So I had the spaghetti sauce all made, right? But then I watched the opening episode of this show, CNN’s Searching for Mexico, co-produced by Stanley Tucci and Eva Longoria, set in Mexico City, whose residents (I did not know this) are called Chilangos.

I believe that translates as “people who beep their horns a lot.”

Longoria is going to prove that Mexican food is so much more than tacos, and it is, but Mexico City is famous for tacos.

So after a bracing breakfast of pan dulce right outta the oven, she ate tacos.

Before we move on, I must confess that I have a crush on Longoria but also on Jennifer Lawrence, who was mesmerizing in Winter’s Bone, a drama set in the Ozarks, where I have family roots. But she was just a little feller then. The crush came when I read a New Yorker profile of Lawrence. She and the writer met at an L.A. Mexican restaurant, and he noted that the young star happily ate “a burrito the size of a mailbox.”

Yes, she is beautiful, too. But that girl loves her burritos. That did it. I was a Jennifer Lawrence fan thereafter.

Meanwhile, back in Mexico City, Longoria ate tacos.

And more tacos.

And more tacos.

“More salsa!” seems to be her motto. Along with her fallback motto: It is impossible to be unhappy while eating a taco.

Agree 100%.

My favorite taco in the Mexico City episode was a quasi-vegetarian taco: Thin slices of queso, grilled and browned, then turned into a roll, placed in the tortilla with a black garnish–it looks like caviar, but it’s made from the fungus that grows along the corncob–and then that was topped by pickled red onions and peppers.

When Longoria bit into this taco, it was transformative. She was Saul on the road to Tarsus.

These are seriously happy people, Tucci and Longoria, thanks to food.

So I changed tonight’s menu.

I barbecued flank steak marinated in red wine, brushed with green salsa and sprinkled with comino, garlic salt, chili powder, salt and pepper.

Then I grilled red onion and green, red, yellow and orange peppers, also marinated in wine, with salt, pepper, oregano and comino. And lemon juice.

Then I threw the tortillas (yellow corn) on the barbie.

Then I added Mexican-style cauliflowered rice, some of Elizabeth’s cilantro rice with black beans, shredded jack cheese and

MORE SALSA.

Yippee!

I am so gullible. Longoria’s TV show made me make tacos. If you have a baby elephant at your house, I’ll be over in a minute to adopt it. Will you take a personal check?

I’m behind on my episodes; She’s headed for Oaxaca (Santa Maria has a significant Oaxacan population) and then Yucatan, where she has a fish taco that she would want to be her last meal on earth.

Hopefully, that won’t be for a long, long time. Longoria is a beautiful movie star, but I think she’s even beautifuller (a word I just made up) when she eats the food of her ancestors. She is so happy. That makes me happy.