Tasty Tuesday : Mini Taco Salad

So last week before our trip I was scrounging around trying to use up anything in the fridge that would spoil. I am not a chef by any means but I am trying to get more creative in our little kitchen. I just thought this would be a cute way to serve mini taco salads with tostinos scoops!

 I have all these cute little serving dishes makes for a cute presentation lol :)

 Isn't that adorable?

 And delicious !

PS can you tell me which tomato is store bought and which is home grown? ;)

My Misadventures in Cooking

 I have never had the patience for cooking and I really don't know why because when it comes to creating something in my studio I am very patient. One of my favorite movies is Julia and Julia because of the fact that the girl who does every recipe in Julia Childs book screws up too. I wish I had the patience to take the time to try and cook every meal from scratch but I just don't. 

I do have to say that I am trying to learn to be patient or maybe having more knowledge about cooking in general would help. So I am going to show you a cooking tutorial that I tried off pinterest but failed because I didn't happen to read the directions carefully.

I tried to make cherry almond cupcakes today.

So I think it all began when I started getting excited about the ingredients because I was making it from scratch. The red juice of maraschino cherry, the smell of the almond extract and vanilla. It seem to be just a perfect combo for my tastes. 

 And then I made my mistake and started to mix everything together at once.

 Then I noticed the butter was chunky in the batter because I didn't let it soften.

 The batter was so liquid that I worried if it would soak the cupcake liners.

but I went ahead and let them bake and moved on to the made from scratch frosting.

 And it turned out great!

 I went back to the oven to find this... :(

 I went ahead and tried to make it work . It was alright just the thought of them not tasting right threw me off a bit.

 And the mess...

and this is what happens when put the icing on before the cupcake is cooled... mistake but it looks cool in this picture ;) right?

Question: 

What's one thing you had to teach yourself while cooking? Have you ever cooked something and felt like you wasted money because you messed it up?

Tasty Tuesdays: Eclairs

One of my favorite dessert recipes that my grandma use to make us! I love it because you don't need any complicated ingredients for such a delectable treat! The first time my grandma showed me how to make this she told me it was all about timing and making sure ingredients were exact. It has taken me 3 tries to get these just right! So let me show you what I did and help keep you from making the mistakes I did. :)

This first picture is not mine... lol but I wanted a nice picture as an intro! Eclairs can come in a variety of shapes depending on how patient you are.

 Start by Pre-heating your oven to 450 degrees... 

You will need the following...

1 stick butter

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1 tsp salt

4 eggs

chocolate frosting

1 box instant pudding

and milk for the instant pudding :)

 To start you melt 1 stick of butter completely with one cup water. Must be melted completely and stirred well.

 While waiting on that I went ahead and mixed the pudding which only requires milk and minute or two of stirring. I set that in the fridge.

 This is where timing is everything. Once the butter water is mixed and boiling you will reduce heat to low. Then add flour, salt and begin to stir vigorously until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a lump in the middle. This can be tricky and you want to make sure you use fresh flour... mistake 1. It will leave you wondering if your doing it right but I promise just keep going because you are!

Next you remove that from the heat and adding one egg at a time completely beat the egg into that mixture. It will look like the picture above slimy and sticking to everything. Once all four eggs are completely beat into the mixture you can scoop out whatever size you want onto a greased cookie sheet.

I like mine big and messy so I made 6 large out of the batter. Here is a peek of them in the oven... my lens fogged up a little.

 These bake 15 mins and then you reduce the heat to 325 degrees baking them for 20 more minutes. you want them to be golden... maybe slightly brown. Oh and don't open the oven too much it will keep them from fluffing up... mistake 2.

 Then if your not in a hurry like I was you let those cool and when they cool you cut them in half and remove the spongy like inside so that the puffs become hollow. You then fill the puffs with the instant mix pudding and dab some rich chocolate frosting on top!

And Walllllaaa you have this yumtastic, wonderful, messy sweet treat!!! 

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!! :)

Tasty Tuesday: Chicken Salad Sandwich

My grandma was the best cook ever she is really the one who formed my taste buds as a kid. She would always have breakfast lunch and dinner with perfect portions of everything you needed or wanted in a meal. We loved being at her house because we knew she was going to feed us with good fresh home cooked meals. I have been thinking about her sooo much lately. 

She is in a nursing home now and hardly remembers things we use to do. If you remind her she gets a terrible sad look on her face. It is one of the hardest things to deal with besides death because your losing a person slowly. 

So because of her I know or at least remember some of the good things she made us and it is because of her that I know what makes up a real meal. So I thought I would share with you one of the meals that remind me of her. 

Chicken Salad Sandwiches 

Not much of a meal but a great lunch or traveling meal. My grandma would have these ready if she knew all the family were going to be around and hungry. When we went on camping trips this was one of her meals for us :)

So to start here are the ingredients you will need...

1. chicken breast (2). I used frozen, baked for 40 minutes with half of a lemons juice and covered in foil. When it was done I shredded it it into small pieces.
2. Celery. I diced it into small chunks about 2 stalks or one cup
3. 2 boiled eggs. I removed the shell and yolk and diced into small pieces.
4. 1 cup Miracle Whip
5. 1/2 lemon
6. croissants or whole grain bread is really good!

Now for the easy part put all your prepared ingredients in a bowl and mix!

I squeezed half of a lemons juice into a small bowl, removed the seed and added it to the mixture. This really adds a zing to your salad... I like a lot of zing!

Time for the croissants... I bought these ready made at kroger and sliced them in half.

Wallaaa a yummy lunch or picnic sandwich! I wish I had some more left. The buttery crossiant really just made me melt!

Hope you enjoyed this tasty post... Do you add anything else to your chicken salad? Whats a favorite recipe of yours?

missing my gram :(