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!
Tag Archives: Cheddar Cheese
Cheesy Grits with Garlic
I was raised on grits. You know the kind that popped all over the range and stuck to the bottom of the pan. I love them with butter and cheddar cheese. Growing up my mother would make them with country ham and red eyed gravy. I can remember on cold afternoons my Dad would come home with Butch our bird dog and he would have Quail stashed in every pocket in his hunting vest. I knew then we would be having grits and gravy with Quail fried to a golden brown. Gosh it was so good!
Chipotle Shrimp with Cheddar Grits
We’re spending some time by the ocean and here’s what we had for dinner the other night. Just a perfect dish for anytime , but the dish was really good for a little vacation time! It’s so easy and packed with lots of flavor. I like it with a little more heat so I added more chipotle peppers. Don’t wait for vacation to try these shrimp and grits now is the perfect time. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Filed under Main dish
Macaroni and Cheese from Martha
Let me just say that if you only make one mac and cheese in your lifetime this should be the one. My gosh! I just had to make it after reading all the comments after this was written. What about Food 52? They shouted from the rooftop about it, too. So I’m right up there with the rest of them and I have to say that it is the best macaroni and cheese that I have had. Martha knows her mac and cheese that’s for sure. It has just the right amount of bechamel sauce to go with the pasta and I love the White Cheddar and Gruyère Cheese. I will have to admit skepticism about the nutmeg, but it went in the sauce . Perfection! So it’s your turn to let Martha’s Perfect Macaroni and Cheese be the hit at your house. It was at mine.
Filed under Main dish, Meatless Main Dish, pasta, side dish
Slice-and-Bake Cheese Straws
Last month I served these to my book club. Now they are here for you to pull out for your next get together. They are so easy to make. In fact you can prepare the dough ahead of time and freeze so it will be sitting there ready when you are ready. A hundred years ago I made these cheese straws using a manual cookie gun and I found them quite difficult to push through. Now Paula Deen has saved all of us some manual labor. How much easier can you get than slice and bake?
Filed under Appetizer
Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits made Ina’s Way

Filed under Bread
Garlic and Cheese Drop Biscuits another Lab
Looking for an easy way to make biscuits? This is just the recipe for you. I don’t really think that you can mess this one up unless of course you add more milk than you should and you end up with Garlic and Cheese pancakes. That doesn’t sound t0o appetizing does it? I have had a couple of groups to do this! No seriously, this is a no-fail recipe for those who are inept at kneading the dough. In the time that it takes the oven to preheat all the grating (if you choose) and mixing can be done. The baking time is quick, too, 8- 10 minutes. This is a winner no matter how many times you make it.
Filed under Bread
Cheese and Garlic Drop Biscuits
For our second lab of the semester we made these Cheese and Garlic Drop Biscuits. They are so easy and quick to prepare. Plus they are just plain delicious. I am loving my students for this semester. They are all eager to learn how to prepare all kinds of food. I still have to work on a few students that are a little lazy about writing down the steps and the amounts of ingredients, but failure can be a good learning experience.
Filed under Biscuits
Sausage and Cheese Balls
I love these sausage balls! Even though this recipe has been around for a long time, my students have requested me to make this recipe and post it. So here it is. This is day four of no school because of the snow and ice. What better excuse do you have to get in the kitchen? I think that these were originally intended to be served as a party food, but here we serve them for breakfast. Let them cool and place them in a freezer bag. They freeze well for a month, but if your family is like mine they will not last near that long.
Spaghetti Squash Gratin with Walnuts and Bacon
This gourd of a vegetable is all new to me. I had never tasted it nor cooked it until it arrived in my CSA box right before Thanksgiving. I had no idea what to do with it. Luck would have it that one of my favorite blogs Clotilde’s Chocolate and Zucchini just happened to post this Spaghetti Squash Gratin that same week. It looked delicious so I just had to try it. I am so glad that I did because it is fantastic and super easy! In fact the hardest part is cutting the squash in half!