What's up with Chorizo?

Just what is up with Chorizo? It's been a while since I posted any stories or pictures of Chorizo right?

In case you don't know what Chorizo is...it's a spicy Mexican Sausage. Well at least the Mexican version that I'm used to is. I buy it in the store in the deli aisle and it looks something like this. . .

You can buy either the pork of the beef version. Both equally delicious if you ask me! You take this out of it's protective plastic packaging, throw it into a frying pan and treat it like it's ground beef, you just keep breaking it up and stirring it for a few minutes. Then you can use this crumbly, spicy meat to make wonderful dishes like. . .

Huevos Con Chorizo ......... Eggs and Chorizo. You just whip up some eggs with a fork in a bowl and then add them to the cooked chorizo in the frying pan and cook until the eggs are as set as you like them. You can then eat them with a spoon or even better, heat up a flour tortilla and wrap this spicy mixture up into a burrito. Yum! Nothing better for breakfast!

Another thing you can do with the crumbled up, fried up Chorizo is Papa's Con Chorizo, or Chorizo with Potatoes! To tell the truth, I love this little concoction better even than Huevos con Chorizo. With this dish you fry up the potatoes in strips or cubes, just like you're going to make country potatoes. Then in a seperate pan you fry the chorizo. When the potatoes are cooked to the consistency you like (I like mine slightly crunchy still) you mix the chorizo in. Serve this alongside eggs or french toast or anything else. It goes with anything! Oh...and again just wrap this stuff inside a flour tortilla...it makes an excellent burrito!

Another wonderful dish you can make with Chorizo is Nachos. Ohhhhhh I so love Nachos. My sister and I love to go to this wonderful Mexican restaurant in Bakersfield known as Mexicali. They serve the best Chorizo Nachos in the world! I know several people will say, "Oh no! The best nachos are Chile Verde Nacho's" But to them I say "Pshaw! You don't know Nacho's my friend."

You layer torillas chips, the cooked Chorizo, cheese, green onions, black olives, tomatoes and Jalapenos, then place them in the oven until the cheese is melted and gooey; then in the broiler for just a second to brown the top. Oh my Gosh...there is nothing better with a cold beer or an icy, lemony-limey margarita!!!

Great! Now I've made myself hungry! And probably you too right? But the Chorizo I'm talking about when I say what's up with Chorizo is my daughters little Shih-Poo puppy...Chorizo. Here's Chorizo now saying "Huh? What? You're talking about me and not the spicy sausage that smells soooooooo darn good when you cook it?"

Chorizo believe it or not is a girl puppy. I know, I know. With a name like Chorizo you would expect her to be a boy puppy. My daughter April just loved the name Chorizo and probably because she loves the spicy Mexican sausage Chorizo!

Chorizo is her own spicy Mexican Sausage...well maybe a spicy Shih-Poo Sausage. Oh now she's baring her teeth at me. I love when she does that!

Awwww! Isn't she precious. She honestly thinks my coffee table belongs to her. I think she likes it because when she's on the coffee table it's cool and she's in the center of everything that is going on and she loves being the center of attention!

And when it's been a long day, and a puppy just wants a warm soft place to go to there's nothing like a great-grandmamma's lap for a little snooze.

G'Nite little Chorizo. We promise not to cover you with cheese and jalapenos and eat you all up and wash you down with an icy margarita...even if you are cute enough to eat!

Designs by Gollum - Foodie Friday!

Angelica's Carrot Cake

Is there anything as good as carrot cake? I mean think about it...carrots are good for you and you love cake right? With carrot cake you get cake that's good for you. Enuf said right?

I made this as one of the desserts for our Christmas Eve and it was so moist and delicious that I had to share it! The recipe was given to me by my friend and co-worker, Angelica. This is a great New Years Resolution Cake for those that want to eat healthier and watch your weight because your eating your veggies in cake form!


Dry Ingredients:
1 cup Sugar
2 T. Baking Soda
1 T. Baking Powder
2 cups Flour
2 T. Ground Cinnamon
1 T. Salt

Mix all dry ingredients.

Then add to the dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Vegetable Oil
4 Eggs beaten
3 cups Shredded Carrots
1 cup Nuts, I used walnuts
1 14 oz. can crushed pineapple

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum! Lots of great recipes and pictures, go check it out!

Foodie Friday - Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

I was born in Arizona and I'm of Hispanic descent. My dad is from Mexico and my mom is from Texas. I now live in California, the closest I've come to being a Southern Belle is an online friendship with a dear friend from Alabama who has now passed away.

Yet for some reason, this past Saturday I thought I should make Biscuits and Sausage Gravy. I've only eaten Biscuits and Sausage Gravy once before and even then they were made by my friend Stacie who is Hawaiian and she used Portuguese sausage. Delicious yes but not exactly Southern right?

But I do live in Bakersfield, the Little Nashville of the West. Home of the late and great Buck Owens. Surely I can handle making Biscuits and Gravy.

Here's a picture of my biscuits. I used flour, baking powder, shortening, salt and milk. I think I should have sifted the flour one more time and not kneaded it as much.

The biscuits tasted ok, a bit bland, maybe I should have used butter instead of shortening. They weren't light and flaky...but they weren't exactly hockey pucks either. Maybe practice makes perfect? I'll just have to keep trying. Anyone with any tips out there they would be greatly appreciated.

I only had half a roll of sausage, this is Jimmy Dean sausage. I think maybe I would have preferred a spicier sausage but maybe that's my Hispanic side coming out. Tips of what type of sausage would also be appreciated.

All in all, they were pretty good. My mom who is a very picky and finicky eater ate a whole biscuit with quite a bit of sausage and gravy. I thought they were great and thought maybe they would be better with plain ole Grands store bought biscuits, but NO...I want to learn to make a light and flaky biscuit.

This next lovely dish is a meal my daughter prepared for herself in her own new little apartment and I'm so proud. She's really a pretty good cook, actually a pretty good baker, but she's turning into a pretty good cook. Doesn't that look yummy? The chicken is one I make that she loves. I call it Chicken Medallion, she calls it Sriricha Chicken and it's sauted with Sriricha Hot sauce. It's spicy and delicious. I just take the medallions of chicken and saute them in a pan with some oil, garlic powder, seasoning salt and pepper. When they're browned I add Soy Sauce and the Sriricha Sauce. Simple and spicy and tasty!

And that's my foodie post. I'm linking up to Designs by Gollum's Foodie Friday. Be sure you stop by and see what's cooking with everyone else! Happy Friday!

Tamale Tradition for Christmas

You start with this. Garlic, lots of Garlic!

Then you do this. A Garlic shake you ask? Well, sort of, but keep reading and you will see.


Something with a little more color gets blended in. What kind of shake is this?

Ok, so a huge rectangular pan with that red shake in it. Hmmmm, what could all this mean?



A random hand shredding meat? Looks like a little of beef and a little of pork.

Ohhhh, so that's what the red garlicky mixture is for. It's for the beef and pork to swim in and blend and gather the flavors of each other and the garlic. Great idea!

Another random hand with a spoon (my mother's beautiful hands). And another big bowl. This one looks like a big lump of some kind of dough (masa) and spoonfuls of some white, creamy stuff. Whipped cream? Nope...Manteca (Lard)

Ah Ha! Now the random hands have faces. My sister Lisa and my mom. Looks like we're adding salt to the mixture.

A pretty picture with my pretty Christmas Tree in the background and my pretty sister and mom in the foreground. Looks like Mom is adding some spiciness to the mixture, some red chili powder. Wonder where she's going with this mixture. Not brownies, that's for sure!

Ok, some more creamy white stuff. You don't see this cook using measuring cups and spoons. No sirree, this is all years and years of experience you see here.

Another pair of random hands mixing this all up. This seems to be a very hands on group of cooks!

So now we're taking the left over broth the meat was cooked in and adding it to the mix. Yikes!

And Lisa says, "I'm done". Mom holds up the arms of the champion helper.

But where am I? Well I was hoping being the official photographer would keep me from having to lend a hand, but alas...we all have to take our turn. Do I look happy to have my hands in this ooey, gooey mixture?

Back to the meat mixture on the stove. Mmmmm, ok, so now the flavors and the colors have blended. Could we be close to seeing what all this work is going to produce?

I tell you, I could just eat this whole thing with a spoon. Someone STOP ME!

Is this it? Is this the finished product? No...can't be. Why that's just a big bowl of dough (masa) and a bowl of black olives and some of the beef/pork red chili mixture. So what do we do with this now?

Little sister Lisa seems to be experienced in what to use these items for. Ok...so I see she has a corn husk in the left hand and she's smoothing some of the masa onto it with a spoon.

And Voila! The finished product. A red chili beef/pork/black olive T.A.M.A.L.E. That spells delicious Christmas food to me!

Lisa is GOOD! She's got quite the assembly line going. Good thing they have an official photographer :-)

All lined up and ready for a steamy bath.


There's an art to packing Tamales in the Tamale Pot. The Tamales don't get boiled or baked...they get steamed. I get steamed sometimes too, but that's a whole different story!

See that thing with the holes in it? That sits up on a little ledge formed into the pot which lets the tamales sit about 2 or 3 inches above the boiling water that gently steams them until they're cooked. Ingenious!

And this...this lovely, delicious, perfect item is what comes of all this work. The perfect Tamale.
The Christmas Tamale. Oh yes, other's may have their perfect Christmas Ham/Duck/Turkey/Pot Roast/Tuna Sandwich...whatever. But to our family there is nothing like the Christmas Tamale.

Was it worth it ladies? Ladies? LADIES!!! Ok, see...they aren't listening. They are way too busy just enjoying their tamales.

And the brains behind this operation? Yep, mom. She's been making tamales for Christmas as long as I can remember. And every year she says, "Next year we aren't making Tamales, it's too much work". And every year right after Thanksgiving Dinner she's asking, "So when are we getting together to make Tamales?"

Thank you mom. Long after Lisa has gone home and the official photographer has drifted off to go blog, you continue on. Packing the next batch of Tamales and the next and the next. Enough so that each of your kids and grand-kids has enough to eat at Christmas and enough to take home to enjoy throughout the rest of the holiday. We love you mom. Thank you for always having the strength and the love to make our Christmas Tamale dreams come true.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I know it was long, with lots of pictures but Tamale making is not for the feint of heart. It's a longgggggggg drawn out process. I'm linking up to Designs by Gollum for Foodie Friday.

Once you go Black...You never go Back!

So today for lunch I had one of these . . .(ok, two, but who's counting?)


That's a Black Jack Taco from Taco Bell; and it is delicious! And right now only 89 cents!

As you can see by the little label it's a "crunchy black taco shell filled with seasoned beef, zesty pepper jack sauce, shredded lettuce and a blend of three cheeses - cheddar, pepper jack and mozzarella!"

And this is just my unsolicited opinion. Trust me, Taco Bell has no interest in my humble opinion :-)

If you try one, let me know. It's a bit strange to see a black taco, but its perfect for the Halloween season. Have a great weekend all! My daughter will be home this weekend and we plan on hitting the pumpkin patch and I plan on baking pumpkin bread! What are your plans?

Oh, and before I forget, be sure to go and visit all the people that have linked up to Design by Gollum for Foodie Friday. I believe my Black Taco qualifies as food, don't you?