Margarita Pops

Ingredients

  • 2 cups water
  • 2/3 cup fresh lime juice (They say it’s supposed to only take 2 to 3 limes but those must have been some big limes ! It took us roughly 8 limes to get that much lime juice.)
  • ½ cup tequila (we used silver tequila)
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons Triple Sec or orange liqueur (we used triple sec)
  • 8 (2-ounce) plastic or paper cups or shot glasses (we used 3-ounce paper cups)
  • 8 pop sticks
  • Coarse salt (we used kosher salt)

Directions

  1. Take a small saucepan out and mix together in it the water, lime juice, tequila, sugar and Triple sec. Bring he mixture to a boil. Let it boil for 1 minute or until the sugar has dissolved, stirring constantly during that time (our sugar dissolved before it came to a boil). Once the sugar’s dissolved, take the saucepan off the heat and let it cool until it gets down to room temperature.
  2. Pour the mixture into the cups*, covering the top of each cup with a small piece of aluminum foil. Place them in the freezer for 2 hours.
  3. Put the pop sticks into the cups through the center of the foil, putting them back in the freezer for 3 hours or until firm.
  4. Take the foil off the cups, taking the pops out of the cups by gently twisting them until they come out or simply peeling away the paper cups.
  5. Take a small plate out and spread the coarse salt out on it. Roll the pops in the coarse salt. You can either eat them right away or put them back in plastic cups and return them to the freezer until you are ready to eat them.

*We don’t know what we could’ve done differently but we had enough mixture to fill 10 cups.

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This is a wonderful treat to enjoy on a hot day. You can really taste the classic flavors of a margarita in this.

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !

Margarita Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • Cupcakes
    • 1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist lemon cake mix (we used Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme Deliciously Moist Cake Mix)
    • ½ cup water
    • ½ cup gold tequila or water (we used gold tequila)
    • 1 teaspoon grated orange peel
    • 3 eggs
    • 1 box (4-serving size) lime-flavored gelatin (we used a 3 oz. package of Great Value lime gelatin)
  • Frosting
    • 2 containers Betty Crocker Whipped fluffy white frosting
    • 1 teaspoon electric green gel food color*
  • Decoration
    • ¼ cup coarse white sugar or white decorator sugar crystals
    • 24 thin lime slices (about 3 limes)
    • 24 cocktail umbrellas

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (or 325 degrees if you’re using dark or nonstick pans). Place a paper baking cup in each of the 24 regular-size muffin cups.
  2. Take a large mixing bowl out and beat all the cupcake ingredients together using an electric hand mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Turn the speed up to medium and beat the ingredients together for another 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
  3. Stick the trays in the oven and let it bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out looking clean. Pull the trays out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes, taking the cupcakes out of the pans and placing them on cooling racks afterwards. Let the cupcakes cool completely before moving onto the next step.
  4. Take a medium-sized bowl out and mix the frosting and food color together in it until completely blended. Frost all of the cupcakes. Take a small plate out and sprinkle the sugar on it, rolling** the edges of the cupcakes in it afterwards. Cut a small slit in each of the lime slices, twisting them and placing them on the cupcakes afterwards. Poke 1 umbrella into each cupcake and it’s ready to be served ! If you have any leftover cupcakes, store them (loosely covered) in the refrigerator.

*We couldn’t find any “electric green gel food color” so we just added 1 drop of green gel food color to every 5 drops of yellow into the frosting, stirring until combined and repeating until we got our desired color of frosting.

**We found that to be too messy so we just held the cupcakes at an angle and sprinkled the sugar along the edge of the frosting. That way the frosting didn’t get smeared.

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These are so freaking cute and delicious ! We were hoping to taste the tequila but we never did. What we did taste though was a really good citrus-y cupcake ! We know the recipe said to roll the rim of the cupcake in sugar but we tried it with some kosher salt and thought it tasted really good. The salt was a nice contrast against the sweet frosting. In the end, it was good with sugar or kosher salt sprinkled along the edges.

We got this recipe from Betty Crocker.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines or Great Value.

Take care everybody !

BBQ Tomatillo Tacos

Ingredients

  • 6 medium tomatillos, husks removed and halved
  • ½ cup sliced onion
  • 1 jalapeño, halved and seeded (we left the seeds in)
  • 1 clove garlic, sliced
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil (we used extra-virgin olive oil)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt (we used table salt)
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper (we used freshly ground black pepper)
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 8 hard taco shells
  • 1 pound shredded barbecue pork (we used meat from the Three-Ingredient Slow Cooker Barbecue Pork, recipe for the meat below)
  • ½ cup chopped tomato (we didn’t use it)
  • ½ cup crumbled queso fresco
  • Chopped fresh cilantro
  • Three-Ingredient Slow-Cooker Barbecue Pork
    • 1 (3- to 4-lb.) boneless pork shoulder roast (Boston butt), trimmed
    • 1 (18-oz.) bottle barbecue sauce (such as Cattlemen’s Kansas City Classic Barbecue Sauce) (we used Jack Daniel’s Honey Smokehouse)
    • 1 (12-oz.) can cola soft drink (we used Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola)

Directions

  1. Start off by making the pulled pork. Take a 6-qt. slow cooker out and lightly grease the inside of it. Add the pork to the slow cooker, pouring the barbecue sauce and cola over it afterwards. Put the lid on the slow cooker and let it cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours or until the meat is tender enough that it shreds easily with a fork. Take the pork out of the slow cooker and shred it using two forks, throwing away any large pieces of fat that you come across. Try to skim the fat off the sauce before stirring the shredded pork back in.
  2. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Take a large rimmed baking sheet out and line it with aluminum foil.
  3. Take a large mixing bowl out and mix the tomatillos, onion, jalapeño, garlic, oil, salt and pepper together. Spread the mixture out on the lined baking sheet. Place the sheet in the oven for 10 minutes or until softened (ours took somewhere between 10-15 minutes and we flipped ours over after the initial 10 minutes).
  4. Take the roasted tomatillo mixture, cilantro and lime juice and place it in a blender, processing long enough for it to turn into a smooth sauce.
  5. Fill up the taco shell with pork and top with the tomatillo sauce, chopped tomato and queso fresco. Sprinkle the chopped cilantro on afterwards and enjoy !
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The pork has a sweetness to it thanks to the sauce but it’s also dripping with the sauce it was sitting in so make sure you have some napkins or paper towels with you while eating this. The tomatillo sauce has so much brightness to it. We were surprise that we didn’t get any heat from the sauce even though we left the ribs and seeds in for the jalapeño. Had we used tomatoes, it would’ve added more flavor and brought a different texture to the dish but we still enjoyed the taco regardless !

We got the Three-Ingredient Slow-Cooker Barbecue Pork recipe from Southern Living but we don’t know where we got the BBQ Tomatillo Tacos recipe from.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Cattlemen’s, Jack Daniel’s, Coca-Cola or Southern Living.

Take care everybody !

Tex-Mex Rice

Ingredients

  • 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
  • 1 ½ cups long-grain white rice
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 onion, chopped fine
  • 1 poblano chile, seeded and chopped fine
  • 2 jalapeño chiles, seeded and chopped fine (we left the seeds in)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 ½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
  • 1 teaspoon salt (we used table salt)
  • Additional salt (we used kosher salt)

Directions

  1. Put the tomatoes in a food processor and puree until smooth, setting it aside afterwards. Put the rice in a fine-mesh strainer and set it over a large bowl. Run water over the rice (we used cold water) until the water runs clear, about 1 minute*. Drain the rice well afterwards.
  2. Take a Dutch oven out (we used a large skillet) and pour the oil i, setting the heat to medium-high. Once the oil’s hot and is starting to shimmer, add in the onion, poblano and jalapeños, stirring frequently for 5 minutes or until softened. Take ¼ cup of the mixture out of the skillet and leave it off to the side for now. Stir the rice, cumin and oregano into the pot and cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until the rice has a deep golden look to it, continuing to stir frequently.
  3. Add in the broth, pureed tomatoes and 1 teaspoon of salt, stirring to combine. Wait for the rice mixture to come to a boil. Once boiling, put the lid on and turn the heat down to low afterwards. Simmer for 25 minutes or until the liquid’s been absorbed and the rice is tender. Take the Dutch oven off the heat and stir in that ¼ cup mixture from earlier. Put the lid back on and leave the rice be for 10 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork and season with additional salt if you think it needs it. Serve immediately.

*The water coming through the strainer looked clear right off the bat so we judged if the water was clear based off the accumulated water in the bowl. It took us roughly 10 minutes or so for the water to look clear.

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This is a new favorite rice recipe for us ! You get a little heat at the end of the bite but it doesn’t overwhelm the other flavors. Mommy really loves this dish !

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !

Avocado Rice

Ingredients

  • 1 cup dry converted white rice (we used Uncle Ben’s)
  • 1 avocado, pureed
  • ¼ cup each minced fresh cilantro and scallions
  • 1-2 Tbsp. minced serrano chile or jalapeño (we used  2 tablespoons of minced jalapeño)
  • 1 Tbsp. each extra-virgin olive oil and white wine vinegar
  • Salt to taste (we used kosher salt)

Directions

  1. Cook the rice based off the directions found on the package it came in.
  2. Mix in the avocado, cilantro, scallions, jalapeño, oil and vinegar. Take a bite and season to taste with salt.
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We really loved this dish. Avocado is the primary thing you’ll taste but you still get some flavor from the other components. It didn’t bother us but you will get a crunch in this from the jalapeño just giving you a heads up so you don’t accidentally think your rice is undercooked.

We got this recipe from Cuisine at Home.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Cuisine at Home or Uncle Ben’s.

Take care everybody !