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.