Navajo Tacos?

On Sunday morning Brad came home from Ward counsel meeting and told me that we were having the missionaries for dinner on Monday night. I thought ok, I can do that. It will be fun to feed the missionaries.

I went into the kitchen to see what I had planned for dinner on Monday and saw that it was lasagna. Great I thought, Lasagna will be perfect and I'll even make some homemade Italian blitz bread to go with it.

So on Monday morning, I woke up ready to get going on my lasagna. I was already cooking and cutting the noodles and browning the meat when I found out that one of the missionaries was lactose intolerant. My next thought was CRAP! Now what? I don't even know anyone who is lactose intolerant. I went straight to the source and called the Elder and asked him what his favorite dinner was. I figured it would be easier just to make what he likes than try to figure something out on my own. His response was Navajo Tacos. Double Crap! I'd heard of them but had never eaten them let alone seen them myself. Back to the drawing board.

I went straight to the computer and while Gabe ripped every tissue from the box that was sitting on Brads desk out of the box and possibly ate half of them I hunted for a recipe for these Navajo Tacos. Not satisfied I called my friend Sue. She is in Young Women’s with me and as a Mum and Grandma is always a wealth of knowledge. Sue can always make me laugh no matter what. Her response after going through her recipe book was something along the lines of "He is a missionary he is supposed to suffer just make something easy". She was being facetious of course. With that I went back to the internet and found a recipe that I thought I'd give a go. I could have just made whatever, but in the back of my head I was thinking that if I made the effort for this missionary that hopefully someday a nice lady would do the same for my Gabe. I figured missionaries suffer enough. Thanks for the laugh though Sue...you know I love you!

So after a little experimenting, stressing and some lovely burns to my neck (DON'T ASK) here is the final product. This recipe was different to most I found that only called for water, flour, salt and baking powder. It called for yeast and also had sugar in it so I thought I'd give it a go. According to Brad and the Elders they were good and they actually seemed to prefer the more dense and doughy version of these Navajo Tacos. They also liked that mine weren't greasy at all. I guess Navajo Taco's have a tendency of being a little greasy.

I wouldn't say that this was my favorite dinner, but the missionary was grateful and two young Elders were fed. I suppose that is all that matters.





NAVAJO TACOS

1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. boiling water
2 beaten eggs
2 pkg. yeast
1 c. warm water
1 tbsp. salt
6 c. flour

Mix yeast with warm water (lukewarm); set aside.
Pour boiling water over the sugar and shortening and stir until dissolved. Cool to lukewarm and add eggs, salt and yeast mixture. With mixer or wooden spoon, stir in the flour. Knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased dish and let rise for an hour.

Pinch off small balls of dough and flatten into a pancake. Place in skillet with 1/2 inch deep hot oil and fry until brown on both sides. Top with topping and serve hot.