Archive for the 'Entertaining' Category

Herbed Pasta Salad

I love pasta salad, and I especially love pasta salad that has bold delicious flavors.  This pasta salad certainly has bold delicious flavors. I’m not sure why it’s a common sentiment that a little bit of dried herb goes a long way, but I think that’s the furthest from the truth.  I think if you [...]

The Bidens’ Pasta Caprese

I saw this pasta salad in the September 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine, and I knew I had to try it.  I’ve now made this quite a few times, and I’ve adapted the recipe to our liking. It is delicious, and I love the addition of the lemon zest.  It’s a great summer pasta [...]

Grilled Polenta with Spicy Steak

This dish is fantastic!  Definitely tastes like something you would get at a restaurant.  The best part…it’s quick and easy.  Certainly company worthy. Recipe is adapted from a recipe in the June 2010 issue of Cooking Light. Ingredients: 3 tsp. olive oil 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. ground cumin 1 1/2 tsp. ground [...]

Chili Gravy

This chili gravy is delicious and works well as a sauce for tamales or enchiladas.  The secret to this gravy is making your own chili powder. The recipe comes for Rob Walsh’s Tex-Mex Cookbook. Homemade Chili Powder Ingredients: 5 whole ancho chile pods, stemmed and seeded 1 tsp. dried Mexican oregano 1/2 tsp. garlic powder [...]

Tamales

We love tamales, and this recipe is by far my most favorite.  I love them more than any tamales I’ve had at any restaurant (except for maybe Berry Hill Bar and Grill). This recipe is adapted from the Helena Tamales recipe in the April 2005 issue of Southern Living. Ingredients: 1 package of dried corn [...]

Garlic Curry Aioli

I found a bag of frozen sweet potato fries at the grocery store.  They looked interesting, so I thought I’d give them a try, and see if they’d pass the test. I gave -s the job of finding a dip or something for the fries, because ketchup seemed well, wrong. He found this dip at [...]

Jelly Donuts

Who knew homemade donuts were so easy to make?  I surely didn’t, but I think we will make this an annual tradition.  It was so much fun and the kiddos all enjoyed decorating the donuts. Recipe adapted from November 2009 issue of Southern Living. Ingredients: 1 (25 oz.) package of frozen yeast rolls, thawed according [...]

Cranberry Jello Salad

Jello salads and molded jello salads were all the rage in the 70′s and they still are for my family in the Pacific Northwest.  Most jello salads I don’t particularly care for, but I eat enough to be polite.  There is one exception.  My Great Aunt Arlene makes this wonderful raw cranberry jello salad every [...]

Tomatillo-Serrano Salsa

Tila’s in Houston has the most delicious tomatillo sauce.  Luckily we found a recipe that tastes pretty much identical to Tila’s, and we’ve been making this sauce ever since we lived in Houston…almost 9 years ago! This recipe is from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen (the photo on my cookbook is different, but I assume it’s [...]

Spicy Chicken Tacos

I so love salsa fresca, and I thought it would taste really good with some chicken tacos.  And not just as a condiment, but as part of the flavor of the chicken. I was right.  It was delicious! Ingredients: 1 TBSP olive oil 3 1/2 c. cooked shredded chicken 3/4 c. salsa fresca Tortillas and [...]




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