Taco Tuesday - Beef & Potato Tacos and Margaritas!

I could not be more excited about Taco Tuesdays. Just the idea that I now HAVE to make tacos once a week thrills me.   When I was a kid, tacos were a pretty regular affair in our house.  You know the dish that everyone in the family loves?  I'd say it was tacos in our house.  Now back in the 70s, tacos were a pretty simple thing.  In our house, we had ground beef seasoned with Lawry's seasoned salt and some pepper.  Except for one time.... My mom used to keep cinnamon & sugar in an old Lawry's container with the label scrubbed off.  One night, while making tacos, she used the cinnamon and sugar mixture by mistake.  If you're thinking I'm about to tell you that it started a revolution and we all loved it and it was just right, well you're wrong.  It was terrible.  And sad.  We may have all cried.

If we didn't cry that night, we should have cried when my mom dressed us in these dresses.  The 70s were a strange time - for clothes and food.  These dresses combined with ketchup on tacos speaks to the sadness of those days.  Not that my mom's tacos weren't good, we loved them so much I can actually remember her making them in our motor home on the road as we drove.  Frying in a moving vehicle?  Now that's cooking! 

Shredded Beef and Potato Tacos

Recipe by Michelle's Dinner Bell

1-2 lbs stew meat (any beef will work here so buy what's on sale!)

10 oz can Ro-Tel tomatoes and chiles

1/2 red onion, sliced

4 small red potatoes

Canola oil

Corn tortillas

Taco toppings - shredded cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, hot sauce, olives, you get the idea....

Combine beef and tomatoes in your slow cooker and cook until beef shreds easily with a fork - typically about 3-4 hours on high or 6-7 hours on low.  When beef is tender, add onion and turn cooker to high.  

Wash and dice potatoes and cook in skillet with 1 tbs canola oil until browned.  The trick is to leave the potatoes alone while they cook.  I mean, don't leave the kitchen, but don't stir and stir and mess with them.  They'll fall apart.  Leave them to brown on one side for 3-4 minutes and then flip them. When potatoes are golden, drain and add beef mixture to the potatoes and mix gently.

In a large skillet or griddle, pour 1-2 tbs oil over medium-high heat.  When oil is hot, add tortillas and 2 tbs of meat mixture.  When tortilla is hot, fold it in half.  If you do this too soon, the tortilla will crack and you will be sad.  When it is as crispy as you like on one side, flip it over and cook the other side.  See?  You don't have to deep fry to have crispy tacos!  

Top as desired and serve.

You have to have a margarita (or 3) on Taco Tuesday, right?  So here's a little bonus for you!  I actually have step-by-step photos and instructions for this one but it was made with snow.  That's right.  SNOW.  This past winter, we tried moving to the mountains.  It was a disaster.  One which I am sure you will hear all about in the coming months but right now it is too sad to think about things like blizzards and power outages and bears when I'm in my happy Taco Tuesday place.

Photo courtesy of Google Images

Restaurant-Style Blended Margaritas

Recipe by Michelle's Dinner Bell

6 ozs frozen limeade concentrate (Buy the 12 oz can, no one can drink just one pitcher of these!)

6 ozs tequila (Jose Cuervo Silver is what I use.  Do not use bad tequila.  DO. NOT.)

3 ozs triple sec

Purified ice (This is the ice you buy in a bag.  It is not those cloudy half moons that shoot out of your freezer)

Kosher salt

Limes

Get your glasses ready first.  Slice your lime and use it to moisten the rim of each glass.  Roll the outside of the glass on a saucer of kosher salt.  You can just dip but then you have salt on the inside of your glass and it will fall into your margarita.  If you're one of those "It's all goin' to the same place anyway" kind of folks, this is probably fine.  But personally I prefer it only on the outer rim of the glass.  I'm high-falutin' that way.  Can you be high-falutin' with limeade and tequila?  Hmmm.....

Okay, now that your glasses are prepared, fill your blender with ice.  Remember, the purified ice.  This is key to getting a good flavor.  Pour in the limeade, tequila and triple sec.  Blend well.  Depending on your blender, this could take a while.  Add more ice if necessary to get the consistency you want.  Pour carefully into glasses and enjoy!

Now I just read that and it feels very bossy and like I might come yell at you if you do it wrong.  Apparently my grandma was right.   Some things ARE worth doing right the first time.  I don't think, however, she was talking about margaritas.