Seasonal Sundays (Week 19) Early May

A deep dive into the Mexican-style recipes I've collected over the years, more than enough for Cinco de Mayo tables to say nothing of Taco Tuesdays and tasty taco bars from here to Tijuana. I sure hope you're hungry!

~ Skip Straight to the Good Stuff ~

Welcome to Seasonal Sundays ...

A few weeks ago, I asked about family flowers and it was fun to hear from so many of you, thank you, citing tulips and sunflowers and daffodils and ...

Tiny blue forget-me-nots are not our family flower but they are "my" favorite flower of all time – surpassed only by whatever cut flowers are in my kitchen, at the moment, some sunny yellow tulips.

When I was eight or maybe ten, my Canadian grandmother insisted I pick "my china pattern" and every birthday, Christmas, etc., she would add another piece to my "trousseau". Yeah, wayyyyy back. I picked Memory Lane from Royal Albert and truth be told, I have never since seen another china pattern I like better, even if I've also had zero use for flowery china in a long, long, LONG while.

PS This week, maybe try asking a friend or two (or your sister!) about the story behind his or her favorite flower. It's a good conversation starter!

About the Photo By Popular Request, a Little Insight into the Top Image: Those are forget-me-not blossoms, up close and personal so you can see how pretty they are in minute detail. In real life, you'd need a magnifying glass to see their sweet centers, because forget-me-not-flowers are so so tiny.

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PICK ONE

Pick One is for those of us overwhelmed by life's unending choices. If that resonates, then check out this one recipe and then call it a day. It's one that I think could make the most difference, the one I hope will become a regular in your kitchen, as it is in mine.

• THE RECIPE Oaxaca Tlayuda (Mexican Flat Tacos) Easy, healthy build-your-own crispy baked tortillas.
• WHY THIS, WHY NOW We love these open-faced tacos, so versatile, so easy to throw together at the last minute.

More Ukrainian Pysanky

Ooops, my bad. The promised photo got left out when I posted this update last week. Here's the whole thing again, this time including the photo.

IN THE CLASSROOM Susan from Thunder Bay, Ontario shared photos last week, including the Ukrainian eggs she made, enjoying the meditative process. Aren't they just stunning?!

When she taught school, she invited a local woman into the classroom to teach the kids how to create the eggs, a mix of wax, dye and candles to say nothing of patience, determination and dexterity. I'm wondering how many schools these days would allow kids to have candles burning at their desks?!

IN JEWELRY Katherine Alexander of St. Louis learned to make pysanky from her Polish grandmother (hmmm, maybe mother?) and has become obsessed. She makes eggs but also jewelry using the same techniques and designs. Look for her work here on Etsy.

Taco Time & Burrito Bonanza

• THE RECIPE Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos So handy to have on hand!
• ANOTHER TAKE Beef Tacos with Avocado, Cucumber, Mango Salsa Another Quick Supper, some assembly required.

• THE RECIPE Zucchini Mushroom Tacos
• ANOTHER TAKE Veggie Burritos with Cilantro Sauce

• THE RECIPE Easy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas Quick way to get a green chile fix.
• ANOTHER TAKE Ten-Minute Foolproof Enchilada Sauce for Ten-Minute Enchiladas

Meal Prep Your Taco Bar

• THE RECIPE Best Quick Tomato Salsa (Red Salsa) For chips, tacos, burritos, eggs & more
• ANOTHER TAKE Green Chile Sauce (Salsa Verde) New Mexico-style salsa verde

• THE RECIPE Quick Jalapeño Pickles No canning required.
• ANOTHER TAKE Spiced Pickled Red Onions A game changer for tacos, salads, eggs and more.

• THE RECIPE Lime Crema A DIY Mexican crema for tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas and more.
• ANOTHER TAKE Ten-Minute Foolproof Enchilada Sauce Perfect for fast enchiladas and any time a "hot sauce" is useful.

Mexican Sides & Salads

• THE RECIPE Mexican Cauliflower "Rice"
• ANOTHER TAKE Cauliflower Spanish "Rice"

• THE RECIPE Quinoa & Black Bean Salad Transport straight back to Deep Mexico!
• ANOTHER TAKE Ina Garten's Tabbouleh Salad It has a secret ingredient!

• THE RECIPE Microwave Green Beans with Easy Tomatillo Salsa A basic weeknight technique, fresh and simple.
• ANOTHER TAKE Simple Skillet Green Beans Stir-fry beans in a simple skillet, no wok required.

• THE RECIPE Easy Tortilla Soup with Chicken or Turkey Quick to assemble.
• ANOTHER TAKE Chicken or Turkey & Wild Rice Soup A hearty mix of leftover chicken or turkey, wild rice and butternut squash.

Mexican Dinners (Besides Tacos)

• THE RECIPE Shrimp Veracruz Another Quick Supper, straight out of Mexico.
• ANOTHER TAKE Picadillo (Cuban Ground Beef Skillet Supper) Homey comfort food from Cuba.

• THE RECIPE Mexican Chicken Salad Rotisserie chicken tossed with lime-yogurt vinaigrette, black beans, jicama, corn and tomato.
• ANOTHER TAKE Chicken Greek Salad with Simple Hummus A Quick Supper, just assemble and serve - another good reason to eat at home!

• THE RECIPE Steak & Poblanos How to turn an inexpensive cut into a tender, tasty steak.
• ANOTHER TAKE Frozen Steaks Perfectly cooked steaks, starting with frozen meat!

Lunch at the Kitchen Table

• THE "RECIPE" Deep Mexico Fruit Salad A simple, summery fruit salad arranged in a pretty and symmetrical pattern around cottage cheese, so simple and surprisingly tasty.
• ANOTHER TAKE Mexican Fruit Salad A light and simple fruit salad with a surprising mix of spices and fruits.

Good to Know

• THE INFO Never Buy Fresh Herbs Again How to grow a few favorite fresh herbs at home, the soil, the planting, everything you need to know.
• AND WHEN IT GOES WELL? DIY Dried Herbs (How to Dry Fresh Herbs in the Microwave)

Put an Egg on Top aka "How About Eggs for Dinner?"

Why should breakfast get all the eggs?! If eggs for dinner were a club, I'd be president, chief marketing officer, resident evangelist, public advocate and ... hey, wanna join my club? Start here!

• THE RECIPE Mexican Scrambled Eggs (Huevos Revueltos a la Mexicana) From Diana Kennedy, the most famous eggs in Mexico.
• ANOTHER TAKE Fried Egg Quesadillas A fried egg sandwich with a tortilla.

Thinking Ahead

Some of us plan meals a day or two ahead – or reality, right? even an hour or two ahead. But for those who start planning for the Fourth of July in February and Christmas in September, this list's for you. Start here! (And let's aim for fun, too, okay?!)

• May 1 – National Lemonade Day
• May 1 – Finnish May Day (Vappu)
• May 5 – Cindo de Mayo
• May 7 – Derby Day
• May 8 – Mother's Day
• May 8 – Coconut Cream Pie
• May 10 – National Shrimp Day
• May 13 – National Apple Pie Day
• May 13 – Crouton Day ?!
• May 13 – International Hummus Day
• May 14 – Buttermilk Biscuit Day
• May 15 – National Chocolate Chip Day
• May 17 – Walnut Day
• May 20 – Pizza Party Day
• May 25 – National Wine Day
• May 26 – National Blueberry Cheesecake Day
• May 28 – National Brisket Day
• May 30 – National Mint Julep Day
• May 30 – Memorial Day
• May 31 – National Macaroon Day

Something New to You? A Challenge!

It's one thing to know what we like. It's another to get caught in a rut of repetition. Every so often, I may offer a challenge to try something that just might be new. The challenge is yours to accept – or y'know, not – but I hope to pique your palate!

• THE RECIPE Mexican Salsa Bread Great for loaves or buns, perfect for toast, sandwiches, burgers.
• ADAPTED FROM Our Daily Bread: My Easy Everyday Bread Recipe An easy, European-style bread I make every few days.

Savoring Sweet Potatoes: A Challenge

So usually my "challenges" are, well, a challenge, an undertaking, an endeavor, a project. But here? For a few weeks, I hope you'll throw a few sweet potatoes onto your grocery list, knowing there'll be a simple recipe to tackle. Who's game?!

• THE RECIPE Sweet Potato Salad with Roasted Poblano, Roasted Corn & Chipotle A sweet potato salad for summer, a colorful and mouth-watering blend.
• ANOTHER TAKE Simple Sweet Potato "Potato" Salad with Hardly Any Mayonnaise Great crunch with a touch of cranberry sweetness.

Meal Prep

• THE RECIPE Creamy Slow Cooker Beans How to cook dried beans from scratch in a slow cooker.
• BUT CHECK FIRST Why Dried Beans Won't Cook Good to Know!
  

This Week's Soup

• THE RECIPE Deep Mexico Carrot Soup with Tomatillo & Lime Serve hot or cold.
• ANOTHER TAKE Laura's Healthy Carrot Soup Creamy without a drop of cream.

Finnish Food (Hauskaa Vappua Kaikkille!)

• THE RECIPE Mini Blueberry Tarts With a "pop" of fresh blueberry right in the middle.
• THE ORIGINAL Finnish Fruit Tart Finns adore this with blueberries.

Confessions

A blogger whose work I appreciate shares "confessions" every so often. It's not always pretty but it is, well, real.

• It's completely annoying that "whole food" autocorrects to "Whole Foods" on my phone. Why would Apple do that, anyway?


• I'm cleaning out kitchen drawers and was reminded that I happily own four sentimental sets of salad servers even if these bamboo salad fingers (affiliate link) are the only ones to see the light of day in forever.


• We were some dismayed when the new neighbors who bought the old farm across from us started digging fence holes across a lovely meadow but find ourselves thrilled that they plan to adopt rescue horses. Now we can't wait!


• Call me inordinately excited that my use-it-every-day photo app Prisma started working again after I deleted and re-installed the app. Now to catch up two months on applying their fascinating filters to favorite photos!


• Word to the wise re vehicle privacy. Somebody in this household came home with a new pickup this week. When I looked at the settings, I was shocked at the number of pre-installed apps (why do cars need apps, anyway?) and even more shocked at how many of them had default settings to automatically share Contacts and more. I disabled all the apps but one, ignoring the ominous warnings that "some features may not work if you won't share your personal information with apps that have no business knowing it". I was intrigued by a phone app that lets me/my husband unlock the pickup remotely should the keys ever get locked; too bad, the app went into a tailspin when installed.) If your car is newer, you might check ...


• When my dad was still living, I relied on a 3pm reminder alarm on my phone to call him if we hadn't yet talked that day. This week, my sister and I marked the one-year anniversary of his passing. In the last year, I just couldn't bear to turn off that 3pm alarm. But as of two days ago, my phone sounded the alarm one last time. It was time.


• And you? Any "confessions"? Maybe don't tell me (though I'm happy to hear), tell your spouse, your kid, your journal, a friend. Maybe don't sweat the small stuff but do listen to it ...

Most Useful Recipes, Just One Per Year

When a blogger loves every single one of her published recipes, how in the world does she pick just one favorite? It's stunning, honestly, how each year one Kitchen Parade recipe stands out from all the others that year for sheer usefulness. So that's why I created this collection of best recipes, just one per year, Best-Ever “Most Useful” Recipes 2002 – Present, just one recipe per year from Kitchen Parade. Here's a sample.

• THE RECIPE Alice Waters' Coleslaw No mayo, bright with lime and cilantro.
• ANOTHER TAKE Green Cabbage Salad with Fresh Lime Vinaigrette Somehow more "salad" than "slaw".

PS Who's noticed? I'm big on highlighting "usefulness". To mark A Veggie Venture's 15th anniversary in 2020, I took a hard look at the first 365 vegetable recipes from the first year to select just 15 which, all these many years and recipes later, remain ever so useful. You'll want to dig into this collection, 15 Favorite Vegetable Recipes, Still Useful After 15 Years.

Soups & Salads Especially for May

The month of May means "full spring" on the calendar but for food lovers, May straddles early spring (when really, only greens and asparagus are in local season) and full summer (when really, in some parts of the country, evvvvvvery vegetable imagineable is fresh and lovely). For me, May means gearing up for summer tastes while staying gumby for reality: there's nothing like a hot bowl of soup on a chilly May day! nor a simple salad supper on a warm May evening! That's why I spent a year gathering all of A Veggie Venture's best soup and salad recipes into easy-to-scan month-by-month collections.

• THE COLLECTION Seasonal Soup & Salad Recipes for May, tons of ideas!
• HERE'S a SAMPLE Mixed Fruit & Vegetable Salad An unusual combo, one of Best Recipes of the Year.

Lookin' for Love

We're all proud of our best recipes that family and friends (and the Internet!) just love. But what about the recipes we love but are, ahem, so far under-appreciated? This recipe is just that, it could use a little extra love!

• THE RECIPE Strawberry Salsa with Sweet-Cinnamon Baked Tortilla Chips A quick fruit salsa with easy baked tortilla chips.
• ANOTHER TAKE Blueberry Salsa A savory fruit salsa?!

• THE RECIPE Jicama-Mango Salsa with Chipotle
• ANOTHER TAKE Jicama Slaw

Feeding a Sugar-Conscious Sweet Tooth

You too? We're cutting back on sweets without demonizing dessert, usually with smaller batches, smaller servings, shareable desserts or fruit desserts in addition to limiting frequency. But some times?

• THE RECIPE Easy Margarita Pie Tastes just like a good margarita!
• ANOTHER TAKE Blueberry Cheesecake Pie Cheesecake topped with homemade blueberry pie filling. No bake!

Trending

My Top 10 Recipes are predictable, hello Should Cooked Pork Be Pink? and (Sloooow) Baked Potatoes (How Long to Bake a Baked Potato). But every week, seasonal recipes catch the internet's attention and start to trend.

• USEFUL INFORMATION Weight Watchers Zero Point "Free" Food Lists Simplified to easily compare the green, blue and purple plans.
• CHALLENGING CONVENTIONAL WISDOM Rethinking Fruit for Weight Watchers Weight Watchers works. But free fruit might not work for everyone.

• THE RECIPE Perfect Stovetop Brown Rice
• ANOTHER TAKE How to Cook White Rice

Something to Read

This week I finished On a Night of a Thousand Stars, it was an easy read (or in my case, "listen") and follows a style / format that's so common in contemporary books geared, it appears, for women.

But I was intrigued, since the book covers 1970s Argentina and the "disappeared" people, a time/history I know little about. You might appreciate it too?

• THE BOOK On a Night of a Thousand Stars (affiliate link) by first-time author Andrea Yaryura Clark.
• BOOK CLUB BOOK IDEAS My Reading Group's Book List since 1994!
• NO TIME TO READ? How I Read 4X More This Year Than Last What I gave up, how I read so much, what I read.

Don't Be a Stranger ...

I'd love to hear from you. Comment, send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com, dot-dash in Morse code, build a fire for smoke signals, launch a message in a bottle, send a Christmas letter, get the dog to yip, toss me a note wrapped in a rubberband, write a message in the sky, scratch a note in the sand, listen to a seashell, tuck a question into a plastic Easter egg, whatever.

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. When you make my recipes, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below or better still, on the specific recipe's page.

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