Just Gets Better The Second Day

I am not too shabby in the cooking department. I make a great spaghetti sauce from scratch, my meatloaf is the best thing ever and just yesterday I improvised with a beloved recipe when I didn't have all the ingredients.....and I made it better!

I tend to not do fried foods because, first off, that grease is hot and snappy! I do not like to get burned, even for delish food. Second, but of much less importance, fried foods are not so good for you. I'll do fried chicken for special occasions (mmm, fried chicken, might have to put that on the menu for this month!) and bacon, but for goodness sake, bacon is so freaking good. How could I give it up? Even if I was a "vegetarian" I would still sneak bacon on the side!

So when I saw a recipe for taquitos, I was very hesitant. It's fried. It's filling a flour tortilla and rolling it up and not having it come undone in hot oil. It's complicated. But in an effort to stem our insane urge to eat out, I try to find dishes that will make us feel like we've had a treat but without the whole throwing money away thing.

Well, OMG, I bet you can guess how this story goes! These things have turned into a family favorite! I don't even follow the recipe anymore. I tweaked it until it's not even the same thing, except that I love the picture that came with the recipe, so it is taped into my cook book. I love to eat one at dinner when they are crispy and hot and the cheese is melting out of them.....

But, honestly? I think they just get better the second day. Cold. Straight from the fridge. Just me and my guilty pleasure standing in the kitchen, the dogs dancing around me with hope in their hearts. Sorry, girls, it's too good. I'm going to eat it all.

But first, I'll put it on a paper plate and take a picture for posterity. This batch turned out superb! I want to remember the pleasure the first bite is.

This love of a cold taquito might have something to do with cleaning the house (dusting, sweeping, mopping) for hours and forgetting to eat something at lunch time. By the time the floors dried and I went into the kitchen I was a smidge delirious with hunger.

Only a little bit is the result of delirious hunger. My taquito is really better the second day!