Taco Salad

Last summer I went to a choir reunion at Joanne's house. It was one of those events where everyone brings a food to share. I remember being excited to see what my favorite filipino ladies would bring. Mostly, I wanted lumpia and that desire was answered in spades. Can you ever have too much lumpia? I think not.

In between stuffing one lumpia roll after another into my mouth, I came across Nancy C.'s version of taco salad. Somewhere, I probably still have the recipe for this dish that originally came from Linda D, way back in the 70's. Shortly after my marriage, I remember making up a taco salad for Martin and being saddened by his less than enthusiastic response. Little did I realize how many times this cooking scenario would play out in my married life as I've tried out one dish after another, only to have them be rejected by the man who'd just as soon eat an Arby's sandwich as have a home cooked meal. Sigh....

Nancy's taco salad was good enough that I asked for her recipe and then tucked it away until this week when I had to deliver on the promise to make a batch for the Bible Study ladies coming to my house for an end-of the-year luncheon. I did tweak the basics of what she gave me, adding a few things that I thought would taste good mixed in with the core ingredients. One of the ladies at the luncheon let me know she was delighted to see so many "fun" ingredients. At her house, they cut up lettuce, cook up some meat, add chips and call it taco salad. Her recipe makes this one seem downright complicated, in comparison! I'd eat either version.

Taco Salad
Recipe courtesy of Nancy C - sort of

Ingredients:
2 pounds hamburger
2 packages taco seasoning (or use your own)
green onion, cut up
2 tomatoes
8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
dorito taco flavor tortilla chips
2 heads lettuce
2 cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 cans corn, rinsed and drained
sliced black olives, drained
Sliced avocado

Dressing Ingredients:
Thousand Island dressing
La Victoria Red taco sauce

Directions:

Cook the hamburger with the taco seasoning. Cool the meat completely. Add all the salad ingredients, except the avocado, tortilla chips and dressing. For the dressing, mix the Thousand Island and taco sauce together, using taste to determine how much kick you want. You can use mild taco sauce or if you like more kick, use the hotter. That's definitely not me so I don't know how it would taste. Right before serving the salad, add the mixed dressing and tortilla chips. Arrange avocado slices on top or have them on the side for people to add, as desired.

Cinnabon Cake

There's something very satisfying about working with yeast breads and watching lumps of dough turn into something that's not only pleasing to look at but also yummy. Of all types of cooking, baking up yeast breads often serves as a kind of relaxation therapy for those times when I'm stressed or anxious over some aspect of daily life.

Most yeast recipes do, however,  require time to bake up and sometimes you just don't have the minutes to spare. Everyone knows Cinnabon rolls taste like a little piece of gooey heaven on earth but it's a bit of a commitment to make them at home.  Totally worth it...but only if you have the time and inclination. With it being my week to bring treats for Bible Study, I decided to go with this quicker compromise of a cake that tastes like Cinnabon rolls. The results? Good enough that I cheated on my diet and scarfed up a piece, convincing myself that it was my Christian duty to try out my cake before making others eat it. Yep, that's me - Saint Barbara (or would that be Santa Barbara???)

One completely random note about making these rolls. Brian knew I've thought about buying a Kitchen-Aide mixer for the condo but hesitated because of the price. Not to mention the fact that it felt like too much of a good thing to own two Kitchen-Aides. I've got my beloved Big Blue here in Parkville but the cheap hand-held mixer I bought not long after getting married has been enough for the condo. But who knew Brian was still thinking about my love for Kitchen Aide Number One, until he sent me a link for one of those super deals on Amazon. After a lot of debating back and forth, I ended up buying a sister for Big Blue and this time I was able to pick a color that coordinates better with my kitchen here in Parkville. The new one sits on my counter while Kitchen Aide Number One sits in one of my closets, waiting to be relocated to the condo. I'm still getting used to the difference in how this new mixer works, specifically that the head doesn't tilt back. So far, it feels awkward to attach beaters and add ingredients without being able to flip that bulky head out of the way. In the middle of making my Cinnabon cake, I almost hauled Big Blue out of the closet but decided to keep going with the new mixer. Cause I'm just that kind of versatile cook.

Back to this recipe.  My cake went straight from oven to church. Once the Bible Study gals had enthusiastically taken their portions, those few pieces that were left came home and got wrapped up for the freezer. Now when Martin gets home from his latest consulting trip, he can have a form of his beloved Cinnabon rolls as a surprise treat - assuming I can keep up the resolve to not snatch those leftovers out of the freezer and eat them in their rock hard state.

Cinnabon Cake
from Hugs and Cookies xoxo.com

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted
TOPPING
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. flour (or cup4cup if gluten free)
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
 FROSTING
3 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
a few teaspoons milk


Instructions:
 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 glass baking pan with cooking spray or coconut oil spray. Set aside.
In a mixer, add the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Once combined well, slowly stir in the melted butter. Pour into pan.
For the topping, mix the butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon together until well combined. Drizzle evenly over the batter and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out nearly clean.
Frosting:  Beat the first 3 ingredients until creamy.  Add a drop of milk at a time until still thick, yet spreadable.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

A few weeks ago when I asked Martin to choose some recipes he'd like to cook, this is one of the ones he came up with. I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised that pulled pork would be on his favorites list as it seems to be one of the main staples here in the midwest. There are a million different recipes serving up pulled pork cooked in just about as many different ways. Certainly throwing the meat in a slow cooker has to be one of the easiest means for cooking up a home version of Kansas City's favorite dish.

One thing I've noticed about shopping in this area - grocery store butchers are beyond helpful. It wasn't that I couldn't ring one of those summoning bells to get a San Diego butcher at my disposal, but rather that the meat guys here are so charmingly enthusiastic about proffering advice, if you come within ten feet of their display cases. When I ask a butcher here to help me select a good cut of meat, the guy will spend minutes comparing different pieces, telling me just why one particular cut is better or worse than the next. I doubt I'd get much more serious attention if I were head of the FDA. Since I don't buy a lot of pork roasts, our local Price Chopper Meat Expert was more than happy to pick out the perfect cut of meat for this recipe. And, that just might have been the hardest part of making this very easy and tasty dish. So easy in fact, that I forgot to call my sous chef for help... until it came time to eat a kaiser roll stuffed with the best pulled pork on Augusta Drive.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches
from tasteofhome.com

Ingredients:
1 boneless pork loin roast (4 pounds)
1 can (14 1/2 oz) beef broth or try using beer. (I actually wanted to try the beer but I couldn't find a single can and didn't want to have to buy a six pack just for this recipe. Maybe next time.
1/3 cup plus 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce, divided
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup Louisiana style hot sauce, divided (after reading comments from other cooks, I only used the first 1/3 cup, omitting the second 1/4 cup.)
1 cup ketchup
1 cup molasses (again, as per modifications made by other cooks, I used a little over 1/2 cup to cut down on too much sweetness)
1/2 cup prepared mustard
10 kaiser rolls, split

Directions:
Cut roast in half, place in a 5 quart slow cooker. In a small bowl, combine broth, 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce, and 1/3 cup hot sauce: pour over roast. Cook, covered, on low 8-10 hours or until tender.

Remove roast: discard cooking juices. Shred pork with two forks. Return pork to slow cooker. (This might be the first time I've shred meat in such a manner. There are lots of YouTube videos that show chicken being shredded in a food processor and, while that looks fun, using forks to quickly take meat from a big hunk to strings is equally entertaining.)

In a small bowl combine ketchup, molasses, mustard, and remaining Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce. Pour over pork. Cook, covered, on high 30 minutes or until heated through. Serve on rolls.