Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin

 

Cooking Skill Level: SUPER EASY

Tacos, tacos, tacos.  We made a LOT of tacos.  Why? Because Dragons LOVE Tacos.  So, it seems, do little boys.  We made vegetable tacos, beef tacos, peanut butter tacos, cheese tacos, raisin tacos, s’more tacos, inside out tacos, taco cakes.  Loads of tacos. 

 In the book, you see hoards of dragons (or is it pods of dragons?) eating tacos of all sorts.  I think we pretty much covered a lot of the types.

The first trick here is to make a lot of fillings, but in small amounts.  The second trick is to trim your tortillas so they’re very small.  Take a regular sized tortilla that you would use for a taco, about 6-8”.  Place your hand on it aligning the tip of your fingers with one edge.  See how it pretty much is the same size as your hand?  Consider how small it should be for a grandchild’s hand.  This will make it much less messy and so much easier for them to handle.  And, kids love kid-sized foods. (I know there’s a study out there about that, but I’ve never bothered to find it).

 So I set my oldest grandson to cutting the tortillas with my largest biscuit cutter.  This is a perfect task for him.  He’d cut one, then measure it with his hand, and if it fit, he’d put it in the pile.  If not (and I’m not sure how the sizes actually ended up varying, but they did), it went into the Future Dessert pile which will be frozen to use another time when I will sprinkle some cinnamon and nutmeg on them and toast them in the oven.  We used whole wheat tortillas, sun-dried tomato and spinach tortillas because they’re pretty.  I threw in a couple of my low carb tortillas just for fun.

 

 

While the tortillas were being size corrected, the two younger ones were setting the table.  4 plates, 4 spoons, 4 forks, and a 150 pack of napkins.  The napkins ended up looking like origami boulders.

 

   

Meanwhile, back at the kitchen, I prepped veggies, meats, and various other fillings.  I sliced cauliflower, creating 1/8” cross sections of “trees”. As we all know, Dragons LOVE trees too.  I roasted the “trees” and some root veggies along with some mini bell peppers in a 450 degree oven after dousing them with the cumin, cayenne (a tiny bit because that can cause stomach distress in dragons), sweet paprika  and some oil.  It only takes about 15 minutes and adds so much flavor to the veggies. 

 

I cooked up some ground beef with those same seasonings and about 2 tablespoons of tomato paste per pound of ground meat.  This could have been done with ground chicken, turkey or pork, I just happened to use beef. 

 

Using my stash of small dishes and bowls (you can also use those plastic tumblers you have left over from holiday entertaining)  I put all sorts of ingredients out for the boys to make their own tacos.  I had lettuce shreds, sliced tomatoes, the roasted veggies, shredded cheese, peanut butter, raisins, celery and chocolate chips and of course, the beef. 

 

 

This is as good a time as any to mention that if I’d had other vegetables or meats available, I would’ve used those as well or instead.  It was important that there was a variety and that the boys were able to make and try their own creations.  Peanut butter and tomatoes is not the best, but not the worst either.

I’d recommend a sun-dried tomato and basil tortilla for that one.  As you can see, there’s even a tortilla sandwich that looks like a dragon (per the middle child).  It has cheese, 3 tortillas, celery, one tomato, and two roasted carrots.  Oh, and raisins for eyes.

 

And finally, I added some salsa to the table.  If you read this story, you will understand that you must make sure it is MILD salsa.  No Jalapenos allowed.  We practiced what would happen if you had spicy salsa.  A lot.  It involved very loud burps.  I didn’t do as well as the boys did, but they assured me I could practice for next time.

 

So there are a lot of substitutions and additions that are possible for this menu.  Don’t forget that you can introduce new and interesting salsas, like watermelon and basil (which is one of the boys’ favorite desserts), honeydew, or even a banana salsa.  You can make any types of fillings you want, any sauces you want, and use any tortillas you want.  The goal is to make the kids the “authors” of their own meals.

 

Title	Dragons Love Tacos
Author	Adam Rubin
Illustrator	Daniel Salmieri
Publisher	Penguin/Dial Books for Young Readers
Highlights /Tie in	Tacos
Reactions to the Book	·         Lots of burping ·         LOTS
Meal	·         Tortillas cut to “kid size” ·         Various fillings, including Peanut Butter, veg and beef ·         MILD salsa ·         Desert tacos
Reactions to the Meal	·         The boys tried all sorts of tacos … stacked like cakes and sandwiches, folded like tacos, filled with odd combinations, rolled ·         They were told that they could try any type of taco they wanted, but must take at least one big bite of it ·         The tacos were so small that one or two bites finished the whole thing, so the ended up getting a really full meal

 

Wading through stacks of books, shopping list in hand.  Can’t wait for the next one!