Love Food: Grandma's Cheese Enchilada Recipe

Talk about good, scrumptious and utterly delicious, here is our family's cheese enchilada recipe. It's an enchilada recipe that is a family favorite with my three kids and their kids, too. It's magic on a dinner plate today.

I don't believe any cheese enchiladas that I have ever ordered and eaten at a Mexican food restaurant rises to the taste level of our very own enchiladas. This is a recipe handed down from my grandma.

Love Food: Chicken Enchiladas with Creamy Havarti Cheese

Talk about a fabulous taste delight for guests at the Thanksgiving table, This recipe for Chicken Enchiladas with Creamy Havarti Cheese makes my mouth water just thinking about it. You serve a surprise meal that is so melt-in-your-mouth yummy that family and friends beg for the recipe.

This is one of my special recipe treats and it is a real treat. So so good. The secret ingredient is the Jalapeno flavored Havarti cheese. The secret to the delicious-ness is the soft and gently bathed corn tortillas. Read on.... You'll love this one!

Make It Monday: Albondigas Verde with Sweet N Smoky Glaze

It's Make-It-Monday with a bowl of delicious. This recipe from Spice Islands uses paprika, a spice made from air-dried fruits of the chili pepper family.

Vividly red in color, paprika is made from ground Capsicum chili peppers. It doesn’t pack the punch you’d expect from a chili. Instead, it has a sweet flavor and a delicate aroma that can vary from fruity to sharp. Do you know what foods spices go with?

Sunday Dinner Recipes: Gourmet Enchiladas Verde

Let's start with a blessing from Psalm 51:12
      
“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation O Lord, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

It's shop for Sunday Dinner recipes. This Sunday dinner recipe fiesta is a modest 3-course meal with Gourmet Enchiladas Verde from El Comal, Lettuce Strawberry salad, Tres Lleche Cupcakes and suggestions for wines. You can certainly add more courses to your meal planning.

The family dinner table starts with a colorful centerpiece, serape table covering, flatware and glassware. Here's how to set the table for this delicious Sunday dinner. 

Love Food: Pop's Pork Tamales

Every Christmas growing up, my Grama made tamales. It was the highlight of the holiday.

I must have devoured a dozen each year (not all at once). I watched her make them and when I was old enough, I helped.

Blessing Breakfast- Burritos that Melt in Your Mouth

"Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen."

Breakfast Burritos that Melt in Your Mouth

My dad used to make breakfast burritos all the time. I devoured them then and I still do.

The inspiration for this burrito beauty recipe came from those served at the Santa Fe Farmers Market in New Mexico.

Love Food: Sweet Tamales with Raisins

Sweet tamales sing the smile song which is perfect for any Christmas table. Sweet tamales make a savory dessert or yummy side dish to any menu.

I used to make sweet tamales with raisins when the children were little, but not so much in the last few years. So, this year, I added these taste delights to the menu and they turned out terrific. I had to taste them several times to make sure [smile].

Sandwich Saturday: Salsa-Dipped Potato and Chorizo

It's Sandwich Saturday. This week, it's Pambazo (pamˈbaso), the name for both Mexican white bread and the salsa-dipped potato sandwich.

Pambazo bread comes from the Spanish “pan bajo,” or “bread eaten by the poor.” It's made of flour, lard, eggs, and is tougher and drier than the similar bolillo (also used for sandwiches), which allows it to retain its shape while being soaked in sauce.

In Vera Cruz (Mexico), pambazo is also a sandwich filled with potatoes and chorizo, and dipped in red chile sauce. Pambazo” is cited in English from at least 1904.

Kitchen Review: Are Jalapenos Good for You?

Are jalapeños good for you or eating up your stomach?  Have you noticed that more and more foods seem to have a jalapeno ingredient version?  Jalapeno is a medium-sized chili pepper.

The chili pepper is a fruit pod from the plant belonging to the nightshade family; capsicum annuum originating in Mexico. 

According to laboratory studies, capsaicin has anti-bacterial, anti-carcinogenic, analgesic and anti-diabetic properties.

Sandwich Saturday: Mexican Torta

It's Sandwich Saturday. From Mexico, I call this the "Big Bite." In Mexico a torta is a kind of sandwich served on an oblong 6-8 inch firm, crusty white sandwich roll.

Blessing Breakfast: Chipotle Turkey Bagel Thins®

"Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen."

This week, from Thomas Breads, it's beautiful bagels stuffed with curly lettuce, turkey and tomato. Pair this bagel bite with chilled potato salad and a fresh fruit dessert. 

Bagel is a bread product originating from Poland, traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior.

Love Food: The Ultimate Mexican Sandwich

If you love Mexican food... Here is one of the best recipes for a hot sandwich that is good all year round.

You make it with a pressure cooker so your kitchen escapes the heat created from turning on the oven. That's part of why it's a good cook for the hot weather temperatures.

Go Texan: Chicken Bocaditos with Habanero, Pecans and Agave

Feast on Snack recipes from Top Texas Chefs who are part of the GO TEXAN program that represents Texas agri-business on a state, national and international level.

The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) is proud to play a role in the continuing success of Texas growers, merchants and restauranteurs.

Blessing Breakfast- Melt-in-Your-Mouth Chilaquiles

"Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen."

This is a Mexican meal that could be made like a casserole to serve a crowd. My dad used to make Chilaquiles every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

When I'm making it, the good-food smell makes me feel like I am six years old standing next to my dad in the kitchen waiting to put a spoonful of this concoction in my mouth. 

Love Food: Chicken Enchilada Suizas Stacked Casserole

Anything Mexican or even resembling Mexican food attracts me immediately.

I have to read the recipe, make it and try it. I already have a chicken enchilada recipe that I make, and when I made it for the first time for Christmas several years ago. The kids ate it right up. Gone in 60 Seconds!

Make It Monday: Grilled Swordfish with Salsa Verde

It's Make-It-Monday with the good and bad about Swordifsh, found widely in tropical and temperate parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Swordfish is popular for cooking because unlike flaky fish, the swordfish meat is usually solid as steaks.

Meatless Monday: Potato Poblano Enchiladas

It's Meatless Monday. Celebrate with this quick and easy one-dish recipe from Knorr features the poblano chili pepper in an unusual marriage with the potato. Poblano, pronounced, poh blah noh, is a mild chili pepper originating in the state of Puebla, Mexico. Dried, it is called ancho or ancho chile. It's often used dried, coated in whipped egg (capeado) and fried, stuffed, or in mole sauces.

Poblano peppers are heart-shaped peppers that are large and have very thick walls, which make them sturdy for stuffing. One favorite recipe that features stuffed poblano peppers is the Chile relleno. Delicious. I love this pepper used any way in any recipe anytime. It's so good.

Poblanos are popular in the United States and can be found in grocery stores in the states bordering Mexico, as well as, many urban areas.

Serve these Chili Potato Poblano Enchiladas with refried beans and a cold whipped cream based salad to balance the food textures with cold and hot.

Love Food: Mom's Taquitos

Two taquitos made like my
grandmother used to make them

When I was a girl, people stood in line, five deep, for my grandmother's taquitos at the beach walk-up restaurant in Balboa, California. There was nothing like them.

Living in Texas, I have become familiar with flautas, which is similar to taquitos.

But flautas don't come close to my grandmother's taquitos.

If you are familiar with Mexican taquitos, and who isn't, then you know that these crunchy taste treats have a couple of features that make them popular.

Love Food: Chipotle Guacamole Eggs Benedict

Today, it's breakfast for a Main Meal. If you get a yen for eggs and toast in the middle of the day, this sandwich from California Avocado Commission hits the heart with two pah-boom pah-booms.

You could say the jalapeño is the star of this cast, and the egg is the stakes character with the devoted muffin as the best friend. You know why I say that when you bite into this oh-so-good sandwich. It totally leaves your mouth wanting more.

How to Make Mexican Wedding Cookies

Mom never stops
being your mother

It's light and yummy cookies that literally melt in your mouth. That's not all. They are incredibly easy to make and bake.

Mexican Wedding Cookies are usually served from Christmas through the winter months to March, but they're good anytime of year. They are buttery cookies that kinda disintegrate on your tongue.

I grew up thinking my dad invented them just for me. He popped one in his mouth, and then he handed me one with a big bowl of whipped cream.