Memory Lane + Fish Tacos

One of my favorite memories:

Going to Ensenada with a bunch of friends for my 30th birthday on a cruise.  Getting off the boat, bypassing all the touristy attractions, finding a local person and asking him what he would do if he had one day in his city.

Eat fish tacos, he said, at the fish market.

So that's what we did.  No other foreigners around, just us, in an upstairs room filled with glass Coca-Cola and Fanta bottles, a rickety fan swirling overhead.  The only music was the Mariachi band wandering through the street below and the sounds of families chattering away in Spanish over their lunches in the many open-air restaurants that lined the street.

And those fish tacos, at $2 a person? Delicious, absolutely delicious.

It was a perfect moment.

I can't recreate that moment.  From the food to the company, I could put them all together in the same place, but that moment will probably never happen just like that again.  There is the feeling, you know, that can only happen once.  But I can replicate a part of that memory... they may not be the exact same, but I do make some great fish tacos.

I am pretty sure that whenever I have fish tacos, whether at home or out and about, I will always think back to that day, surrounded by friends and family in a place where simplicity and laughter went hand in hand.

FISH TACOS

Adapted from Everyday Food, January/February 2005

SERVES 4  •  PREP TIME: 35 MINUTES  •  TOTAL TIME: 35 MINUTES

ingredients

• ¼ cup Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice
• coarse salt and pepper
• 1 small red cabbage, thinly shredded
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound snapper, cut into about 12 strips
• 8 flour tortillas, soft-taco size**
• fresh cilantro leaves, to top

directions

1. In a large bowl, combine sour cream and lime juice; season with salt and pepper. Transfer half the mixture to another container; set aside for serving. Toss cabbage and half the scallions with remaining sour-cream mixture. Season again with salt and pepper.
2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil and remaining scallions half over medium-high heat; swirl to coat bottom of pan. Season fish on both sides with salt and pepper. In two batches (starting with larger pieces), cook fish until golden brown on all sides, 5 to 6 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, warm tortillas according to package instructions.
4. To make tacos, fill tortillas with slaw, fish, and fresh cilantro leaves. Drizzle with reserved sour-cream mixture. Serve immediately.

 ** Did you know Trader Joe's has these AMAZING, hand-made tortillas, totally fresh and delicious, for a great price?  They really have quite the tortilla selection, all made at local bakeries.  Go check them out!

COST: $14.24      COST PER SERVING (4): $3.56

Real Talk. Plus Tacos.

It's time for some real talk.

Last week my heart hurt, a lot.

It started with hearing about the Boston bombing, about the lives lost.  The limbs needing to be amputated.  The people who thought they were coming out for a day of world-wide community fun and wound up with their lives never going to be the same again.

Obviously, it breaks my heart for them. It also breaks my heart for us. Not just as a nation, but as a world. As human kind. I realized last week that in the span of this school year, Scholastic has sent me three emails out of the norm: "How to talk to children about the theater shooting in Aurora" / "How to talk to children about Newtown" / "How to talk to children about the Boston bombing" ...  What is 'getting worse' to you and I is 'just life' for my nine-year-olds.  As far as they know, that's how life goes. And that breaks my heart.

Then I realize how incredibly blessed we are that this 'only' happened three times this year. If we were living in Syria or Afghanistan or SO MANY OTHER PLACES, three times would be so few, such a relief.  And that, too, breaks my heart for those who live in this daily.

Then there was the explosion in West, Texas.  Which I hardly batted an eye at, because really -- it was sad, but I was busy grading papers and putting on band-aids and making dinner.

Until I was driving home from work on Friday and the DJ on K-LOVE said that young man, a soldier actually, had just called in to talk to a pastor there (which K-LOVE has as they are a Christian music station).  He is serving in Afghanistan and was so fortunate to get a three-day furlough to see his wife and parents.  He got on the plane, eagerly anticipating to see the look on his wife's surprised face, counting down the hours... until he arrived at his home in West, Texas, so find his home was no more, and worse -- his wife had died in the blast.  And he didn't know how to go on from there...

That's when I realized what happened. That lives were lost. I cried in the car a little, for this young man I do not know but I will never stop praying for. This nameless soldier from West, Texas, whose life will never be the same...

And then, on Saturday, I woke up to the news that one of my friends, one of my closest friends, has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. I sat in bed, still in my pajamas, with tears coming from my eyes, and asked over the phone to our friend who was breaking the news, "How long does she have?" I don't really know the answer that, and I don't know if she or the doctors know, but I know that life is hard. I have lost many I love to many things -- suicide, accidents, even violent murder.  Death can come and rob us of our lives at any moment.  It could be a bomb, an unexpected accident, an illness... and I don't always know what to do with that.

However, today I echo the words of this precious friend of mine who just found out her life has taken a turn she never expected. She said yesterday:

I know life is good, I know God is good, and I know things will get better.

And this, this, is the heart of my real talk. Life is hard. For some, it is REALLY hard. But I do still believe it is beautiful. And I know God to be good. My heart? Yes, it is still broken. But I have hope. And that's what I rest in, when things around me don't make sense, just like my friend said above.

You are probably wondering why on earth I am sharing pictures of tacos with all of this. I was thinking weekend a lot about the things I shared in post. Thinking as I was cleaning, thinking as I was walking, thinking as I was cooking. Eventually, I thought to myself, "No matter how hard, life goes on."  But there, in the kitchen, where I was cooking and baking, I realized that at the hardest times of my life -- losing my mom, losing dear friends to a brutal attack inside their home, and some other things -- time kept ticking, whether we felt it should or not. So, I bring you tacos, because no matter what goes on in the world, we still need to eat. Not going to say much about these, because really, that's not why I am here today. But they are good, and you will most likely enjoy them.

Here's to life.  Here's to hope.  And here's to love that is stronger than hate and pain and brokenness!

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MUSHROOM & BEEF TACOS WITH AVOCADO SALAD

SERVES 4 •  PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES  •  TOTAL TIME: 20 MINUTES

ingredients

• 1 ½ T. olive oil
• 10 oz. white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 lb. low-fat ground beef
• salt/pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
• 2 avocados, halved and then fruit cut into medium sized chunks
• ½ onion, sliced
• juice from one lemon
• Greek yogurt or sour cream
• 1 pack soft taco tortillas (or make your own)

directions

1.      Heat non-stick skillet over medium heat with olive oil.  Add mushrooms and cook until soft, about 4-6 minutes. 

2.      Put mushrooms in a bowl and add ground beef to skillet, adding salt/pepper to taste.  Cook until browned, stirring and breaking up meat chunks regularly, about 6-8 minutes, adding the chives about half way through.  Remove beef from skillet and mix with mushrooms.

3.      In a medium bowl, gently stir avocado and onion together. Squeeze lemon juice over and top with salt, to taste.  Carefully mix so that the onion and avocado are coated yet the avocado is not mashed.

4.      Assemble tacos, beef first, then avocado salad, and top with dairy. Makes about eight tacos.

 COST: $10.72           COST PER SERVING (4): $2.68

Nutritional Information
calories 717.8   •    total fat 41.5g    •    fiber 8.9g    •    sugars 2.5g   •    protein 38.1g

(Click here for full nutritional information)

My New Fave -- Sweet Potato Tacos

Move over tortellini with butternut squash and sage, there's a new favorite in town!

From sweet potato hater to lover like that *finger snap*.

You cannot thank me for this, though.  All the credit goes out to Jess at CookSmarts.  She is a brilliant one, I tell ya, and if you are looking at this thinking, "Man, if only I could cook," look no further because she is here to help.  With her videos, easy recipes, and all these handy kitchen tips, you can't help be leave her site a little bit more handy in the kitchen.  Where was she when I needed her two years ago?!

Oh well, she is here now and so are these tacos.  Which I have had six of in the past twenty-four hours.  Dinner last night, lunch today, and now dinner tonight.  I guess you really can't have too much of a good thing...

Click here for the recipe for Sweet Potato Tacos.  I did it word for word, minus the cayenne pepper, and choosing Greek yogurt for my dairy.  Leave the dairy off and you've got a great vegan plate. And now I am hoping that my husband will say, "Yes, we can have them again, for the third time this week..."

COST: $5.97    COST PER SERVING (4): $1.50