Soul Cocina Remembers MJ

In my third grade class all the kids tried to make the bones in our wrist stick out like MJ's did on the inside of the Thriller album. I was really into records even in third grade. If I recall correctly, back then in 1983, 8-track was dying out and cassettes had not come into popular use yet, so vinyl was the main source of recorded music. Madonna wasn't popular yet among the third graders, but she would become our next star in fourth grade with the release of "Like a Virgen". I never had any of her records, by the time she was popular a year or two later, we had moved onto cassette tapes and walkmen. Prince was huge. I stared at his Purple Rain album for almost as many hours as I stared at the Thriller album. I also had records by Van Halen and the Police. I pretended that Beat It was my favorite song. A tough song. Thriller too. But in reality, my favorite was "Human Nature". Oh, and "The Girl Is Mine" with Paul McCartney also. What did I cook back then? Meat rolls. They were thick homemade tortillas wrapped around cold cuts and sliced cheese. When I ran out of flour tortillas once, I read the ingredients on the package. I decided I could make tortillas from flour water and salt. They were thick, gooey, not fully cooked on the center and burned on the outside. Without any guidance, I pushed forward on my quest to create my favorite dish. A burrito! It was not great, but it was handmade. I stuck with it and finally learned how to make real tortillas [a few decades later]. today I still love making tortillas and eating burritos. I stil love Michael Jackson. Especially this song.

Tune: Human Nature by Michael Jackson from Thriller

"don't stop till you get enough" photo via