Mexican Independence Day - Viva Recipes!

 On this auspicious day  in 1810 a brave Roman Catholic priest (and a real Father of two daughters) in the village of Dolores rang a church bell and made a powerful speech that set in motion the War of Independence from Spain. To read all about it, just click here. 

¡Viva México!

 I can think of no better way to celebrate bashing away shackles from an oppressor than a deep cultural dive into Mexico's culinary arts. And, boy, do I have a barricade of recipes for you to attempt to go through. And, of course, the ingredients are cheap but tasty. So join the charge and follow the Revolutionary Chef !

(By the way, Hispanic Heritage Month begins the day before, on September 15.)

Flag of the Mexican Empire of Iturbide - template for the modern Mexican flag. 

Fire the first volley with a Calabasitas -- a Mexican veggie stew made of a bunker full of summer squash. It's lightly spicy comfort food, a dish always ordered by my late wife at our fave local Hollywood Mexican restaurant and shared over Happy Hour frosty margaritas.

Along with squash, you'll need an ammunition belt of onion, corn (fresh or from a can), tomatoes, a can of mild green chiles, cilantro, and, finally, some melting cheese as a topping.

Be sure to choose a cheese that is firm, like Jack, mozzarella, Swiss, mild cheddar, or my favorite, Mexican Queso Fresco (avoid processed American cheese; it will melt into a soup - save it for a gringo grilled sandwich).

They say the military marches on its stomach; well, Calabasitas is hearty enough to satiate any soldier's appetite.

Pozole is a rich pork dish, a stunning stew of hominy (corn), red chilies, and pork. If you had a bit too much Tequila the night before, or just coming off a firefight, recuperate with a rich bowlful. 

The American Revolution broke British rule over our original 13 colonies, and later, Mexico removed the yoke of Spain's oppressive reign. And speaking of "yolk," in the Battle of Breakfast, Huevos Rancheros wins hands down. 

I've been making Huevos Rancheros lately. And the reason is, it's the bomb! You got corn tortillas, creamy refried beans, crumbly Mexican cheese, and fried eggs topped with more cheese and tangy salsa. 

You are hit from all sides with this Gatling gun of disparate flavors. And it's an easy recipe to make. Just heat up some tortillas and refried beans to add to your fried eggs. I prefer Mexican cheese, but you can use what you have on hand. Deliver the coup de grâce with your favorite salsa, either fresh (simple recipe click here) or from the jar.

Just check out my video below to see my cheap$kate version.

If you have leftover tortilla chips in your knapsack, then open up a small can of chilies and try my version of Chilaquiles & Eggs for breakfast.

And, it comes together so quick your abushed taste buds are overrun by tangy green tomatillo Salsa Verde.

I come from illegal stock. As young men, my grandfather and his brother crossed into Texas from Mexico, and after a few years, they applied for and became U.S. citizens. He spent his working life as a Shrimp Boat captain. Now you know the genesis of Tex-Mex cuisine. His daughter, my Mom, has a classic Tex-Mex Chili-Cheese Enchilada recipe that my high school buddy Marvin raves about to this day. Check it out below.

My Mom learned to cook from Big Mama, her mom. A mess kit can easily contain heaps of her Shrimp and Rice. This hand-me-down recipe is a keeper, and you can be sure any private will line up for seconds. Check it out below, it's really easy to do. It's the kind of recipe soldiers dream about on a cold night in a wet foxhole.

Fusion or multiculti cuisines are made by true Americans, and my "brother from another daddy," the Swamp Chef, has his own version of a Cajun-Mex dish called Cajun Natchos. You have to see it to believe it below.

 

Tacos are THE secret weapon. I can have tacos morning, noon, and night. So read on and you'll know what I mean - just click on any taco name, or highlighted text, to see all the tasty details from my blog post recipe or review.

In the morning, it's spicy Mexican chorizo with scrambled eggs and refried beans nestled into a warm corn or flour tortilla.

Breakfast Tacos

And my Chorizo & Egg Taco is about as cheap as you can get. I get Mexican chorizo from my local Latin grocer, natch, and all kinds too, like beef, pork, and even soy (which is a recent favorite). Eggs aren't as cheap as they used to be, but still affordable on a soldier's wages.

*Click on any recipe name to see the original blog post recipe or review*

The simplest breakfast taco to make is one made of Scrambled Eggs & Refried Beans. You can use canned refried beans or make my Homemade Mexican-style Pinto Beans.

This breakfast taco blows all others out of the water! It's a killer recipe and the title says it all: Shrimp, Jalapeño & Egg Tacos. Thanks, Mom for this recipe, I can now hand it down to my fellow food warriors.

And for Breakfast Tacos, it's all about the salsa toppings. I like salsa from a jar, especially when I'm in the food trenches, but sometimes I just gotta go for it and make my own Homemade Salsa, and it's easy to do.

My Mango Salsa recipe with yummy photos and tasty text is right here, but you can check out the video below:



I'm ready to party on this awesome day, and when this cheap$kate does it, you can bet pennies will be pinched without a sacrifice in flavor. For my backyard soirée, it's my favorite taco: slow-cooked pork Carnitas. Just check out my video below to see what I'm writing about.



I buy a 5 to 6-pound budget pork shoulder, and I can get a couple of dozen tacos out of it, too.

 And, boy, it's the perfect budget recipe that your friends, neighbors, and troops will line up for. You let them do most of the work -- they get to build each taco to suit their taste. I like to set out some chopped onion and cilantro. You can make your taco bar any way you like. Go ahead and add a bowl of shredded cheese, chopped lettuce, and tomato, and a cheap jar of salsa, too.

Here's another gringo fusion rip-off recipe based on a classic Mexican salsa, Peach Salsa. Take your ripe Georgia peach and mix it with onion, jalapeño, cilantro, and lime juice. All it takes is a bit of chopping. What a great and refreshing appetizer on a hot summer day under the shade of a sombrero.

Mexico is a major producer/exporter of produce (and labor), and Californians get the benefit of Hass Avocados about two for a $1. As far as these invasions go....bring it on!

A lighter version of pork Carnitas, and just as delish, is my Turkey Carnitas made with dark leg meat. After a long day on the battlefield, gather around the campfire and make a few tacos or a fat burrito.

Carne Asada, or grilled steak, is a favorite taco of mine. Just make my marinade for thinly sliced steak, let it sit for half an hour or so, then slap it on the grill. After the Carne Asada is done you chop it up and serve on a corn tortilla.

Carne Asada Taco - The marinade is a simple mix of lime juice, oil, cilantro, cumin, garlic, salt, and pepper.

Drive anywhere in Los Angeles and you will see taco trucks, sidewalk taco vendors, and taquerias on almost every street, keeping the Mexican Culinary Revolution alive and kicking. And I've stopped at most of them. What follows are a few of my faves - with a few recipes I cribbed from them, too.

When I moved to Los Angeles over 40 years ago, I discovered the taco truck. Boy, have they evolved over the years. In the beginning, it was just hamburgers and tacos made with ground beef. Well, that all changed about 10 years ago when a hotel chef named Roy Choi, who was down but not out, rebounded from couch surfing to start Kogi Taco Truck.

A fellow co-conspirator came up with the idea of a Korean taco, and Roy Choi assembled the taco ingredients of Korean barbecue short ribs with a kimchi-style coleslaw, served on corn tortillas. His truck was an instant hit, and Kogi jump-started the never-ending nouveau taco truck renaissance.

Kogi is still around, and I still love them. Check out my video below, where I hang out night and day, for L.A.'s most uniquely mouthwatering taco. 

¡Viva Taco Revolution!

Inspired by Kogi's mashup of Korean BBQ and Mexican Tacos, I came up with the Loxaco, which combines Jewish and Mexican cuisines. A Loxaco is comprised of homemade lox (cured salmon) in a fast food crunchy taco shell topped with cream cheese and thinly sliced red onion. 

I introduced this preposterous concoction at a book signing in Libros Schmibros, a lending library in East Los Angeles. How did it go over with book lovers? 

The following video is a twofer, you get a recipe plus a literary happening scene -- even the late great food critic Jonathan Gold makes an appearance - while his wife and kid tried them, Jonathan gave them a pass )-:



My mashup of Jewish Pastrami plus coleslaw in a flour tortilla is dynamite! Light the fuse and give my Pastrami & Coleslaw Burrito a try. 

After a film at my fave art house movie theaters, like the Academy of Motion Pictures David Geffen and Ted Mann theaters at LACMA, American Cinemateque Egyptian and Aero, or New Beverly Theater, On the way home I swing by Leo's Taco for a few al pastor pork tacos. Now, Leo's has another taco truck right down the block from my condo.

This is porcine perfection on a paper plate. It's tender and flavorful grilled marinated pork that's cooked in front of a gas grill called a trompo. A cook manning the grill slices off thin slivers, finishing the taco with flair: a flying slice of pineapple. Check out the yummy action below.



I've followed the Two Hot Tamales from the beginning, when the Border Grill was in a storefront with half a dozen tables on Melrose Avenue. Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken are fixtures on the L.A. dining scene who jumped on the taco truck train, bringing their nuevo take on Mexican cuisine to four wheels. They primarily park their taco truck in the environs of Silicon Valley West Coast, Santa Monica.



My Tacos El Primo video review has gone viral. That means this YouTube video gets thousands of views per month - right now it is pushing half a million. Why? I'm not sure. Let's see... in this video, I review Buche and Tripas tacos, or tacos made from slow-cooked stomach and intestines. Gross right? One thing I noticed is half my visitors are from Mexico, so maybe half my audience is curious about how gringos react to offal?

I did the taco review because Tacos El Primo was a midnight munchies stop on my return home from various Hollywood treks. When you have a neighborhood food stop, you eventually dive deeper and try eats you would not normally taste.

Tripas (intestine) Taco

Well, join the multitudes and check out my Cheap$kate video review of Tacos El Primo.

Deep-fried Fish Tacos are one of Mexico's great culinary contributions. These battered depth charges of crunchy perfection are based on the street food of Baja Mexico and other coastal communities. If you like British Fish & Chips, you'll love Fried Fish Tacos.

Fish Taco

The battered fillets of fish are typically served on corn tortillas and topped with a white crema and chopped cabbage. I have my own recipe for Fish Tacos, which you can see by clicking on the recipe name.

And this is the best taco deal in town: Wednesdays are $1.59 Fish Taco Day at Tacos Baja! (When the video was made, they cost $1 each!) Yeah, that's what you heard - don't believe me? Just watch the video below that I shot in Whittier (East L.A.) and see it for yourself.

Chicken is one cheap protein. My Chicken Tinga recipe will have your compadres coming back for seconds...and thirds! Chicken Tinga is a stew simmered in tomato sauce with a can of spicy chipotle peppers, but you can make a mild version with a can of enchilada sauce.

                                                        Chicken Tinga

My no-cook Fake Krab Ceviche just takes some veggie chopping. Because Krab is cooked, you just shred it and add as much as you like to the chopped veggies and cilantro. Of course, I know that real Mexican Ceviche uses "citrus-cooked" raw fish and/or shellfish, but I'm a Cheap$kate Internet Chef, right? So you will have to grant me amnesty for this recipe! But I make up for any shortcomings with the addition of creamy avocado and flavorful black beans. Give my recipe a shot and let me know if it's a successful maneuver.

So do celebrate Mexican Independence Day with me today, now that I've shown you an ammunition dump of taco recipes you can make easily and cheaply. I guarantee your family or guests will light up the sky with praise!

And, what the heck, I'll end with a queasy taco review, from Jack In The Box with its 2 for 99 cent tacos (the price has risen since I made the video, but the taste is the same)...ugh, whoever came up with this abomination should face a firing squad!!

Hey, I know these tacos are affordable and actually liked, so skip the firing squad, just put the chef-inventor in solitary confinement...please.

Durham Delicatessan Italian Hoagie Sandwich - Video Review

Durham Deli in Bristol, Pennsylvania, knows how to build an Italian Deli Sandwich. Locals call this sandwich a Hoagie. Click here, to see how I make my version. And, scroll to the blog post end to see my Cheap$kate Dining Review.

I always get their Italian Hoagie which is loaded with deli meats including, Peppered Ham, Capicola, and Genoa Salami. You get a choice of cheese - I always get Provolone. 

They put a salad on the Hoagie of sliced tomato and Iceburg lettuce, pickles, onion, and sweet and spicy peppers. I like oil and vinegar, but sometimes ask for mayo, too. 

And this Hoagie costs only $7.10 for a small, eight inch long. sandwich. Subway, eat your heart out. I've often made 2 meals out of this small Hoagie.

This sandwich by Durham Deli is so stuffed it's impossible to close. When you get it home and unwrap it. the ingredients burst out of the Italian roll - this Hoagie will not be contained!

The Durham Deli Hoagie was ranked as First Place in the Best Hoagie catagory of 2020 by local newspaper Courier Times. 

Durham Deli  is a small market with a deli in the back as wide as the store. You walk up to the deli counter and wait to place your order. 

The sandwich makers are fast and friendly. The deli meats and cheese are sliced to order. Small bins hold the sliced, or chopped, veggies and pickled peppers.

 Click on any photo to see larger.

They run an efficent deli shop, here. All the sanwiches are served cold - no cheesesteaks or hot meatball sammies. I've tried the Roast Beef and Pastrami Sandwiches and they are delishly pilled high. They have a special with Coleslaw, highly reccommended. Of course, they will make your sandwich anyway you like.

The bread roll is soft inside, and chewy on the outside. It's not a hard crust exterior. My wife was told the bread roll is made by Aversa's Italian Bakery out of South New Jersy. The bread roll is sturdy enough to hold all the wet ingredients like tomato, oil and vinegar, mayo, mustard, and damp, sweet and hot peppers.

This sandwich is bascially an Italian Antipasto Salad in a split Italian bread roll.

Red Peppers are sweet and Yellow Peppers are spicy. Both are pickled with a sour note. The Yellow Peppers are mild in spice heat, way less hor than a jalepeno.

A normal Hoagie, or Italian Sub, may have one sliced layer of each deli meat, not here.The meat portion is double stacked. 

The Peppered Ham is smokey with a mild black pepper bite. Capicola is rich, herbal, and tender. Genoa Salami is garlicy with an intense cured pork flavor. Provolone cheese is mild and buttery. The Italian Hoagie is a tasty combination of deli meats and cheese. 

The stacking of a Hoagie is usually meat and cheese on the bottom, and veggies on top depending on the sandwich makers preference. I've had them with pickles and peppers on the bottom which makes makes the sandwich less top-heavy and easier to eat.

Some may complain about the Durham Deli Hoagies being sloppy and messy. Don't know how you would make a loaded Italian Hoagie neatly? Counting all the pickled and fresh veggie ingredients there is no way to make it neat. A tidy Hoagie would have half the ingredients. 

Give me a fork and extra napkins any day. It's a Hoagie masterpiecethat Leonardo da Vinci would have the Mona Lisa cradle in her arms. 

So, how does the Durham Deli Italian Hoagie rate on my Cheap$kate Dining Scale of 1 to 9, 9 being best? 

It may be a forgone conclusion, but check out my Cheap$kate video review below. Better yet, when in Bristol, Pennsylvania make a Durham Deli run for an Italian Hoagie, small or large sized.

Labor Day Grillin' - Holiday Recipes

Labor Day is a day of rest for us working nine-to-fivers, yeah right! Well, don't sweat it, I'll do the heavy lifting with a wheelbarrow full of tasty recipes for you to choose from. And this Penny Pinching Proletarian has all the photo-illustrated cooking instructions laid out for my visiting toilers, with some videos sprinkled in at no extra charge. Labor Day Weekend is made for cooking!

Smoking Pastrami

 For this final summer holiday here at the Institute of Penny-Pinching, I'm getting out the BBQ grill for a backyard blowout. So read on and click on any highlighted recipe name below, and you'll be directed to my original blog post recipe page of eats, illustrated with yummy photos.

Let's start with the main meat course. This Chintzy Hash Slinger cooks with chicken because it's the cheapest.

And dark meat is the best bargain. I can even get boneless and skinless chicken leg quarters on sale for around 99 cents per pound at my local Latin market. They also sell 10-pound bags of plain whole-leg quarters for less than a dollar per pound.

Use your favorite BBQ sauce for a traditional red, white and blue backyard poultry cookout. I just season cheap chicken pieces with salt and pepper and slather on the BBQ sauce. Before serving, slice into the thickest part of the chicken piece to make sure the juices run clean - no pink or red is allowed!

Next to chicken, pork is one cheap protein, and I like to smoke it. Smoking thick, meaty Country-style Pork Ribs are a favorite. I boil the ribs until tender (you can also wrap them in foil and oven-roast), then throw them on the grill for an hour of smoke. This is a tasty shortcut to traditional all-day smoking. My blog post shows you how to smoke pork ribs 2 ways.

If you like a rack of ribs, then watch my video below for an eyeful of deliciousness. The video recipe features Pork Spare Ribs, and I've used this recipe for Beef Ribs, too.

 What helps drive this great nation's economic engine is our mosaic of industrious cultures, so why not get multiculti and try my recipe for a grilled Thai-style Chicken Satay with a Peanut Dipping Sauce.

The Japanese version of grilled Shish Kabobs is called Yakatori. And the Japanese like to grill it all, even chicken livers. If that is too pungent for you, it's okay to substitute liver with cubes of firm fish like salmon or halibut, and chicken fillets. Everything tastes better when served on a skewer.

Chicken Satay - ready for the grill.

Los Angeles has a bustling Koreatown, and I have had the pleasure of trying a few Korean BBQ joints. Enter one and you are enveloped in smoke from the tabletop grills, loaded down with marinated beef and chicken. I have my own cheap$kate version of Korean BBQ you can make for your next backyard gathering.

It's all about the marinade that mainly consists of garlic, soy sauce, and brown sugar. It's a potent combination you should try out sometime. Just click here for my Korean-style BBQ Chicken recipe. The photo below shows cheap, grilled boneless and skinless dark meat leg quarters.

If you are glued to the widescreen TV for a baseball game, then you can't go wrong with grilled tube steaks. Click here to see how I traditionally do them.

They are the easiest fast food to make, and you won't have to put in any overtime for my wiener vittles. I have a couple of unusual recipes I think you will enjoy. And it's easy enough to replace cheap hot dogs with your favorite specialty sausages - if you're the artisanal type.

I usually get my hot dogs with just relish and mustard, but sometimes I like to mix it up. Here in Los Angeles, we have a uniquely constructed wiener sold by entrepreneurial sidewalk vendors called the L.A. Street Dog.

It's a crazy quilt combination of sautéed onion and bell pepper that's strewn over a bacon-wrapped wiener, then topped with mayo, mustard, ketchup, and finally crowned with a spicy jalapeño!

You've never had a hot dog like this - it's the Roman candle of finger foods. In my video below, I grill the bacon-wrapped wiener on the stovetop, but it's even better sizzling on your BBQ grill.

 
Allow me to introduce you to a Currywurst, which is a sausage or hot dog that's grilled and topped with a spicy sauce consisting of ketchup, Worcestershire Sauce, cayenne pepper, and curry powder (dried cumin). This Berlin, Germany, delicacy started just after WWII as street food for British and American soldiers stationed there. It sounds like a weird combination of ingredients, but it works and it's so easy to make, so give it a go - it makes a great appetizer served with toothpicks.

Currywurst

Another Eastern European entree is made with grilled Sausages, Sauerkraut, and Beer. Now, these are ingredients that work well together! Again, I cooked this dish on a stovetop, but you can cook the sausages over an open fire for extra charred flavor.

To add some veggie crunch, try my bastardized version of a Chicago Dog. I can't get Day-Glow green relish out here in LA so I tweaked the Windy City's fast food classic by adding some bright green chopped lettuce along with traditional sliced tomato. Hopefully, Chicago tough guys will give me a pass for tweaking this culinary bad boy. And check out my wacky video below, where my Chicago Dog is the video punchline.

 

Hamburgers are a backyard grill favorite that almost every working stiff lusts after. And boy, do I have a meaty South of the Border spin with my Mexi-Turkey Burger.

It packs a lot of flavor with the main ingredient, Mexican chorizo, which has a deep-flavored red chile taste, spiced with paprika, Mexican oregano, and garlic powder. And you can use regular ground beef instead of poultry. Get out the salsa for my Mexi-Burger.

My fave grilled hamburger is slathered with barbecue sauce and has sautéed mushrooms and cheddar cheese. What's yours?

Attention all you breadwinners, I have the perfect meal between 2 buns, Smoked Pork Butt Sammies! For lovers of smoked pork, the following entree will have you asking for seconds and thirds. I like to smoke a whole pork shoulder (or butt) when I throw a Labor Day BBQ party.

If you have traveled the South, then you've run across BBQ Pulled Pork. Mainly served between buns and topped with BBQ sauce, this crowd-pleasing self-serve sandwich has it all: smoke,y tender pork that's seasoned with a dry rub of sugar and spice.

Pulled Pork Dry Rub

Click on any photo to see larger.

Just set out a tub of Pulled Pork along with hamburger buns, BBQ sauce, sliced onion, pickles, and Coleslaw, and get out of the way as the line forms. I have an easy gas grill smoking method you can see in my video below.

 
Pork Carnitas are my favorite tacos. While not done on a BBQ grill, it's still one of my go-to backyard holiday foods, so I gotta give you the recipe gratis, no charge. You can always give it a quick smoke pass to kick it up a notch. It really is the perfect party food because you get to sit back and let your friends do all the work and build their own tacos. Go to the following blog post to see some tasty Homemade Salsas for your taco - or scoop up with tortilla chips.

Carnitas Taco

And pork is still cheap these days, especially when it comes on sale at my local Latin market. So you won't break the bank feeding your lovers of all things porcine.

I seldom cook with beef because it's just too darn expensive for this wage earner, but when I splurge, it's for steak. I just season it with salt and pepper, that's it. Believe it or not, 3-ounce thin-sliced steaks do show up at my local Dollar Tree stores from time to time.

Sometimes I'll finish a steak with a little BBQ sauce. But if you want to impress your guests, then try out my Carne Asada recipe. Ribeye (or any favorite tender cut) is marinated in cilantro, green onion, garlic, lime juice, and a little ground cumin. When it's hot off the grill, chop the meat for Carne Asada Tacos or a Warm Steak Salad.

Carne Asada Marinade

If you are smoking meat, get your hands greasy and throw on a slab of corned beef brisket for Homemade Pastrami. I always freeze 2 or 3 corned beef briskets when they are on sale during St. Patrick's Day week.

My  Easy Smoked Homemade Pastrami recipe is as tasty as any Jewish Deli version - so says everyone I've served it to, and you don't have to leave me a tip. I think it's because the smoky flavor is more intensely fresh off the grill than from a deli where the pastrami has been sitting in the cold case for a few days. Hey, don't take my word for it, give it a shot, and get ready for an assembly line of high fives sure to come your way!

 

Seafood and a BBQ grill go together. For Grilled Fish, you have to have a delicate touch as fish is easy to overcook. But it's done quickly, so you won't smell too smoky slaving over the grill.

Grilling a whole fish is the easiest way to do it. Of course, your guest may have to work overtime to pick out fish bones, but all that effort will be worth it if you cook the fish my way.

I have a deep-fried Fish Taco recipe that's easily adapted for outdoor grilling. Just leave off the batter and grill the fish for a lighter and healthier pescado. Check out my recipe for all the details, including a cool Creme Topping.

A bag of tortilla chips and a light Seafood Ceviche made with budget fake crab is a chill appetizer to greet the guests with.

Seafood Ceviche

For my vegetarian friends working for a living, and who've gotten off the conveyor belt of meat, the following recipes are for you. My sister Denise has a fave veggie Eggplant Burger (and easy enough to BBQ instead of frying pan sauteing).

 Eggplant Burger

Portabella Mushroom Burger

A tasty meat substitution is an earthy Portabella Mushroom Burger that's topped with grilled bell pepper and cheese (or use a cheese substitute).

Roast a few ears of corn to serve with the veggie burgers, or go a little further and make my Roasted Cream Corn.

It's all about the veggie sides when you have a BBQ patio party. You can simply drizzle a little olive oil and season any fave summer veggie to grill over the fire.

 Braised Romain Heart

Click on any recipe name to get my recipe details for Sweet Potatoes, Grilled Bell Peppers, Zucchini with Herbs, thick-sliced Eggplant, and Braised Romain Hearts (originally done inside, but easy enough to do outside).

You gotta have Potato or Macaroni Salads when you grill meat. I have a colorful Peanut Coleslaw made with red cabbage. But a regular Coleslaw is good enough for me, like in the video below.

My Mom recently dropped by the cheap$kate kitchen and set off a flavor bomb: Cajun Potato Salad. It was so good I had to make a video to share her recipe with you.

 
Get your guests started with light salads such as refreshing Watermelon, Mango, and Spinach; hearty Black Bean & Corn; an exotic, but simple, Korean-style Cucumber Salad; a tangy Cuban Salad, or luscious Pears & Spinach with Herb Cream.

 

Watermelon, Mango & Spinach Salad

If you are doing burgers, then you want fries to go with them, and my double-fried French Fries do the trick.

I like a pot of beans on the stove simmering while I'm grilling. Cook them the day before, and they taste even better the next. Be sure to set out a stack of bowls so your guests can help themselves. I like to have some grated cheese and minced onion on the side.

My New Orleans friend, Miss Patty, has a delish Vegetarian Red Beans recipe for you, and I have my own Beef & Bean Chili and Cuban Black Beans recipe.

There is nothing better at stoking appetites than walking past the kitchen and inhaling the savory perfume of seasoned slow-cooking legumes.

Every holiday has its produce specials, so be sure to check out your local grocery flyers for all the holiday deals.

Labor Day is almost here, and this Parsimonious Culinary Artisan put in 12 hours, 8 days a week, cranking out the recipes for your use, royalty, and tax-free.

So get to work and click on any recipe name listed above and get all my tasty recipe details - it's the easiest and tastiest job you'll have all year!