Fancy Tacos

Not to be confused with Easy Soft Tacos, this recipe involves frying your own tortillas into a hard shell and frying spiced ground beef.  Food for thought: people who buy taco seasoning packets are spending way too much for delicious flavor.  I only ever use generous amounts of chili pepper and cumin.  Maybe throw in some garlic if you like.  Those are the main ingredients in those packets, but for about 25 cents worth of spice from a bottle.

Ingredients:
Corn or Flour tortillas
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 16 oz can refried beans
1/2 lb ground beef
Cumin and Chili Pepper to taste
Cheddar or mexican blend cheese
Salsa
Lettuce

Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan at medium heat (I know it's ready when it pops if I put a small drip of water on it.)
2. Using tongs, place tortillas flat on hot oil.  This should lightly brown one side of the tortilla (it will be the inside of the taco shell). Remove that side from the heat and bend in half to brown one half of the opposite side (the first side of the taco shell should be removed while it is still soft enough to be folded without cracking).  The crease should be a soft curve, not a hard fold if possible.  Once the first outter side of the shell is golden brown and crispened, turn the taco shell over to do the same to the second outter side.  Remove from oil with tongs and place on a paper towel covered surface, allowing the excess oil to drip off the taco shell.  Repeat for as many servings as desired.
3. Brown ground beef on frying pan, generously seasoning with cumin and chili pepper.  Remove from pan and cover to keep warm.
4. In the same frying pan as the ground beef, heat can of refried beans, seasoning similarly to taste.  Add 2 tbs of vegetable oil if more spreadable beans are desired.
5. Add servings of refried beans and ground beef to cooled taco shells.  Top with salsa, cheese, lettuce, and other topings as desired (onions, cilantro, sour cream, guacamole, etc).

Serves:
5-7 adults if you use all ground beef and refried beans in an appropriate number of taco shells.

Time to table:
30-45 minutes

Pigs in a blanket

My husband's fanatical love for this dish has turned my occasional love of this item at baby showers and bachelorette partiers into a regular feast.  Note: the secret to fantastic pigs in a blanket is the quality of hot dog you buy.  After experiencing the dogs they have at Costco I am entirely ruined for the 49 cent packages sold in most grocery stores.  Not hard to make these ones, but this blog is for sharing ideas for tapped out brains, not gormet recipes to spend all day on.

Ingredients:

Dough (yet again, I use the dough resulting from the basic white bread recipe on my bread maker.  Any dough that you usually use for rolls or bread will do. Some common ones are rhodes rolls, or pillsbury pop biscuits)

Hot Dogs (I use BAR S Polish Sausage dogs.)
Cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. After first rise (if using bread maker dough) cut dough into roll sized wedges. (A large loaf recipe should leave enough for 16-18 rolls.)

2. Cut hot dogs in half.
3. Slice cheddar cheese in to strips equal to the length of your halved hot dogs.

4. Wrap one halved hot dog and one cheese strip in dough wedge, making sure that the dough completely connects on the far side.  Repeat until you run out of dough or hot dogs.

5. Follow baking directions on dough package to cook (With bread maker dough it's usually 15 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit.)

Serves: A LOT.

Time to table:
30 minutes

Home made "Macaroni and Cheese"

Or, more accurately, Pasta in Cheddar Cheese sauce with polish sausage.  Another fun "cream sauce" recipe.  Interesting fact: Pasta is made in different shapes so you can decide how you want it to interact with the sauce you put on it.  I REALLY love this sauce, so I get shells that will hold extra bunches of cheesey sauce in it's natural bowl.

Simplified instructions: Cream Sauce and cheddar cheese mixed with pasta and hot dogs.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter/margarine
1/3 cup flour
3 cups milk
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 16 oz bag pasta cooked pasta
3 Bar S Polish Sausage Hot Dogs cooked (I usually fry them for the brown on the outside)
       -Any hot dogs can be used to make this more accessible to those who don't buy this brand of hot dogs in bulk, or a ham steak from the grocery store if you want to dress it up a little extra.

Directions:
1. Melt butter in frying pan on low.  Melt, not bubble.
2. Add flour 1 Tbs at a time, mixing it into the butter until evenly distributed.
(I generally mix it in with a spatula)
Butter/Flour mixture should be doughey. 
3 . Add milk one cup at a time, mixing constantly to eliminate lumps before adding the next cup.
(My mom had the skills to use a whisk.  My white sauces were never really lump-free until I started to use a hand mixer to mix it all.  Hense the cast-iron skillet.)
4.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Be generous.  The white sauce should taste delicious all by itself.
5.  Add Cheddar Cheese to warm mixture, stirring until cheese melts, turing cream sauce a pleasing deep yellow.
6.  Cube polish sausage dogs into centemeter pieces and stir into the sauce.
7.  Stir cooked pasta into cheese/sausage dog mix until all pasta is evenly coated with sauce.
8.  If desired put frying pan directly into oven on broil for 3 minutes to brown and add crunch.

Servings:
6 full adults, or a family of 4 with 4 left over lunches.

Cook Time:
30 Min (including cooking pasta and dogs as prep time)