Taco mania

I left LA with a bag full of avocados, and I’d been working hard to eat them. I diced them into my salads. I used crackers to scoop out their flesh. I topped my fried eggs on toast with green fans of the buttery fruit. But, I hadn’t yet made guacamole, the ultimate display of avocado glory. And to accompany my guacamole would be tacos.

I spooned out the insides of those two succulently soft avocados and squeezed in some lime juice. I remember Eleanor making a very good guacamole simply with avocado, lime, and salt, but the pale green thing that was in my bowl didn’t come close to Eleanor’s masterpiece. Scott advised and added salsa and a mixture of spices from his spice mix container. And, when he was done, I had a bowlful of delicious guacamole, creamy, cool, and with just the slightest hint of spice in the background. I stuck on of the pits in it to slow down the oxidation process, covered it in plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator until I was done with everything else.

The beef came next. I slathered those small steaks with a spice mix of cayenne pepper, dried habanero chili powder, dried ancho chili powder, salt, and pepper. They then went onto a hot frying pan that was drizzled with a touch of oil. I’ve gotten very good at not touching meat after placing them on a pan. Pokes, prods, flips, and peeks underneath actually help food stick and prevent tasty browning from occurring. After about five minutes of not touching the beef, I gave each steak a flip and let them cook for about another five. As the steaks cooked, I grated cheddar cheese, rinsed and chopped lettuce, and took out the sour cream, salsa, and guacamole.

I have a hard time telling when meat is cooked enough, but the steaks looked done and felt done. After giving them a little bit of a rest, I sliced them thinly against the grain to reveal a slight pink center. They looked beautiful and I was proud of my meat. Once they were all sliced, I put them back in the pan and scraped them against the bottom to soak up every last bit of their meaty and flavorful juices. I heated the corn tortillas on the same pan, just in case any meat juice had escaped.

Then, came the assembly line. With everything set, we were ready to build our tacos. Cheese, beef, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, lettuce. I stood at the kitchen counter eating slices of beef with my fingers; it was that good. But, the completed tacos were just as good. As always, I put too much salsa, sour cream, and guacamole so it escaped the edges and dripped all over my fingers. Although the beef was tender and thinly sliced, it pulled out from the taco because of its length. Next time, I’d chop the meat into smaller bits. And, even though I couldn’t taste the lettuce, I felt its cool freshness in my mouth.

After finishing our tacos, I cleaned up, only to realize that I still had a huge amount of beef, forty more corn tortillas to eat, and almost full tubs of sour cream, salsa, and guacamole. I would be eating tacos for days and trying to find clever ways to incorporate tortillas into every meal.