Breakfast Burrito

The Only Way To Eat A Tomato

The tomato, fresh from the garden, the way God himself intended them.

Slice said tomato...

A little salt...
A little pepper...

Tacos de Lengua

So I went to Jr's Tacos with my Dad yesterday. While I was there in the barrio, I had an uncommon and foodborne flash of lucidity brought on by the eating of my tacos.

I do enjoy the barrio... I enjoy the culture... I enjoy the people...

but...

Why am I not making this on my own?

So after we were done eating, off we went to the Mexican Market. Heads of cabbage were 25¢, so I got one to make some coleslaw. Figured I'd need it to top my taco's too. I love the Mexican Market. The fresh tortilla's, the flan, the bags of mesquite, my Dad asking the ladies about the cheese... (He wanted to know if it was "goat" cheese, and they couldn't understand his english... and he's hard of hearing enough that he couldn't hear them when they responded back... so yeah, everybody smiles and acts polite, even tho nobody knows what's going on. But regardless, he's happy, they're happy, so I'm happy.)

Anyway, I bought myself a beef tongue. And since I didn't really know what I was doing, I kept it small. About 2.5 lbs of tongue.

Once home I googled all the Lengua recipes I could so I had something to work with. Here's what I came up with. :)

I washed the tongue and placed it in a large enough pot that water could cover. I added half a sliced onion, five pressed cloves of garlic, salt to taste, and a bay leaf.

I figured we might as well help flavor the meat a little. Any boiled meat that I've ever had was usually pretty tasteless.

The Tongue.

At this point I simmered the meat one hour for every pound. So, two and a half hours.

So what are you supposed to do for two and a half hours? This is just like smoking meat when you've got hours to spend while something slow cooks. I ended up going to the grocery and bought the other ingredients I figured I'd need that I couldn't dig out of the garden. Then I hit up Starbucks, and since I still had a lot of time... I made a couple loaves of zucchini bread.

Zucchini Makin's

Fresh Bread
(smells a little weird with the bread smells mixing with the tongue smells...)

After the tongue was done, I set it aside until I could handle it. Here's a few shots to gross people out.

Almost looks like dough rolled in Sesame Seeds.

Have you ever had the pleasure of being licked by a cow? I have. That's a story for a different time, I can't explain now... but anyway, their tongues feel like cat tongues. They're raspy. The shot above shows why.

Just try to get THAT image out of your mind.

K. So the tongue is cooled. I picked it up and peeled the skin leather off of it and trimmed off the gristle.

In the beginning, Chris peeled a tongue.

It may seem weird, but really... underneath... we're all just meat.

Once the tongue was peeled and trimmed I cut it up into chunks for eating. I've had several pieces at this point... it's good!

Next we have to turn our meat into Tacos! I'm not sure if I'd do this vege stuff again, but I'll tell you what I did, just so you know.

First, I went ahead and roasted a couple of Poblano Peppers.

Roasting

Peeled and Chopped.

While the peppers were roasting I went and dug some tomatoes and tomatillas out of the garden.

I chopped them up too.

Feeling whimsical I went ahead and started sautéing the other half of the onion I'd used earlier...
to that I added some garlic, several green onions, and a couple serranos for heat. Then I threw in the tomato and tomatillo...

Then I dropped in the meat.

While that sizzled away, I got my toppings ready. Fresh Cilantro, Fresh Lime, Fresh Onion, and the Fresh, Sliced, Cabbage.

This is starting to look up!

Looking pretty good. Spooned the mixture over white corn tortillas, topped it with fresh stuff, squeezed a lime over...
Oh WAIT!!!!

Can't have a taco without salsa!

Gyros!

Note: mom (Melissa) made these and she gets all the credit
and she doesn't want me to give away her recipes.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the gyros themselves, because I was too busy eating them, but here are the ingredients.

seitan, or lamb, whichever

hummus, tzatziki sauce, cumbers and Greek olives

feta cheese, chopped onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers again

yummy!

Quick and Healthy Pizza

Slice a whole wheat pita in half. Pan roast Garlic. Toast pita halves and smear with roasted garlic. Top with marinara sauce. Cover with as much Onions, Tomatoes, Olives, Jalapenos, Fresh Basil and Mushrooms as you like. Add 2oz. chopped grilled Chicken and 1oz. Low fat Feta. Bake in 350 degree oven 15 min. Add an additional amount of Tomatoes and fresh Basil.
Eat both!

Quick N' Dirty BLT

I figure I should lead with this pic, just so we all know what exactly is going into our bodies...

If it didn't taste so good, we might not eat it.
Salted & Fried Pork Belly!

(If you would like this picture in a higher resolution, or bigger, so you can use it as your desktop background... just drop me an e-mail. I'd be happy to provide it.)

Otherwise known as Bacon.

Since I make what I like, this is where I start to break from tradition. Usually you'd get a BLT on white bread... probably toasted. But not here! I like dark breads, whole grain breads, etc.

The iceberg lettuce could be considered traditional, even though Romaine is usually what I think of.
(Personally, I would've used fresh spinach if I had it.)

There's nothing else in the world quite like the taste of fresh tomato running smack into some fresh cracked pepper. So I top my tomato with a pinch of salt and fresh cracked black pepper.

The final two steps:
Pick this up.
Put it in you.

Matt: Don't Look!

So Dad shows up with 80 clams...
:)

Yeah, Sorry Matt, it had to be done!

Straight from the pan.
Careful! You'll burn your lips on the shell.

Fresh Tomato & Cracked Pepper...

You all remember it's Dad's Birthday tomorrow right?

Spicy Pork stirfry with wild rice pilaf

Pilaf

Mince half a small onion, mince 1 clove garlic and mince 1.5" cube of peeled fresh ginger. Saute in 1 tsp oil until translucent add crushed red pepper or minced jalapeno. add 1 cup wild rice previously cooked per manufacturer instructions, handful of slivered almonds and diced scallion saute 1-2 min and set aside.

Stirfry

Heat oil with a lot of crushed pepper. Add thin sliced pork(10-12 oz.) and stir fry. Toss in 1 sliced onion, 1 large sliced bell pepper (whatever color you like), a bunch of sliced carrots (I prefer the matchstick slice), 2 cloves minced garlic, grated ginger and soy sauce to taste. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with a side of tomatoes with fresh Basil and Balsamic

Cookin' with Hansen Kids

No, the Hansen kids are not the ingredients... they're the chefs!
Now, it's not all home made entirely from scratch or anything but, it was a fun project as we mixed and matched toppings!
Cookin' with the kiddos was Chris' idea and it was a good one!

The kids started with personal sized ready-made crusts and slathered on some pizza sauce from a jar.

Then added fresh chopped up tomato (chopped by an adult :-).

Then they sprinkled on chopped cilantro and some grilled chicken breast. Josh bought skinless, boneless chicken breast and grilled it on the Forman seasoning with a little basil then chopped it up.

Then they sprinkled on finely shredded mozzarella and mild cheddar (it came in a "pizza blend" bag of shredded cheese).

Then came pineapple (from a can) and shredded up bacon we had just fried up fresh.

They cooked for just 8 minutes.

Yummy yummy!

The kids really enjoyed having a meal they made themselves.

They did a large portion of the preparing

and it was goooood!

Then it was mom and dad's turn.
Ours included BBQ sauce instead of pizza sauce, grilled chicken, bacon, same cheese, red onion, fresh chopped tomato and cilantro, pineapple on Brittany's and fresh sliced jalapeno on Josh's.

Josh's Pizza.

Brittany's Pizza.

Eve followed up the delicious meal with a dessert that included a small bowl of sliced strawberry and bananas with whole milk poured over and topped with a few drizzles of honey.

Josh thought it sounded "weird".

Eve gobbled it right up and loved every bit!