If you often look for something easy, fast and tasty to make for your football watchers, you might like these Game Day Big Tacos with Arugula. When I got home from the market yesterday, my husband had been working in the yard all morning and was ready to come in for some lunch and watch some football.
"Do we have anything for lunch?"
How about a bean burrito?
"Sounds good."
The bean burritos turned into Big Tacos--we could only fold them in half.
Ingredients:
8 inch whole wheat tortillas
1-14 oz. can refried beans
chopped tomatoes, onions, jalapeños & cilantro with lemon to make a quick pico de gallo
grated cheese
arugula
optional:
leftover meats
leftover spanish rice
hot sauce
After pre-heating my comal--a flat, round, caste iron pan made to heat tortillas given to me by my friend Sue, I cook the tortillas until they're slightly crisp on the outside, but still chewy on the inside. Then I put a smear of refried beans, which I heated in the microwave. I added a small scoop of leftover Spanish rice (or other leftovers make it interesting), pico de gallo and a little cheese.
When I visited my parents the other day, they gave me a big bag of arugula my dad grew--all washed and ready to go. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
Pile the arugula on--I think that's what makes it really good.
I try and start out small so I can roll them like a burrito, but they end up big so they turn into big tacos.
Itadakimasu!
***
The last couple of days I've been using this table for photos. I've been asking my husband to make me some table tops for variety in my food photography, and he's suggested several times to use the table in the garage. He took half of the stuff on and around the table away, and I cleared off what was left--the bucket of gardening tools, balls of twine, bicycle pumps, car and dog washing stuff and dragged the table outside. Gary was right, it worked well!
Years ago, we rescued this table from his parents' house--it was in an old, musty shed in their backyard they called The Dog Bear. I think the name has something to do with how tool shed is said in Japanese--dougu beya. 'Dog Bear' is what it must have sounded like to all the Fujimoto kids--so that's what they've always called the shed--The Dog Bear. My sister-in-law from Japan finds the linguistic interference so amusing. Gary says he remembers one of the kids (maybe himself) writing "Dog Bear" on the door of the shed in chalk. This table is the one that my husband's parents used as their kitchen table when they were first married, over 60 years ago!
To celebrate our 1st anniversary of blogging, we're giving away 5 sets of two tea towels made by Cheryl Ann Okamoto of Cato Crafts. Each set will contain one 'Family' towel plus a random choice of one of the other three designs. Just leave us a comment at the end of our anniversary post, Top Ten Posts for 2011. You can enter until the Lunar New Year on January 23, 2012.
***
Game Day Big Tacos
Ingredients:
8 inch whole wheat tortillas
1-14 oz. can refried beans
chopped tomatoes, onions, jalapeños & cilantro with lemon to make a quick pico de gallo
grated cheese
arugula
optional:
leftover meats
leftover spanish rice
hot sauce
Put the refried beans in a bowl and heat them in the microwave. Also heat any leftovers that you think might be good/interesting in a taco.
Mix together the chopped tomatoes, onions, jalapeños and cilantro with a squeeze of lemon and season with salt and pepper to make pico de gallo. Grate cheese.
Heat the tortillas on a comal, caste iron skillet or pan until crisp on the outside but still chewy on the inside. Layer beans, rice (or other leftovers), pico de gallo, cheese and arugula. Serve with your favorite hot sauce.
My neighbor has an awesome fig tree that he generously shares with us, some of you may have caught my blog post, Tree Ripened Figs!
My friend Laura came over last week talking all about fig jam, I received an email from another friend yesterday with a detailed description of her favorite fig pizza--and of course, The Pioneer Woman made Fig-Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula on her new Food Network show--so I had to make some too!
My husband loved this pizza.
He actually raved about it--saying it's healthy, light, tasty, filling and so delicious--then later in the evening, he ate a couple more pieces!
Thin crust pizza is my favorite, so for this pizza, I used lavash bread.
Perfect!
It was fun to make these pizzas.
I made 3, with different flavors in the 'sauce' next to the crust--fig jam, pesto, and cream cheese.
Try different combinations until you find your favorites.
Ingredients:
1 package lavash bread
1 package arugula
prosciutto
1 or 2 sweet onions, sliced and caramelized
thinly sliced mushrooms
cherry tomatoes, quartered
gruyere cheese
mozzarella cheese, shredded
olive oil
fig jam or preserves
pesto sauce
4 oz. cream cheese mixed with 2 tablespoons fig jam
fresh figs, peeled and sliced
The first thing I did was slice and start the onions to caramelize.
I simply put them in a pan over medium heat and cooked them until they were wilted and browned.
They're cooked about halfway in this picture, I got too excited about the pizza and forgot to take the onions' final shot.
My friend Laura made this jam.
It's really good, it's got a hint of balsamic vinegar in it.
For the first pizza, I cut the lavash in half, but I left the other ones whole, which makes the assembly much easier.
Put the lavash on a baking sheet.
Spread a thin layer of olive oil on the lavash, then spread a little bit of jam on top.
Sprinkle a pinch of salt to off-set the sweetness of the jam.
Then sprinkle a bit of mozzarella cheese on top and bake for 5 minutes at 400ºF, or until the cheese is melted and the lavash is crispy.
The next time I make this I am going to use about half the amount of jam--it was a little too sweet for me, but my husband liked it.
After it comes out of the oven spread prosciutto on top.
Then add sliced mushrooms, a generous handful or two of arugula, a sprinkling of the quartered cherry tomatoes and the sliced figs, then grate a little gruyere over the top.
The second one I made I spread with a thin layer of pesto sauce.
When it came out of the oven I added the prosciutto.
Then some mushrooms and onions.
Then the rest of the ingredients.
I think a sprinkling of chopped kalamata olives would be good.
I liked this combination.
But then I wondered if it would be good with cream cheese and fig jam, so I softened 4 ounces of cream cheese and added a dollop of fig jam.
And he loves to have his picture taken with Karen.
Bryan also loves the television show Smallville.
LOVES it!
When my cousin Bruce asked me if Bryan might like a Smallville poster, I sent Bruce Bryan's address, but Bruce sent the poster to me so I could watch Bryan's face as he opened it.
I videoed it so Bruce could see Bryan's face too.
Bryan is the best gift-getter I know.
A big thank you to Bruce Honda--how thoughtful of you to remember Bryan!
Put the sliced onions in a frying pan over medium heat to caramelize, stirring occasionally and lowering heat as necessary so they brown, not burn. Remove from heat when they are soft and brown.
With the lavash on a baking sheet, heat the oven to 400ºF. Spread a thin layer of fig jam, pesto sauce or a mixture of cream cheese and fig jam on the lavash. Top with mozzarella cheese and bake for about 5 to 7 minutes on the bottom oven rack--until lavash is crispy and cheese is melted.
Remove lavash from oven and top with prosciutto slices, sliced mushrooms, quartered cherry tomatoes, caramelized onions and generous handfuls of arugula. Add the fresh figs and sprinkle grated gruyere on top.
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