Lunch and dinner yesterday, jambalaya with braised short ribs, linguica, fresh tomatoes, and onion.

Yeah, the taco part I get but was just wondering about the stewing sauce with all the chilies and spices etc. sounds yummy.
BTW--if you can make birria, you can make your own tomato sauce in your sleep. The same with taco seasoning. Both are much simpler.

i’ve made pasta tomato sauces with San Marzano tomatoes and basil and some spices in the past with nice results but I still prefer Rao’s jar. When I had that awful Contadino (?) marinara from Costco, I had to doctor it up with browned ground meat, San Marzano tomatoes, and probably Italian sausage. I had to go through 3 jars!

here’s the general and spice mixes for the birria - I didn’t use garlic or. bay leaves. Or canned peppers. I subbed Arbol chili powder for the actual guajillo Chile.

2 cups chicken or beef broth
4 dried guajillo chile (see notes)
2 dried Pasilla chilies (optional)
——-
1–2 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted (and juices) or 1 1/2 cups fresh, diced tomatoes
3 tablespoons vinegar (white or apple cider)
1 tablespoon dried Oregano(or thyme)
2 bay leaves


Spices
1 cinnamon stick (or see notes) 6 whole cloves ( or see notes) 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoon coriander seeds
8 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
—
1–2 canned chipotle peppers (optional), or 2–3 tablespoons adobo sauce ( from the can)
1 tablespoon honey, or sugar

A quinoa bowl with mixed greens, warm quinoa, and topped with curried veggies. A little Sriracha rounded it off nicely.

Thank you! Interesting about the cinnamon and cloves....I think I would pass and add the garlic instead.
LOL--you probably would have better off just dumping the contadina than wasting all of that other stuff trying to doctor it up if it was that awful. Or donating the unopened jars to a food bank.

ooh I used a cinnamon stick (only because we have them!) and also didn’t have cloves. And yep, zero garlic. :-)

Our grocery store has deli turkey with hatch chiles so I have been having turkey sandwiches. It's great turkey!

I love hatch chilies but never thought of them with turkey. Do they roast the turkey with the chiles all over the top?

Lunch today was smoked salmon with lentils cooked in a mirepoix, and a rocket salad. Healthy and delicious.

Sure, make me Google mirepoix! :)

The large piece of turkey that they keep in the deli case and slice for you appears to have ground up chiles on the outside.

Ahh...so more like a turkey loaf than sliced turkey breast. I bet it was delicious.

Fish tacos (total 1 tortilla per person, so the 2nd “taco” was without tortilla) - fresh wild local snapper, sautéed with Chardonnay ($6.99 can), onion, orange bell. Fish tacos are really so great that I’ll never get them at any taqueria or restaurant - instead I’d order carnitas, buche, Tripa, cabeza, or maybe Pastor. Things I can’t buy & cook at home.

grilled cheese

dessert for me:
japanese wheat cake - no filling so I had a few bites and I’ll know to not buy it again :-)

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The Japanese packaging says "pudding steamed cake," so knowing their average chiffon cakes...no flavor?

no flavor. I’ve had a different japanese cake with white cream which I quite enjoyed. I’m pretty sure I had misread the package and thought it had a filling. :-)