Tacosalad

People are funny…

Our church hosted a huge outdoor feast in the church parking lot.  All the food was free and the event was open to anyone, not just church members.

Some of us where asked to man booths to serve food. We had some Polynesian members that had a booth with rice and some awesome roast pork. Other booths had roasted corn, roasted chicken and homemade root beer.

My wife and I were asked to host the “hot dog” booth. We figured we were set. We had 200 dogs and buns ready to go.

The event started at 11am, and by noon, the church parking lot was jam packed with people. My wife and I were busy cooking up dogs and passing them out as fast as we could. Then it dawned on me. We had the longest line of all the booths, even tho we were actually very efficient in getting the dogs into people’s hands.

It wasn’t long before I noticed that we were running into a crisis. 200 hot dogs were not going to be enough. I left the event and ran to the local cash n carry and picked up another 200 dogs. When I returned, my wife was trying to tell people that we were out of dogs and had more coming.

I returned to hear her tell one lady, “Two booths down that way there is some awesome roast pork and down that way is roast chicken.”

The lady grimaced at her and said, “But, I want HOT DOGS!” and threw her plate on the ground and stamped off!

.. huh?..

Even though we were temporarily out of dogs, and there was awesome food readily available in every direction, people continued to wait in our line for the new batch of dogs  to be ready.

I don’t get it. Does the hot dog industry put crack in the dogs or something? What is the magic and what would make people forego freely available and pretty awesome food in favor of a processed meat tube?

I found this recipe for cooked pinto beans that uses salt pork as a base. Turns out that it is pretty dang good!

Soak beans in water overnight. Place all ingredients except the salt in the pot, bring to a boil and simmer, partially covered, until the beans are tender but not so soft they lose all texture. While cooking, make sure there is always enough water to just cover the beans. Remove beans from pot, add salt to taste and serve.

I love cheese dips of all kinds. This creamy white cheese dip is excellent for chips or tortillas! Place all ingredients into a double boiler and cook on medium/low heat. Stir occassionally until melted and well blended.

Any time is a great time to host a Mexican fiesta. This type of dinner party or get together is a wonderful way to show off your Mexican cooking skills. As far as menu choices, the possibilities are almost endless.

Mexican fiestas are typically very casual and colorful occasions. This goes for the atmosphere, food and decoration, alike. Mexican food options include everything from tamales and tacos to burritos to guacamole to salsa to refried beans to carne asada to quesadillas to margaritas to deep fried ice cream to Mexican wedding cookies to much more!