Tortillas and Honey

Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes The Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes have been such a huge hit that I decided to make them again for a party my family had over the weekend. When my mom told me that I should double the recipe, I thought that I would try one batch with the original recipe and the other batch using a different type of fruit. I decided to go with blueberries. My 14-year old cousin, Belle, came over to help me make the cupcakes. She had never made cupcakes from scratch before, let alone a double batch, so she was in for a surprise! First we made the batch of strawberry cupcakes, rested and ordered a pizza and watched "Walking Dead." Then we started on the second batch of cupcakes with the blueberries. I originally thought that 4 dozen cupcakes (2 strawberry and 2 blueberry) would be way too much, but between people eating them and taking them home, we ended up with less than 10 leftover! So I guess it is a good thing I doubled the recipe! The blueberry che...

Pan-Seared Blackened Pork Chops I've been making this recipe for Pan-Seared Blackened Pork Chops for the past couple years. It was the first time I made pork chops and the first time I made fresh green beans. It's an incredible easy meal and healthy meal to throw together. And there's a ton of flavor that won't leave you wondering. The green beans almost steal the show from the pork chops they are so good. You have a little bit of the blackening mixture and olive oil left from the cooking the pork chops, then you add butter, garlic, and shallots. All that goodness, these green beans are easily some of the best green beans that I've ever had. These put canned green beans or Cracker Barrel green beans to serious shame. This is an insanely easy recipe to remember. Nearly all the ingredients are in 2 Tbs increments! 2 Tbs of this and 2 Tbs of that... that's all you need to remember and the ingredient list and you are good to go. For the spices, I found that...

New Mexico Pile-Up This is another recipe probably everyone in New Mexico has a different version of or a different name to call it by. Some just call it breakfast! Breakfast is one of my favorite meals and this is definitely one of my favorite breakfast meals, though I hardly ever have it or a substantial breakfast really. This is probably one of my favorite meals because it reminds me of breakfast at my grandma's house. She always had homemade tortillas and fried potatoes . We normally had eggs and bacon too, but I would skip the chile because I didn't actually start eating chile until I was older (shame, I know!). I made my grandma's famous fried potatoes this weekend and decided to make a pile-up. I used her potatoes as the base, then topped them with fried eggs. I made the bacon in the oven (400 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until crispy, depends on the bacon). Then I topped it with cheese and 505 Southwestern Green Chile . I like their chile and I love tha...

Grandma's Famous Fried Potatoes I'm sure everyone has their favorite fried potatoes or home fries recipe. This just happens to be mine! Just like my homemade tortillas recipe , no one does fried potatoes better than my grandma. I haven't had others' fried potatoes that taste like hers (maybe it's just psychological). My mom could never replicate it exactly and sometimes she got close, but it wasn't the same. And the few times I tried to make it, the potatoes burned.  If you ask my grandma how she makes it, all she says is just to cook the potatoes in a little bit of oil. A couple years ago, I finally went over to her house so that she can show me exactly how she makes it. Here's what she left out that I think are the secrets to her magnificent potatoes: 1) Rinse the potatoes twice in cold water; 2) Cover the skillet with a lid while the potatoes cook so that you're essentially steaming them and frying them at the same time.My grandma's frie...

Old-Fashioned Potato Soup So we're having 100 degree weather here in New Mexico. It's excruciatingly hot and I'm trying to make the adjustment from having an air conditioner to having a swamp cooler. I really miss having an air conditioner!  You'd think that would stop me from using the oven or eating soup. Nope, you're not getting me to give up my baking for several months! And, seriously, green chile chicken soup is a year-around thing for me. I needed to use up some leftover potatoes that I had/have and decided to make this potato soup. It's a very quick soup to throw together and you use ingredients that you most likely have on hand. The only thing I didn't have was dried parsley. To be honest, when recipes call for fresh parsley, I sometimes skip it because I don't grow it and I don't see the point of buying a thing of it (even if it's cheap and makes everything look prettier). So I was hesitant to buy the dried parsley, but I'm...

Gingersnap Banana Bread I have a tendency to buy bananas whenever I go to the grocery store and, like a lot of people, I usually can't get through the whole bundle of them. A couple years ago, one of the ladies at work told me that you aren't required to buy the whole bundle because they charge by weight, so you can pick off as many as you want. This is a really useful tip, but the optimist in me keeps thinking that I'll be good and eat all of them. Usually doesn't happen. I think we all know that one of the nice things about not eating all the bananas and them getting overripe is that they're perfect for banana bread. I absolutely adore banana bread and I love seeing how others get creative with their banana bread! The other day I had three bananas that were as black as can be and another banana that was turning brown, so I knew that I needed to do something with the bananas before they ended up just being thrown in the compost pile. I remembered seeing...