Mexican Lasagna

It occured to me today that I forgot to share this creation, and trust me it literally is a creation because I pretty much made it up as I went along.

My family LOVES tacos, and that is actually an understatement it's one of our favorite meals.

I decided why not take taco ingredients and serve them in a different form.

The ingredient list is really anything you like to put in tacos, so it could be shells, meat, tomatoes, onions, cheese, peppers, tater tots.....you get the idea.

The first thing I did was fry up the taco shells in oil to get them nice and crispy.

Next I browned up some meat, with the meat I put in garlic & cillantro for some additional flavor.

To get a mexi-nugget flavor in some tator tots I fried them up with some taco seasoning and then broke them up so it was essentially little cubes of pototes.

Next came time to layer in the pan, I started with the taco shells in the bottom, then cheese, then meat, then veggies, more cheese, another layer of taco shells, cheese, potatoes, cheese, taco shells - I repeated the layering until the pan was full. You could also put salsa or pica de gallo in the layers, but not everyone in my house likes the same salsa spiciness or pico de gallo so those were added on as a topping when people got their servings.

I'm happy to say it was DELICIOUS!!!

Pulled Pork

 Greetings from the chef!

So this week's "make something I've never made before" task was Pulled Pork (I think you probably could have guessed that from the title of this blog!)

So once again to start I searched my favorite recipe sites, and my good old trusty friend google. A recipe I saw mentioned caught my attention was one that called for Jack Daniels whiskey (anything with good whiskey can't be bad right?) Well it took some digging but I did find a good recipe (one that I will include in the blog)

Never having made pulled pork I had no idea what to expect. I made sure I had all my listed ingredients, then I had to finda good pork shoulder - which I did! Thank goodness Top Foods was having an awesome meat sale!

Since this was something completely new to me I wanted to follow the recipe exactly (alterations can always be made at a later date, however this recipe was so good I probably won't need to). I had lot of fun making this for some reason. Another plus with this recipe the whole time it's in the slow cooker the house smells AWESOME!!! I had everyone's mouths watering all day (including the dogs)!!!!!

Here's the recipe:

1 Onion (chopped fine)

2 TBSP Garlic (chopped fine)

1 TBSP Tomato Paste

2 TBSP Dijion Mustard

1/4 Cup White Vinegar

1 TSP Paprika

1/3 Cup Ketchup

2 TSP Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 Cup Jack Daniels Whiskey

1/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar

1 TSP ground black pepper

1 Bay Leaf

3 LBS Pork Shoulder Roast

First thing you do is combine ALL ingredients (except the meat) into the slow cooker

Once they are all mixed you drop the meat in

Cover the meat with water

Place the lid on the slow cooker

Bring to a boil

After it boils reduce to a simmer

Let simmer for 2 hours (I actually let it simmer for almost 4)

Take meat out

Take roughly 1/3 of the liquid out

Pull meat apart and place back in slow cooker

*I actually did vary from the recipe on this part*

The recipe said to let it stay in for an hour, then serve, I however added a some Jack Daniels BBQ sauce and let it sit for the rest of the afternoon (another 3 hours) then all day the next day before we had it for dinner that night. Added a little bit of BBQ sauce every once inawhile for some flavor.

Quiche!!!

So one of my new goals is at least once a week to make something new and delicious for dinner (I have 2 weeks of previous experiments and recipes to post on a slower blog day!!!

Last week I decided that this week's challenge would be quiche, since I have never made one.

My first step was to find a recipe that not only I would like but would also be a fan favorite for the fam! I of course went to my favorite recipe webiste (http://www.myrecipes.com/) and searched for quiche. I found a couple on there that looked good, however being my grandmother's granddaughter I altered them! Here are the recipes for both (the altered versions of course)

Bacon, Ham, & Swiss Quiche:

6 - Eggs

1 1/2 Cups of Half & Half

1 - 9" Pie Crust

1/2 Lb. Cubed Ham

1 - Pkg. Cooked Bacon

1-2 Cups Shredded Swiss

1/2 Cup Chopped Onion

1/4-1/2 Cup Chopped Cilantro

1 - Cook Bacon & Chop

2 - Beat Eggs

3 - Add Half & Half to Eggs

4 - Add Onion, Cilantro, & Bacon to Egg Mixture

5 - Place Pie Crust in Dish

6 - Sprinkle light layer of cheese into pie crust

7 - Put Ham on top of cheese

8 - Pour Egg Mixture of top of Ham

9 - Top with remaining cheese

10 - Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, or until done (to test if done stick toothpick in center and when you pull it out and nothing is sticking to it that is how you know it's cooked all the way)

Crab Quiche Florentine:

12 oz. Crab Meat (in small pieces)

1-2 Cups Mozzerella Cheese

1/2 Cup Onion (chopped)

1/4 Cup Garlic (minced)

*Tarragon

*Nutmeg

*Old Bay

*Pepper

1 - Cup Evaporated Skim Milk

6 - Eggs

*Spice Quantities are subjective, add as much or as little as you want

1 - Saute Onions in butter or margaine for roughly 4 minutes

2 - Add Garlic saute for additional 2 minutes

3 - Add Tarragon, Nutmeg, Old Bay, & Pepper and saute for 2 more minutes - Set aside

4 - Beat Eggs

5 - Add Milk to Eggs

6 - Place pie crust in dish

7 - Sprinkle light layer of cheese into crust

8 - Place Crab Meat on top of cheese

9 - Pour Egg Mixture on top of cheese

10 - Top with remaining Cheese

11 - Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until done

I'm happy to report that both quiches turned out AWESOME!!!!!! Personally I like the crab one a little better than that ham & cheese, but both were delicious. Everyone went back for seconds! I guess the sign of a good meal is the lack of leftovers!!!!