Taco Tuesday Tutorial

Taco Tuesday - a tradition near and dear in the hearts of everyone residing under our roof.

It is such a big part of our family that I thought I'd share ...

1. Mid-morning: Add 10 c. filtered water to your crockpot and turn it on HIGH.

2. Forget about your crockpot and supper because you are explaining right, acute and obtuse angles with one of your sons while simultaneously explaining to another son why he can't use the comics for his current events report this week.

3. Soon after lunch remember that your beloved varmints will be hungry again in just a few short hours and get the package of dried black beans out of the pantry.  Say a sincere prayer of thanksgiving to our Lord that you still have a bag of black beans in the pantry and you don't have to make a run to the store after all.

4.  Pour a 2# bag of dried black beans on the counter, sorting out the bad beans and debris from the beans.  You have to watch it because quite often there will be little stones in with the beans.  Make a pile of bad beans and debris and put the good beans in a colander.

See the little stone in this pile of rejects?

5. Once all the good beans are in your colander rinse well under cold water.  Add beans to the hot water in your crock pot and leave it be for about 4-hours, on HIGH.

6.  After about 4-hours your beans will look like this.  At this point, I begin cooking 2#s of hamburger in a skillet.  Meanwhile, I like to drain 2-3 cups of liquid from the cooked beans, leaving some in there so the seasonings have something to soak into.

7.  Add your seasonings!  Whatever you normally use for your taco night will do.  Sometimes I have enough bulk ingredients on hand that I don't have to pull out the premixed taco seasoning.  Tonight I didn't so I added about a Tablespoon of *RealSalt* {please, for the sake of your health - make the switch.  You can find this at Target!}, about 1/2 cup of the Taco Seasoning, 1 Tablespoon of Cumin and 6 cloves of garlic.

For your health, garlic.  Beautiful, beautiful garlic . . .

8.  So, you've added the seasonings to your crock pot, the ground beef is browning gloriously and it is now time to start mixing the dough for your tortillas.  Here is a recipe which makes enough dough for 16 tortillas.  This is enough for the average sized family but I have found that for our crew I need to double it.  But, for tonight we'll keep it small and simple.

To your mixer bowl, add:

4 cups freshly milled hard white wheat

1 1/2 cups filtered water, slightly warmed

1 tsp. Real Salt

1/4 cup Olive Oil.

Mix barely, like 30-seconds'ish.  The trick to beautiful, stretchy tortillas is having a very wet dough.  Add a bit more water if you need to.  Once you have mixed, cover your bowl and let the dough rest for 30-minutes.

9.  By now your hamburger should be done and it is time to throw it in the crockpot.  Once added, mix everything together really well, replace the cover, turn the crockpot down to LOW and you can start grating your cheese or setting the table or reading your mail since we need to wait for the dough to rest.

10.  About 20-minutes into dough resting, get your tortilla press out and start preheating.  If you don't have a tortilla press, you can still make the tortillas!  You will just need to preheat a skillet instead.  You can use a rolling pin to make your tortillas nice and flat.  In any case, divide your dough into 16 equal pieces.  It helps to have some butter standing by as the press can start to stick once the dough starts to dry out.  No one I know ever complains about extra butter around here so it just seems more like a bonus.

11.  Pat each ball into a small disc, then quickly

12.  Place on preheated tortilla press, and 

13. Quickly and firmly press down about 4-5 seconds or just until you start to hear the first squeals of steam.  Any longer and you run the risk of 'blowing' your tortilla.

14. Beauty, eh?  {That's for you, Amy D!  See, I do have a bit of Canadian in me!}

15.  The rest is pretty self-explanatory, transfer to serving bowls, ring the dinner bell, etc.,

Taco Tuesday is a good thing.  Maybe it will make its way into the heart of your homes as well!  Let me know if it does.