Down Home Kitchen

1 lb. hamburger meat

1 med. onion chopped

1 pkg. Doritos

1 can Rotel

1 can Ranch Style beans

1 can cream of chicken soup

8 oz. grated cheese

Brown meat with onion and drain fat.  Place mix in casserole dish, then layer doritos, rotel, beans and soup with doritos to be the last.  Cover with foil and bake at 350*F for 45 mins, adding cheese during the last 15 mins. and returning to oven to melt cheese.

Large Fritos can be substituted……

1/2 cup prepared salsa
1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 teaspoon canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound lean ground beef
2 large plum tomatoes, diced
1 14-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
8 cups shredded romaine lettuce
1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
Combine salsa and sour cream in a large bowl.  Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 2 minutes. Add beef and cook, stirring often and crumbling with a wooden spoon, until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, beans, cumin and chili powder; cook, stirring, until the tomatoes begin to break down, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in cilantro and 1/4 cup of the salsa mixture.

  Last weekend we went to one of our favorite restaurants.  This is one of the great Mexican restaurants in town, who’ve been around for years, that makes everything so good.    The decor is right in line with the Mexican flair, so you feel that your really in a place that knows their Spanish cooking. You keep coming back, no matter how big your waist line gets.
We were greeted at the door by a server and when sat at our table, salsa was served with tortilla chips.  I’m spoiled to their salsa, because it is kept warm in a warmer, so not only is it hot from the peppers, but it is nice and warm in the bowl, when served.   I can fill up on this and not be able to finish my main course.
Gonzalez has some of the best Menudo, in town.  This stuff is so delicious and they give you celantro, chopped onions, and jalepeno’s with sliced lemons for your pleasure.  They also serve nice warm flour tortillas with your food.  Talk about fattening, these babies can pack some weight on.  But they are so great with butter.
Below is a picture of a bowl of menudo and I wish I had gotten a better picture.  This is the large bowl, you can get a smaller one if you like………I always take the extra home for later….     I was afraid that my flash on my camera would bother some people so, I hope that the lighting would be enough.  It looks as though I needed to use the flash to take my pictures.     My frozen margarita was great and I had to have to big one…………   My spouse had the smaller one………   They offer many other good drinks, if your not interested in a brew, then there’s coffee, tea, water and such.
If you don’t like Menudo, there’s plenty of other good food on the menu.  The grilled pork chops are real thick and have great flavor, and are served with rice, beans, salsa, and flour tortillas.  Ready for some good Mexican food , then come to Gonzalez for a huge plate of great food……..:)

I found this recipe in the newspaper this weekend and thought it sounded good for these cool evenings.  So, I thought I’d pass it on to you………

4 tsp. canola oil divided

1 sm. onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

8 ozs. lean ground pork or beef

1(15-oz.) can red or black beans, rinse & drain

2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

1(16-oz) log cooked polenta, cut into 8 slices

1(16-oz) jar med. hot salsa

1 c. frozen corn kernels

chopped cilantro

Heat 2 tsp. oil in skillet over med. heat.  Saute onion till soft, stir in garlic, cook 1/2 min.  Stir in meat, breaking up with spoon, till no longer pink.  Stir in beans chili powder & cumin turn down heat.  In another skillet heat other 2 tsp. oil over med. heat.  Add polenta, saute till golden and heated through, turning once about 5 min. per side.

Stir salsa and corn into meat mixture and simmer 5 min.  Stir in cilantro and serve in pan or deep dish pie plate with polenta slices arranged on top.

We went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch.  I had enchiladas, rice and beans, with pico de gallo, chips and salsa.  It was good and filling, so for $5.75 it was worth the effort to go there.  It would have been nice to have had some guacamole and sour cream on the side.  We mostly go to this restaurant on the weekends to get their fresh made menudo.  It’s a huge bowl and they bring out a large plate of pico de gallo, sour cream, and lemons with a bunch of flower tortillas to eat with it.  It costs $4.99 and is very filling with plenty of tripe, hominy, soup and a large ham shank.  The last time we got it we brought home half a cup of soup, in “to go” cups and I froze them.

This is a very full restaurant on the weekends and it’s very hard to find ample parking.  They have a large clientel of Mexican people and often run out of the menudo…..before we can get there……

For the last few months we’ve been wanting to try the new Jalapeno Tree Restaurant, that’s been recently built close to our home. As for a Tex-Mex restaurant, it can be ok, but as an original Mexican restaurant, I don’t buy it. We went in and the hostess’s took us to the smoking section, which was located in the Bar area. The bartender, became our waitress and was very busy tending the bar, so often we waited, until she could make it over to us.   We naturally got our drinks fast, once the order was made, but had to wait for her to come back and take the food order.

When the food arrived, I wasn’t very impressed with the look of the food. The guacamole salad needed more lime juice and seasonings and was very bland to the palate.  The taste of the food was even more bland and the hot chili sauce, that they brought as a condiment, had almost no pepper heat at all. I ate most of my food and so did my spouse, but both of us, mused that the food at On The Border, was much more flavorful and we would have rather gone there. We definitely decided that we won’t be going there again.
Unknown by me, it seems that my youngest daughter happen to visit the same restaurant the next day after we did, and on a visit to my home a few days later, she happen to mention going there. She had the same feeling as we did, that it wasn’t as good as one of the other Mexican restaurants, that we also like.