The Need for Comfort over Authentic: Dad’s Mexican-Inspired Skillet Taco

Skillet Taco with Brown Rice

Everyone has a cheap, quick comfort food dish from childhood memories. Mine is Dad’s Skillet taco recipe. Perhaps, Mom occasionally made it, too. It a classic 1970s dish. It was taco seasoning mixed into ground beef scrapped to the center of the skillet. White rice surrounded the beef. Shredded iceberg lettuce layered the rice. Gooey, melted, shredded cheddar cheese topped the meat, and the dish was finished with plain chopped tomatoes. What I remember most about this dish: Always wanting more cheese.

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Parade.com: A Happy Lunch to Go in a Mason Jar

"Mason Jar Salads" by Julia Mirabella

The minister of my church once asked all the lawyers present to stand up. Nobody stood. “They’re all working. I should know, because I know the lawyers who are members of this church,” the minister reasoned. As an attorney, Julia Mirabella finds time to write a food blog at MyFoodandOtherStuff.com between long hours at the office analyzing data on computer screens and reading mile-high stacks of documents and forms.

While wisely managing time, Mirabella discovered the art of fine dining in a mason jar. To save time and money during the weekdays, she would concurrently pack several lunches in jars during the weekend. Once she mastered the technique of layering ingredients (such as placing vinaigrette at the bottom of the jars to avoid soggy salad leaves), she wrote a cookbook, Mason Jar Salads.

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Say Yassss to Spring

Baked Eggs in Harissa Spice Tomatoes Sauce with Quinoa and Kale

Say yasssssss to Spring being around the corner, especially after we had one too many snowstorms this past winter. As I’m writing this, we’re due for another snowstorm (or dusting) the next day. Usually my refrigerator is packed with flour, buttermilk, orange juice, eggs and maple syrup for a pancake breakfast. This time, there will be no pancakes to celebrate another snowflake.

Overlooking the buttermilk, I remove left over red quinoa from a salad made earlier in the week. I find other ingredients for a quick breakfast: Crisp baby kale, a new jar of harissa spice, fresh thyme and plenty of eggs. On a whim, a savory tomato and egg dish with a bit of harissa spice was made.

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Chicken and Roast Eggplant-Tomato Tacos with Turnip Salsa

Chicken, Roast Eggplant-Tomatoes Tacos with Turnip Salsa

It’s quite sad that vegetables are considered boring and bland. Truthfully, that’s how it’s presented. A former co-worker and I were at a buffet. It had fried and barbecue chicken, rice and peas, mac and cheese, and all the delicious ceremonial dishes. In the midst of the buffet was the notorious tasteless vegetable platter with grape tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and green bell pepper. Usually, there’s a gooey ranch dressing in the center of the platter. Honestly, I skip over the vegetable tray. The dry taste is not worth the “must-eat-your-vegetables” guilt. As my co-worker grabbed a few pieces, she said, “…Must take a few ‘feel good’ vegetables, but no one ever wants to eat them.” As predicted, the lightly nibbled vegetables were scraped into the garbage when she was done eating. Read more

Fried Sage and Green Tomatoes

Fried Green Tomatoes and Sage
Fried Green Tomatoes and Sage

Who knew that fried sage and fried green tomatoes would balance each other so well? The combination of flavors is a great idea. An earlier attempt of frying sage leaves wasn’t successful. The leaves burned away. This time, as the last of the green tomato slices were frying, sage that was freshly picked the night before was added to the skillet. The second attempt of frying sage leaves was successful. The first time the sage leaves were fried, they weren’t completely dried. Oil and water doesn’t mix. It’s a basic cooking chemistry rule. Experimentation is part of the creative process of learning and relearning new ideas. Read more