The blog is a thing now. A real, actual thing that people read.
Second post published this week: the potluck story. Twelve women, twelve dishes, twelve kitchens. I wrote it with care — making sure each woman was represented, each dish was honored, each story was told with the respect it deserves. Soo-Jin read it before I published and said, 'You got my mother's hotteok right. She'll be pleased.' Lucia read it and cried.
Three thousand views. More comments. More women saying 'this is my life' and 'I didn't know other people felt this way' and 'what's the short ribs marinade?'
I'm posting the recipes alongside the stories. Because the story without the recipe is incomplete, and the recipe without the story is just instructions. Together, they're what Mom's binder is: a life, told through food.
Soo-Jin says I should post more consistently. 'Once a week,' she says. 'Give people something to expect. Like dinner at 1800.' She's right. Consistency is the thing that holds the military wife kitchen together and it'll hold the blog together too.
Caleb is ten months old and is now cruising — walking while holding onto furniture, moving from the couch to the coffee table to the bookshelf like a tiny drunk person navigating a bar. He'll be walking soon. WALKING. My baby will be a person who walks. This is both exciting and terrifying because a walking baby is a baby who can reach things, and our apartment has things that should not be reached by tiny hands.
Mom called. 'I showed the blog to Linda at church. She wants the potato salad recipe. Also, your Aunt Karen read it and cried. Also, your father read it.'
'Dad read it?'
'He sat at the kitchen table and read the whole thing and didn't say anything for ten minutes. Then he said, "She gets it from you, Donna." And went to the garden.'
She gets it from you. Kevin Abernathy's review of my blog: 'She gets it from you.' Five words. A decade of love.
I made fish tacos tonight — the California recipe, now in regular rotation. Corn tortillas, grilled fish, avocado crema, shredded cabbage, lime. Caleb ate a piece of fish (soft, deboned, tiny) and examined a tortilla with his forty-seven expressions.
The blog is growing. The baby is cruising. And Dad read my words and credited Mom.
That's the whole point. That's always been the whole point.
The night Dad read my blog and said nothing for ten minutes, I still had to get dinner on the table — because that’s the thing about being a mom and a writer and a person all at once: the world keeps moving, and Caleb was hungry, and I needed something fast and satisfying that didn’t require me to stop crying long enough to mince anything complicated. Tortilla burgers have become my answer to exactly those nights — all the comfort of a burger, wrapped up in a soft tortilla the way a good story wraps around the truth. Corn or flour, your call; either way, dinner is on the table in under thirty minutes, which is just enough time to feel your feelings and still feed your people.
Tortilla Burgers
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 25 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef (80/20)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 large flour tortillas (10-inch)
- 4 slices American or cheddar cheese
- 1 cup shredded iceberg lettuce
- 1 medium tomato, thinly sliced
- 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- Pickled jalapeño slices, optional
Instructions
- Season the beef. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef with garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper. Mix gently with your hands until the spices are evenly distributed — don’t overwork the meat or the patties will be tough.
- Form the patties. Divide the seasoned beef into 4 equal portions and press each into a thin oval patty roughly the size and shape of your tortillas. Thin patties cook fast and wrap easily — aim for about 1/2-inch thick.
- Cook the patties. Heat a cast-iron skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Cook patties 3 to 4 minutes per side, until cooked through with a good sear. During the last minute of cooking, lay a slice of cheese on each patty and cover the pan briefly to melt.
- Warm the tortillas. In a dry skillet over medium heat, warm each tortilla for 30 seconds per side until pliable and lightly toasted. Keep wrapped in a clean kitchen towel to stay soft.
- Mix the sauce. Stir together the mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup in a small bowl. Spread a generous tablespoon across the center of each warm tortilla.
- Assemble and wrap. Layer lettuce, tomato, and onion on the sauced tortilla, then set the cheesy patty on top. Add jalapeños if using. Fold the sides of the tortilla in, then roll from the bottom up like a burrito, or fold in half like a soft taco — whatever holds together for your night.
- Serve immediately. Cut on the diagonal and serve hot. These don’t wait well, so call everyone to the table before you wrap.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 520 | Protein: 28g | Fat: 29g | Carbs: 34g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 740mg
About the cook who shared this
Rachel Abernathy
Week 184 of Rachel’s 30-year story
· San Diego, California
Rachel is a twenty-eight-year-old Marine wife and mom of two who has moved five times in six years and learned to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with half her cookware still in boxes. She married young, survived postpartum depression, and feeds her family of four on a junior Marine's salary with a freezer full of pre-made meals and a crockpot that has never let her down. She writes for the military spouses who are cooking dinner alone in base housing and wondering if they're enough. You are.
