Taco Salad

Cooking with Rachael and Friends

We went to a Memorial Day Barbq at my daughter's house in Beaumont, CA. They had emailed an invitation to all their friends and had no idea how many to expect. So I made a huge taco salad and Paula Deen's Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding. The taco salad was based on one we had at a graduation party a week ago. It was so good and rather than ask for the recipe, Kate and I just sort of poked around at it and figured out what was in it and made our own version.

I cooked about 3 lbs of hamburger - one of those logs, and seasoned it with a dried packet of Taco Seasoning sauce mixed with water. Then I put the mixture into a small 1.5 qt crockpot to keep it warm. I drained a large can of kidney beans, a small can or corn and 2 small cans of sliced black olives. Into a big wooden bowl I put a bag of lettuce, added the drained beans/corn/olives and poured a 2 cup container of mild chunky salsa over it all. It's the kind of salsa where it looks watery and you can actually see chunks of tomato and onion in it. Right before we left the house I poured the hot taco meat on top of it all. Once we got to our destination I added a broken up bag of Dorito nacho cheese chips and two cut up avocados, as well as a bag of shredded mexican cheeses. It was a huge hit. It went over as well as the pork ribs & chicken our hostess grilled.

Needless to add, everyone died over the banana pudding. I had also brought brownie bites from the grocery store - they are the size of a small muffin and have a dollop of cream cheese on top and are SO GOOD.

Barbecued Ribs

Yesterday we went to a BBQ at Don’s sister’s house, her husband had some friends over. My contribution was Paula’s "Not Yo Mama’s Banana Pudding." I mentioned this to Debbie and she said she too was bringing it to the get-together she was attending! I’d say the pudding is hands down the best recipe from the cookbook, so far. Darlene said, "This is definitely not from a box" and at first I said "no" but realized that the pudding part is from a box. Carol liked the chess cookies. I think the fluffy texture makes it sumptuous, as well as that it just plain tastes good.

We were given some leftover ribs. Gary had put a rub on them but we wanted them saucier. I ended up making Paula’s "Barbecued Short Ribs" recipe but using the leftover ribs instead of short ribs, and cooking it in a crock pot. They ended up fall-off-the-bone tender and the sauce made it tastier, but parts of it were dry. It was definitely better than just reheating them in the microwave. (The photo is what it looked like in the crockpot.)

My niece and nephew both have birthdays coming up so I ordered some kids cookbooks for them. I got Rachael’s "30 Minute Meals For Kids" for my niece, and Emeril’s "There’s A Chef In My Soup" for my nephew. Rachael’s book is not as flashy as Emeril’s, and it is smaller and the recipes not as complicated. My niece is only 7 so I think it’ll be appropriate for her, I hope she likes it. My nephew already watches the Food Network and I hope he likes the Emeril book. It is more detail-oriented and better-suited to someone older (he’ll be 9). Claire is a picky eater and I hope she might be more adventurous in trying foods if she has a hand in preparing them.

I got a renewal notice for my Rachael magazine subscription. The notice says 1 year is 10 issues, but the cards inside the magazine say 1 year is 6 issues. I called and asked which it is, and was told that the next year of the magazine will be 10 issues/year. Yay. I haven’t cooked a Rachael recipe outright in awhile, but I do find myself employing ideas she has on the show, like grilling my sandwich instead of eating it just plain, or experimenting with different condiments.

A Paula Deen Mothers Day

Cooking with Rachael and Friends

For Mother's Day partner Kate made me a nice little breakfast; croissants, scrambled eggs and ham. That night we had middle daughter Emily, her partner Robin and granddaughter Rachel over for a birthday party for Emily's 34th. Emily & Rach are picky eaters, they like their food bland and childlike. I figured I couldn't go wrong with Paula Deen's Southern Fried Chicken, Cheesy Biscuits, mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, and corn on the cob. I'm always worried about chicken being cooked all the way through. Robin, who is an excellent cook, said that even she has trouble with fried chicken - burning it on the outside, while it remains raw on the inside.

First I washed and seasoned the chicken with lots of seasoned salt and a bit of garlic salt and put it back in the fridge for a couple of hours. Then I heated fresh Crisco in two big pans. I made way too much chicken as usual - an entire fryer and a separate package of thighs. As the recipe instructed, I put the pieces in an egg/water mixture, then dredged them in self-rising flour that I'd added lots of fresh ground black pepper to. I fried the pieces until they were golden brown, then put them in baking dishes in the oven for 350 degrees (that last part was a deviation from the recipe, but I wanted to make sure the pieces cooked all the way through and it didn't seem to hurt or alter them in any way.) I left them in the oven for about half an hour while I cleaned up and made the rest of the meal.

The Cheesy Biscuits are the very same ones that Paula Deen serves people waiting in line to get into her restaurant. I messed up though, I didn't remember to save some of the Crisco to put in the biscuits, so had to improvise with butter. They also turned out good, no one seemed especially thrilled by them though. I'm going to retry that recipe again some time with the proper ingredients.

It all turned out very well. The chicken got all around raves. Everyone agreed that it didn't taste greasy at all. I think that some of the grease may have drained out of the pieces while it was heating in the oven. I think that the trick to cooking good fried chicken is having your grease hot enough. Messing with hot grease is always an adventure though. Our little female daschund Maggie was right under foot the entire time and I was worried about her getting spattered. We both ended up covered in flour but didn't get burnt.

The mashed potatoes were from a package at Wal-Mart. Not a box, an actual package of real mashed potatoes in the deli section. No one seemed to notice that they weren't home made, as people can usually tell with boxed, rehydrated potatoes. I also use canned chicken gravy - sorry but I've only ever made real gravy once in my life. I just always use canned and again, everyone seems to like it.

For dessert we made cupcakes and also purchased a little decorated cake for the actually blowing out of the candles. This little square cake was probably about half the size of a 1/4 sheet cake. It was perfectly sized for our group. Usually we get those huge cakes at COSTCO, which are yummy but then everyone has tons of cake left over.

Broccoli with Toasted Garlic

I wanted broccoli for a side dish to go with some filets from Omaha Steak that Don's daughter had sent to him for his birthday. My "beef," if you will, is that he likes his broccoli swimming in butter. To me that completely negates any healthy aspect of eating veggies. I've been watching some of the other Food Network personalities and saw a preparation that sounded healthy. It was on "Healthy Appetites with Ellie Krieger." She made broccoli with toasted garlic, the garlic was toasted in a small amount of olive oil, then the cooked broccoli was added to the garlic infused oil, with the garlic chips sprinkled on top. Don isn't a garlic fan but he tried it, and didn't much care for it. I thought it was delicious, the garlic complimented the broccoli, and the small amount of fat keeps it all healthy. I like her show, the way she explains anecdotes about why certain foods are good, what nutritional value they have. It adds another dimension to a cooking show, so it's not just all "how to."

Buttermilk Pecan Pie

Our local electric co-op publishes a magazine with "country" recipes. This month’s issue had buttermilk pecan pie. It’s more of a chess pie than a pecan pie. I looked at Paula’s cookbook and she has a recipe for a lemon chess pie that is pretty similar, except it has lemon in it, and milk instead of buttermilk. Most of the recipes I saw call for the same amount of sugar - 2 cups. Anyway, the pecan recipe calls for sprinkling ½ cup of pecans in the bottom of a pie shell (I had some leftover toasted coconut so I added that too), then mixing together sugar, buttermilk, butter, eggs, vanilla, flour and salt together and pouring it all over the nuts. The topping gets a crunchy crust on it as it bakes.

I think it’s one of those things that you either like or you don’t. I liked it, Don thought it might be better tomorrow after it refrigerates, but he likes "regular" pecan pie better.

Blackberries are coming on strong out here. Tomorrow I’m going to make pancakes or waffles, and make a berry compote to put on top. I got the recipe from Rachael’s Pain Perdue recipe from an old "30 Minute Meals." The berries make you feel like you’re eating something healthy, along with the 800 calorie waffles.