Thu Feb 6, 2020
As I sat down and started to ponder the best way to introduce this recipe for butternut squash tostadas, I thought I came up with a good segue from how a past foray with BlueApron had led me to learn the virtues of veggie tostada recipes. Then I was like, didn't I write something like that before, and indeed I did, over a year ago, and I also chronicled in that post my failure to cancel the service, even though my wife and I no longer use it. That reminded me that I still have yet to cancel and that I needed to go in and skip the next month of deliveries, but first I perused the current offerings and nothing looked as good or interesting as these tostadas that I devised on my own were, leaving me feeling still more confident in my creative abilities rather than relying on BlueApron, which didn't take long for us to tire of after signing up.
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Thu Dec 19, 2019
Queso is a pretty surefire bet to be a hit at any party. That's why I decided to make for a Superbowl shindig last winter, but little did I know that this new recipe I was working on would outdo any queso I've made before. The change and the secret—Velveeta Queso Blanco, which rendered a great flavor and perfect consistancy to my green chili dip. I've made this dip a couple times since then to continued fanfare, tinkering with the recipe a little each time. I think it's finally ready to be unleashed onto the world now as this charred corn and green chili queso.
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Thu Oct 31, 2019
Figuring out what to do with leftover pulled pork has become a standard fall activity for me. Each summer I smoke extra pork butts for the express purpose of freezing and continuing to get my barbecue fix throughout the fall and winter when I'm less likely to be cooking up larger cuts due to Meatwave dormancy. This past summer I did something a bit different though—instead of making my standard pulled pork recipe, I gave my smoked butts a carnitas-influenced seasoning to delicious results. Now, having a few bags of this sitting in my freezer, my brain has been wandering into Mexican and Tex-Mex inspired uses, which got me to these fantastic smoked carnitas taquitos.
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Thu Jun 27, 2019
When I need to feed a lot of people, I almost always turn to pork shoulder. This cut is economical, high yield, and cooks reliably, that makes it a no brainer for me to use at any larger scale cookout. The only problem with this is, over the years, I've fallen into a predictable pattern of serving it again and again. Now that's not necessarily a bad thing, but for someone who thrives on developing new recipes, it can feel limiting. So at my annual barbecue blowout, Carne-val, I decided to try to do something slightly different this year—I still picked up a couple giant pork butts, but instead of giving them the tried and true barbecue seasoning, I made up something with influences taken from Mexican carnitas. The results were, at the same time, familiarly comfortable and excitingly different.
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Thu Feb 14, 2019
I had a hard time deciding what to call this recipe because this style of hot dog goes by a number of names—Danger dogs, Mexican hot dogs, Tijuana dogs, etc. The major defining trait of this hot dog is that it's bacon-wrapped, and more often than not, deep fried. It's then topped with any number of Mexican-influenced toppings, so can take many unique forms from there. My lockdown on the name and topping combination ended up being decided by an illustration by Hawk Krall that labeled a Tijuana dog with an array of add-ons that sounded perfect in my mind—pico, jalapeños, pineapple, avocado, and crema. In the end, this led me down a very delicious path.
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