Christopher Todd’s Italian Taco Chopped Salad

1 lb. lean ground beef or chicken breast
1 head Iceberg Lettuce
1 head Leaf Lettuce
1.5 oz. Fresh Basil
4 Roma Tomatoes
6 Green Onions
1 can of dark red Kidney Beans (drained)
8 oz. Sharp Cheddar Cheese (grated)
1-12oz bag of Nacho Cheese flavored tortilla chips
8 oz. Zesty Italian Dressing


Brown and Drain the ground beef or chicken and set aside to cool. Crumble tortilla chips into a coarse texture and set aside. Chop Iceberg and leaf lettuce and basil into small pieces and mix together. Make 8 medium to thin slices of tomatoes and set aside. Chop all of the remaining tomatoes, along with the green onions and add to the greens mixture. Drain, wash and add kidney beans to greens mixture.

Right before serving: Add meat, ½ of the grated cheese, ½ of the tortilla chips and the Italian dressing to the greens. Mix thoroughly. Add the remaining tortilla chips to the top of the salad.

This salad is great as a meal or is a great side salad. If serving as a meal, this recipe yields 4 servings and as a side, yields 8 servings. Also, this is a great Vegetarian meal if the meat is either omitted or substituted with ground Boca meat.

Your guest will not know whether to say “Delicioso” or “Delizioso”!!

Strawberries and Goat Cheese with Balsamic Vinegar and Roasted Garlic

This recipe includes many of my most favorite foods and what I like to call a "Buffet on a Cracker".
Here are the ingredients:

Strawberries (sliced)
Goat Cheese (I prefer garlic flavored)
Glazed pecans
Roasted garlic
Balsamic Vinegar
Brown Sugar
Toast

Cap and clean your strawberries. Slice the strawberries horizontally.

Mix the glazed pecans and roasted garlic together.

Measure 3 teaspoons of brown sugar in a small bowl. Add Balsamic vinegar to the sugar until the texture is smooth.

Place the goat cheese, strawberries, pecans and garlic and vinegar on a tray with toast.

This can be a "messy" appetizer, since there are so many different ingredients. I recommend this as a beginning to a meal or to eat with a fork.

Best Bruschetta

I know that bruschetta is a common and familiar appetizer, but if you will follow this recipe, this will be the best you've ever tasted!

Many times, bruschetta is served very dry and the tomato pieces, although diced, are very large, mostly because large tomatoes are used. I use cherry and grape tomatoes for my recipe and it makes a huge difference. Not only are these tomatoes better for this recipe, they are much sweeter in taste.

2 boxes of Cherry or Grape tomatoes (I like to use 1 of each)
Fresh Basil chopped**
3 tablespoons of Pesto
Olive Oil
½ cup of Shredded Parmesan cheese**
Toast**

Finely chop the tomatoes into small pieces. I use my kitchen scissors to cut my tomatoes. Next, remove the large stems from the basil and finely chop the leaves and add to the tomatoes. Add pesto and 4 tablespoons of Olive Oil. Refrigerate (this allows the flavors to fully marinate)
Top with shredded Parmesan cheese and serve with toast.

A few tips. . .
At the beginning of the spring, plant a few basil plants in your garden. They are very easy to grow in pots and like almost any condition.

Make sure you shred your cheese and not simply grate it. The shredded cheese gives a much more gourmet look and also makes the cheese flavor more intense for such a small appetizer.

For your toast, I recommend purchasing a whole French baguette. Use an electric knife to slice your bread and spray with either spray butter or cooking spray before toasting in the oven. You can also used fresh black pepper on the bread to intensify the flavor.

Enjoy!

Goat Cheese and Pear Salad

This is a quick and easy salad that is really delicious! Very little prep work involved in making this and the flavor is amazing! Enjoy!

1 slice of goat cheese
1 sliced pear
Mixed field greens
Sweet balsamic vinaigrette dressing
Glazed walnuts

Take a rounded slice of goat cheese and place in the center of your serving plate.
Slice pear and place pear slices around the cheese wheel.
Add dressing to the greens. Place greens on top of goat cheese.
Sprinkle glazed walnuts to the top
Serve and enjoy!

El Cacino Punch

2 1/2 quarts tea
2 c. sugar
2 c. orange juice
2 c. pineapple juice
1 c. lemon juice

(Yield 1 gallon)

Brew tea. Add additional water with tea to make 2.5 quarts. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Add other juices. May be served warm or cold.

For the holidays, boil one packet of whole cloves in water. Drain 2 cups of the liquid and add to the mix. Only use 2 quarts of tea.

Say Cheese. . .Ball!!

As we get ready for all of the holiday celebrations, there is one thing that all of us could use. . .more time! If there is anyone on Earth that knows about that, I promise you that it is me!! That being said, I know a lot of tricks for making it seem like you have all the time in the world to make your parties perfect. I am going to share one of those tips with you today.

This appetizer is inexpensive, super quick and easy and all of your guests will be asking you for the recipe. (please just direct them to my blog!!)

For this appetizer, you only need 3 ingredients: Cream Cheese, Ham and Green Onions.




Step one:
Open 2 blocks of cream cheese and allow them to soften.



Step two:
Using one package of sliced ham, dice the ham into cubes.
I use thin deli-sliced honey ham. The flavor is great!



Step three:
Dice 5 green onions.




Mix all of this together and shape into a ball.

As a little extra, I like to add pecans to the top once I have the formation made.



Garnish and add crackers and you are ready to party!





This recipe literally takes no more than 5 minutes to make and costs about $6!

ENJOY!!!