Soft tacos with ground meat and guacamole

We've made tortillas before, but without a press, corn tortillas are a pain. So instead, we bought organic tortillas from the local supplier "PrimAverA" at the Berkeley Farmers' Market. Keep the tortillas in the fridge. Before eating, set the tortillas in the steamer for five or ten minutes to moisten. Alternately, brush tortillas with oil, layer in a glass pan, cover tightly with foil, and bake for twenty minutes.

For the meat, mince onion and garlic, and saute with some chili powder and paprika in just a little oil. Remove sausage from its casings, dice, and add to the saute. Last winter we had some sausage from Riverdog, which rendered a lot of fat when cooking. This sausage is from Highland Hills Farm, and was extremely lean.

For the guacamole, wash and chop half a bunch of scallions, and mash to a paste with some salt in a large stone mortar and pestle. Add also a small amount of garlic to the paste, and then squeeze in the juice of one lemon or lime. Add a hint of paprika. Then mash in the flesh of two ripe avocados. Adjust the salt. Stir in the other half bunch of scallions, chopped, and, optionally, some diced fresh tomato.

Birthday dinner: Broiled salmon, steamed broccoli, parsley mashed potatoes, and avocado mousse

My birthday was Friday. We've been having camera problems today — largely an artifact of my running out of disk space because I've been keeping all my photos on my laptop (I've decided to buy a new computer just for photos and mp3s) — so I don't have pictures to show you. Suffice it to say, B cooked me a dinner that was both beautiful and delicious.

For the main course, B baked thick fillets of salmon, which he had topped with some minced garlic and parsley. He baked the fish for 22 minutes, and it came out divine: cooked all through, but only just, and still tender and moist. Meanwhile, he reduced red wine with some more parsley and garlic on the stovetop, and used used it as a topping for the fish. As sides, he steamed broccoli above the pot of boiling potatoes. The broccoli he served unadorned, and the potatoes he mashed with butter, parsley, and a little garlic.

We finished the meal with red wine and a salad dressed in a "vinaigrette" made with salt, olive oil, a clove of garlic, and a touch of the red wine we were drinking, not the cheap stuff that went into the reduction.

For dessert, which we ended up saving until the next day because we were full, but it would have paired wonderfully, B made a phenomenal avocado mousse. You might not think "avocado mousse" would be a good idea, but it is. We first had an avocado mousse at Red Agave, a Latin American and Spanish fusion joint in Eugene, where we went for B's birthday last January. It is, in fact, a very Spanish dish: it's a foam. In any case, B made the mousse with avocado and vanilla, and egg whites and cream and sugar. Mmm hmm.

Tuna ceviche tartare

Our recipe followed reasonably closely this one from The New York Times. We substituted parsley for the cilantro and dropped the hot pepper.

Sushi!

Our dinner menu from March 7:

• Miso soup
• Terriyaki salmon (wild-caught from Alaska, via Berkeley bowl), served over white sticky rice
• Tuna sashimi (wild-caught, via Berkeley bowl), served over shaved carrots
• Avocado and green onion rolls
• Viu Manent Sauvingon Blanc (very dry Chilean wine)