One night in Mexico (well, Texas)

This post comes from the future . . . in that it has taken me three weeks to write it but I can still taste the pure flavours of home made fajitas without a packet of Old El Paso in sight.

It was authentic Tex-Mex night on Sunday 3 weeks ago. Being new to the creative cooking game, I had never considered making them without a packet of Old El Paso where the hardest part was deciding mild, medium or hot (its almost like making gravy without gravox- which apparently is possible). It was Carla's night to cook and she was up to the task.

Armed with our new cooking aprons (oh yes I did) we set about making a Tex-Mex feast of fajitas with home made guacamole and sizzling onion/capsicum. What more could you ask for than a meal eaten with your hands and topped with cheese and avocado?

I was on citrus juicing duty that night which was my punishment for not owning a citrus juicer. There were 5 limes and a lemon to extract the juice from and it was sooooo much fun to do by hand.

Carla was concentrating on the guacamole which involved 5 avocados (we are not great a serving sizes for two yet). Now we all know what guacamole is, but not all of us know what good guacamole is. I can tell you this one was amazing. Being made fresh with the taste of lime (but of course no coriander / cilantro which is the devil's herb) just gives it such a sharp and simple taste.

The meat was marinated using Carla's secret recipe known only by her, her Mother . . . and anyone else with access to the internet. The recipe calls for a couple of hours of marinating, but who has that kind of time nowadays? We did 20 minutes of concentrated marinating (which is very similar to normal marinating but while the meat is marinating, you hope to hell it is in there for long enough).

The rookie error that we all fall for with fajitas is the overfilling of the first fajita. This is where you forget the laws of physics and assume that a 2mm thick flour tortilla can hold your own body weight in fillings. What can I say, it was that damn good that I wanted it all.

We had our glorious fill of fajitas and then we usually we just crack out a couple of Maxibons (God's favourite ice-cream) but tonight we prepared barbecued mangoes with vanilla ice cream. All it took was cutting the cheeks off the mangos, scoring them, sprinkling on a bit of sugar and then BBQ them for around 4 minutes. They were exceptional Bowen mangos and it was a simply great dessert. Thanks for the tip Adrian.

Since this week, I have invested in pizza utensils and a sausage maker so watch out for more Sunday night cooking adventures which are now proudly brought to you by Children's Materchef on Sunday nights, Channel 10.