One Cookbook, Many Tacos: My Tacolicious Journey

When I turned 30 back in 2020 I decided to create a “40 Before 40” bucketlist.  It honestly started out as kind of a joke but eventually turned into a real list and real quest I would embark on.  I’ll admit that in recent years I haven’t been quite as faithful to looking at the list and intentionally working towards some of the goals, but 2026 is the year we change that.  This year I have set aside a few of the items still on the lists that I am intentionally going to work towards, one being to cook through an entire cookbook and another being to write more.  Hence the creation of this blog.

I’ve thought about this goal, cooking through a cookbook, over the years but just never settled on a cookbook.  Over the last few months I was beginning to think I would settle on one of the books from Alexandra Snodgrass, as I already often cooked from her books and knew I liked her style of writing and cooking.  But, as I reached into the cabinet to grab some cookbooks to look through, the perfect one appeared… Tacolicious!  It was like a spotlight appeared on it while the rest of the cookbooks remained in the dark, this book would be the star of the show.  I LOVE tacos, to the point it’s part of my identity, why wouldn’t I cook through this entire book, how had I not thought of it before?!

So, alas we have settled on the cookbook that will be part of my journey to achieving this goal.  It really is the perfect cookbook too.  Having grown up in Southern California, just 10 minutes north of Baja California, Mexico, tacos were a part of my childhood.  I can remember many nights going to one of the many tasty Mexican food restaurants to order my usual: a taco plate: 3 crunchy beef tacos with rice and beans.  And no I’m not talking ground meat in a store bought crunchy shell, I’m talking slow cooked shredded barbacoa in a corn tortilla fried fresh when the tacos were made.  Not that there is anything wrong with the other type of taco but just not quite authentic.

As I grew older, my taste and appreciation for the wonderful food that is tacos also developed.  Street tacos are some of my favorite, al pastor especially.  I am always on the hunt for a good taco no matter where I go and will stand by that I don’t think i’ve had carne asada as good as anywhere but home.

So, as I stared at this cookbook it felt only right to pull it out and begin this journey.  Hope you stick around and enjoy the ride.