I make no claim to the title of Nacho Elitist; I'll eat 'em even if they're microwaved, smothered in fake cheese, and soggy-bottomed-- they are nachos, after all. But I do have to say that sometimes you have to splurge a little and do nachos the right way, and yes, there is a right way. The Right Way™...
Search Results for: spicy
Mexican Brick Chicken with Grilled Corn and Avocados
Say hello to the debunker of the Beer Can Chicken craze. You may think you know the tastiest way to grill a whole chicken, but I'm about to cast some doubt and introduce you to this delicious, crispy, juicy, spicy, delicious (again for emphasis) Mexican Brick Chicken with Grilled Corn and Avocados.
30 Minute Thai Beef Stir Fry with Sriracha Roasted Peanuts
The toothpaste is out of the tube, and there's no putting it back. Not that anyone would want to. Thai food has been in the US since long before I was born. It was largely introduced when Vietnam War soldiers were on R&R in Thailand and enjoyed local dishes, fell for the women who prepared them, and brought...
Cornbread Salad with Jalapeño-Browned Butter Vinaigrette
Usually when I hear the words "cornbread" and "dressing" together, I have Thanksgiving flashbacks. But not today. Today, I'm having flashbacks to a weekend barbecue when I served up some Cornbread Salad with Jalapeño-Browned Butter Vinaigrette, which-- with its ton of toasty sweet cornbread, creamy avocado, melted cheddar cheese, fresh corn, juicy popped tomatoes, and sweet,...
Smoky Shrimp Pasta Salad with Chipotle-Honey Vinaigrette
This Smoky Shrimp Pasta Salad with Chipotle Dressing is about to make a lot of people reaaaal popular this summer.
4 Must-Make Salsas
Can we have a moment of silence for all of the snack aisle salsas that'll get tossed from the refrigerator shelves to the trash bins right after people have a taste of these aptly named, homemade, Must-Make Salsas?
Slow Cooker Smothered Beef Burritos
The only limes that I've been able to find throughout the past few weeks of recipe-making have been intimidatingly large. As in REALLY HUGE. As in close your eyes and picture a softball, but then imagine that it has a green rind surrounding it-- that's what these limes look like. They kind of freak me out ("but WHY are they so big?"),...
Crunchy Mexican BBQ Sauced Chicken Tacos with Charred Corn Relish
I feel like you're giving me a weird look right now. Is it because when you envision sweet and smoky, barbecue sauce-smothered chicken with fresh-off-the-cob corn, you're usually not thinking of tacos? I feel you, friend. I do. But these Crunchy Mexican BBQ Sauced Chicken Tacos with Charred Corn Relish are about to change your WORLD.
Creamy Three Cheese Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas
When I first started coming up with recipes for my upcoming Cinco de Mayo / birthday fiesta, I was all set on only including authentic Mexican recipes. I researched meticulously, I took notes, I ordered special ingredients online... aaaand theeeeen these Creamy Three Cheese Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas happened. Sometimes you just gotta follow your heart.
Jalapeño Popper Chorizo Taquitos with Creamy Avocado Sauce
I originally made these Jalapeño Popper Chorizo Taquitos with Creamy Avocado Sauce to prepare for my Cinco de Mayo / birthday party. I figured I could make them now, freeze them, and be ahead of the game for once. Like that would ever happen.
Caramelized Pineapple and Jalapeño Margaritas
My birthday is 2 weeks before Cinco de Mayo, yet it took me nearly 26 years to realize that throwing a combination party stocked with salsas and overflowing with margaritas would be right up my alley. Apparently, it is also right up the alley of far more friends than I ever thought would RSVP, and now the...
Southwestern Chicken and Sweet Potato Skillet
Have you been keeping up with things around here? If so, you already know that James and I moved in together last month, and so far it's been a meltdown-free experience so I'm going to label it a success. As I write this, I'm sitting on our nicely made bed with our new sheets, comforter, pillows,...
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Noodle Soup
January is always a month of confusion for me-- How long will it take me to remember to write "/16" when I'm jotting down the date? When did it get so cold? When did my jeans get so snug? And on that note, will I flood the blog with healthy recipes? Or should I focus on fattier (and far...
Sweet Chili Crab Dip
Sure, I sometimes like to go all out, but I much more often prefer some demi-cheeked fanciness. Bringing out the nice wine glasses with the takeout Chinese food, the nail polish stickers that make it look like you went to the salon recently, nibbling on Texas caviar, you know, that kind of stuff. It's really all about enjoying...
Chorizo, Caramelized Onion, and Poblano Sausage Rolls with Creamy Cilantro Dip
I have an almost impressive ability to polish off whole trays of pigs in a blanket in seconds flat. It's not at all uncommon to catch me lingering by the appetizer spread at a party, eradicating the bite-sized cocktail sausages before anyone else gets an opportunity to enjoy them. I try to be discreet. I try to have...
Salted Caramel Crunch Cookies
I realize that this is the second post in a row that has "Crunch" in the title. But honestly, who doesn't want a crunchy exterior surrounding their chicken, or some crunchy mix-ins in their cookie dough? After all, if flavor is the leading role, then texture is the director. Did you know that texture actually largely...
Jalapeno Pinto Bean "Hummus"
If you asked me to describe hummus, I'd tell you that it was a creamy dip made mainly of chickpeas and tahini. Yet here I am, calling this pinto bean and jalapeno-packed dip by that name, even though it has neither chickpeas nor tahini in it. What gives? Well, flavor and texture-wise, Jalapeno Pinto Bean...
Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Peppers
I can feel football season in the air. It's coming. I keep hearing whispers of fantasy football drafts, predictions for the season, and plans for tailgates, and I am beyond excited. Not because of some burning, deep-in-my-soul love for the game (although I have to admit, I get a little bit intense when the season heats up),...
Crispy Tabasco Zucchini Chips
I'm a snacker. I could eat the most amazing meals all day long but still feel lost without something salty to munch on in-between. This, unfortunately, does not always make it easy to stay in the same pant size, if you know what I'm saying. I have a tendency to blissfully eat an entire bag...
Chipotle Chicken Fried Rice
I have a weakness for Chinese takeout, especially with a heaping side of soy sauce-drenched fried rice. In fact, I always order extra so that I can eat the leftovers for lunch the next day... or two... or three. What can I say? I really like fried rice. So when I was asked to participate in the...
Slow Cooker Korean Sloppy Joes
My obsession with fusion food started when I was still living in New Brunswick, taste-testing my way through the town one drunk-friendly food truck or mini restaurant at a time. Out of all of the food NB had to offer, it was a Korean BBQ fusion restaurant that stole my heart and wooed my tastebuds....
Crispy Salami Chips with Warm Muffuletta Dip
You know how, on the best pizza slices, the pepperoni forms little cups that get super crunchy along the edges and it's the most delicious thing to ever happen to cured meat? Or when you get the entire strip of bacon (including the fatty streaks) to get crispy without burning it, and it's like a...
Pambazos (Mexican Salsa-Dunked Sandwiches)
I can't help but pronounce "Pambazos" with a very exaggerated, stereotypical Italian-American accent. Pam-BAAAH-zos! Even though I know that Pambazos are not Italian. Even though I know that they're named after "pan basso". Still, it's pam-BAAAH-zos every time. But what is a Pambazo? It's a guajillo salsa-dunked sandwich that's traditionally filled with spicy chorizo and potatoes. In...
Crock Pot Chicken Tinga Tacos with Bacon Pico De Gallo
Happy Cinco de Mayo! How are you going to celebrate? (Pssst! If you're not planning on eating tacos tonight, it's time to reevaluate your choices.) Lately I've been absolutely swamped with things to do, so I've been trying to be a bit minimalistic in the kitchen. Simple recipes with a relatively short list of ingredients...
Slow Cooker Thai Chicken and Noodles
When I was in college, if you asked me what I'd like to eat, the answer was always "Thai food". There was a little restaurant in the corner of a strip mall that was tucked behind the highway, with a big sign on the front window that boasted "The Best Thai Cuisine in Town"-- rightfully...
Sofritas Tofu Burrito Bowls
As a lover of bacon, pulled pork, and burgers, a lot of people find it surprising when I say that I also adore tofu. Or maybe I should say I adore good tofu. Tofu gets a bad wrap from the many people who don't know how to properly prepare the wiggly soybean curd, leaving a lot of people to think...
Slow Cooker Sweet Heat Kielbasa Dip
Happy Friday! Happy Super Bowl Weekend! Happy birthday to my wonderful hand model / reflector board holder / taste-tester / incredibly patient boyfriend! Such skill. Look at the finesse with which James shows off this Slow Cooker Sweet Heat Kielbasa Dip. Truly a thing of beauty. I'm not sure if I'm talking about his hand or the...
Cheesy Chorizo Cornbread Balls with Chipotle Dipping Sauce
If you're anything like me in the way that your one, truest of all true loves happens to be Mexican food, and your second truest of all true loves happens to be appetizers in their many forms, then do I have a treat for you! Also, we have a lot in common. We may be kindred...
One Pot Creamy Chicken Marsala Pasta
Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down. And I'd like to take a minute, just take a seat, I'll tell you how to make an easy dish everyone will want to eat. Iiiiiin a really large pot, with the burners ablaze, and boiling water, is where my pasta...
Crock Pot Kung Pao Chicken
This time of year, the Crock Pot and One Pot recipes look more and more appealing. I want as much flavor with as little effort as humanly possible when the holidays approach and the temperature plummets. This time of year, I don't have the time or the energy to do much that doesn't revolve around Christmas...
One Pot Greek Chicken Pasta with Creamy Feta Wine Sauce
Back when I was in college, my signature dish was Pasta Greco, an easy-to-make Greek-inspired pasta dish that I adapted from a local restaurant. When James and I were in the wee-beginning of our relationship and I was just beginning to realize that I could, in fact, make my own food instead of spending all...
Baked Sweet Chili Garlic Popcorn Chicken
Believe it or not, in between chowing down on all things cheesy or chocolaty that I put up here, I try to make healthy choices. Well, at least sometimes. And I know that a lot of you are right there with me, trying to keep your snacking down and your salad-consumption up. However, just because...
Mexican Stuffed Peppers (Chorizo-Stuffed Poblanos)
Do you want to know the absolute worst part of being a food blogger? I hope you said yes; I'm going to assume you said yes. The WORST part of food blogging is that you almost never have the time to make a recipe more than once or twice. Think about it-- you spend all...
Mango Chile Glazed Shrimp
After an hour of blow-drying and flat-ironing, I've got Medusa-head going on within 30 seconds of walking outside. I can feel that August is just around the corner-- that glorious month of hair-ruining humidity. Yes, August, when we finally come to terms with the fact that we never prepared for swimsuit season. Even well into swimsuit season, we...
Blackened Fish Tacos with Avocado-Cilantro Sauce
I come from a family of avid taco lovers. We eat tacos of some sort at least twice a week (in fact, we had tacos last night), and every single week, when I ask my brother what I should make for the blog, he tells me to make tacos. The only thing that rivals my...
One Pot Cheesy Chicken Taco Rice
"One Pot" recipes have become favorites of mine, since a) I hate washing dishes and b) I hate washing dishes. By the way, did I mention that I hate washing dishes? Because I do. I hate it. But you know what I don't hate? Delicious chicken, beans, corn, rice, tomato, avocado, onions, and cheese all cooked together in...
One Pot Roasted Red Pepper and Sausage Alfredo
You know that feeling when you're working on something and you're like 75% sure it's not going to turn out well for one reason or another? That's how I felt about this One Pot Roasted Red Pepper and Sausage Alfredo. I should have been more confident, I guess, since the One Pot Spicy Chicken Riggies...
Chicken, Spinach, & Poblano Empanadas with Avocado-Jalapeno Dip
It's been an exciting week for me. My cousin Ashley, who I've mentioned a couple times since I started posting on this blog, got married on Saturday. I don't know if I'm more excited about that or absolutely freaked out that I'm now at the age where my friends are all getting married (I have...
Chili Rubbed Steak Tacos with Chimichurri
If you've hung around here long enough, you know that I already made Steak Tacos a little over a year ago. And if you've ever met my boyfriend, James, you probably know that they were his favorite meal I've ever made. That's really a big deal considering I do this for a living. The man has...
Chorizo Green Chile Breakfast Skillet
I can usually tell by 8AM what the rest of the day is going to be like. If I only have time for a granola bar or coffee for breakfast, it's gonna be a struggle. If I have, say, a Chorizo Green Chile Breakfast Skillet, I'm going to spend the rest of the day giddy...