Not posh

Remember when I wrote how Glasgow has the highest per capita Indian restaurants of anywhere outside of India? Well, you know what they must have the lowest per capita of? Mexican restaurants. Or anything Latin American. I nearly succumbed to burrito-deficiency-itis when I lived there for a semester in college, after living off of Anna's Taqueria for two years. One day my friend Sue and I decided to make regular old ground beef tacos in my windowless dorm kitchen. We got all the goods: crunchy yellow shells, that scary "seasoning" packet, salsa, sour cream, orange cheese, and even a green tub of goo labled "guacamole." So there we are, assembling our comfort food that I'm sure 1 million other Americans were eating at home in Iowa, Pennsylvania and Florida. And the Scottish girls who shared the kitchen start talking about how posh our dinner is. Because they had never witnessed taco preparation before. Um, Ortega taco kits are really anything but posh. I would even declare them the exact opposite of posh.

I won't lie. I still make the occasional ground beef taco. Why not? They are kind of awesome. But I now have about 15 other favorite tacos in front of it. Here's one.

Crunchy black bean tacos - adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe
Makes 6 tacos

6 small corn tortillas (don't use flour tortillas)
vegetable oil
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
2 cups shredded cabbage (either from a head or coleslaw mix)
2 green onions, finely sliced
juice of half of a lime
2 tablespoons cilantro OR mint

To serve
homemade guacamole (mash an avocado with some minced garlic, salt, pepper, lime juice, maybe some cilantro)
chipotle hot sauce

Mix the cabbage, green onions, lime juice and herb of your choosing together well. Season with some salt.

Mash the rinsed and drained black beans with the cumin, vinegar, and garlic.

Preheat toaster oven to 250, or set your oven on "warm." Heat a large skillet with 2 teaspoons vegetable oil over medium heat. Swirl the oil around so it covers the skillet evenly. Put three tortillas down in the skillet. It's ok if they overlap a bit. Using one half of the bean mixture, divide it among the three tortillas in the pan, spreading it on one half of each tortilla. Top with some of the feta cheese. Using tongs, fold over the other half of the tortilla and press down, making the tortillas into half moons. Once the tortilla is crispy and light brown on one side, flip it over and brown the other side. (I think tongs are easier to use than a spatula here.) Keep the first batch warm in the toaster or oven while you repeat with the last three tortillas.

Shove some of the cabbage mixture into each taco, and then serve with the guacamole and chipotle hot sauce. Heaven, I tell you. Crunchy, beany heaven.

So easy even a caveman could make it

There's an awesome pizza place in my hometown of Beaver, PA, called Mario's. It's BYOB, serves a-frickin-mazing wood-fired oven pizza, and makes the most delicious chicken piccata pasta. These are all factors that make it the best place to eat in downtown Beaver. Plus there's a 92% chance you'll see my brother's friend Ryan there.

Mario's is also the first place I tried what is now my favorite speedy weeknight dinner. It's called beans and greens, and it might be the best complete dinner on the planet that can be ready in less than 20 minutes. You can use any kind of greens. Kale makes a nice hearty meal, spinach is soft and silky, and swiss chard is a happy medium between the two. I probably wouldn't use collard greens, because they take forever to cook. My trick to delicous kale and chard is to cut the stem out. The stems take longer to cook, and if you leave them in, the stems can be stringy in your final product. You could also use a hard sausage (like one of those fancy sticks of salami) here with delicious results.

Beans and greens
Serves 2-3

2 links fresh sausage, or 4 oz. hard sausage
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
1 bunch greens, de-stemmed and roughly chopped (no need to de-stem spinach)
1/2 cup chicken broth, beer or water
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Heat large skillet over medium heat. If you're using fresh sausage, squeeze it out of the casing and roughly break it up with a spatula. If you're using hard sausage, chop it into 1/4 inch half moons. Either way, brown the sausage. (I never add oil when browning sausage, because it has enough fat to get going on its own.) Add the sliced onion and cook just until starting to turn translucent, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and hot pepper flakes. Cook 30 seconds. Add the greens, turning them with tongs to equally wilt them. Add the liquid, and scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. If you're using kale or chard, turn the heat to low and cover and cook until the greens are tender, about 5-7 minutes for kale and 3-5 minutes for chard. You won't need to do this for spinach, because it wilts and softens so quickly.

Stir in the beans and warm through, about 1 minute. Turn off the heat and add the vinegar. Taste your final product to see if it needs salt. Because sausage and canned beans can be really salty, you might not need any. This is also great accompanied by some crusty bread.