Wickedly Wild Taco Soup

Creating a recipe is a bit of a crap shoot.

I kept seeing taco soup recipes on JustaPinch and when I looked at them, well I liked the concept, but most seemed rather boring. And so I didn’t try any, but I kept thinking about it.

After a while I figured I had the basics, and then started thinking of what I might like to add.

Which I did. (dried chiles)

Then I added a bit of stuff I just happened to have opened and on hand.

And I did that. (V-8 juice)

And when I had it all together, I was a bit worried, because it looked a lot like chili.

But, when we ate it, oh my, but it was simple mindblowingly wonderful. At least to us. This is kept soupy by having enough liquid and no thickeners such as tomato paste or masa. And we can’t wait to have more as left-overs!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 lb each, ground beef and chorizo sausage
• 1 lg onion, diced
• 1 c celery, diced
• 2 jalapeños, seeded (optional) and diced
• 2 dried chiles such as New Mexican or Anchos (seeded and placed in a bowl with 1 c hot water for 30 min)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 28 oz c of diced tomatoes
• 1 can black beans (or other you like), rinsed
• 1 c corn
• 1 tbsp adobo powder
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 qt V-8 juice
• 1/3 c chopped fresh cilantro
• 8 corn tortillas, cut into wedges
• salt as needed

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Brown the meat in a large soup pot. While it is cooking add the onion, celery, and jalapeño.
2. When the chiles have soaked for 30 minutes, remove and mince. Save the water.
3. When the meat is browned, add the garlic, chiles, and the chile soaking water.
4. Add the tomatoes, beans and corn and all the spices. Add the V-8 juice. (tomato juice would be fine)
5. Bring to a simmer and simmer on low for a good two hours or as long as you wish.
6. Just before bringing to final heating, add the cilantro and stir in.
7. Take the tortilla wedges and fry until crisp in canola oil, drain on paper towelling, and place in a basket at the table.
8. Add sour cream, chopped scallions, and grated cheese as condiments if you wish.

Serves: 8-10

Related articles

• What Do You Call It? (smalltownworld.wordpress.com)
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Noel’s Touchdown Taco Pie

This is a really easy and nice tasting Tex-Mex meal. It comes to us from Colleen Sowa over at JustaPinch.

I made a half recipe by halving all the ingredients and eliminating one of the types of beans (the chili beans).

As with most recipes you can swap out plenty of ingredients. Use the beans you wish and the cheeses.

At the end, I’ll offer you a couple of additions I intend to make next time. The flavors blend perfectly and there are the usual “Mexican” toppings to jazz it up and make it wonderful.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 2 pkg taco seasoning mix ( I use my own salt, pepper, granulated garlic and onion, chili pepper, cumin mix)
• 1 can regular size refried beans
• 1 can regular sized chili beans
• 1 bag corn chips
• 1 28oz can enchilada sauce (hot or mild or your own homemade) about 3 1/2 cups
• 3 cups shredded cheese of your choice

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. Cook the ground beef until done, adding the seasonings as the meat cooks.
3. Put the beans into a sauce pan and add just enough water to make it easily spreadable (1/3 approx) **I also added a fresh jalapeno for more warmth.
4. Begin assembly but putting a layer of the chips into a casserole dish until it is nicely covered.
5. Add half the meat.
6. Add half the bean mixture.
7. Then half the cheese.
8. Cover with chips again.
9. Use half the enchilada sauce.
10. Meat, beans, chips, sauce and ending with cheese
11. Bake for about 1/2 hour.

Serves: 6 easily

Serve with: homemade salsa, sour cream, avocado slices or guacamole, shredded cabbage (which works better than lettuce and adds some nice crunch.

NOTE: Next time I’m going to add  layers of corn, cuz I love corn, and I think I may lay a bed of chips on the plate for added crunch as well. In any case the taste is great here, and that’s the most important. Feel free to make your own homemade refried beans if you wish as well. There are not any chilis in this so I did add a chopped fresh jalapeno to the refried beans. Also consider adding some fresh crumbling cheese such as queso fresca at the table as well.

Related articles

• Refried Beans (alfhana.wordpress.com)

Tex-Mex Jalapeno Poppers

Oh boy. We made some of these today for our dinner with T-bones and potato salad. They were excellent.

These can be hot!

The recipe is simple, you can literally make any number you want.

They are a great little appetizer, but keep the milk at hand if you don’t like a lot of heat. Make sure to try to remove all the seeds and the membranes to cool them off a lot.

This recipe come from Flower Elliot at JustAPinch.

INGREDIENTS:

• Jalapeños
• cream cheese
• bacon

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut a “T” at the top and down the center of each jalapeño. (lay them on the table and however they lay flat, use the top as where to cut them open. They will then lay nicely cut side up in the baking pan)
2. Remove all seeds and membranes as best you can, being careful not to break the pepper apart.
3. Fill each with cream cheese, and then wrap each with one slice bacon.
4. Place in baking pan (I put them on a rack so they wouldn’t sit in the bacon grease), cut side up.
5. Bake until done at 400°.  I found that 40 minutes was enough, but just test with a knife tip to see if the pepper is cooked through.

Serves: I would say 2 to a person.

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