Mini Tacos

From Dish Deanna:

During the holidays I always find myself over-doing it with food. I look forward to Christmas and New Year celebrations being over because I know that I can start fresh. This year I was so overwhelmed with cookies, cakes, chocolate, and dinners that I thought I was going to explode. I knew it was bad when I started wearing bigger sweaters.  Bigger sweaters made me realize that I needed to immediately start eating smaller portions. Mini Tacos are a great way to control your portion size and can be served in many settings. I find they are easy to make for a simple night in or even if you’re entertaining a group of people.  For this recipe I enlisted the help of my best friend, Jodi!  We had a great time making these.

Ingredients:

2 cooked chicken breasts

Juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon chili powder

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and pepper, to taste

24 (3-inch) corn tortillas

Shredded cheddar cheese

Shredded lettuce

Hot sauce (optional)

Sour cream (optional)

Toothpicks

Yields: 24 mini tacos, but can certainly be cut down if only meant for one or two people

Start by finely shredding the chicken by hand and place into a medium bowl. Add lime juice, chili powder, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Toss the mixture until it is thoroughly combined. Next, shred the lettuce.

Lay the tortillas out for stuffing! If you can’t find mini tortillas, use a 3 inch round cookie cutter and make cut outs from larger tortillas. Place some cheddar cheese on the bottom, a big pinch of chicken, and some lettuce on the tortilla. Wrap up the tortilla and pierce with a toothpick.

Right before you serve, stick the tacos in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or so until the tortillas are soft and the cheese is melted.

These mini tacos are so good you’ll want to eat them all!

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Berry Granola Hot Cakes Part Deux

Ed.’s Note: We’re trying something new at SLD! This month, the Dishes have each agreed to flip through the archives and cook another girl’s recipe, with modifications to reflect differences in her own taste preferences and/or cooking style. The idea is to feature some of the terrific recipes we’ve collected in 2+ years at Saucy Little Dish, and also to show by example the way that these posts are just guidelines that can inspire new dishes, with just a dash of creativity.

From Dish Jodi:

My college roomie is coming into town this weekend, so when searching for a SLD recipe to “revisit” I immediately went to breakfast. What better way to host a good friend who arrives late at night,  than crunchy, sweet pancakes waiting for her in the sunny LA morning. And, not to take anything away from Erin’s brilliant idea, I could add to the SLD archives with a basic pancake recipe that you can make on your own. (read: I didn’t have any Aunt Jemima mix on hand.) Because it’s summer in LA, strawberries are EVERYWHERE – even soon to be in my garden!

What better start to a great weekend? Pancakes in the AM, then a drive up the coast for a wine festival in Santa Barbara. Yes please.

Ingredients:

8 oz Milk
2 Large Eggs
2 Oz Butter (Melted and cooled)
1 tsp Vanilla
8 Oz Flour (I used half all-purpose, half whole wheat)
2 Tbsp Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
Fresh Strawberries diced small
Fingerfulls of Crunchy Granola

Mix the wet ingredients, then the dry ingredients separately. Combine and mix gently.


Put quarter cup or so scoops on your hot and lightly oiled griddle and after it spreads sprinkle the granola and berries on top. Cook the way you cook pancakes. You know, til they puff and the bubbles pop to leave holes in the top. Flip, cook some more, enjoy with your favorite syrupy syrup.

Please note that instead of one of me eating these pancakes, I include a photo of Cheryl and I from of our FRESHMAN YEAR of college. NOT NOW. 1998. I SWEAR…ALSO – Why are we posed like that? Why was my face so fat? Does Cheryl still have that killer leather jacket? (I’ll report back on the last one after this weekend.) Ah, being 18 and lame.

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Kumquats Pack a PUNCH

From Dish Danielle:

There’s nothing better than a bright spring-y PUNCH when having your best gals over for a night of clothes swapping. It’s finally the perfect weather to start introducing all things bubbly back into your beverage repertoire, and festive PUNCH cocktails for a night with the ladies seemed reason enough for me.

I wanted kumquats and Prosecco, but wasn’t quite sure how to make it happen in a light & balanced way. Luckily, with a little guidance from my cocktail slinging, Whisk & Ladle bartending roommate Nicholas Bennett, I was able to make my PUNCHY vision a reality. The finished product was bright and delightful, packed the perfect amount of PUNCH– but most importantly–was springtime sippable.

Ingredients
¾-1c kumquat simple syrup (recipe below)
¾ fresh squeezed lime juice, (about 8 limes worth)
1c white rum
½c Hawaiian dark rum, (I used Koloa, which is pretty darn sweet & vanilla-y)
1½c Prosecco
2c club soda
tbsp agave nectar (if needed)
handful of iced cubes

Kumquat simple:
3c water
3c sugar
2½c rinsed & sliced kumquats (you don’t need to de-seed cause you’ll strain it later– and the seeds are actually the sweetest part!)

First make your simple syrup: Throw above ingredients into a small saucepot and let boil for a while. You want the liquid to reduce to about half. Once it’s reduced strain it, and let it come to room temp. You’ll wind up with enough to make a double batch of the punch, or you can have it around the fridge for later use, (you can also save candied kumquats for snacking/ice cream topping purposes).

Now for assembly. This is really tough. Are you ready? Pour all ingredients except agave into a pretty punch bowl and stir. Here’s the most important step: taste it.

Does it need a touch more sweet? If so, add a bit of agave. Feel free to add more/less to your own liking. I wound up fiddling with my initial proportions and the above is pretty in keeping with the final ratio I settled on. It can certainly be tweaked for an even boozier batch for the right occasion.


Garnish with some lime wheels and kumquat slices, throw your best gals a pound and PUNCH it out.

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