Our birthday tea in photos

The table is all set. I used tea cups that I've thrifted, been gifted, and yard sale-d. The table cloth was a birthday gift from my grandmother when I turned 26. The placemats were my mother's.

The sundae cups were from both thrift stores and vintage shops. The pink glass plates were from Value Village 2 springs ago.

I filled the sundae cups with shrimp-avocado-celery-cucumber salad as a starter.

After the shrimp salads were finished, we started on the main course of the tea -- platters of sandwiches, fruit cups, and diced salad cups.

These sandwiches were fun to make and very springlike. I cut thin sliced bread into flower shapes using a cookie cutter.

Using my smallest cookie scoop . . .

I put a large ball of egg salad as the center for each flower sandwich.

The scrap slices of bread will become French bread tomorrow night.

a platter of egg salad sandwiches

a platter of roast beef and horseradish on rye sandwiches

a platter of chicken salad in mini croissant sandwiches

strawberry and blueberry fruit cups

chopped vegetable salad cups -- tomatoes, orange bell pepper, cucumber, black olives

My phone died just before the dessert course. We had small chocolate cakes, cookies, and chocolates. 

All of the above was served with copious amounts of hot tea, juice, and sparkling water. I waited on everyone, so they all could have the feel of dining out. I did spend most of last week's grocery budget. But we'll be fine. I have enough leftover grocery budget to pick up a little fresh produce tomorrow, and our pantry, fridge, and freezer are still full.

It was a fun afternoon. My daughters loved the tea. My daughter-in-law said it felt very fancy. My whole family enjoyed the food and tea. I thought we would have lots of leftovers. No such luck!

This is how we do our tacos

For $1.50 you can get 12 hard taco shells (Great Value brand) at Walmart. That's 12.5 cents each shell. I buy the large bags of corn tortillas (80 ct) for a little under $4 at WinCo (similar price at Walmart). These big bags keep for a loooong time in the fridge. A plain corn tortilla costs about 5 cents each. I use about a teaspoon of oil and a teaspoon of saved meat fat to pan fry 2 tacos at a time, or about 1.5 cents per taco. So my home fried taco in shells costs 6.5 cents per shell, compared to the pre-fried taco shells at 12.5 cents per shell. When I make 8 tacos for the four of us, I save 48 cents on the shells. 

Maybe 48 cents doesn't sound like a lot of money. In the grand scheme of things, it isn't. However, I like to do the pan-fried tacos for other reasons, as well. I buy corn tortillas on a regular basis. We use them in enchiladas, oven-fried tortilla chips, mulitas (quesadillas made with corn tortillas), as well as tacos. So I almost always have corn tortillas on hand. Which means I don't have to "plan" for making tacos like I would if I used hard shells. I can decide the day of that I want tacos. In addition, I grew up eating these chewier tacos. I enjoy the chewy texture and corn tortilla taste.

So those are my "whys" on making tacos using corn tortillas. Here's my how.

Corn tortillas are less pliable than flour tortillas. They are easier to work with if warmed or at least at room temperature. To warm them, I put a stack into the microwave for about 10 seconds. This is usually enough to make them pliable enough to gently fold over.

I lay the warm tortillas out on the counter and spoon some prepared (cooked and seasoned) meat and/or beans into the center.

Meanwhile I get  a skillet hot with about 2 teaspoons of fat melted. I gently fold the tortilla in half and place into the skillet. I use a small omelet pan for these, so I can do 2 at a time. In the minutes that these cook, I grate a little cheese, and I get out a sheet of draining paper (paper flour bags torn open work well).

When the tortilla has lightly browned on one side, I use tongs to turn the whole taco over. Once both sides are lightly browned I remove the tacos to the paper to drain. I add more fat with each 2-taco batch that I fry. 

As the next batch are cooking, I open each cooked tortilla just a little and place a some cheese and some chopped veggies (tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, avocado, green or red bell peppers) inside. I drizzle whatever dressing or sauce I want on top and close them back up.

My tacos don't look pretty, but they're really tasty and have great texture.

This is obviously more doable when making tacos for 4 to 6 people. If I were to make tacos for a crowd, I would probably make street tacos, using 2 warmed (on a griddle) corn tortillas, not fried, per taco. With a full sized griddle, you can make a lot of street tacos at one time.

Anyway, this post is my way of saying we had tacos for dinner tonight -- tacos, a cabbage/lentil sprout slaw, and dried prunes.

How do you feel about taco shells? Do you like them crunchy, chewy, or soft like a street taco?