All the Taco Trucks

Alternate Title: Defying the law of diminishing returns

I received the most amazing assignment ever--rank all of the taco trucks in Memphis. Since I can only eat so many tacos, I enlisted the help of my firstborn. He had to be bribed with a promise to visit the Apple Store along the way, but then he was totally on board. It was actually quite amazing to pick him up from his dad's house on Saturday and not only have him be dressed and ready to go, but to also seem excited.

I explained the law of diminishing returns to him and we discussed different criteria we might use to rank the trucks and it was all quite civilized.

I don't want to ruin my upcoming Thrillist piece, but I will say a few things about our FIVE HOUR TACO EATING ADVENTURE just to build some anticipation.



I love the El Burrito truck on Jackson. It was our first stop, so you know the whole diminishing returns might come into play, but they had a great selection and the owner was a doll.



He had the best salsa of the day too--it was a creamy avocado based sauce. And I now know that a taco is not complete without a pickled carrot.



Satchel Snapchatted along the way. I have no idea what he said.



Across from El Burrito is Jalapeno's, which may or may not be affiliated with this little place just a few feet away.



I was tempted to try it, but worried about not having enough room for all of the other tacos in my future.

On Summer Avenue, we discovered this RV Pupuseria. Tacos are more of an afterthought here, but still tasty. We need to go back and eat a pupusa.



The Los Jarochos truck was closed due to the owner being on vacation, so we were forced to go into the ice cream side. It's like a little La Michoacana. Great pops and ice cream, and my favorite--chocolate covered bananas. With sprinkles!



Next, we came across this truck on White Station, but it had started raining and no one was inside despite the "Open" sign being lit up.



And then we searched and searched, but the famed Chili Verde with the strawberry salsa was nowhere to be found. (Anyone know where it is now?)

We headed toward Hickory Hill and that's where we found the Los Compadres truck. I don't *think* it's affiliated with the restaurant. (I asked but didn't get a straight answer due to my inability to speak Spanish.) At first I thought it might be filling up it's tank, but it is fully operational right between the BP pumps.



There was a cooler full of jumbo Mexican Cokes and I couldn't resist. I think it was my first Coke in three years, maybe?



Yep frozen treats, a Coke, and more tacos than I could count all in one day! Decadence!

One of the coolest parts of our adventure was collecting all of the different salsas. As far as I could tell they were all homemade.



After eating at seven taco trucks and one ice cream place, we spent a grand total of $25. Satchel insisted on a $5 order of tamales at La Guadalupana, otherwise I never would have broken my second $20 bill.

We were both full, but not dying--though I didn't eat again until Sunday. When I emerged from my room Sunday morning, Satchel said, "I want more tacos."

Of course by then, I'd had numerous people mention trucks we never found, so I seriously considered it...for a minute. They'll have to wait for the update or part 2. I definitely think it was one of my funnest assignments ever. I'm so glad Satchel was with me.

October!

I just went an entire month without a single post. I guess that means I've been busy! Here's a recap, for the record.

Jiro got to spend a week at the beach for Fall Break thanks to the incredibly generous and amazing Edwards family.



He went last year too. How lucky is he? Last year he got pretty homesick and I got a ton of late night "I can't sleep" texts. This year, I barely heard a peep. He had a great time.



We had to celebrate Warren's 49th (!!) birthday without him. Satchel and I took Warren to the Beauty Shop for a fancy brunch that included cake.



If you are thinking that Satchel looks huge in the picture, it's because he is. He's officially taller than both Warren and I (though only one of us will admit it) and his feet are definitely bigger. It's an amazing thing to watch your baby grow taller than you!



Wait, I thought I just said Satchel is taller?



Someone just got busted on his tippy toes!

Let's see, what else? I am still amazing the children with my culinary skills. I made potato soup for the first time and Satchel said it was better than Warren's. (Shhh!)



Satchel saved up enough money to buy a Swegway. It's pretty awesome.



It's actually making him want to leave the house, which is great.

Jiro has been learning to play bass now that he's in the band.



He's VERY shy about it.

On Halloween we had our very last Rock-n-Romp ever. Ever! It rained so hard that we almost cancelled, which would have been a first, but the awesome owners of Memphis Made let us move it inside. Good thing, since original DC founder, Debbie Lee, came all the way to Memphis for the show!



It ended up being really awesome, and it was great hanging out with Debbie! Mean ol' Satchel refused to attend.

After RnR, Warren and Jiro dressed up for Halloween and went to a party.



That's Jiro in the monkey mask. He's a Black Ops 2 character called Lui Calibre.



Guess who Warren was?



Alex from a Clockwork Orange!



I don't play Black Ops 2 and I haven't seen A Clockwork Orange, so I'm a little out of the loop on how awesome or not awesome these costumes are.

And that was October! At least what I can remember of it!

Blue Hair

I have always secretly wanted to dye my hair blue--like real blue, not old lady grey haired blue. So when Jiro started asking me about dying his hair blue I wasn't exactly opposed to it. I strung him along for a few weeks thinking he'd eventually drop the idea, but he didn't.

Having never actually dyed my own hair, I didn't feel qualified to do it myself at home. No way did I want to be the target if he hated it!

So, I enlisted the help of a professional, Ms. Holly Woods. She's at Paggio's, right by Warren's house. Here's the play by play...

Before.



During.




After.



He was SO happy. Holly did a great job.



When we went to get Satchel, I thought for sure he would want to get his done next. When I asked him he said, "Yeah. Can I dye it brown?"

Hello Fresh

Everyone on Facebook is always talking about Blue Apron. It's a meal delivery service. Or a grocery delivery. Well, they send you recipes and all of the ingredients in a box and then you cook the meals yourself. My soccer buddy, Lauren, uses it. (I've been invited over for "I need to cook three Blue Apron meals before everything goes bad" dinner parties on a couple of occasions!) Another friend, Paul, told me that his girls have learned to cook using the boxes.

After nearly a year of cooking the same things, I thought maybe Blue Apron, or something like it could help teach me (and the kids) a few things. At the very least it would add some variety to our dinners.

Several friends were giving away free codes and such on Facebook, but when I looked at the meal options for Blue Apron, it didn't really get me excited. Thanks to the magic of the Facebook algorithm, I started getting other ads for similar services. Enter Hello Fresh. Their recipe options all looked yummy, so I decided to sign up for three meals a week designed to feed two people. (I figured the 4 person option was too much, but if the recipes were a hit, I might bump it up later.)

The box was due to arrive Wednesday, but because of the holiday (Memorial Day), it came Thursday. It was heavy as shit! Haha. (There were several bricks of ice in it keeping everything fresh.)

I had invited my mom to dinner, so we decided to go ahead and make two recipes so we'd have enough for four people. Jiro was super excited to help, which was much appreciated.

Our first recipe was flank steak with bean salad. (The directions are on the left in the pic, and the picture is of the shrimp sandwiches that we did not make.)



We followed the directions very closely, and I was so glad that Jiro knew how to mince. (Thanks, cooking camp!)



We didn't care too much about the bean salad. It was all about the flank steak. I haven't attempted to cook meat in years. Maybe decades? So, I was so pleasantly surprised to learn how easy it was to cook the steak!

This is Jiro waiting for it to stop resting so he could eat it.



He agreed to put beans on his plate for a photo, but refused to eat them.



After he and I ate, we worked on the chicken tacos with mango slaw for my mom and Satchel. (I wasn't up for coordinating two meals at once quite yet!)



Jiro was a big help again, and I was once more amazed at how easy it was to cook chicken on the stovetop.



The tacos were a total hit.




I basically had all of the ingredients to make more tacos, so I did a week later. Only I may have been slightly overconfident as I almost set off the smoke detector. Which if you live in a house is no big deal. In an apartment building, everyone gets evacuated! Thankfully the windows open and we avoided any embarrassment!

I never made the shrimp sandwiches--we just ate the shrimp! And when I redid the tacos, I left out a few ingredients the kids weren't crazy about, like onions.

I don't know if we'll do this forever, but we'll definitely do it a little longer. It's been great learning new recipes, cooking together, and gaining some much needed confidence!

If you want to try it, this code (D4XYGC) will get you $40 off your first box. Woot!

11

We are wrapping up birthday month over here! On the 29th, this little cutie turned 11.



He chose to start his day with a kolache from Donald's Donuts and some apple juice. (Notice the new 'do, inspired by Renaldo.)

His birthday party was the preceeding weekend. It started with a trip to the Rec Room with some of his best buddies.



I rented one of the livingroom areas so they could play Wii-U on the big screen.



Then I let them run wild for a bit.



(How many 11 year olds does it take to keep a ping pong in play?)

Then we procured pizza and I passed the baton to Warren, who hosted the sleepover. The next morning, Warren sent this: The official list of challenges.



(1. licking foot, 2. onion, 3. mio, 4. cat food, 5. licking Satsuki (the dog), 6. nice, relaxing mio)

In the morning they went on a donut run and then played soccer in the park.



Ok, fast forward back to the actual day. After mastering his math TCAPs, Warren took him out for a treat. Then he had soccer practice, and finally a family dinner at the restaurant of his choice: Outback. That's right. He really wanted a steak. And he inisted I take a photo. (That's my boy!)



His list of wants was very small this year, and his favorite present was his Real Madrid James (pronounced HOM-es).




He really is the sweetest kid there ever was, and I thank my lucky stars that I get to be his mom. Happy birthday, Jiro!

Party Crasher

Last Tuesday, my best friend, Marlinee, sent me a simple text: "What's the name of that pho place in New Orleans?" My response? "Who is going to New Orleans!" She was, and not only that, she was following it up with a weekend trip to the beach. It was her unofficial 25th high school reunion with her Murphy High pals from Mobile.

In true best friend fashion, she was sending me "Come join us" texts by Wednesday. By Friday, I was out of excuses for why I couldn't possibly go. On Saturday, I hit the road.

I arrived in Gulf Shores around 2:00pm in the afternoon and kicked my shoes off on the back deck.



Then I walked down to the beach and joined in on the fun.




Over the years, I had either met or heard tales of most of the people at the reunion, so I felt right at home. After chit chatting for a bit, I went to unload my car and see what was happening inside.

Max and Tally were making gumbo!



I washed my hands, and started peeling shrimp. Eventually everyone else came in from the beach, or the store, and we had ourselves a little party.




Tally's husband, Carl, made salad, and Stephanie doctored up the French bread, and we sat down to one of the best meals of my life.






Seriously, I am going to dream about Tally's gumbo for the rest of my life.

After dinner, we moved outside to play Cards Against Humanity.



Not to brag or anything, but I totally won.

We stayed up late talking and I went to bed so, so happy I'd made the drive. When I woke up, I was informed that Marlinee's parents were on their way. Even better, Chow was joining forces with Tally, who lived in Thailand for a few years, to make us all a Thai lunch.

I'm pretty sure this is what mornings are like in heaven.

Marlinee was concerned that Tally might take too long preparing his dish, but Chow came with hers all ready to go.



We snacked on Thai poppers and spring rolls while Tally worked his magic.



I'm telling you, he is magic.



Then, once again, we all gathered around the table to enjoy an amazing meal.



Once lunch was over and the dishes were done, we went out to the beach. The waves were amazing and we alternated between playing in them and admiring them.




There are no words for how happy I felt.



The best part? I still feel it.

Thanks to Marlinee for inviting me, all of the Murphy Panthers for making me feel so welcome, and to Warren for keeping an eye on our babies so I could go and not worry.