Guest cook!

I came home to a surprise.

My wife had pulled a pound o’ ground out of the freezer and thawed it by the time I got home.

Furthermore, she’d whipped up some home-made flour tortillas, and pulled up a batch of her home-made ground beef seasoning for tacos. Dinner was almost ready.

Grass-fed beef tacos on home-made flour tortillas. I’m a very lucky man.

Here’s a quick recap of what happened while I was out.

pre-tortillas

A griddle helps.

Done.

I arrived just as she was starting to brown the beef.

The mise:

aka, "the mess."

So many spices!

I love it when my wife cooks, and she’s very good at it. But we have very different styles.

I’m of the Prior Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance school of kitchen-y arts. I tend to prep everything in advance, clear away anything that’s served it’s purpose, and clean as I go. I hate cleaning, but I like a clean, uncluttered workspace.

My wife cooks in what I call Schrodinger’s Kitchen. She enters, and then the place looks like a food bomb has gone off. Oil on the walls, flour on the ceiling, ingredients akimbo… little dust storms of polenta and confectioner’s sugar kicking up intermittently and throwing around tiny piles of fresh herbs like prairie twisters. I can check in to see how she’s doing, but there is really no way to tell.

When my wife cooks, the meal is simultaneously both ruined and sublime until we take our first bite. Then, the wave function collapses, and we see how everything turned out.

Today, it was lovely.

Yay, Wednesday!

The verdict? A simple, fast weeknight meal. Flour tortillas aren’t hard to make from scratch, and I highly recommend doing so.

Likewise, seasoning the ground yourself is much nicer than the prepackaged taco spices.

The Wife Says: I am Escoffier reborn.

The Husband Says: A quick, healthy, and delicious weeknight meal. Two thumbs up.