Pot & Cover

soft beef tacos are what's for dinner tonight. a family staple. another one i remember momma cooking at home. we even had soft tacos for my 15th bday party, with shredded beef. they are addictive and almost impossible to stop eating. i remember both my parents and my grandma wanda cooking away in the kitchen of our little town house while all my buddies and i were bouncing on the trampoline in our backyard that was only slightly bigger than the tramp. there were a lot of dents in the fence. cooking the beef is very important. ground beef tonight. i'm pretty sure that there is a mexican influence on the method, i think maybe "joe" from "la esperanza" in california. i think he was a high school buddy of dads, but not sure. i do know that if i could transplant one restaurant from my hometown, it would be "la esperanza". they have the best beans, rice, chile rellenos and espe (sp?) chips on the planet, or at least the part of the planet i've been t

it seems appropriate to start with simple beans...to quote a family member "i'm so poor i can't buy a bean"...now that's poor! well, we eat our share of beans and they are divine...i've been eating beans since as long as my memory goes back...although raised a california girl, i've got southern roots and we had many family meals of a pot of pinto beans, fried okra, fried taters, fresh sliced tomato, and cold "wienies" (hot-dogs). i didn't like the wienies...but i recall warm, fluffy cornbread and cold milk. i haven't eaten that combo since, but it brings back warm memories of sitting at my grandma's table as a child with a glass filled with cornbread and milk. the beans must be pinto, the fat must be bacon and salt added at the end so the beans are tender. over the years the recipe varies...sauteed onion adds sweetness, whole garlic cloves melt right in once they've cooked, cayenne or a toothpick full (seriously) of "dave&