Every now and then I get a big ol’ craving for Mexican food. This only happens about once every, oh, day or two. I can’t help it. I love Mexican food. In fact, I sometimes regret not marrying an old Mexican grandma. I’m sure her cooking would have been divine. I guess my husband and his lackluster cooking abilities will have to do though.

He’s cute. I like him. Even if he does roll his eyes and say “Mexican food again?” At least he lets me pose him (sit here, turn your head this way, smile, no, not a fake smile, a real smile!) so that the internet can see how cute he is.

That’s enough talk about boys. This is a food blog.

Something that I must have to go along side my tacos, enchiladas, and burritos is this delicious, nutritious (Well, kind of. Maybe.), completely addicting guacamole. Trust me when I say that this guacamole will change your little Mexican food loving life.

The best part is, if you live with onion haters, you can easily substitute onion powder for the chopped onions and you don’t sacrifice any flavor. I like the crunch the onion adds to this, but the flavor doesn’t suffer a bit if you leave them out. And, yeah, that boy up there is the onion hater in my life. It’s a good thing he’s cute.

Guacamole

• 4 ripe Haas avocados
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup finely diced onion (I use a red onion, but any will work) (or sub onion powder)
• 1 lime
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 tsp cumin (or more, to taste)
• salt, to taste

Chop the avacodos into small cubes and mash with a fork, leaving just a few chunks and add to a medium sized bowl. Add in the garlic, cilantro, onion, sour cream, cumin, and salt. Squeeze the juice of the lime into the bowl and stir everything together. Serve immediately.

The other day I was playing around on my iPhone when I came across an app for allrecipe.com’s Dinner Spinner. It is the neatest little app and I am officially in love. I am in the process of reserving a flight for me and the dinner spinner. We are running off together and never coming back. Goodbye forever.

Before I go, I thought I would share a recipe that I discovered while sitting in the car at the grocery store parking lot wondering what the heck I was going to make for dinner that night. Dinner Spinner totally saved the day.

Country Pasta with Mozzarella is a delicious little recipe that I need to go make again, right this minute, because my husband ate it all before I could stop him. Doesn’t he know that the pasta is mine and he was supposed to eat all the grilled meat and leave me the girl food? It must be the bacon in this pasta that made him forget the rules.

This recipe is simple and quick. I made it as a side dish with grilled chicken, but it’d be a perfect lunch on it’s own.

First things first, let’s boil up about 8 ounces of pasta. I used farfalle. I love the shape. The original recipe called for rigatoni, but, let’s be honest here, rigatoni is boring.

While the pasta is boiling, chop up two cups of fresh broccoli, eight slices of bacon, and a couple cloves of garlic.

Dump the bacon in a large frying pan and cook until it is almost crispy. Dump in the garlic and broccoli and cook them in the bacon grease for 4 to 5 minutes, until the broccoli loses a bit of the raw crunch. Don’t freak out about the bacon grease either. This is Buns In My Oven, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t love bacon grease.

Dump your al dente pasta right in the pan with the bacon and broccoli (and bacon grease, I SAID don’t freak out!) and top it with 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (I used the powdered stuff, it was delicious), 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and 1/4 cup of fresh chopped parsley.

Stir it all up over very low heat and don’t panic. It will be a big gloppy mess. The mozzarella gets all stringy and melty and it isn’t pretty. Pasta doesn’t have to be pretty though, just close your eyes and take a bite. You won’t regret it.

Real quick, let me tell you about all the different ways you could make this dish your own. You could make this a main dish by adding cooked, chopped chicken. You could replace the bacon with the chicken (you’d need to add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to cook the broccoli in) or you could just use the chicken in addition to the bacon. You could substitute asparagus for the broccoli. You could chop up a bell pepper and cook it in with the broccoli. You could chop up a sweet yellow onion and add it while the bacon was cooking, but only do this if you aren’t married to my husband, because he would probably throw a fit about the addition of onion. You could play with the cheeses, adding different varieties or swapping the mozzarella for something else entirely. I’m thinking cream cheese would be beautiful in this dish.

Country Pasta with Mozzarella
Recipe from allrecipes.com

• 8 ounces farfalle pasta
• 8 slices bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Cook pasta according to package directions and drain.

2. In large skillet, cook the bacon until almost crisp. To the pan, add broccoli and garlic. Cook until the broccoli is slightly tender, stirring often, about 4 to 5 minutes.

3. Pour in the cooked pasta, mozzarella, parmesan, cayenne and parsley. Stir together over very low heat until the cheese is melted.

I don’t want to alarm anyone or anything, but I am married to a very picky eater. He has passed his pickiness onto our 9 year old son and I have a feeling that one day soon our 4 year old daughter is going to start proclaiming that everything except for hot dogs and chocolate is GROSS! It’s a sad life to live, I tell you.

The one vegetable that everyone will eat is corn. Corn on the cob or corn off the cob, it doesn’t matter so long as it is yellow and has a bit of butter and salt on it. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how very boring corn can get after eating it once a day for the past 27 years of my life.

Well, I am through eating boring old corn every single day.

Let’s make corn exciting again, shall we?

First, chop up six slices of bacon into  bite size chunks. Pop them into a pan and let ‘em cook.

While the bacon is frying, dice a couple bunches of green onions. If your family is really picky you can leave these out. You could also use a yellow onion, but there is no way my kids would go for that. As it was, my husband took one bite and said “That green stuff is ONION!” and then he wouldn’t eat anymore. Yes, it’s true. I married a big baby.

After the bacon is nice and crisp remove it from the pan, but leave the drippings. Add in the onion and cook it until it’s nice and soft.

Dump your corn into the pan along with the green onions. I used 2 cans of corn this time, but I normally use one bag of frozen corn. I like the frozen stuff much better than canned. You could also use fresh corn.

Drop in a handful of grated cheddar cheese.

Saute the corn, green onions, and cheese for about 5 minutes, stirring pretty often. Don’t let the cheese burn on the bottom of the pan. You’ll regret it.

After the cheese has melted and the corn is good and hot, go ahead and dump in 1/2 cup of milk, cream, or half and half. I used cream, of course. I’m a bad girl.

Add the bacon back in, give it a stir, and cook over low heat until hot and bubbly.

It’s hard to tell from this picture, but the corn is so creamy and delicious. The cheese just kind of disappears into the background and leaves you wondering just what the heck it is that makes this so yummy. The bacon brings a nice smoky flavor to the sweet corn. What I’m trying to say is, go make this. Now.

Corn with Cheese and Bacon

6 slices bacon
2 bunches green onions
1 bag frozen corn
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, half and half, or milk
salt and pepper, to taste

Chop bacon into bite sized pieces and fry until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, but leave drippings. Cook diced green onions in bacon drippings until soft, add corn and cheese to pan. Cook over low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add cream and bacon to pan, stir and cook for about 5 more minutes until hot and bubbly.

Alright, I’m about to show you all something so simple that I feel kind of silly even posting this. I can’t NOT post it though, because, well, this has become one of my favorite foods and no, it doesn’t even contain chocolate or sugar. I’m about to show you how to take a boring bag of frozen vegetables and turn them in to something that you will enjoy. Yes, really. Vegetables. That taste good. Weird, isn’t it?

I am addicted to those steam in the bag frozen veggies, but they kind of freak me out at the same time. I’m not sure how healthy it is to be microwaving that plastic bag and letting your foods cook in all those chemicals, but man, they are so quick and easy to use. If you have a serious aversion to quick, easy, chemical-leaching foods, just go ahead and cook your veggies a different way. Steam them, boil them, microwave them in a glass bowl, whatever. Me, I’ll stick to the steam in a bag veggies and pretend that the extra eyeball I’m growing is pretty.

All you need is a 12 ounce bag of frozen vegetables (I prefer a mixture of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, but you could probably do this with just about any combination of vegetables and you’d get good results.), a tablespoon of butter, and lemon pepper seasoning.

Cook your frozen veggies  however you like. While they are cooking, get out a bowl large enough to fit them all in and add in one tablespoon of butter. Let the butter soften up a bit on the counter or pop it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Dump your cooked vegetables into the bowl right on top of the butter and sprinkle the top with some lemon pepper seasoning. (If you want to get all fancy and use real lemon juice and seasonings, go ahead, but the stuff in your spice rack will work just as well. Promise.) You can use as much or as little as you like. I usually sprinke on a couple of teaspoons, then stir it all up to distribute the butter and sprinkle on some more seasoning and stir it again. I probably use about one tablespoon of lemon pepper seasoning.

Oh, man. These veggies taste so good. Lemon just really brightens up the flavor of the vegetables and brings it all to life. Mm. Mmmmmm! Yum.

You can make this using any amount of vegetables, just adjust the butter and seasoning to your liking. Now, go make it. That’s an order.

I’m sorry, okay? I just can’t help myself. I like bacon. It’s who I am. It’s what I do. It’s an integral part of me and I won’t deny it.

The first time I tried this BLT macaroni salad, I really didn’t have high hopes. Macaroni salad should have mayonnaise, eggs, and green olives and that’s about it! That’s the way my mama made it and my mama couldn’t be wrong. Who decided it was okay to add bacon? And tomatoes! In a macaroni salad? Who the heck authorized that?

I am happy to report that bacon and tomatoes in a macaroni salad is actually completely legal and very yummy. (Also, my mama was wrong. Don’t tell her though, okay?)

This would be a perfect side dish for just about any kind of grilled meat. Macaroni salad just screams summer.

To get started, bring a large pan of water to a boil and add one pound of pasta. Cook until al dente or about 8 minutes. (I made this for a big group of people on Easter, so I used an entire pound of pasta. This recipe would be simple to half if you are making it for a smaller crowd, though.) Don’t forget to salt your water.

Grab two medium to large tomatoes and start dicing them up. My tomatoes were on the small side and, I’ll be honest here, it made a difference. The sweet juicy tomatoes really add something to this, so don’t skimp.

Go ahead and chop up two to three bunches of green onions, depending on how much you love green onions. Me? I love them. Add them to the bowl of diced tomatoes along with one cup of mayonnaise, 1/4 cup white vinegar, salt and pepper. Stir it all up and lick the spoon.

Now fry up around 8 slices of bacon, or more if your husband is a bacon thief like mine. It’s always good to have extra bacon laying around for back up. When the bacon has cooled off a bit, crumble it all up into bite sized pieces.

Drain your pasta and dump it into a large bowl. Pour on the mayonnaise mixture and stir it all up. Do a happy dance. Dump the crumbled bacon on top of it all and mix it all up again. Do another happy dance. Take a few bite to make sure it’s properly salted. Repeat the happy dance.

Dump it all into a pretty serving dish, stick a pretty serving spoon in, and garnish it with some pretty green onions.

Oh, and if anyone asks what the “L” stands for in the “BLT” portion of this dish, just stick your tongue out at them and then eat their share. That’ll teach ‘em.

BLT Macaroni Salad

• 1lb. macaroni pasta
• 8 slices bacon
• 2 medium-large tomatoes
• 2-3 bunches of green onions, plus extra for garnish
• 1 cup mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip)
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• salt and pepper, to taste

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add macaroni. Cook until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain and pour into large mixing bowl.

2. Fry 8 slices of bacon and, when cool enough to handle, crumble into bite sized pieces. Set aside.

3. Chop tomatoes and green onions, add to small mixing bowl. Mix in mayonnaise and vinegar. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

4. Pour mayonnaise mixture over macaroni and stir together well. Stir in the crumbled bacon.

5. Serve in a pretty dish with some chopped green onions sprinkled on top. Enjoy!