creating a TIN in 10.1

I am ungrading from Arc View 3.1 to ArcMap 10.1 - I have multiple lidar (bare earth) .txt files (x,y,z) that I would like to use to create a "TIN" (or is it Terrain Dataset in 10.1) and then contours - I am unable to figure out how to do this in 10.1 and I have googled and read just about everything. It was easy in ArcView 3.1 even though it had limitations (just a few steps). I have the full licensed 10.1 with all the 3D Analyst and variable extensions. Can anyone point me in the right direction as I am currently working on a project. thanks Brenda