Bless My Heart I Married A Yankee

I had some sweet bell peppers left over from all the apple canning that needed to be used. I just can not waste things.  I love to make Mexican stuffed peppers  so that sounded like a plan for the bell peppers to me.  I normally make a Mexican style rice to go with my meat mixture that goes in my stuffed peppers but I decided to do yellow rice this time.   I love making rice in my pressure cooker.  It comes out so wonderful and does not clump at all!  There is a secret to that.  A pat of butter is the secret.   I have featured how to  cook rice in the instant pot  before but I did not think about yellow rice when I made that entry.   This is so super easy and honestly, once you make rice in your pressure cooker you will never want to do it any other way, and we have a rice cooker.  I NEVER use it anymore.  It just sits in the attic all alone now.  I am sure it is lonely.   ...

During the Applepolozza experience, I accidentally purchased too many Roma tomatoes for the Apple Salsa  .  That was almost a week ago and they were starting to get riper then I need them too.  You guys know me, my frugal heart hates to waste stuff. I really am not too big on store-bought tomatoes but what do you do when that is your only option because it is only April? We are having some friends, Wade, Cheryl, and Lawrence, over tonight for smoking pizzas on the Big Green Egg.  Jeremy might come too, he loves the pizzas on the BGG. I thought why not make Pico De Gallo for an appetizer.  We need something to munch on as we wait, right? Pico is so simple to make.  I did not care to run to the grocery store because they are doing road work near my house and it takes quite a while to get through.  I do not have the patience today to wait in traffic when I do not have to do so.  That is why I am using the frozen jalapenos instead of fresh....

It is May Day, May 1!!  Here in NC it has been a warm day, the breeze has just started blowing as the day is coming to a close.  What a great day, too bad we no longer dance around the May Pole because today would have been wonderful for it. Our friend Jeremy called yesterday and he mentioned bring some salmon over Saturday to smoke on the big green egg, he reminded me it is Cinco de Mayo Saturday.  So, we are having a party!!  Mexican style fun at the Cristina's household.  I told Jeremy I would think of some things to make.  Of course, I have 6 or 7 different salsas canned in the basement.  I am going to make  pico de gallo , Spanish  yellow rice ,  guacamole , and sangria.   Many years ago someone made a white sangria and I have been hooked ever since.  We like red wine but for some reason, a white sangria is better, or at least to me it is. My recipe has been adapted from the one I was given...

I have always loved fajitas.  However, with summer coming Mexican can be heavy.  F ajitas are a great way to get your Mexican fix in the summer months.  My dad was not one to really like anything but southern cooking but he would eat fajitas which meant we got to go eat Mexican sometimes when we would go out to dinner with him.  Now he never put the fajita filling into the tortillas but he ate the meat and even some of the vegetables.   Saturday was Cinco de Mayo and we had a small party.  Since we invited quite a few people I was not sure if we would have enough food so I decided to make crockpot fajitas.  It was a recipe my daughter had mentioned to me a few months back.  I knew I would be busy Saturday and not have enough time to actually fix fajitas on the stove top or grill so this was an excellent choice for me.  Now, I will say do NOT compare them to regular fajitas because you might be disappointed.  This re...