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Main Course Recipes

It’s a (pre)Taco Tuesday Taste-Off

vegetarian crunchy taco 2| dailywaffleHold the phone, is this seriously a post for tacos? Are you trying to tell me there’s some grand secret for browning some ground beef in a skillet, adding some spices and then piling it into a crunchy store-bought shell with lettuce, cheese and salsa? Look closer, my friend. That there taco isn’t a standard issue Taco Bell remake. So what gives? It's a pre-Taco Tuesday Taste-Off.
April 14, 20132Comments

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Main Course Recipes

Build a Better Burrito: Black Bean, Kale and Yam

  My first "Build a Better Burrito" post was more for meat eaters and focused on Alton Brown's Taco Potion #19. This time around, I'm doing a vegetarian burrito -- starring home-cooked black beans. I was a hold out on dried beans for a really long time. At New Year's, I'd make red beans and rice (yeah, I know it's technically supposed to be black-eyed peas), but I never just made beans on the regular to have them ready to go. And then, I made this pot of black beans and a light finally flicked on in my head. It took a little time, but they tasted better, cost a fraction of the canned version and froze well. I'd heard all that before, but like I said, a light flicked on.
October 27, 20110Comments

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cinco de mayo recipes
Main Course Recipes

Building a Better Burrito: Taco Potion #19

taco potion #19 Empires have been built on packaged seasoning mixes. There are packets for everything from chili to spaghetti sauce to tacos to meatloaf. I grew up on those packets! Steadily over time, I've learned to make those dishes from scratch, but there's been a hold out, one last packet standing in my pantry -- Lawry's Hot Taco. Building a better burrito, even a gringo one, starts with the meat and its seasoning. I tried but just could not come up with the right combination of spices to duplicate or surpass the Hot Taco packet (and eliminate all the ingredients I couldn't pronounce). More salt? Was it the chili powder? Is it cocoa that's missing? What about garlic powder? Oregano? I looked it up on copycat recipe sites, I tried the taco mix from Marketspice, a great spice and tea shop in Seattle. No joy. So we just kept on with the packet for our everyday tacos and burritos. Until...
June 9, 20113Comments

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