We had vertebra tacos for dinner tonight.
I have not fessed up to my husband yet, and this may just be one that I take to my grave.
How, you ask, did we, inhabitants of the most firstest of first-world countries, even manage to find vertebrae in edible form (and 'edible' is fairly relative here, but among the many virtues of Taco Night is to take the inedible and render it somewhat edible, and kid-pleasing, in thirty minutes or less)?
Well, the last two years at the fair, we have purchased a 4-H steer with another couple. Said steer is trundled up the road to the meatlocker in Rifle to be transformed into little frozen paper parcels, each stamped helpfully with some kind of descriptor (chuck roast, t-bone steak, ground beef, etc). We are now down to the very end (which end?) of Dopey, and the last few packages in the deep freeze tend to show a great deal of creative license as to what parts of a cow you might want to consume and how you might want them portioned.
This latest package was coyly labeled "soup bones." Peeling back the paper, I could see plenty of meat, so I threw the entire frozen beef rectangle in the crock-pot before I went to work. That evening, after I shredded the meat for tacos, it became clear what kind of soup bones I was dealing with, but by that time it was dinnertime and I had no backup plan (except Cheerios). A good dose of chili powder and some excellent guacamole diminished the creep-out factor, vertebra tacos were served, and Ryan need be none the wiser.
Unless we all get Mad Cow disease.
We would like to invite ourselves over for dinner sometimes. We eat all manner of vertebrae, organs, and bits, with or without the guac. Our ape thinks we're gross but she is always eating Toad Foods, Tim-Pee, and Satan. I think we know who the gross one is.
ReplyDeleteSheps w/Pep, Otis & Edgrr.
Invitation is open at any time.
ReplyDeleteI still have an ox tail and a tongue in the deep freeze. And two more packages of 'soup bones.'