Waly World!!!!!!!

Until I receive all the lovely photos and spectacular recipes from all my loyal readers, I will share some of my own taco creations. For this week's theme I'm going to start off with the easiest recipes and then work our way up to the more difficult taco concoctions. But first let's start off with the basics: Ingredients! So let's get the ball rolling on this cooking lesson!

Before you start cooking anything a prepared trip to the super market is the most important part. The best way to make a good taco is knowing what ingredients to buy, and I don't mean ground beef, taco seasoning and pace salsa. So get out your pen and paper and prepare yourself for this little taco lesson. Time to make some groceries!

Number 1: Tortillas. Though many tacos now utilize chip like hard shell tacos, I prefer the soft tortillas I was raised on by my friends from over the border. These flattened soft bread like circles come in many different styles. There are corn, wheat, and in recent years whole wheat; but my favorite are raw! Yup, raw tortillas made fresh so you can cook them up right on your own home stove.

Growing up on the West Coast gave me incredible access to Mexican goods, and of all these specialty items the one I missed the most was the raw tortillas. But while strolling down the cheese isle at Walmart recently you'll never guess what I found: RAW TORTILLAS! Right there in the Tchopatoulas Walmart. Apparently they have a tiny mexican goods section hidden between the Velveeta and Kraft. Thank god for Waly World. Waly Waly Waly Waly Waly Waly World!

If you live outside New Orleans try your local specialty food store for these awesome tortillas and other authentic ingredients. For those who are lucky enough to have a 504 numba get your booty over to Waly World to scope out these awesome products!

Aside from the delicious tortillas, Wal-Mart also has a variety of other Mexican ingredients including CHEESE!!!!! You can always stick to the easy shredded cheese option, but the more authentic melting cheese is fun to play around with now and again. The recipes I'll be sharing this week stick to the simple shredded variety, but feel free to mix things up if you want to experiment a bit.

As if the cheese and tortillas weren't already awesome enough Waly World also has chorizo!!!!! This spicy ground-beef-esque pork sausage is probably where the taco seasoned ground beef concoction originally came from, but let me assure you, this is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better.

Along with chorizo, there are many other simple ingredients you can buy at the store (especially Waly-World) that can fill your tacos. Rotisserie chicken and raw chicken breast are two of my favorite base ingredients to start with, but you can also grab some fish for frying and even some eggs. Then of course you can't forget salsa, sour cream, tomatoes, avocado, lime, lettuce, beans, coleslaw, or whatever other toppings you like.

Now that you know what you're buying (and where) you're prepared for this taco exhibition! Nothing is more frustrating than watching a cooking show or reading a blog post and not having the ingredients at home to try out the recipe! So now hopefully everyone is ready!

Don't forget to send in your taco recipe submissions for the contest! The last day to send it in is going to be Friday the 9th so get cookin!