Mexican dinner party
Last night, I had a couple of work friends over for dinner. They finished some professional development near here, and then headed over, armed with their appetites and two jars of salsa.
The first thing I brought out was a bowl of homemade corn tortila chips. So delicious!
Cut corn tortillas into wedges and arrange them on cookie sheets. Then brush with a 2:1 ration of lime juice to olive oil. Sprinkle on cumin and a little chili powder.
Then bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. So good!
They have a fabulous crunch and great flavor, and they’re strong enough to hold a lot of salsa (or guacamole or artichoke dip or whatever you like).
Then I mixed up a batch of margaritas. We sipped and munched and chatted and sort-of played Taboo (but not keeping score, just taking turns).
When it started to get around dinner-time, I popped some taco-shell bowls into the oven and started browning the ground beef for taco salads. I had already cut and washed the lettuce and tomatoes, so they went together pretty quickly. The meat was done at the exact same time as the shell-bowls. Go me!
After we finished the taco salad, we sat around for an hour digesting and chatting more.
Last night, I had prepared flan, so it had been chilling in the fridge all night. It was ready to go! I used this flan recipe from Allrecipes , but added cinnamon, ground cloves, and nutmeg to the mix. I also found out that you really need to bake it at 350 rather than 325, or you will be baking it forever!
You start out with some brown sugar in the bottom of the ramekins. This carmelizes when it cooks, and becomes a delicious topping for the flan.
Fill ‘em up with the flan stuff (I halved the recipe) and put them in a baking dish with some water. Pop them in the oven!
And in about 40 minutes (if you bake it at 350) you’ll get this:
Pop them in the fridge overnight, and plating them is a breeze.
I drizzled some caramel on the dishes, then ran a knife around each flan so that I could drop them upside-down in the center. I added a plop of whipped cream and a ripe strawberry. Voila!
Everything went smoothly and tasted delicious. Of course, the company was fantastic, and we had a great time, too.
posted in Recipes, Food, How-To | 8 Comments
