Cinco De Mayo: Shredded Beef Tacos & Enchilado Casserole

This is one of those "it would only happen to Glenna stories". After New Year's Eve where we sort of threw together a last minute party of sorts, I talked to several people who all said "I would have brought something but I just didn't think about it.  We must not have anyone left on nights who likes to plan stuff."  I said, "Well, I'm your girl. I do like to plan stuff and I did think about it but I didn't want anyone to think I was being pushy since I haven't been on nights that long."  They assured me that they'd welcome the planner in me being let loose.

Have you ever noticed that winter, following that huge slew of Halloween takes us to Thanksgiving which takes of us to Christmas which slides on into New Year's Eve known as "THE HOLIDAYS", there's a real dearth of anything to celebrate?

No offense meant, but President's Day and Columbus Day just don't inspire me to get up early on sleep day/work nights to throw together a dessert.

But we have Cinco De Mayo to remind us that, yes it's true, spring is on it's way at last!  So I, doing very little in a small way, hunted the internet for Cinco De Mayo graphics and made up a half dozen flyers for the main tech room and all the unit tech rooms asking people to sign up for and bring appropriate food on the evening of Sunday, the 4th, since that means we eat lunch at 1am on Monday the 5th--we'd even be the first to celebrate the holiday!

Here's the "only to Glenna" part.  I made up the flyers and had them posted AND THEN got my schedule for May.  Even though it was my weekend to work, for staffing reasons, I'd been taken off Sunday the 4th.  Only me.  That would only happen to me. Plan a party on a day I always always without fail work, and then not be on the shedule for that one day I planned the party.  I'm like a magnet for that kind of screwy stuff.  But it worked out fine in the end. I put myself on-call for that night and ended up not only going in on Sunday, but making extra pay, so hell, it worked out great in the end, eh?

For my part for lunch, I wanted to try something new and I hoped it worked because I had no backup plan:  shredded beef tacos.  Probably simple to many of you but it's something I'd simply never done before so it was an adventure of sorts.  Without a recipe, I was flying by the seat of my pants but fairly confident.

I bought a nice chuck roast, rubbed it generously with taco seasoning, and dry roasted it at 300 degrees for 3 hours in my Pampered Chef covered crock roaster. The taco seasoning was from where? The Amish Country Store! I'm starting to feel like this should be a Johnny Carson audience participation joke. :-) By the way, the Amish Country Store has most of their best-selling items online and they do ship.  Hey, since I plug them all the time I thought I should let you know that you don't have to live here to get those wonderful peaches that I'll have cobbler pictures of in a few days.

While shredding the roast with two forks, I sauteed the veggies I had pre-chopped finely:  onion, celery, green pepper, red pepper, red chilis, and canned green chilis.  Then I added the meat and its juices along with the veggies and a half cup of water into my crockpot to continue to simmer on low until time for work, about 2 hours.  I also seasoned the meat with more chili powder, fresh grated black pepper, a tsp of cumin, and a tsp of cinnamon.

Here's another photo, this time using flash. In real life, the beef wasn't this anemic looking but you can see the definition of the meat and veggies better.

I'll be doing this again. It came out really well. Everyone seemed to like it and we all piled the our tortillas high with it.  I took home an almost empty crock pot.

Also there, my friend Kim B brought an enchilada casserole I'd never had before. I don't think it's necessarily an uncommon dish but I'd never had it before so if anyone has this recipe before I get around to asking Kim to write it down for me...hint hint...feel free to email me with it! I did ask Kim how she did it and tried to replicate it at home.  Mine came out good but it didn't taste exactly like Kim's so I think I'm going to have to go back for a written version of the recipe. I remember she said layers of corn tortillas, meat, salsa, and cheese.

I don't know if I missed a layer or didn't put enough cheese in between the layers....???

Sigh.  Not that I haven't said this before but I adore the people I work with and I love having fun so I'll be driving them nuts all summer with stuff like this.  Only next time I'll try to make sure I'm schedule BEFORE I put anything in writing!

Comments

[MyKitchenInHalfCups]

Interesting technique on the beef, looks excellent.
Great story about 'planning'!!

[Glenna]

Thanks, Tanna!

[sher]

Boy, that all looks great!!!!! My kind of food!

[Sally]

Yum! Shredded beef looks great! Please share the enchilada casserole recipe if possible - another yum!

[Deborah Dowd]

That shredded beef looks great, you are clearly the person I would want to plan my party! And the extra $ is just a bonus! It is such a blessing to love the people you work with - it makes it seem less like work!

[Glenna]

Sher--Thanks, LOL! You're welcome at my table any time!

Sally--You bet! I'll get it from Kim.

Deborah--LOL! You're so sweet! And yes, I would have gone in anyway even if they'd not needed me. I consider the people I work with to be my friends too.

[Alaina Mantel]

You promised to get us the written version of the enchilado cassarole recipe.PLEASE. It looks so yummy.(Hate that word but it works)