Tyler Florence.  I just love the way that boy cooks.  I've been making his Mexican Street Tacos for years now & they never disappoint.

Ingredients:
2 pounds flank steak
Mojo (recipe to follow)
Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper
8 corn tortillas
Shredded romaine lettuce
Chopped onion
Crumbled queso fresco
1 recipe of my salsa
2 limes, cut into wedges

Mojo:
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 jalapenos, mince
1 large handful of fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 2 limes
Juice of 2 oranges
2 TBL white vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil

With a mortar and pestle, mash together the garlic, jalapenos, cilantro, salt and pepper to make a paste.  Put it in a glass jar.  Add lime and orange juices, the vinegar and the oil.  Shake it up to combine.

Marinate steak in Mojo for 1-8 hours (the longer, the better)

Preheat grill, medium-high heat.  Take steak out of mojo sauce; season both sides with salt and pepper.  Grill for 7-10 minutes on each side turning once until med-rare (cook longer if you must).  Remove to cutting board; let rest 5 minutes to allow juices to settle.  Slice think on an angle across the grain.

In a dry skillet warm the tortillas for 30 seconds on each side until toasty and pliable.
Fill each tortilla down the center with about 1/8 of the beef, sprinkle with lettuce, onion, & cheese, top with a spoonful of salsa & garnish with a lime.

Serve with Mexican style beans and guacamole. 

Last night when it was still 54 degrees outside KISD called for a delay of 2 hours.  Post, (yes the Army) called for a delay as well - non essential personal can stay home till NOON!!  Holy smokin' Joe - it's gonna be bad one!  At 7AM I got a call from KISD, school is cancelled.  REALLY...It must be pretty bad (is what I thought to myself)!  I looked outside to find this....

Nothing.  The white you see is the sidewalk, not snow.  I'm running low on lots of household goods.  At 7:30AM I have 3 out of 4 children crying/screaming.  It seems GIRL beat up both of her little brothers then locked herself in her room. I decided I could not make it through the day without groceries (OK, WINE).  I left - HEB here I come, slick roads and all.  To my surprise, no slick roads, nothing, nada.  I bought my groceries (wine) and left.  I made it home safely without seeing one accident, without slipping one time.  Now I will sit and wait.  I wonder if the storm will ever come....

She took the time to make this:

even though she could reach the trash can from where she was standing.

I had been asking for a snow day all week.  Temps were in the low teens Monday - Thursday.  On Monday I couldn't even open the doors to the van, they were frozen shut!  Seriously, the kids had to climb in through the back and then when I dropped them at school they had to climb out through the back. (Why didn't I park in the garage on Sunday night?) But I'm not joking when I tell you we had not one drop of snow. Not one.  All the schools around us were out because of snow and ice. Not us, not Central Texas.  The Dallas area schools were closed the ENTIRE WEEK.  (OK, now that would make me a bit bonkers – be quiet Jefanna.)  I kept dreaming of a snow day; HOWEVER I did NOT want one on Friday.  Did you hear me God?  Of course you did, that's why we got one! It’s all my fault. I take the blame.  Thursday night the kids were excited, their teachers told them of the BLIZZARD that was coming through.  I made them go to bed on time.  I was hoping for a delay MAYBE, but not a cancellation.  Did we get a delay? Nope, on Friday we got a dusting of snow and school was CANCELED!!  What?  Are you kidding me?  Cancelled?  Did I mention I was going on a girls weekend to Canton, leaving Friday morning right after I dropped the kids off at school?!?!  Did I mention how I had to finagle to get this trip to work out?  Did I mention this was my first girls trip in 6 years?  Count them, 6!  You can't even count that on one hand.  I made martinis, a cake AND we bought shirts! Did I mention it was a DUSTING?  Not even enough snow to build a snowman?  Did I pout, yes!  Am I bitter?  No, how could I be after seeing their sweet faces while playing in the snow?   (OK, I’m a little bitter.)

Canton will still be waiting for me in June.  ;o)  Who wants to go?

Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you....
I hear this song EVERY time I make beans.  And no, not from my children. 

1 package pinto beans - rinsed off
1 package of salt pork
2 cans stewed tomatoes - cut up with kitchen scissor while still in the can (really, I'm not joking)
5-7 fresh roasted green chilis - chopped
(or 2 cans if you can't find fresh)
1 bunch cilantro - chopped

Some people believe you need to soak beans overnight...blah, blah, blah.  Not me.  Toss your beans and salt pork in a Dutch oven, fill with water. Cook on high heat and boil for the 1st hour.  You will need to refill the water a couple of times. After an hour of boiling reduce heat.  Put lid on and continue cooking for 6-7 more hours, adding water as necessary.  Just before serving add stewed tomatoes, green chilis and cilantro.

They really are that easy.

Eat.

6-8 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
3/4 cup sugar
1 TBL cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
cinnamon sugar
2 pie crust (make your own or use premade)

Mix sugar, cornstarch & cinnamon, pour over sliced peaches.  Mix well.  Pour into unbaked pie shell.  Dot with butter. Top with crust, vent well. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

So simple, yet so good.

(If using frozen peaches, thaw completely and increase cornstarch to 3 TBLS)

**Thanks to my friend and neighbor Teri for the fabulous peaches & the great recipe!! ;o)

I know I said I would post every Friday about decluttering and food waste but I think I was a bit overzealous when I said that.  I'm now thinking every other Friday (or Saturday or Sunday) is a better idea.  Last week got away with me and before I knew it I was a week behind on this venture. So, here I am 2 weeks later. I'm going to try very hard to do this every other week (did you hear me?  I said TRY). So here goes, these are the things I/we wasted/threw out over the past 2 weeks. Even though our list is long, I think we did MUCH better that the previous week since I am more conscious of waste in the kitchen.  However I am wondering when I will STOP buying celery!  I always throw away more than we consume.

Things we wasted over the past 2 week:

1 package of chives
1 package celery – yes, the entire package.
10 baby carrots
2 green onions
½ bag of lettuce mix
1 bunch of parsley
2 helpings of sliced steak
2 cups of buttermilk
8 bread heels 
½ green pepper
1 almost full jar salsa (it was a science experiment)
1 hamburger bun
1 piece of Chicken Pot Pie
1/2 red onion
1/4 cup chopped tomatoes

What should I do with all those heels? Not one person in my family likes to eat them....give me idea folks, or this will keep appearing week after week on my list.

OK, a few things I did differently to keep from throwing things out -

-I had 6 egg whites left over from a cake I made.  Instead of throwing them out (like I normally would have done - don't hate) I saved them for breakfast the next morning and made egg white omelets. Boy 1 looked at it funny, but ate it anyway.
-With our left over steak and chicken from Mexican Street Tacos, I made flautas!  They were wonderful and were all gone within a day.
-With my leftover Mexican bean soup I made refried beans for burritos!  Yummy!

In the past 2 weeks we (I say we because Hubby is loving this and is getting rid of things as well!) have gotten rid of 140 more items from our house.  In the past 2 weeks I have purchased 14 items, bringing my grand total of things out of our house to 819 items!!  Only 1192 things left to go!!

AND to my embarrassment I have only worked out ONE, 1 time in the past 2 weeks......

 I didn't check my children as thoroughly as  I normally do, I mean they have all gone hiking numerous times before and they know how to dress themselves....Boy 2's shoes....maybe I should do a once over before we get in the car the next time.

At the end of the day, even though they will never admit it, everyone had a good time!  I have to give it up to Hubby, we didn't get ran over by a biker, in fact we didn't even see one.  I did sprain my ankle, but it was my own fault - I tackled Boy 1 and we both went down.  He is fine, I am old and brittle.  The kids seemed to enjoy this hike better than they thought they would.  Boy 2 told me "Mom, this really wasn't a hike, this was more like a walk through the woods", and he was right compared to what he is used to hiking.