# 3 Mexico: tacos

Fresh Tortillas

Ingredients:

1 cup Maseca Masa corn flour
2/3 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

We mix ours in a Cuisinart mixer, but, you can mix however you want. Obviously. It's a free country. Mix for 2-3 minutes. Dough should not be sticky! But, if it is *too* dry, add a tablespoon or two more of water to get the flour to incorporate. The drier the better! You need just enough water to get it into a ball.

Divide giant ball into 8 equal pieces, and roll into balls. They should be about the size of a golf ball, fingers crossed. Use a tortilla press and parchment paper to flatten each ball. (Oh yeah, you need a tortilla press! Or rolling pin. Or, I've heard bottles of wine work.)

Warm a non-stick frying pan, and fry each tortilla a minute on each side.

Note about using butter to fry: it will cause an insane amount of smoke in your house, and you will have to open all windows, even if it is winter in upstate New York and 12F degrees out. I WANT TO USE BUTTER SO BADLY!!!!! But, it just doesn't work! Frying sans butter actually does work. It's weird.

Also note: this all was very, very hard for me on my first two attempts. By my third try- it was SO EASY AND WONDERFUL AND I WONDERED I EVER SURVIVED WITHOUT A TORTILLA PRESS BEFORE! (Because, they are SO GOOD! And relatively easy to make! Eventually!)


Guacamole

Ingredients:

1 avocado (or more. and honestly you definitely want more than one)
1 small tomato, per avocado, deseeded and diced small
1 tablespoon diced onion (red, sweet, chives, whatever)
a splash of salt
a splash of garlic powder

Directions: 

Mix and adjust amounts as you like. Add lime juice if you are into that. Keller loves to smash the avocado in a mortar using a pestle smasher. Good times for toddlers!



Refried Beans

Just buy a can. We love Kuner's brand, or Wegmans. (Kuner's is the best!!) And, obviously, many more brands exist that you can go for. Sure, you can make your own. But canned is WAY easier, and generally tastes the same. Sadly, I tried for years to prove this otherwise, and now that I have a toddler, eh. To the can-opener we go!



Salsa

Oh, so many options for salsa. I have three favorite recipes to make at home. Perhaps I will post them someday. They take time and effort.  On any normal given taco night- we love Pace Picante or Wegmans Roasted Tomato Salsa. Honestly, it's America in 2018. You know where to find salsa that you like. I hope????!!!