Easy Tacos

My wife and I like to say that my son has a "very discriminating palate", which really means that there are only a few things that he likes to eat.

For two people who eat nearly anything, this has been at times a frustrating situation because he would not eat what we had prepared for the family.  Absolutely refused.  Since we are the type that have decided to pick our battles, and battles around a meal is not where we wish to spend our energy, we have been preparing two meals.  Lucky for us, his tastes have been pretty easy to satisfy.

Each of the last nine years or so we have invited the teenage children of some european friends (and friends of friends) to spend the summer with us and experience the American way of life.  

One summer my wife shared her frustration about how hard it was to feed him with our visitor that year, now our dear friend Sophie, and Sophie replied " feeding him is not so hard, make a quesadilla and some tomato soup and he's happy."

That statement changed our thinking.  It really wasn't hard, it was just another step.  We did, after all, have to feed the boy.  If what he liked was simple, why not just do it and have a more pleasant meal?

His preferred meal changes from time to time, but one thing about it is that it usually is pretty simple.

His current meal of choice is tacos.  For the longest time, two months or so, I was putting the meat of choice (my choice this time, not his), into a pan and adding the spices one by one and then sautéing it, while cooking his corn tortillas on a cast iron skillet that my mother-in-law gave me.  Pretty easy right?

Well I started to get a little grumpy about having to pull five different spices from the cupboard any time I cooked for him.  I mean I was starting to get in a bad mood at each meal and snack time because he constantly wanted tacos.

Then he came to me one day with an empty jar on which he had placed a strip of masking tape and written "taco spice".  He asked me to make a batch of the taco spice and teach him how to cook his own meal/snack.

I was dumbstruck for a moment, and then really proud.  This little guy had noticed that his requests were making me frustrated and came up with a solution to make it easy.  What a great idea.

So I set out to write the recipe that I had been eyeballing all this time.  Here is the recipe:

4T ground cumin

3T New Mexico Chili powder

1 T granulated garlic

1 tsp Chipotle powder

For the first version of this spice mix, I added the kosher salt.  When I made it again, I left it out and told my son that he would have to add his own.

 I did this for two reasons.  First, I will use this spice mixture for other recipes and want to control the salt content, and second, this put my son in charge.  He needed to make the decision about how much salt he wants to add.

The method is really simple, here it is:

Place the pan on the stove and turn the heat to high, add the meat.  Break up the meat if your using ground beef as I am here, if you're making chicken tacos or something else that is not ground it is not necessary to break it up.

Add the spice, once it starts to sizzle, turn the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally until done.

While the meat is cooking grate cheddar, cotija or what ever cheese you would like in the tacos.

Also at this time, heat a pan or skillet with a little oil and toast your corn or flour tortillas to heat and soften them.  

On our taco nights, where everyone will be eating tacos, we also make guacamole, pico de gallo (see my knife skills 101 post for that), sautéed peppers and onions (also in the knife skills post), or what ever you like to have in your tacos.  We often have 7 or 8 small bowls on the table so that everyone can customize what they're eating.

This spice mix can also be easily modified to fit your own tastes, add more heat or another flavoring agent.

Cooking for me is really just a way to play with my food to make meals more interesting.

Easy stuff.  Also empowering for children who are old enough to work the stove for their own snacks.

Next up:  Hummus


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