still lived at home and she was the one who brought culture and style into the house.  M was worldly and adventurous. She read big thick books and kept up with fashion.  She went on weird diets and wore false eyelashes and mini skirts.  She hung her stockings in the bathroom like in the movies.  Her best friend looked like a man and her male friends were very feminine.  I thought she was 'it'.  I've written about this before but it makes me feel good to recall these memories.

It was a big deal when M made this recipe she called Goop for the family.  She was decades ahead of Taco Bell. She put ground meat, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, shredded cheese, kidney beans and then Frito chips mixed in and it became a big salad meal.  Well let me tell you what. In 1970-something that was very out of this world unconventional.  Just mixing in the Frito's like that!?  She blew my mind with that one and it was so good with the warm and cold mixed together, the crunch of the chips and the shredded cheese.  You didn't even have fresh cilantro readily available at that time so I doubt she was able to put a fresh herb in the mix.  However, the tomatoes back then were like fresh herbs in that they had so much vibrant flavor and smell. 

This would have been an updated version of that dish to include corn, fresh herbs, red bell pepper and jalapeno.  Halfway through though I forgot I had no iceberg lettuce and wasn't willing to go fetch a bag of Fritos, so instead, I served it over white Jasmine rice and scooped it with wheat flour tortillas.

But next time I will make the real Goop and get my fix.  Old people talk about a simpler time and I used to  think inside, 'gosh how pathetic is this melancholy for the past'.  Uh, well, I guess I might have been hit with the same bug lately.  I too recall a less complicated time when I was young and had family around.  The house was always full and alive. The family restaurant didn't exist yet and food was such a pleasurable part of our world.  I think summer, my mom's homemade tortillas, her flour-dusty apron and the portion of the Formica countertop that she rolled those tortillas out on.  I think crickets and lightning bugs, the back yard which at the time was enormous.  I think mulberry bushes and play fishing in the creek out back. Running constantly and laying in the patch of super thick grass that grew on our hill that felt like a giant green mattress in the cool shade.   I think of picking rhubarbs and having a little snack while sitting on the little rose trellis that my dad built. Helping my mom make potato salad and making fun of my dad for bringing home the wrong mayonnaise, again! 
M was already an adult and she was doing bigger and better things.  She could have been anything I believe.
But mom and dad were the cooks and it had never even occurred to me that us kids would ever attempt to prepare a meal.  The fact that Mary came into that kitchen that day with all her ingredients and made this for us was a right of passage. Maybe it was symbolic for me and she really cooked all the time, but this is one of the only things I remember her creating.  I'm not sure how it all came to be but Mary put aside some of her plans and joined forces with the folks to create, manage and run the restaurant a few short years following these happier times.  

Summertime, And the Livin' Is Easy

As the weather heats up, you find yourself wanting lighter fare. Also dishes you can make quick style and without all the burners blazing. Salads are good but salads with meat are even better! Taco salads are perfect because its a meal in a bowl.

I love hard shell tacos, so this is sort of the lazy monkey's version of that. You see buying hard taco shells for me is like an Italian buying a can of Spaghettios. It could happen but it really shouldn't. No, I must make my own but then that takes another pan, wasting oil and a bit of mess if you do it right. So the taco salad bowl makes it super easy, you just add your favorite store bought chips. My dad would look down on me knowing I even bought store chips, but they have some great ones on the market. Nothing compares to a freshly fried tortilla though.

Tacos, tostadas, tex-mex salads - they're all super affordable. Its a bargain with ground chicken at $2.13 a pound. You stretch that by combining with spices, black beans, onions and green peppers to make an excellent starting base. Anything you like for the toppings but this time I took out much of the fat by eliminating the cheese and sour cream. Instead I added more tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, red and green onions.