Friday, October 8, 2010

National Taco Day and Nurse A's B-Day

Monday was National Taco Day, for those of you who don't keep up with food-related holidays. (Nurse A works for a food-related trade magazine so we usually know these things, but it was actually me who heard about this wonderful day on the radio while driving to work.) With tacos being one of the only dishes Andrew does well (phenomenally well, actually, with homemade pico de gallo and everything), we naturally had to observe this special day.

So after work, while I was commuting 90 minutes home, Andrew went to the farmer's market (that is the secret to stellar tacos, y'all--fresh, real ingredients) and made an amazing discovery: homemade corn tortillas! They were wrapped in white paper and we had never investigated them before, but they were what our tacos had been missing all these months. We love our farmer's market and they get new things every month or so, it seems. Recently they've started selling jerky, yogurt and milk, but they have everything from tamales and almost any cheese you could want (as well as tons of produce, of course) to local prosciutto and fresh-baked bread.

This is one of the few food things I've ever photographed that actually looks as good as it tasted.


Local ground beef, cheese and produce really make the taco, as Nurse A will lecture tell you. We use fat-free Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and lots and lots of lime juice. And always use fresh pico de gallo instead of store bought salsa! That crunchy taco on the left was really delicious.

Thursday was Andrew's 25th birthday, and I had originally planned to bring him breakfast in bed but it was deadline day at work for him and he got up at 3 a.m. to finish some things up. I love the guy, but breakfast in bed at 3 a.m. just isn't going to happen. But after his long, hard day at work (and then some more work that night for both of us) we finally got to enjoy the breakfast for dinner around 8:30 p.m. Once again, the farmer's market stole the show with its locally sourced smoked bacon. This stuff was amazing, though we probably have serious health problems now. Nurse A also received a birthday pumpkin with his name on it and I made him pose with it. (Don't worry--I got him a real gift too!) Doesn't he look tired?


We plan to have a little celebration on Saturday though, to make up for his extremely busy birthday and the leftover bacon will probably make another appearance, since I need to get rid of it before we eat it all! Oh, and that toast on the plate? Sawyer dined on half of the loaf while I was downstairs for just a minute. He pretty much ate a hole into it, but there was still plenty to toast for dinner. I don't know how he gets those things off the counter. The bread was pushed to the very back, and it wasn't even on the counter with the stairs running by it. What bad design, stairs running by a kitchen counter? But it makes for really cute pictures.  Let me demonstrate.

A glamour shot of Buster, my friend Rachel's pup.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy the fall weather. The pumpkin patch is finally open here, so we will definitely be doing a Sawyer photoshoot Saturday or Sunday.

5 comments:

  1. Those tacos look so delicious! And I'm shocked we missed such an important holiday...tacos are kind of a staple in our house! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can't believe you have such an awesome farmers market!! Ours sucks compared to yours. Maybe I should travel for farmers markets... poor Mr. A looks so tired! He should get some sleep! He keeps the same bizarre hours as Charlie!! Don't party too hard this weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  3. OMG your farmer's market. I die of jealousy. I really want to try to make pico or salsa. I have a coworker who makes salsa all the time- he puts all sorts of stuff in it, including banana peppers! It's so good. I wish I didn't work so much and had more time to cook!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy birthday to nurse A! We are spoiled here in TX when it comes to tacos. In fact, many of the grocery stores around here have a special part in the bakery where they make fresh tortillas (flour, corn, and even specialty flavors)! But I love the farmer's market, too. I love making pico de gallo, too. And I second the fat free greek yogurt as sour cream. I want to master the fish taco. Or carne guisada.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh... and the best cheese ever for tacos is the Cotija cheese! It's this white crumbly cheese and it's sooooooooooooo good. Can you find that there?

    ReplyDelete