Albóndigas Soup

Albóndigas is Spanish for meatballs and in Mexico, it’s often understood to mean “meatball soup“, so it may be redundant to call this albóndigas soup. I don’t know for sure. I just know I like it. The meatballs are made from beef, but rather than breadcrumbs or something similar, it’s mixed with raw rice that cooks as the albóndigas simmer.…

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Spicy Chicken, Quinoa, and Broccoli Casserole

Y’all, we really all oughtta be eating more casseroles. (Whoa, when I first read that back, my brain read “eating more assholes” which is not something we necessarily need to be doing.) I feel like casseroles have gone out of favor since I was a kid. Probably because they’re all heavily dependent on noodles, or bread, or…

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California Chicken Salad

What makes this chicken salad a California chicken salad??? Let’s talk about it. I’m leaning hard on avocado for the answer. Avocado is in, or on, everything here. But also … poppy seed dressing! Because the poppy is California’s state flower! See?!? Pretty proud of myself for that one. The poppy seed dressing I used here is made with…

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Chunky Beef Tacos

chunky beef tacos

These chunky beef tacos might look familiar — they’re a ripoff of Chile Colorado, but that’s usually made with pork. These are a simple and a great way to use beef stew meat (besides in beef stew, though if you want that, I have two: vegetable beef stew and beer beef stew). Chile colorado is…

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Ground Beef Curry

ground beef curry

This ground beef curry is quick and easy — literally ready in under 20 minutes. If you’ve never thought of using ground beef in a curry, well, I hadn’t either. But necessity is the mother of invention and all I had thawed out was ground beef (bison, actually) and I was doing an experiment with…

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Taco Pockets! Homemade Hot Pockets

homemade hot pockets

I’m calling these “taco pockets” because it has a nice ring to it, but they’re really just homemade Hot Pockets. Except I don’t think Hot Pockets has a “taco” flavor; or at least they didn’t start out that way. I know because I used to eat a shitload of Hot Pockets when I was in…

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Chicken Enchilada Casserole

chicken enchilada casserole

Chicken enchilada casserole is the casserole I put together when I was pregnant to store in the freezer for an easy dinner. It’s also the casserole I’ll often make when someone’s had a baby (or a funeral). Enchilada casseroles are great because you can take all the shortcuts, or just some of them. Make your own salsa…

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Chorizo Sweet Potato Casserole

sweet potato chorizo casserole

I was invited to a potluck last year, a short while before we were moving to Los Angeles. This meant that our pantry was almost bare, since I am of the “eat all the food before you move even if that means you eat Parmesan cheese rinds and rice for a week” school of thought. I…

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Satan’s Hairy (Meat) Balls

I came across a recipe for “Sea Anemones” in an old cookbook of my grandmother Hornsby’s. The book is called Hawaii Cookbook & Backyard Luau by Elizabeth Ahn Toupin. “Sea Anemones” are meatballs made with minced shrimp and rolled in broken vermicelli noodles which have the marvelous property of puffing into white, wormy strands when…

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