Monthly Archives: April 2016

Layered Taco Salad

layered taco salad

I love Mexican food and there is no other words to describe this salad but fantastic!  The salad part is just like any other salad with lettuce, tomato, olives, cheese, and avocado.  The stars of this main dish are the meat and the dressing so don’t change a thing when you make this because they are perfect as they are.  This is an easy to prepare so you will win all around.  The most time-consuming is chopping the onions, peppers, lettuce, tomatoes and cilantro.   It does make a lot.  I mean that I served 10 people and had 2 servings as leftovers.  The leftovers are still good the next day if you don’t add the dressing to the top.  I do like it with some heat so I put really  hot jalapeno peppers with seeds and all in there.  You adjust the heat to your taste.  I love serving this with some crunchy tortilla chips and homemade Pico de gallo.  Yummy!   Make this for your next get together,  serve it on your deck or patio or take it to  your friends to enjoy.  They will thank you!

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Chocolate Mocha Torte

Chocolate Mocha Torte

This is one of the easiest desserts that I have made and it is definitely a show stopper.  I’m not sure which part of this I’m in love with most.  It could be the heavy whipping cream, or the Kahlua,  or maybe the crisp chocolate wafers that soften up from the Kahlua and espresso.  Maybe its the mascarpone cheese mixed with sugar and vanilla.  Really I’m sure it is a combination of all of these that make an outstanding dessert that will catch everyone’s attention at your next dinner party.  Your guests are going to think you spent hours making it, but trust me it is a cinch to make.   I saw Ina Garten make this on her cooking show and knew that I had to try it.  It is so worth every calorie.  Now after making Ina’s recipe as it stands I chose to change it.  She uses chocolate chip cookies.  I like it with homemade chocolate chip cookies, but I love it with the Chocolate wafers made by Nabisco.  Her recipe has you throwing everything in the mixer except the cookies.  I changed it up by creaming the cheese and sugar together first.  I threw two batches of the cream in the trash  when the cheese and whipping cream were very lumpy.   You can’t have lumpy in a cream torte so it works so much better when the cheese and sugar are creamed together first.

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Tomato Tarts from Paula’s Cookbook

Tomato Tarts

There is nothing better in the summer than a good sliced tomato sprinkled with salt and pepper.  But, that window of opportunity to have those mouth-watering slices is so short.  During the winter I crave those tomatoes as I’m sure you also do.  There are a couple of recipes that I pull out of my back pocket to satisfy the tomato craving and this is one of them.  I have gone through my cookbook collection marking recipes with post it notes that I want to try.  If I cooked something new everyday for the rest of my life I am pretty sure that I would not get to all of the ones on my list, but thank goodness I tried this one.  When I read Paula’s headline that a catering friend of hers used this recipe all the time  in Savannah, Georgia I knew it had to be a winner.    I was right!  It is easy, good, pretty on a platter and it makes a winter tomato taste as good as the summer!

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Filed under Appetizer