Mexican Themed Dinner

I love Mexican food, well at least some of it anyway. Normally when we do the pulled pork it is followed by our garbage pizza, this time after seeing a recipe for a cilantro sauce, I thought...why not do pork tacos. I gathered a few recipes from allrecipes.com for a quick side dish as well as the cilantro sauce and off we go for a nice Mexican themed dinner.

We made our taco's using soft taco shells, dabbing on some our cilantro sauce, layering with our pork, and topping off with some cheese. Between the pork and the cilantro sauce the smell was so good. I am eating another one as I type this, home for lunch. I also made fish taco's using cod. I cut the cod up into small pieces, cooked in about a tbsp. of butter and then I sprinkled on some of the Emeril essence I made last week for the shrimp. Daniel liked the pork tacos better while our buddy Denny liked the fish better.


First up, Amy's Cilantro Cream Sauce~

You will need the following ingredients;
1-8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp. sour cream
1-7 0z. tomatillo salsa
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tbsp. fresh lime juice

Directions:
1.) Combine cream cheese, sour cream, salsa, pepper, celery salt, cumin, garlic powder, cilantro, and lime juice in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth and creamy.

* I made this sauce using 7 oz. of salsa verde because we were un-able to find any tomatillo salsa. Also I did not use the sour cream in this dish and instead of using fresh lime juice, I used the juice out of the little green bottle.


Second Up, Mexican cornbread salad;
Ingredients:
1-16 oz. package of cornbread mix
1-4 oz. can chopped green chile peppers
2-15 oz. cans pinto beans, drained
1-8 oz. bottle ranch dressing
1 green pepper, chopped
2-15.25 cans whole kernel corn, drained
2 tomatoes
1-3 oz. can bacon bits
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
1 bunch green onions, chopped

Directions:
1.) Prepare cornbread mix as directed on the package, adding the can of green chiles. Set aside and allow to cool and then crumble.
2.) Place half of the cornbread in bottom of a large bowl. Evenly layer with 1 can of beans, 1/2 the bottle of dressing, 1/2 chopped bell pepper, 1 can of corn, 1 chopped tomato, 1/2 jar bacon bits, 1/2 package of cheese, and 1/2 of green onions. Repeat layers in same order using remaining ingredients.
3.) Cover and refrigerate 2 hours and serve chilled.

* Now once again I didn't read the directions before beginning this and I didn't add the green chiles to the cornbread mixture, instead I used half the can and added a layer to the first layer of ingredients. Also, I did not add the bacon bits nor did I add the second can of corn...I thought it would have been too much when compared to the amount of other ingredients.

Sunday Morning Breakfast...

During my last few years of high school my Dad was going through a divorce and instead of getting his own place he moved in with my Grandma. Every weekend he would pick my sister up from her Mom's place and then he would pick me up from mine and together we would head to Grandma's. At the time, while we loved being with Grandma, we weren't thrilled with the situation because Nikki and I were forced to take turns sleeping on the living room couch and floor, not the best of sleeping arrangements. This was especially so each morning when Grandma would rise early and start her day off preparing her glass of orange juice and medicine slamming cabinet doors as she went. It's been almost a year since her death and I feel blessed that we were given the opportunity to spend all of those years at her house on the weekends. It was tough for our Dad who was going through a divorce but I am firm believer that all things happen for a reason. His divorce allowed him to spend a precious few years being with her. I remember we would spend our evenings sitting at her kitchen table playing cards and munching on cheezits and drinking a diet mountain dew. And I also remember waking up on Saturday mornings to breakfast made by Dad, one of which was biscuits and gravy. Even to this day it's a family favorite and today I am sharing it with you.

Biscuits and Gravy, Murphy Style~

Ingredients:

8 pack Grands Biscuits (We prefer the flaky butter tastin' kind)

1 lb. Bob Evans Sausage, original flavor

3 tbsp. flour*

3 c. milk

1/4 tsp. salt

pepper to taste

Directions:

1.)Bake your biscuits as directed by the packaging.

2.) In a pan, begin by browning your sausage and with your spatula or spoon, break into small pieces.

3.) To your browned sausage add your flour and allow it to coat the sausage and cook for about a minute or two.

4.) Add your milk and bring to a boil, stirring continuously to keep from burning on the bottom.

5.) Reduce heat to low once thick.

* Instead of using a measuring spoon to measure a tbsp. of flour, I use the tablespoon from my silverware and add a nice rounded spoonful of the flour.

Hope you enjoy!!

Quesadillas

As promised here are my quesadillas...they are so easy it's not even funny. They make a quick snack or depending what you fill them up with, a quick dinner.

Katie's Easy Quesadillas~

Ingredients:

Mexican cheese blend

1 chicken breast, diced and browned in butter, sprinkled with a bit of garlic powder and a touch of cayenne pepper

8 soft taco shells

1 c. sour cream

1 1/2 tsp. taco seasoning

Directions:

1.) In a small skillet spray with Pam cooking spray and put one taco shell, layer with about 1/3 cup of cheese and some of your cooked chicken, top with your second taco shell and brown on each side.

Serve with a dollop of your sour cream mixed with your taco seasoning.

Daniel's Birthday Dinner

When I approached my Husband just a few weeks ago regarding what he would like for me to make for his birthday dinner I wasn't expecting to hear the words pulled pork come out of his mouth, after all he is the smoker in this house not me so that would mean he would be in charge of his own meal. He was just fine with that, if and when he does leave for Afghanistan, he wants me to ship his smoker over to him, the boy loves to smoke him some meat. He also decided he wanted baked beans and wouldn't you believe he took making those on as well and guess what...he smoked those to. Needless to say tonight's meal was full of smokey goodness and even though it was my wonderful husbands birthday he did all of the work and deserves all of the credit. I did make him a cake so I guess I should get a pat on the back as well!

We have already shared with you how he does his pulled pork so I won't bore you with the details, but tonight's baked beans were a new recipe with a very surprising ingredient and they were pretty yummy.

Hog-Apple Baked Beans~

Ingredients:

3 or 4 slices of bacon, diced

2-16 oz. cans pork and beans

1/2 c. BBQ sauce

1 can apple pie filling, chop up the big slices of apple

1 md. onion, chopped

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp. prepared mustard

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. BBQ rub

Directions:

1.) Brown bacon, set aside.

2.) In bacon grease brown onion.

3.) Mix in remaining ingredients and bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour.

We did ours on the smoker for about two hours or so and they were really good. You can also do them on the stove and simmer for about 30 minutes but I think the depth of flavor is better when you do them in the oven or on the smoker as we did. You might have also noticed that Daniel took a few more slices of bacon and laid them on top of the beans.

Now for the cake. This is another recipe that I found on allrecipes.com. I made it several months ago for Daniel and myself and he loved it. I originally was going to make him a Carrot cake but when I mentioned making this cake again he was all for it.

Million Dollar Cake~

Ingredients:

1-18.25 ox. yellow cake mix

8 oz. cream cheese

1 1/2 c. confectioners sugar

1-20 oz. crushed pineapple with juice

2-8oz. mandarin oranges, drained

1-3.4 oz instant vanilla pudding

1-8 oz. frozen whipped cream, thawed

Directions:

1.) Mix and bake cake mix as instructed per package for two 8 or 9 in. round layers. Let layers cool and then split each layer in half so that you have 4 layers.

2.) In a large bowl, whip cream cheese until soft and then gradually mix in confectioners sugar. Stir in the pineapple with juice and the drained mandarin oranges, reserving 5 slices to decorate the top. Mix in the dry pudding mix. Fold in the whipped topping.

3.) Place one cake layer on a cake plate cut side up; spread with frosting. Place another layer cut side down on the first one, and top with more frosting. Repeat until layers are used, spreading last bit of frosting on the top and sides of cake. Decorate with reserved oranges.

4.) Refrigerate overnight.

Now if you are like me and have a hard time following directions this is how I did it. Instead of layering the cake since my cake didn't rise the way I would have liked, we just sliced it up and then topped it with the frosting. Also, I made the frosting and just a few hours later we were digging in. No overnight marination for us. It went over really well and honestly, you could eat the frosting just by itself.

On a side note, Uncle Dan got released from the hospital and he is doing really really well. It was like a different person tonight from just a week ago. Lennon is slowing but surely doing better, still going to have his amputation done on Tuesday, but is tail is looking a little better. Tonight was the first night he and Uncle Dan had met and like I expected, they became the best of buddies.

I promised my Husband that if today's trip to the grocery was under $100 that we could get some Chipotle's for lunch since he had a craving. It was under a $100 so the quesadillas were put on hold. I am making some tonight for a snack so I will post them in the morning along with the biscuits and gravy. Just wanted to let everyone know...I didn't forget.

Busy Weekend...

It's going to be a very busy weekend in my kitchen. I thought I would go ahead and share with you this weekends menu so that you know to stay tuned!!

Saturday~
Lunch:
Chicken Quesadillas
Taco Dipping Sauce
Dinner:
Pulled Pork
Baked Beans (Daniel's version)
Million Dollar Cake (It's absolutely heavenly!)

Sunday~
Breakfast:
Bisquits & Gravy
Dinner:
Fish Tacos
Pulled Pork Tacos (gotta love leftovers)
Cilantro Sauce
Mexican Cornbread Salad

We're doing a little bit of Southern and a little bit of Mexican both days...I am so excited I can hardly wait to dig in!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

Yes I am aware that my last post was on Monday, not three months ago, but I can't help but feel like I am neglecting everyone in my blogging family. This is has turned into a stressful week for me which is evident with the fact my stomach has been bothering me again.

First of all our new little man Lennon has already cost us a small fortune. Great Danes are known for their long tails and unfortunately many of them end up breaking their tails at some point in time caused by knocking them on doors and walls. I have never had a Great Dane that has done this but I have seen it first hand and have always been grateful it has never been something that I have had to deal with...until NOW!!! On the Sunday Daniel met and brought Lennon home he broke his tail on a door while being brought out to Daniel. They wrapped it up and Daniel proceeded to bring the poor guy home. I think we both were thinking, "we'll keep it wrapped and cleaned and he will be good as new within a week or so." WRONG!!!! Two weeks later and we have now had to schedule the amputation of his tail. He keeps taking the wrappings off it and every time that tail hits a wall I just cringe. My house looks as if though he have had several shootings occur, there is blood splattered on every wall and on every door. I spent about an hour this past Sunday with a mixing bowl full of hot water and soap trying to get as much of it cleaned up as I could. I don't know why I even bothered. The vet thought it was broken when we took him to see her on Friday and we now think he has broken it again in another spot because now not only is it bleeding but it's crooked as well. We made the decision to have it amputated after noticing that he is biting through his skin on the upper portion because it is bothering him so much. Poor dog is not only blind, deaf, and dumb when it comes to his squeaky toys, but now he is going to have a stub for a tail...what will all the other doggy kids think of him??

On top of my crazy dog issues my Uncle Dan was admitted to the hospital on Monday night. This man has had some severe health issues for the past four or five years that has left him in constant pain. It is something that he has to deal with on a daily basis and the amount of drugs he has to take just to try to alleviate some of it is ridiculous. He has congestive heart failure, COPD, which is something involving the lungs, and he also has some disorder where his body produces too much blood. He has to have the excess blood drained once a month or so. He was in bad shape over the weekend and his body swelled up to the point Doctors were giving him a drug intravenously to help rid his body of the extra fluids. What we didn't know at the time was that they were actually dehydrating him to the point that by the time he got to the hospital his kidneys were starting the process of shutting down. I stopped by the hospital yesterday and he was in much better spirits and was up walking around which was a 100% improvement from how he was during our Saturday night dinner. The Doctors said he was having a flare up of the COPD which was why, along with the kidney issue, he was so weak and felt so bad. They still aren't sure why he is swelling everywhere but in my opinion the swelling had gone down some which is a good thing. I informed him yesterday he had missed some of my posts and he said that he was missing it. It's good to have fans out there! :)

I am also dealing with the fact that my Husband is in the process of making a very, very big decision in regards to his employment situation. I can't give details at the moment as he plans on discussing the matter with all of the family on Saturday during his birthday dinner. What I can tell you is that it would require his leaving this country for a year, only getting to come home once every four months.

Now after just forcing you lovely individuals to read my moments of worry, I must admit I feel a little better to get the stuff off of my chest. I am a firm believer that when feeling bad about something no matter how frivolous you may think it is, you should share it with someone else. So since I feel better I think it's only fair that you should feel better. I want everyone to leave a comment to this post telling me one of their current worries. I don't care if it is as sad as having a relative pass away or as crazy as having to keep pulling your underwear out of your tushy because you gained five pounds. I want to know and trust me, it will make you feel better!! :)

Also, I promise my next few posts will go back to being about food. My daring husband has a birthday sneaking up on him and we are celebrating this Saturday so you all know that there will be food involved.

Down on the farm...

As some of you may already know thanks to my profile, I grew up on a farm raising Clydesdale's. It's quite apparent that the motto in our family is "go big, or go home". We always had the biggest dogs and we obviously had the biggest horses. Yesterday Daniel and I made the trip to my Mom's place to snap a few pictures of them. After years of raising these gentle giants my Mom has decided to get out of the business and put all but one up for sale in preparation of selling the farm.
When we first moved to the farm I hated it. I was a born and bred city girl who wasn't use to living so far away from the nearest grocery store. I quickly adjusted and there was never a dull moment for us four kids. We were fortunate in the fact our parents didn't make us work during our school years as long as our grades were up to par. The rule no longer applied once you hit the in between high school and college phase of your life so you were given a choice. You can either go out and get a full time job working until you leave for college or you can take over all of the barn chores, which includes feeding and mucking out stalls. Now being the typical lazy teenager that most are I had to weigh each of my options, go out and get an 8-5 job or work in the barn maybe three hours out of the entire day going back to bed after the morning feeding. I don't think I need to tell you which one I chose. Does anybody have any experience with mucking out horse stalls full of saw dust in 90 degree weather? The heat, smell, and the thin layer of sawdust that settles on your skin and hair was enough to make me question whether or not a 8-5 job would be easier. I stuck it out though and the day I left home I swore I would never set foot in that barn again. I love the horses but I hate the work and smell associated with having them.

I unfortunately married a man that dreams of one day having the exact set up that my Mom currently has. She had Great Danes and now we have Great Danes, she has Clydesdales and now Daniel wants one so bad he can't see straight, I try to limit the amount of times I tell my Husband no when he wants something, this time however I say NO and I mean it, no arguing. We can barely feed the dogs so can you imagine what it would cost to feed a Clydesdale?? Because of my Husband's love of the family horses my threat of never stepping foot in that barn again was a lie. I have stepped foot in that barn way too many times and I have also cleaned out a few of the stalls, like when Mom goes to Vegas and leaves Daniel and I in charge of the entire operation. I need a vacation just to recover from those stays.

Never did I ever think I would be sad to think about not having the farm and all of it's creatures as a part of my life, but seeing how happy they make Daniel and knowing just how badly he wishes we could afford to buy the place, it does make me sad. It makes me sad to think we won't have any more Sunday afternoon outings at the place, walking in the pastures with the Clydes trailing behind us like lost little puppy dogs.

Mom...you wouldn't happen to be willing to consider a lease to own option would you? We will let you come live with us instead of putting you in a nursing home later on down the road. Just something for you think about, maybe you should weigh your options? :)