Tejas Tacos

OMG! This dish is off the hook. I confess it's the best thing I've ever eaten and it only took 10 years for my hubby to share it with me. My husband was born in Mississippi and spent his childhood in New Orleans and Texas.  When he lived in Texas, the Tejas Tacos were a staple.  Well, we just happened to be watching the food network when a commercial came on for taco shells  long story short I said, "I want soft and crunchy tacos together", and that's when Will said, "that's a Tejas Taco" and he explained what it was.  You take a 6" soft tortilla and spread a thin layer of refried beans over it, then rice over the beans, then you take a crunchy taco, fill it with the meat, place it in the middle of the soft tortilla, wrap it up, drizzle with the sauce and sprinkle with the cheese. YUMMY! So Good!! This is what we did: I took package of Toro Negros Carnitas (VERY VERY GOOD ACTUALLY), refried beans that I made by taking 2 cans of pinto beans rinsed and drained, placed them in a pot with 1 C of chicken broth, a slice of bacon, S&P to taste and just cooked them down until they had a creamy texture, rice that was cooked with 1 C fresh corn from the cob, 1 tbs cumin, 1 tbs hot paprika, and 1 tbs turmeric and 2 C chicken broth.  The sauce that I made was from a recipe by Susie Jimenez, she a finalist on the next food network star- spicy tomatillo avocado sauce, drizzled this over the tacos and sprinkled some monterey jack cheese over top. You have got to to try this!  Biting into it, you get this explosion of textures and flavors, SOoooo good! I'm so excited, there are so many possibilities.

Mexican Sliced Spiced Pork Soft Tacos w/ Texas Oven Fries

This is so yummy, please try!!

This is a Rachael Ray 30 minute meal and it is really yummy.  I've never worked with fresh tomatillos before.  When you peel the husk off they are really sticky, so be sure to wash them well.  The only things that I did differently are: 1. I cut the recipe in half  2. brined my pork tenderloin over nite  3. I didn't use the pumpkin seeds b/c they weren't available at my market  4. I added a tsp of cumin to the salsa while it was cooking  5. I blended the sauce after cooking in my food processor to reduce the large chunks of tomatillo.  I thought the salsa was really good and found that it had creeping heat that I really like, although not so hot that I need extra napkins and I wasn't sweating profusely.  I really liked the potatoes too.  They baked well and had a nice crunch on the outside and tender inside.  Rachael said to cut the potatoes into 10 each, so just cut the potato in half and cut 5 slices out of each half.  For some reason, that was a challenge for me to get with the first potato. You ought to give it try.  It's simple, but it took me about 45 minutes to do it all. Good Eats!