Happy Cinco de Mayo! I made some homemade corn tortillas and tacos tonight! Ole! Ay ayay!
I remember when I taught school in Long Beach, California and I had kids bussed in from downtown. I had many monolinguals in my class who had come straight from Mexico and didn’t speak much English.
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| These were VERY yummy…because the tortillas are homemade! |
I remember Maria’s mom who offered to come make tortillas for our Cinco de Mayo celebration. She took 2 busses to get to the school. These tortillas were so yummy I went out and bought a tortilla maker that week.
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| Masa de Harina is what the corn flour is called. It’s in the Mexican food section of the grocery store. |
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| Mix as directed on your package. I did a cup of corn flour to a cup of water….and it mixes up kind of like Play Dough consistency. It is not very sticky. It is really a fun, perfect kind of dough to work with. |
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| I rolled it into about 12 tortilla sized balls, just about a handful like this…. |
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| And here’s my little metal tortilla maker from a Mexican outdoor market called Olvera Street. I must have bought it 15 years go now. |
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| This pic is deceiving because I tried this little blob of dough…and it made a mini taco….really cute but not what I was going for….so then I doubled the balls… We like BIG tacos around here….snicker….. |
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| As you can see this is a BIG handful of dough I rolled into a ball…..it was the perfect size…. |
There is parchment paper under and over the blob of dough to keep it from sticking to the tortilla maker.
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| Making tortillas is really fun! Kids LOVE it! And it makes a perfectly round taco when it’s homemade! Ariba! |
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Then I put it in a fry pan sprayed with Pam…..about 1 1/2 minutes on each side….just to cook them….
I experimented with some Wesson oil and some lard….of course lard is better if you want that authentic taste of a fried taco shell. |
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| I did some fried in grease and some just cooked on a hot frying pan….Fried are tastier….but both are great. My taco meat is ground beef fried, grease drained, then mixed with 1/2 bottle of salsa and a taco seasoning packet simmered together. You can also add a tiny can of green chiles if you like. I sometimes do. |
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Then I added cilantro, tomatoes, cheese and lettuce and maybe a dollup of sour cream on top,
and it was a Happy Cinco de Mayo celebration!
And I’m all ready for our Cinco de Mayo Fajita and Taco party too! OLE!
Now I need to go make a strawberry-lime virgin Margarita to go with our fajitas and tacos! Yum. |
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| Had to decorate with some sombreros for the Cinco de Mayo party too! |
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| And made some noisemakers…..we call them homemade marraccas! Shake Shake! Kids love these too! We just made them out of empty cans with dry beans and popcorn inside for noisemakers. |
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| And what party would be complete without the Mexican Hat Dance? Not mine! Party on Garth! OLE! |
