Carniceria.

Fiday night after Mark got home from work, he asked me if I would like to get out of the house and go somewhere (probably because being home all day long makes me a bit crabby). I couldn't think of somewhere I really wanted to go and I didn't really want to drive for an hour in rush hour traffic so of course I said I didn't really want to go anywhere and there wasn't anywhere to go. Mark asked me again if I was sure I didn't want to go somewhere. Sydney glanced up from her coloring book and says...."Mom, why don't you go to the carniceria." We both looked at her and just started laughing. WHAT??? Where on earth did it occur to her that I might want to go to a carniceria to get away from my kids? I shop at Walmart and Fry's and sometimes Safeway, but the carniceria? Of all the grocery stores we frequent...of course that is the one that stuck in her head!

Ok...well actually she does sort of know what the carniceria is (but it is still sort of funny that she thought I might want to go there) because she has been in one a few times with Mark. If any of you remember from those college days long ago...you may recall that my most favorite meal was fajitas. I am always trying to perfect the fajita experience at our house and so I constantly try new marinades, salsas, tortillas, etc.! We do stop at the local carniceria in town, usually about once a week to pick up carne ranchera in this special marinade that is oh so good. Mark always goes in and orders (because I am not too confident in my Spanish) and usually Sydney tags along. I'm sure they know him well now...because he is probably the only tall white guy in a polo shirt and dockers that comes in there to buy meat. We also went to Food City (which is a grocery store that caters to the Mexican and Hispanic population around here) to get fresh homade tortillas from the tortillaria. They taste so much better than anything you buy at the grocery store off the shelf. Then all you need is fresh salsa or my special mango salsa to top it off with some rice and beans and you pretty much have the best fajita! I would have to say that the fajitas we now cook up are pretty good...especially compared to the ones we used to make in college.