The Saga of Taco Tuesday

I consider myself quasi quarantined.  I can go out into the world and take part in things having survived COVID-19 and dutifully gotten both parts of my vaccination. I do not think it is smart to do so. When I do go out I am wearing a mask and keeping my distance except for when it's time to record the podcast where I trust my partner,  who is also vaccinated,  to monitor his own health and stay away if he has symptoms. 

I think being responsible with my health and the health of my family is important.  It sucks in the same sort of way I felt when I was a kid and was expected to eat my vegetables before having desert. That is to say it's probably not a big deal as I am making it out to be. 

I find myself occasionally a bit stir crazy from the chosen isolation. I try and do things to keep myself entertained,  motivated,  and not in a funk. That is where Taco Tuesday felt like a fantastic idea. 

I love tacos. Even at a single serving a good Taco is exciting.  I decided that I could put a routine in place where I made tacos for the majority of the family to enjoy.  It breaks the monotony of the start of the week.

 Sunday gets dampened about halfway through by preparation for Monday. Monday is the after school special villain of the days of the week.  Monday isn't really bad, but it's probably acting out for being misunderstood.  Sometimes it tries to give you a wedgie to put you in your place,  and you don't always have the time to show it how wrong it is by becoming prom king and taking all his friend. 

Metaphor extremely belabored. 

Anyway the stretch from Sunday to Thursday always gets a little trying. Wednesday being new comic book day and the day we record the show is somewhat dampened by the reality that I basically work nonstop from 9 am until midnight every Wednesday.  

So... Tacos. It seemed like a good plan. The first week went well. I made ground beef tacos with a homemade seasoning mix. I went store bought for rice, beans, salsa, queso, and chips.  It was a nice meal.  Taila, Ashley, Dad, and I all partook though I do not think the tacos did much for Dad's stomach. 

I planned to repeat the process the next week. I was going to change up the recipes a bit to keep things fresh and fun. I also intended to add board games. I'd make Taco Tuesday a bit more of an event that everyone except Dad could look forward to.

Problems arose. 

Taila found a job (totally not a problem) that has her working Tuesday nights. Now when one third of the people you expect to be excited about Taco Tuesday and half the people in the group who might be excited about boardgames cannot make the event it puts a dampner on things. 

I decided to press ahead without boardgames.  I will say that most plans that include boardgames that suddenly do not include them are an ill omen for said plans. I should have looked at those portents. I did not. I saw visions of leaving Taila a beautiful plate of Tacos, rice, and beans for those late night arrivals. Little did I know that was not to be. 

I also have steadily been trying to trick Teagan into liking tacos. She doesn't seem to care for beef unless it's a steak.  I thought Tacos would be a gateway to increased diversity for her. I was delusional.  Stupid, stupid man that I am.

More bad omens followed.  In my grocery trip three weeks back I carefully selected my weekly menu . I'm moving back to low carb with an eventual goal of nigh carb elimination.  I'm stepping this down slowly and still included rice and tortillas in my buy. 

What I forgot in my order was the roast that I planned to turn into shredded beef. I forgot my Orange Juice for the marinade.  I planned to have a 24 hour marinade. Yeah. No. That didn't happen because I got the ingredients recovered Monday evening.  

Not all was lost. An overnight soak occurred.  I started my slow cook on Tuesday morning along with removing my pinto from their soak, bringing them to boil, and starting them to simmer.  I started work with the house smelling great and believed I had recovered.  

Wrong!

I have no idea what I did wrong with the beans. Honestly, I cannot imagine how I made beans harder than they started out. I did something I despise doing. I threw out food. There was no recovering the pintos. They felt petrified. By that I mean hard as a rock not scared out of their little bean minds. Though whatever I did certainly horrified me. I am fairly certain I can mash an uncooked potato by applying weight and strength. It won't taste good, but I can smoosh them. Not those beans! I could have stood on the masher and jumped up and down and they would have scoffed at my feeble attempts. 

I would love to say that was the end of the debacle for that Taco Tuesday. The beef shredded nicely. The rice came out fluffy and well spiced. I built my taco realizing that I had forgotten to dice onions, buy lettuce to shred, or even purchase taco sauce. My taco was shredded beef, cheese, disappointment, and sour cream. I was also disappointed with the flavor of the beef. It was a taco filled with chuck roast. It tasted like a taco filled with chuck roast prepared like a chuck roast. The only difference was a slight spicy aftertaste. This was not the worst thing I have ever eaten, but it was not the taste I expected from the amazing aromatics I had experienced all day. 

I was so bummed out I did not even take a picture of the result. 

I could not very well build Taila a come home plate with pride. I shared the disappointment I felt with the family. I pouted a bit while prepping for my Wednesday show. I couldn't even think through the damage control piece of cooking where you diagnose where you screwed the pooch. I called it a disaster, laughed at myself, and moved on thinking about what I wanted to do next. 

What I did next was skip a week of Taco Tuesday. I was not admitting defeat. I just did not have the same excitement last week. Other things came up including the possibility of a 2nd hand COVID-19 exposure. Sadly, even tacos do not distract me from everything. 

I consoled myself with Buffalo Chicken Salad Sandwiches. Not a bad consolation prize. I did even try buffalo chicken tacos, but the cream cheese messed with the texture and made it a bit unpleasant. I have not give up the concept entirely. It can be done and done well, but I am not to that place yet. 

This week I did take a swing on shredded chicken tacos. 

I dry rubbed my chicken (giggity) thoroughly before dropping it into my slow cooker Tuesday morning. I skipped the beans entirely. I am not ready to face the beans again. My rice I am comfortable with. 

The chicken looked and smelled amazing. Like the roast, it did not grab the flavor the way I wanted. I again completely forgot onion, sauce, or lettuce. I added rice to my tacos for flavor and choked them down holding back tears of frustration. Not really. That was being totally dramatic for the fun of it. 

The chicken is edible, but again, I do not feel like this is a plate I could put together for my oldest kid with any sort of pride. The leftovers are in the fridge and there are plenty of them, but I am still scratching my head about how I am messing this up. 

The fun part is that Taco Tuesday is actually doing something important that I did not expect. I am putting time and energy into it even though I am not pulling off the results I want. I have spent quite a bit of time reflecting on how to improve my taco game. I also have shared the story with my friends and now on my blog. 

I have no doubt I will get all the varieties of Tacos I want mastered over time. These were my first attempts at shredded beef and shredded chicken tacos with seasonings and recipes of my own design. Ground beef tacos were pretty darn good and they should be. I have been making them in one variety or another for years. Being disappointed with a result has not kept me from enjoying the process. 

I think my next plan is to make steak tacos. I make a fantastic steak. I should be able to research a dry rub to season the steak properly for tacos. My ground beef mixture might work. It might not. Thus I need to do a little research before trial and error begins. I think I will make a big pot of pintos over the weekend with some corn bread and some sort of protein... maybe Spam. That should give me great left over beans to make refried assuming I have not lost my bean making touch. 

I suspect this whole Taco Tuesday thing will turn into Taco Thursday if I can include Taila that way. Leaving a great plate will feel nice, but I would rather share a meal with the family together. I want them to be as excited as I am. It might help if I managed great food first. Come to think of it Teagan might go for steak Tacos. 

I just really need to remember the topping beyond sour cream and cheese. I will hold the disappointment. Who needs more of that?