Taco Salad Night

Do it right and make it pretty! SO delicious on these HOT summer nights!

Eggplant, Tomato, & Bell Pepper Sauce

1.Cut 3 eggplants in half. Slather butter on the halves and sprinkle generously with parmesan. Fry in pan on both sides of eggplant, just till browned a bit.
2. Add a little olive oil then add chopped bell peppers and lift eggplant up onto them as they cook.
3. Add some chopped up onion (at least half of one).
4. Cover the contents of the pan in tomatoes (all sixes work fine- my tomatoes are little).
5. Add a few BASIL leaves, some thyme, organo, italian seasoning, a little garlic.

This is awesome for PIZZA SAUCE, SPAGHETTI SAUCE, PUPUSA SAUCE, MOZZ. STICK SAUCE.

So I zip-lock bag the sauce, then freeze it all flattened out. It stacks well this way and thaws out much quicker than brick-form.

3. Dump in TONS of tomatoes and

German Pancakes

I never ate this in Germany. But they sure are delicious!


Coat 9x13 pan in 1/4 cup melted butter

In bowl mix:
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
6 eggs

Pour ingredients into the pan & put into COLD oven. Turn oven on to 450 degrees & bake for 20 minutes.

Cut into slices and top with applesauce & whipped cream. Lukas loves these!

Sweet & Sour Chicken

This was to die for. And I winged it. HA!

I just dumped some corn starch in a bowl, then dumped in the raw chicken pieces (cut em with kitchen scissors ladies! Don't chop your fingers off!), coating them well.

The fry the chicken in some oil (4-5 T) on high with the lid on at first, then off at the end to brown it a bit. This keeps the meat moist.

Make the sauce in a separate pan while the chicken is searing:
Don't feel too restricted by these measurements! Do what you like best!
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. vinegar
1/2 c. chicken broth
3.5 T ketchup
1 T soy sauce
1 tsp worcestire sauce

Truthfully I just kind of dumped the soy sauce & Worc. sauce in! mmmm! Some people also add a little brown sugar and or garlic & ginger. I didn't. This time.


Then put the fried chicken into a bowl to the side, and just put in whatever vegetables you have on hand! I used things from my garden:
Tomatoes, green & orange bell peppers, green beans (blanch these first or just boil em for awhile and have them on hand ready to use), onion & pineapple!! Thinly sliced carrot would also be wonderful although I was out at the time!

Pupusa

This is EASY for a quick dinner that tastes AWESOME and is SO filling!
Get tortilla flour at WalMart. Follow the directions on the back for making the dough. (You knead it, let it sit for 15 mins, then roll out little balls, press em flat, fold up some CASO FRESCO inside, then fry em!

Whala! Dinner!

Just pile on your favorite Mexican toppings: taco-seasoned meat & tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, avacado, you name it!

Thank you Bonnie at prettydubs.blogspot.com for the great idea!

Salsa- from Garden to Chip in less than 30 mins!

I have a vivid memory of running outside through the hail in Utah to cover up my tomato plants. Later that summer, with 26 of those things producing juicy tomatoes faster than we could kill the pig weed, we decided it high time to buy a food processor.
With it came this dandy of a recipe for salsa which I've loved ever since!

1/2 Sm onion, cut into 1 in. pieces
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded & cut into quarters
1 clove garlic
3/4 lb Roma tomatoes (about 5 tomatoes) SEEDED & CUT into eighths
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro
1 T Olive Oil
1 T Lime Juice
1/2 salt

Put onion, pepper, & garlic in chopper- process 3-5 seconds

Add tomatoes, cilantro, oil, lime juice, & salt. - Pulse 6-8 times for 2 seconds each to chop (or until desired consistency)

Yields 1 1/2 cups, 12 servings (2 T/ serving)

Shish-ka-bobs & Corn on the Grill

Bring on the shish-ka-bobs!

These were phenominal with just a little salt & pepper! MMMMM!
From our garden we picked tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant and we added onion and anything else we could find that would stay on a skewer!