I admittedly have a lot of “favorites” when it comes to food, but one constant favorite of mine is Mexican food. I could eat at our local Mexican restaurant every night for dinner and I’d be delighted to have Taco Bell for lunch each day. Yes, yes I did just admit to loving Taco Bell on a food blog. I kinda have a thing for drive thru food. Don’t hate.

Anyway, my love of Mexican food is deep and never-ending. I once told my husband that I wanted a divorce so that I could instead find an old Mexican grandma to marry. It would have been a match made in heaven.  However, I also have a love of pasta. It’s so carby and delicious. You can dress it up any way you like and one of my favorite ways to dress it up is with my other favorite…tacos.

And, okay, I probably shouldn’t call this Mexican food, but it’s my American version of Mexican food and man, is it ever tasty.

My daughter who routinely declares that she hates Mexican food, doesn’t want tacos, won’t eat that quesadilla, and WHERE IS MY CHEESEBURGER, MOTHER? ate this for lunch today. It’s all about presentation and this one is quite impressive.

You need a bit of extra time to prepare this as the pasta doesn’t just stand up in the pan all by itself, but it was much simpler than I anticipated. Smooshing the meat down into the tubes of pasta was pretty simple as well and the sound it made as it was sucked in was quite entertaining.

If, however, you are a normal person with a busy life who does not have the time to stand a pound of rigatoni noodles at attention, then just go ahead and toss this all together in a baking dish (9×13 would be good) and then cover with cheese and bake it that way. It’ll still taste good…it just won’t be as entertaining.

Y’all are gonna love this.

Taco Pie

• 1 lb rigatoni
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 package taco seasoning (or your own recipe)
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cups salsa
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 cups monterey jack cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil the pasta until not quite al dente. I let mine boil for 2 minutes less than the package suggested for al dente. When the pasta is done, drain and rinse. Toss the pasta with 1/2 cup of monterey jack cheese.

While the pasta is boiling, brown the ground beef and drain. Add the taco seasoning and however much water is needed, per the directions on the taco packet. Cook for a few minutes over low heat and then add in the cream cheese. Allow the cream cheese to fully melt into the meat mixture. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of salsa.

Grease a springform pan and stand the rigatoni noodles up tightly in the pan. It may help to hold the pan at an angle to get them to stand when you’re first standing them up. This step really is easier than you would think!

Spread the meat mixture on top of the noodles and use a straw to poke the meat down into the holes of the noodles. When you’ve poked the meat in as much as you can, pour the remaining half cup of salsa over the top. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 2 cups of cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before removing the sides of the pan and cutting. Enjoy!

Around here we watch quite a bit of Food Network. My son loves science and history (and, of course, food), so he loves watching Good Eats with Alton Brown. My daughter likes to watch Paula Dean and Rachel Ray, especially if they’re cooking chicken.

The other night we were watching the new series “Kid in a Candy Store” and they featured something called Texas Brittle. Texas Brittle? What the heck could that be?

Well, it’s simple. It’s pretzel sticks, corn chips, and pecans covered in milk chocolate.

Um, I’m sorry, but corn chips? Covered in chocolate? Surely that tastes horrible, I thought.

I immediately sent my husband to the store for some corn chips and milk chocolate. I had to know if this stuff really was as good as they made it sound. I needed to know if I could now count corn chips as both a chili topper and a dessert. I just had to have it, is all.

I am happy to say that yes, you really can pour chocolate over just about anything and it will taste good. I’m not sure why I ever doubted that theory to begin with.

Texas Brittle

• pretzel sticks, a few handfuls
• corn chips, a few handfuls
• chopped pecans, a bunch
• milk chocolate, about 4 ounces

Grab a 9×13 cookie sheet and spread the pretzel sticks in a single layer. Top with the corn chips. Melt the chocolate (I used a microwave, but you could also use a double boiler) and drizzle it over the top of the pretzels and corn chips. Sprinkle on the pecans. Place the whole shebang in the freezer until the chocolate has hardened. Break into chunks and enjoy!

My husband and I just celebrated our tenth anniversary. I know! Ten years! And I haven’t killed him yet!

Or, maybe it should be: Ten years! And he hasn’t killed me yet!

Or how about: Ten years! And we’re both still alive!

Yeah. I think that last one sounds about right.

How about a little engagement story? Oh, I know, you don’t care how I got engaged, but this is quick and it involves food. Kinda.

You see, my husband and I started dating when I was 16 and, well, I was pregnant not too long after I turned 17. A month or so after our sweet baby boy was born, my husband proposed.

We were driving home from somewhere and he just drove right past our apartment.

“Uh, honey? I think you missed your turn,” I said, ever so politely to him. And, okay, maybe I was irritated. How did he forget where we lived? Also, I was barely 18 with a newborn baby. Everything irritated me.

“I’m just heading to the store for some ice cream,” he replied in a weird tone of voice.

“We don’t have room in the freezer for anymore ice cream! We have lots of ice cream at home!”

“But we don’t have Butter Pecan ice cream! I want Butter Pecan!” he whined. And, okay, so maybe he didn’t whine. Maybe he just stated this in his manly voice.

I proceeded to go on about how Butter Pecan was the worst ice cream flavor ever. In the midst of my rant about ice cream flavors that were not chocolate based, he turned into the parking lot of a golf course that I had worked at the previous summer and parked right where I had told him I loved him for the first time.

“Uh, honey, what the heck are you doing?”

“I think we’ve got a flat tire.” he said in that weird tone of voice that I would one day come to realize was his LYING VOICE.

We both got out, he dropped to one knee, and he proposed.

The end!

I’m sorry. That was long and boring, wasn’t it? Well, let me make it up to you with these amazing Butter Pecan Squares. See? See how I tied it all together?

I have since matured a wee bit (both in terms of food and just in general) and I’ve come to realize that anything with the name Butter Pecan is pretty darn delicious. These bars are no exception. They are so buttery, so rich, so sweet, so full of delicious flavor that they will just blow your mind.

They might even have you running around sharing your engagement story with the internet! They’re powerful, is what I’m sayin’.

The original recipe called for a box of yellow cake mix, but while I was standing in front of hundreds of box mixes, the Golden Butter cake mix jumped right off the shelf and begged me to take it home. I think it knew that it would fit right in at my house full o’ butter.

Enjoy these at room temperature with a fork or eat ‘em with your hands right out of the fridge. Either way, they’re amazing.

Butter Pecan Squares
adapted from Taste of Home

• 1 box (18.25 ounces) Butter cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups chopped pecans
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, 1 egg, butter, and pecans. Mix well. (I found it easiest to use my hands and just moosh it all together a bunch.) Press into a geased 9×13 pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese, 2 remaining eggs, and the powdered sugar until well combined. Pour over the crust.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the center is set. It should be gooey, but not runny. Cool completely before cutting, 1-2 hours. Store in the refrigerator.

Once upon a time there was a little girl who ate Little Debbie Nutty Bars every day for lunch. Yes, of course, she also ate turkey sandwiches and other less sugary things, but the Nutty Bars were the best part according to the girl. The girl had a brother who ate Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies quite often, but the girl turned her nose up at those cookies and stuck with what she knew…the Nutty Bar. The girl grew up to be a fabulous, amazing, superb woman (What? It’s my story, I can write it how I want.) never having tried the humble Oatmeal Cream Pie.

That’s a (mostly) true story.

I’m a grown woman who has never had an oatmeal cream pie. Now you see why my husband calls me un-American?

I’ll be honest, the Little Debbie packages tempt me. I walk down that aisle at the grocery store and chant “Little Debbie is the debil, Little Debbie is the debil.” It helps. Usually. Sometimes. Okay, so once I bought a box of Ho-Ho’s (I don’t know what they are really called, but I like to call them Ho-Ho’s) and proceeded to eat the whole box in just a few days. I’m not proud of it, but it happened.

Those oatmeal cream pies have always been a mystery though. Surely they must be good, I would think. And, yet, I could never bring myself to taste one.

Today that changed. Today I made my own. I’m kinda depressed that I’ve lived my whole life without these. They are amazing, the delicious hint of cinnamon in the soft, chewy cookie and the sticky, sweet filling is just an awesome combination. I don’t personally know how they compare to the Little Debbie cookies, but my husband grew up eating those things for breakfast and he gave my version two sticky, gooey thumbs up. It’s safe to say that the other woman (Little Debbie) has been eliminated from our relationship for good. Well, for him anyway. I still haven’t made homemade Ho-Ho’s.

Oatmeal Cream Pies
recipe from Honey & Jam

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups quick oats

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in vanilla and the eggs, one at a time until well incorporated. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and oats. Beat into the cream mixture. Refrigerate cookie dough for 15 minutes.

Drop about 1 tbsp of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. The centers should still be slightly underdone when you remove them from the oven. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Spread about 1 tbsp of cream filling (recipe below) on the bottom of one cookie and then top with another cookie.

Cream Filling

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I imagine butter would work just fine)
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow cream
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1-2 tbsp milk, as needed

Cream together the shortening and marshmallow cream. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, beat well. Thin with milk until you get the right consistency. The mixture should be thick and creamy, but easily spreadable.

Yeah, yeah, I know you’re all still running around in swimsuits and snorkels, but y’all, it’s time to start preparing for Christmas. This year is the Year of the Handmade Christmas which means lovely gifts to give, less money to spend, more love given, and a bit more time spent planning, crafting, sewing, and baking. Start now, y’all. Christmas will sneak up on you faster than you believe!

So, if you would like to hear about my fabulous edible gift idea, head on over to Rachel’s blog where she is sharing lots of delicious recipes for a happy, handmade Christmas. Please ignore the totally non-Christmasy photos included in my recipe! My Christmas stuff is still boxed up in storage and my husband refused to get it out for me. He knows my habit of setting up the Christmas tree before Thanksgiving and he was worried I’d set it up one day this week while he was at work. He was probably right.

Happy Holidays, guys!

Mom? Dad? I’ll get my Christmas list to you ASAP.