Product Review: H.E.B. Multigrain Taco Shells

 

H.E.B Multigrain Taco Shells

Crunchy taco shells -- I often see debates about crunchy tacos vs. soft tacos. (That would be a good topic for another blog post.) Personally, I love them all. Sometimes I crave crunchy; sometimes soft. It just depends on mood and ingredients on hand. 

These H.E.B. taco shells hit all of the right notes if you are craving crunchy tacos. They have a great corn flavor, and a nice crunch. Some of the other crunchy taco shells available from other companies often fall short on flavor. Sometimes the shells are just too thick too. 

But not H.E.B.'s taco shells. They are just right. The product featured in the photo above is made with "H.E.B. Select Ingredients." The Select Ingredients line was introduced in 2016, and they pledged to have 400 Select Ingredients products available for purchase in their stores by the end of that year. I'm sure there are many more now. 

According to H.E.B, the Select Ingredient products omit the use of HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup), artificial flavors, and synthetic ingredients. I believe them. The flavor of these taco shells speaks for itself. 

The price is right for these tacos if you are planning a party. The only drawback I have experienced thus far are the breakage points. The embedded flax seeds cause these shells to fracture differently than regular shells. Sometimes several fractures occur and the resulting pieces are smaller. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. The smaller pieces are more convenient when you go in for the grand finale to enjoy that "taco salad" left on your plate after you finish your tacos. 😆

Here's the front of the box these shells were packed in, plus the sides with nutritional info: 

Happy Eating! 

An Exciting Moment For My Bienenstich Cookie Recipe

 

I was out working one of my jobs when I got some exciting news about my Bienenstich Cookie recipe. I checked my email (while I was parked) and saw that I had an email which informed me that my recipe is being featured at delishably.com. I almost fell out of the car! 

I am still dancing around! 

Click the recipe title below to view it there. I did post about it here, but I didn't post the full recipe here. I posted the full recipe on my hub at Hubpages (because they have such nice tools there to make it easier to post recipes). I wasn't trying to get featured on anything, I was just sharing my recipe. So.....WOW!!!!! What a nice surprise!!!!!!! There goes that "Kitchen Magic" again!!! 

On top of that, before I left, I had a discussion with my Mom about 2 new ideas I had for experiments. I have quite a list, so I'll be dedicating a lot more time to it now. 

They changed the title a bit, and did a few other minor edits, but that's just fine with me! 

So, without further ado, here is the link: 

Bienenstich Cookies: A Beloved Cake Transformed

If you try my recipe, please let me know your thoughts about it, or if you need help with anything. 

Now it is time for me to get back to the lab to conduct more sweet experiments!

Happy Eating! 

Kitchen Tip: Microwave "Baked" Potatoes - No Poking Required

 

"Potatoes in a Bin"
(Public Domain Photo) 

Do you use a microwave oven to "bake" potatoes? We went without one for a few years after the other one went kaput. Last year we finally took the plunge and got one at Costco. 

So a quick "baked" potato has become all the rage again, when hunger strikes and waiting for it to bake in a conventional oven is just not possible. It's not as great as a real baked potato, but hey...it is passable. 

One day I decided to change the preparation a bit. Instead of poking it with a fork in several places all over, I decided to make one cut with a knife.   

Here's how it works: 

1. Cut through the potato (lengthwise), almost to the other side, leaving about 1/4" to 1/2" uncut. Cutting it halfway will work as well. 

2. Place the potato in the microwave, with the cut side to the facing to the side. 

3. Cook as usual as per your microwave wattage.

Poking holes with a fork can sometimes be a pain, and you have to poke it in several places. That could be just me. When I poke it, I really poke the thing, and sometimes it's hard to pull the fork back out because of suction. 

Cutting it saves time and possible burns after cooking because all you have to do is open it up to add your favorite toppings, instead of cutting the hot potato. 

It cooks better too. I don't think I'm imagining that. I've done it multiple times.

So try it out next time you make a microwave potato, and let me know how it works for you. 

Happy Eating! 

A Banana Story: The Bananas That Drove Me Bananas

 Going Bananas

I have to share this banana story, because these were the best store-bought bananas I ever had. I bought them right around the time of the "Big Freeze" in Texas. I can't recall now if it was just before or just after, but when I bought them, the store only had green bananas available. I purchased a bunch that had 6 bananas, grown in Ecuador. I don't recall which company logo was on the sticker. (Dole and Chiquita  are pretty common here.)  

 

I assume the green bananas will not be a problem because they ripen so quickly anyway, thanks to human intervention. Well, someone was asleep at the switch for this shipment, and it yielded some wonderful results. 

The bananas I bought were hung on the banana hook on the counter. They hung there for a week, with no obvious change. So we bought some more bananas, and placed them near the green bananas to see if it would help. 

We finished the newer banana bunch, but the green bananas were still green. So the green bananas were moved into a paper bag and the bag was kept closed. 

Time passed. More bananas were purchased. There were daily checks on the green bananas. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Still green. 

The next time we bought a bunch, we put one of the bananas inside the bag with the green bananas. The newer banana ripened. The green bananas did not. 

Okay. 

I was ready to give up. I started wondering if the bananas would be any good at all even if they did ripen, or if they were just going to rot without ripening. 

Finally, over 3 weeks into this little banana adventure, they started to change color. A couple of them started to show signs of ripening. 

They didn't ripen all at once. They ripened one by one for the most part. I ate the first one that was ripe and it was simply delicious. It had a nice texture, a bit heavier than the usual banana. The flavor was more concentrated too. It was divine! 

The very last green banana (visible in the pic above) ripened over a month after the bunch was purchased. 

So...Wow! I wish this would happen more often. 

Bananas are harvested when they are still green, then dosed with ethylene gas once they reach their destination. Organic bananas are supposed to be exempt from this treatment, but I call BS on that because they ripen just as fast as "regular" bananas. Have I considered that they might pick them after they start to turn and are using a faster shipping method? Yes. I think they would cost a lot more if that was the case. There's not a huge difference in price between regular and organic. Anyway, if you know of a grocer who sources their bananas from a smaller banana trader that doesn't use ethylene gas, instead of one of the huge international companies...do tell! 

We used to have a grove of banana trees, but someone got a wild hair one day and cut all of them down (and dug up the rest). I don't know the specifics anymore, but I do miss the trees, because at least we'd have homegrown bananas from time to time. Looks like it's time to find some again. 

If you're interested, this link to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has some interesting banana facts & figures. 

Unaltered Photo of Men Hauling Bananas With a Bike in Uganda
Emesik, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Taco Bell Enchiritos - The Original, Not The Sad Reboot

When Taco Bell had an actual bell on their restaurants back in the day 
(Public Domain photo)

If I had a time machine, I would travel to a Taco Bell like the one pictured above, and order an Enchirito. Maybe even two. I'm talking about the original Taco Bell Enchirito, not that lame version they brought back when they "revived" it. According to Taco Bell lore, the Enchirito first appeared around 1970. It was discontinued as a menu item in 1993, but they brought it back around 2000. Well, they didn't really bring it back. They brought back the shadow of an Enchirito. It was taken off the menu again around 2013, though there are rumors circulating that you can order it from the "secret menu," or order certain menu items for an Enchirito "hack." 

Okay...you can hack all the livelong day or try to order from the secret menu, but you will never get a true Enchirito that way. I do remember the year they took them off of the menu. We didn't have a Taco Bell very close to us but we'd go there from time to time when we drove to Katy or Houston for errands. I remember when they removed it and I was sad. Later, they added it again, and I tried it a couple of times, but it was never the same -- just like when Coke changed their formula and then supposedly changed it back after public outcry. It was never the same either -- (If you can get your hands on a Coke that is bottled in Mexico, it will come close, but even that isn't as good as the original was.) -- but that made it easier to give up an unhealthy beverage, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. 

Let's get back to the Enchirito though. I have thought about making my own copycat version, and I have made sort of a pseudo-version from time to time. Now I'm thinking about getting a bit more serious about it. I have looked through many copycat recipes to see if anyone is making the original version of the Enchirito, but I have yet to find one. 

Most of these copycat recipes use flour tortillas. That's what I always hone in on. The tortilla. I have also run across some recipes that use corn tortillas. Well, guess what? They are both wrong. 

The Enchirito tortilla was a hybrid tortilla, not flour or corn. Both. I remember the original tortilla, because the first time I tried the "reboot," it was flour, and it was disappointment. The Enchirito's tortilla had a unique flavor. It was absolutely not simply flour, and it definitely did not have the taste or texture of a corn tortilla. 

I know there will be people who want to argue about it, but just think about this: an Enchirito was supposed to be a cross between a burrito and an enchilada. If you use a flour tortilla, you have a burrito. If you use a corn tortilla, you have an enchilada. You MUST have the hybrid tortilla to have a true Enchirito. I trust my taste buds implicitly. 

But to bolster my case, I jumped on a search engine and found some vintage Taco Bell commercials and print ads. I am not going to post all of those here, obviously, both because of copyright issues, and the time it takes to add attribution links to the ones that are possible to use. 

I did find one nice one on Creative Commons though, and I'm able to share that one here. Note the color of the Enchirito's tortilla in the photo, just as I remember, and just as all of the others I viewed. It is off-white, a bit on the tan side. It's definitely not a white flour tortilla, and certainly not a corn tortilla. 

I will be going into the laboratory with my trusty sidekick, Igor, as soon as possible, so we can make the hybrid tortilla that a copycat Enchirito recipe deserves. Stay tuned! 

Original Enchiritos
("Enchirito" by mush m. is licensed under CC BY 2.0)