Taco cooking and serving apparatus

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms.
Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed structure.
The reference numeral 1 generally designates a taco cooking and serving apparatus in accordance with the present invention generally indicated by the reference numeral 1.
The apparatus 1 comprises a flat bottom pan 2 and a rack 3.
The pan 2 is preferably a conventional device as found in most kitchens for baking cookies or the like including a fairly large and flat surface 6 with relatively short and interconnected side walls 7 extending upwardly from the surface 6.
The side walls 7 may also include an outwardly projecting flange 8 on opposite sides thereof and extending out somewhat further to form hand holds at opposite ends of the major axis of the pan 2.
The rack 3 includes a plurality of elongate, cylindrical rods 15 joined at opposite ends 16 and 17 thereof to a pair of side plates 18 and 19.
The rods 15 are sized of such a length such that when joined with the side plates 18 and 19, the overall rack 3 is positionable upon the pan surface 6 and generally snugly encircled by the side walls 7.
The rods 15 are spaced approximately the preferred cooking width of a taco shell 23.
The rods 15 are also attached to the side plates 18 and 19 at a distance from bottoms 20 and 21 of the side plates 18 and 19 respectively so as to engage the taco shells 23 placed between two such rods 15 at an intermediate location along each of the taco shells 23, so as to support such shells 23 during cooking.
The side plates 18 and 19 include central, generally vertically aligned planar members 26 and 27 respectively