Taco Cake

I found another winning recipe on Facebook a few weeks ago. If you love Mexican food—tacos in particular, I think you'll like this variation on regular tortilla tacos.

The only thing is that it's quite time-consuming. There's a lot of chopping and slicing to get the mise-en-place right.

I also spent quite a bit of time stacking the layers, trying to get the ingredients distributed evenly, all the way out to the edges. Didn't do too great a job; consequently, my "cake" bulged in the middle and sloped down the sides.

Yet, I will say it was delicious. I mean, what the heck, it was a giant taco and I love tacos!

Ingredients  

• FLOUR TORTILLAS, 5, 10"
• GROUND BEEF, 1-1/2 pounds
• TACO SEASONING MIX, 1 package 
• BEEF STOCK, 2/3 cup
• CORN NIBLETS, 1/2 cup
• CHERRY TOMATOES, 1 cup, diced
• BLACK OLIVES, 1 can, chopped
• GREEN ONIONS, 1/2 cup, finely sliced 
• CHEDDAR CHEESE, 1 cup, shredded
• SOUR CREAM

 Directions 

1. Brown the ground beef, drain fat.
2. Add taco seasoning and beef stock. Cook down 5-10 minutes.
3. Spoon a couple of ladles of the beef mix onto a tortilla.
4. Sprinkle on about 1/4 of the corn, tomatoes, olives, green onions and cheese.
5. Repeat 3 more times.
6. Top with the final tortilla and sprinkle on the remaining beef mixture and cheese.
7. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes.
8. Serve with sour cream, and salsa or pico de gallo.

Punahou Portuguese Bean Soup

Every year during the annual Punahou School Carnival weekend, my son brings home a container of Portuguese bean soup from the carnival. They’re pretty famous, you know—the carnival and the bean soup.

I got to hankering for some bean soup a short while back, and looked up the recipe. It had one ingredient I’ve never put in my Portuguese bean soup before: Potatoes. So anyway, I thought I’d give it a try, tweaking it a tiny bit to my tastebuds’ expectations. Plus, it gave me a chance to use my new veggie chopper that I bought from a Facebook ad.

You know what? I like it! The soup and the chopper. Therefore, it’s the recipe I’ll be using from now-on-in, and I’ve thrown my old recipe away.

Just so you know, this recipe makes a lot of soup—at least a gallon, maybe more.

Ingredients 

• HAM BONE/HOCKS, 1-2 pounds
• KIDNEY BEANS, two 15-ounce cans
• POTATOES, 2 large, cubed
• CARROTS, 3 large, diced
• ONION, 1 medium, chopped
• CRUSHED TOMATOES, one 16-ounce can
• TOMATO SAUCE, one 16-ounce can
• PORTUGUESE/LINGUISA SAUSAGE, at least 1 pound sliced in circles
• ELBOW MACARONI, 1 cup uncooked
• GARLIC, 2 cloves
• SUGAR, 1 teaspoon
• SALT, 1 teaspoon
• PEPPER, 1/2 teaspoon
• CABBAGE, 1 medium head, cubed

Directions 

1. Boil ham hocks or ham bone in 2 quarts of water, about an hour, until tender (save the stock). Cut meat from the bones, chop up.
2. Bring ham stock back to a boil; chopped meat and all the remaining ingredients except the cabbage.
3. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring frequently.
4. If too thick, add a little water.
5. Add the cabbage, cook another half-hour until tender.
6. Taste for seasoning, and add more salt and pepper if needed.

Cranberry Walnut Bread

First, a caveat. I made this loaf in David Howard’s Handmade Stoneware Pottery, which I ordered from his Gatlinburg, TN, store.

You can find him online at http://www.dhowardpottery.net/ or call him at (865) 430-3387. Or, if you want to go the old-fashioned snail mail route, write him at 170 Gatlinburg, TN 37738.

You’ll get it in about a month (Hey! It’s handmade, y’know).

Instead of sifting the flour, I whisked vigorously with a wire whisk. The object of whisking is to loosen, aerate and separate the flour; since I was going to use a whisk anyway, why use a sifter or sieve and have another implement to wash later?

I couldn’t find the recommended Cran-Fruit© at the supermarket, so I substituted dried cranberries and soaked them in sherry to rehydrate them. HINT: Use good sherry, and don’t throw it away after you’ve soaked the cranberries. Save it to use in other dishes, if you can resist drinking it. I drank mine while waiting for the bread to bake. Little sips … it’s delicious!

I put the bread maker on a wire cooking rack on top of a cookie sheet to make sliding into the oven easier. Make sure to lower the oven backing rack so the top won’t brown too quickly.

Ingredients 

• SELF-RISING FLOUR, 2 cups sifted
• LEMON ZEST, 1 lemon
• SUGAR, 2/3 cup
• EGGS, 2, slightly beaten
• CRAN-FRUIT©, cranberry-orange, 1 container
• (Substitution: DRIED CRANBERRIES, 2 small 1-counce boxes, soaked in sherry and roughly chopped)
• CHOPPED WALNUTS, 1 cup
• BUTTER, ½ cup (1 stick), melted
• MILK, ¼ cup

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Lower the oven baking rack so the bread top won’t brown too quickly.
3. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, zest and sugar).
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly until blended.
5. Spray the inside of a bread maker (or loaf pan) with non-stick cooking spray.
6. Pour the batter into the bread maker.
7. Bake for 60 minutes.
8. Remove from bread maker and cool on a wire cooking rack.