Taco Night

I feel bad for ripping on the now cooling trend of 'quick and easy' cooking. Call it a karmic bitch slap, but this week I am craving home cooked meals yet strapped for time between work and getting ready for our Halloween party. So, while I'll never be a Rachael Ray fan, I finally get the point. The good news is it's forcing me to make and post some of my favorite, simplest recipes I normally would deem too simple for the blog. I call these kinds of recipes 'assembly line' cooking - more of a suggestion really than a recipe (but if I don't write something down I forget about it all together...so there you go.)

Of these, tonight's is one of my and Kris's favorites - soft beef tacos. Again, just like last night's egg dinner, it requires less than 5 ingredients! And it's something I would just as happily eat with a glass of wine on a Friday night dinner to celebrate putting the week behind me as I would for for Sunday lunch.

The reason it works so well is, I think, because the few ingredients here work in such sharp contrast to each other. You want the sharpest white cheddar you can get your hands on to stand out against the sweet crunch of sauteed shallots (I prefer a good amount of diced shallots to dance with my ground beef, but add them as you like. And of course you could add in some cilantro, chopped jalapenos or other things, but to me this recipe is for the nights when even the thought of cleaning up after dinner is enough to make you cry, so simpler is better.) Pillowy white tortillas bring it all together, and that's dinner.

Soft Beef Tacos:

1 pound ground beef (preferably grass fed)
3 medium shallots, diced
1/2 cup hand shredded SHARPEST white cheddar
1 package best quality soft flour tortillas, wrapped in foil and heated in the oven on 250 for ten minutes
Canola oil
Salt and pepper/Red pepper flakes


Add a splash of canola oil to a medium skillet and shallots over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper and saute for a few minutes until they begin to turn opaque. Add in your ground beef, breaking up with your spoon and season with more salt and pepper (I like to add a pinch of red pepper flakes too.)

Cook for 10-12 minutes, until no longer pink. Meanwhile, grate up your cheddar to have at the ready.

Pull out your warmed tortillas, assemble, and eat.