Day 21: It's Taco Night in Decatur!

As Jim mentioned in his last post, I was in Tennessee last night giving a reading at Lee University. This morning I led the Advanced Poetry Workshop and had lunch with the students, who were bright, inquisitive and engaging. I left Tennessee in the afternoon, and so great is my dedication to Restaurant Free Month that, instead of driving home at the end of my 2.5 hour drive, I went straight to the farmers' market and shopped for dinner. And not just any dinner. On my way home, I'd decided it was Taco Night in Decatur!

As the wife of a hockey lover, I watch more NHL games than I care to admit. Whenever the Pittsburgh Penguins have an away game against a Canadian team, Jim gets more excited than normal. Why? Because it's Hockey Night in Canada! As near as I can tell, Hockey Night in Canada! is just like Hockey Night in America, except the eccentrically adorable Don Cherry covers the intermission reports.

What does this have to do with dinner, you ask? Nothing, except that whenever I make tacos, I walk around saying, "It's Taco Night in Decatur!" in the same inflection as the Canadian Broadcast folks say "Hockey Night in Canada!"

Taco Night, at the most basic level, is about the meat -- grass-fed ground sirloin mixed with a little flour, a little water, and a blend of spices and seasoning (chili powder, paprika, salt, cayenne, garlic, lime) -- and about the tortillas. I make my own, using a Rick Bayless recipe (I must make mine smaller than he does, because this yields enough dough for 18-20 tacos). Making homemade tortillas takes some effort, but believe me, once you have had them you will never want to go back to store-bought. They elevate the humblest filling to the sublime. (They also make an unbelievable breakfast taco.)

Tonight I planned on making a avocado-tomato salad, but when I got home I realized the avocados, the ripest I could find, were hard as rocks. Instead, I chopped the tomatoes and mixed them with fresh cilantro for a taco topping, and served it alongside sour cream and grated sharp cheddar.

Jim and I both agreed that tonight's tacos were the best I've ever made. Definitely worth broadcasting.