Easy Recipe: Mexican Lasagna Casserole

Here's an easy recipe Carey from Web Digest Weekly passed along to me:

Mexican Lasagna (casserole)

1.5 lbs ground beef
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 8oz. jar Pace picante sauce
1 bag of tortilla chips
1 bag shredded cheddar cheese

1 - Brown the ground beef and drain.

2 - In a sauce pan, combine cream soups and picante sauce. Cook on medium-high heat until bubbling, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.

3 - Crush tortilla chips. In a casserole dish, put half the bag of crushed chips in the bottom.

4 - Add ground beef over chips.

5 - Pour soup-picante sauce over ground beef.

6 - Layer the cheese across top of sauce and add the rest of the chips.

7 - Bake at 350 degrees for twenty minutes.

OPTIONAL SUGGESTION: As I told my friend, I done a little improvising and added taco spices as I was cooking the ground beef. And I used the bite-size tortilla chips, so I didn't have to bother with crushing them. Chopped green onions could also be sprinkled over the shredded cheese as you're layering the casserole.

Christmas Recipe: Red Hots (Hard Candy)

This recipe is actually from my great-grandma, who would make this around the holidays. And the recipe is 100% adjustable to your own tastes. If you like hard candy, but don't care for red hot cinnamon, you can use any other flavor of LorAnn oils, along with the appropriate food coloring.

Red Hots (also Hard Candy)

4 cups of white sugar
½ bottle of red cake coloring
4 cups white syrup
2 tablespoons LorAnn oil – cinnamon

Directions:

Mix sugar and syrup, bring to boil – stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Cook to a hard crackling boil/300 degrees.

Don't stir. Remove from heat.

Cool some, add cake coloring and LorAnn oil.

Pour into well-greased pan (cooking spray).

Break in squares when cold.

Other hard candy flavor suggestions: green coloring with wintergreen LorAnn flavoring, blue coloring with blueberry LorAnn flavoring, purple coloring with plum LorAnn flavoring, pink coloring with bubble gum LorAnn flavoring, or red coloring with cran-raspberry LorAnn flavoring.

Shop for LorAnn flavoring oils at lorannoils.com

Recipe: Collard Greens

Here's my recipe for collard greens......

3 large or 4 medium-small sized bunches collard greens
5 cans chicken broth
1 small package of salt pork (ham hocks are ok)
1 small jar minced garlic
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes

* Bring 4 cans of chicken broth, the salt pork and your desired amount of minced garlic (I use 2-3 tablespoons) to a boil in a large pot, and then simmer on low for 1 hour, covered.

* Chop 1 bunch of greens at a time (discard the end stalks), and add to broth (stir in and wait for greens to wilt a little before adding the next bunch). Use additional broth to submerge greens. Bring to boil.

* Reduce greens to low heat, covered for 1 hour.

* Bring to a boil again, and add red pepper flakes. Stir and simmer again on low heat for another hour, covered.