In many of my posts, I’m sure you’ll see me talk about my love of Mexican food, so here is one of the staples in my house that adds delicious flare to all of our favorite Mexican dishes!
It’s my momma’s salsa!
This is one recipe I know by heart and can make in my sleep. Anytime we are invited to a family gathering or cookout, I’m asked to bring salsa!
This recipe can be edited to make it spicier or milder, based on your taste. If you like your salsa with a spicy kick, use a fresh jalapeño and leave some or all of the seeds from your jalapeño in the mix. If you prefer a milder salsa, you can use a fresh jalapeño but omit the seeds.
If you’re using canned tomatoes, you can use a can of mild diced tomato and green chili and not use a fresh pepper.
This recipe is really versatile and can be made with either canned tomatoes or fresh, depending on what you have on hand. When I made the salsa for our taco bar this weekend, I didn’t have any fresh tomatoes so I used canned tomatoes with green chilis and it turned out wonderfully!
For this batch, I used canned tomatoes with green chilis
(If you’re using fresh tomatoes, I do recommend peeling them first for a smoother consistency. I have a super easy method I will share in a future post.)
Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until the consistency you like! For super chunky salsa, it only takes a few pulses. For picky eaters like my crew, I blend until totally smooth!
Ready to blend!
I love to make this recipe in bulk and can it and have on hand anytime we like!
Ingredients:
1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilis
1 can whole peeled tomatoes with juice
2 Tbsp minced dried onion
OR
3-4 fresh peeled tomatoes
1/2 – 1 small fresh jalapeño, depending on how spicy you’d like it
In our family, Taco Tuesday is a tradition that doesn’t often get bypassed! Even the pickiest of the Lawsons love Mexican food!
I usually brown some lean ground beef or even ground deer, turkey, or chicken and season with our favorite taco seasoning. I lay out a variety of toppings from shredded cheese, fresh tomatoes, sour cream, avocado, and any peppers we have ready from our garden!
I will steam some flour tortillas and everyone lines up and builds their own favorite creations!
Sometimes, in addition to our standard tacos, I will make homemade salsa or even some homemade enchiladas.
These enchiladas are wonderful and easy! They can be served fresh, or can be frozen in these handy aluminum pans with these lids for a quick and easy meal later!
18-24 Corn tortillas
2 pounds of browned Taco meat
1 large can Enchilada sauce (you can use canned, or homemade, my recipe is coming soon!)
3-4 cups Shredded cheddar cheese
This is super easy and so yummy!
Spread a small amount of enchilada sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish.
Starting the first layer
Layer tortillas, beef, shredded cheese and repeat until out of tortillas. Sprinkle more shredded cheese on top.
Ready for the oven!
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until cheese is melty and bubbly!
Ya’ll, my family’s love of tacos runs deep, so of course, a taco bar is my go to menu when we have people over for parties, football games, or any other family gathering!
Getting set up for tacos!
I love doing tacos because of the variety that pleases many tastes, as well as the ease and ability to prep everything ahead of time which enables me to enjoy the function instead of spending the entire time in the kitchen. Win win!
Here is a list of what I include:
Taco meat
Spanish Rice
Refried Beans
Black beans
Cheese dip (type recipe)
(I make these first five items ahead and leave in a crockpot on “Warm”)
I will turn my oven on very low and keep some crunchy taco shells there so they stay warm and fresh throughout the game!
I will also keep flour and corn tortillas set up with a steam rack and a pan of water simmering so we can steam a fresh tortilla before making a plate.
Getting ready to steam tortillas!
The day before I will grab serving bowls and fill with these toppings and cover so all I have to do is set them out right when it’s time to eat!
This is always such a hit with our family because it caters to such a wide variety of tastes. People can add as much or as little of the various toppings they like, and the leftovers are just as delicious the next day and it saves this busy momma from cooking!
Sometimes, if we are having a big crowd, or if I want to have more variety, I will thaw one of my make ahead Beef Enchilada Casseroles and serve as well!
Easy Beef Enchilada Casserole
What are your favorite taco bar items? I am always adding or taking away toppings based on our tastes at the time, so comment or message me and share your ideas!
I don’t know about you, but there are days full of chasing kids, working, cleaning, errands…never ending lists of to-do’s and dinner is the last thing on my mind until everyone is starving and I have nothing prepared!
What do you do?
Drive through another fast food place and spend way too much money filling your kids up on junk?
Order pizza again?
I have a better idea!
With a few bucks and an hour or so, I can prepare a few casseroles that can sit in my fridge and be popped in the oven and ready in 20 minutes, or even frozen for later use!
This last weekend, I decided to do a big meal prepping session! I spent about 3 hours in the kitchen and ended up with 12 casseroles, 3 full sized chicken pot pies, 3 mini chicken pot pies, 4 pear pies (I shared with my neighbors so they’re not all pictured!), two bags of frozen vegetable beef soup, and pear pie filling for future fried pies!
Our freezer is full and so will our bellies be when we thaw and serve these amazing meals!
Meal prepping can be done in small batches or in one big batch like I did this time.
When I’m doing casseroles, it saves me tons of time and work when I cook all of my meats at the same time. Regardless of how many casseroles I’m making with taco meat, I cook it all together and divide out as equally as possible. The measurements aren’t exact, but that’s ok! These dishes come out perfect anyway!
I will cook my chicken in the instant pot because, well, let’s be honest…I never remember to thaw it in time, and it can be cooked from frozen in the instant pot and takes very little time.
I also save a lot of time and work by shredding my chicken in my stand mixer. I can’t imagine how long it would take me to hand shred or dice enough chicken for a dozen casseroles! This method is super easy. Simply put your cooked chicken breasts in the stand mixer bowl with the dough hook attachment, and turn on low until the meat is all broken up like this! Fast and easy!
Shredding chicken in the mixer saves so much time!
It’s great for pulled pork, too!
I also use my mixer to combine my casserole ingredients, dump into the aluminum pan, cover with cheese, label and place the lid on top, and freeze. It’s super quick and easy!
Here are a few of my family’s favorite meals to freeze. Full recipes and tips coming soon!
Here in Arkansas, the temperature is hovering steady around a million degrees…ok, fine, it’s around 100 degrees but it feels like a million with this humidity!
The electric bill will cost a small fortune because it’s going non-stop in order to keep us comfortable because we dare not go outside unless life depends on it! This has me wishing for and anticipating all things fall!
Today I bought some “Pumpkin Farm” wax melts at the grocery store and I’m already planning my fall decor and my Razorback football Saturday menus. This has me thinking about delicious desserts that I love to make for our family when we have company over for football games.
One of the favorite desserts I make and is almost always requested by my brother is homemade apple pie! I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but I can’t. It’s been handed down for several generations in our family and was taught to me by my great grandmother.
She was the middle child in her family, so at the age of 7 she was responsible for cooking and cleaning and babysitting her younger siblings while her parents and older three siblings worked their farm.
When Mamaw taught me to cook, I was around 8 years old. She had about 75 years of cooking under her belt at that time, so I think she’s the best teacher I could’ve had! I spent years learning to make this apple pie, and that’s no joke! It’s because my Mamaw never measured anything! She “eyeballed” it all and would tell me things like “use about an egg sized scoop of shortening”. What’s an 8 year old modern day kid knows about that?!
So fast forward many years and many failed pies later, I finally mastered the art and got Mamaw’s thumbs up approval when I was about 18 years old. Only a decade of learning, so not too bad, huh?!
During this process I wrote down actual measurements and adjusted after each pie until she finally told me the final product was right, so I will share the recipe with you!
Before I start the process of pie making, I always prepare my work surface and lay out all of my ingredients so the process flows more smoothly and I make as little mess as possible with my messy hands! And I’m quite a messy cook anyway, if I’m being honest!
I lay out my silicone mat, my Mamaw’s wooden rolling pin, all of my crust ingredients, and most importantly, a cup of ice water. Not cold water, actual ice water! This is a must for delicious flaky crust!
One of the keys to the perfect pie crust is handling it as little as possible, and that’s why I love using a silicone mat to roll my pie crust on. It helps peel and fold it without as many tears when I go to move it into the pie plate, which prevents me from having to overwork the dough. It also requires less flouring than a countertop so I don’t dry my crust too much.
If you do take multiple attempts to perfect this process, don’t stress it. Your dough won’t be as flaky and may be a little more tough, but it will still be delicious! Practice makes perfect and the more you make this crust, the better you’ll get at it!
I start my measuring my flour, shortening and salt and cut them together using a pastry cutter like this.
This is the part that takes practice because I cut it until the mix is pretty crumbly. I don’t really have a scientific measurable description, but this picture may help!
Starting to crumble
I will usually grab a small handful of this crumbly mix and squeeze. If it holds together, then I know it’s ready. If it still crumbles, you may need to add a little more shortening.
Ready to squeeze!
Perfect!
At this point, I add my ice water and continue to mix with the pastry cutter until it’s sticking together. I then use my hands to finish incorporating the mixture into a ball but try to not over handle. I then use a knife to cut the ball in half. One half will be the bottom crust and one the top crust.
(This recipe makes enough for two crusts, so for pies that only require a bottom crust, you can use this recipe for two pies, or you can freeze half for later use. Our apple pie requires a top and bottom crust so this recipe makes one apple pie.)
I set out one half of the dough ball on a lightly floured silicone mat and sprinkle a little flour on top of the ball and on my rolling pin. I then roll the dough almost paper thin, making sure it’s big enough to cover and overlap my pie plate. I prefer using glass pie plates, but when I’m gifting pies, the do fine in the aluminum disposable plates like these.
My 6 year old is a big help when it comes to making pies!
Very carefully I will fold the crust (using the mat to help me) in half, and then in half again, making a small triangle that I can easily transfer into my pie plate and gently unfold, in order to cover the plate. Now the bottom crust is done and ready to be filled!
Now I preheat my oven to 300 degrees and clean up my mess from crust making and start to prepare my pie filling.
This part can actually be done ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator overnight or can even be frozen or canned for future use. Sometimes I will even make several whole pies and freeze those as well!
I use 4-5 apples depending on size, and spice them very thin. The variety isn’t very important. I’ve used red delicious, gala, fugi and many others and the pie always comes out perfectly!
Slicing these apples very thin is crucial and you don’t want to get lazy on this part! I’ve had some delicious apple pies with awful texture because of huge chunks of apples that don’t cook unevenly. In fact, my Mamaw used to tell me over and over “paper fine, sis…paper fine” when I would lazily start slicing the apples a bit thicker to save time!
After your apples are peeled and sliced, I add the peels and cores to a bowl for my chickens to enjoy, but they’re excellent for compost too! Then place in a large mixing bowl where you will add thinly sliced softened butter, sugar, flour, and apple pie spice and gently stir until well incorporated.
Now you can dump this into your bottom crust and repeat the process for rolling out the top crust.
Gently fold and place the top crust over the pie using the same method we used for the bottom crust, and use your fingers to pinch the two layers together all around the pie.
Ready to bake!
Now use a sharp knife to trim off excess crust, cut a few vent holes in the top of the pie, and bake for about an hour and 15 minutes, depending on your oven. Some ovens I’ve been able to pull them out at an hour and 15 minutes, some have taken a full 20-30 minutes longer, so just keep an eye on it. The finished product will be a light shade of brown and your house will smell amazing!
Baking and making the house smell amazing!
As tempting as it may be, don’t cut right into your pie. Let it cool for about 20-30 minutes just to let the center set so it doesn’t run and make your crust soggy.
If you have frozen your pie before baking, don’t thaw it. Place it directly from the freezer into the preheated oven and bake it for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, watching the color of the crust.
I hope your family loves this delicious recipe as much as mine does!
Feel free to message me or comment if you have any questions. I would love to help if you need me to!
