• Sopapilla cheesecake bars

    Easy sopapilla cheesecake bars with cinnamon sugar and honey

    A few years ago, I was visiting Phoenix for work and had the chance to see my mom’s BFF. She reads the blog (hi, Beth!) and gave me a bunch of different recipes to try. One that immediately caught my eye was something called “sopapilla cheesecake,” and I meant to make it as soon as […]

  • Beer-braised carnitas nachos

    How is it already March? I know February is a short month and all, but seriously. Somehow I managed to wait an entire month before sharing the delicious nachos I made for the Super Bowl. If you don’t like nachos… well, we probably can’t be friends. But you could always just use these beer-braised carnitas […]

  • Restaurant-style salsa

    Let’s be honest: I will eat just about any salsa that’s put in front of me. Yeah, I prefer freshly made and non-chunky kinds, and I generally don’t like fruit salsas (though Flaming Amy’s pineapple salsa is a notable exception), but I will eat it regardless. Restaurant salsa — at least the kind that doesn’t […]

  • Sopapillas

    My favorite restaurant growing up was Marilyn’s First Mexican Restaurant, right across the street from the Paradise Valley Mall in Phoenix. I always requested the hot salsa to accompany our regular chips and salsa, and if I wasn’t too full after my bean burrito (without onions) or cheese enchiladas (also without onions), I would order […]

  • Chalupas – shredded pork and beans

    We here at ESS are big fans of baked goods, obviously. But we are also very fond of spicy foods, anything involving tortillas, and pork products. Add the fact that this is a slow-cooker recipe that requires limited effort and it’s close to perfect. These are called chalupas, but they have nothing to do with […]

  • Ridiculously easy chicken tacos

    You are going to need some very special skills to make these chicken tacos. Namely: the ability to open a jar (or find a cute boy to do it for you) and the ability to push a button. So, those without opposable thumbs, sorry. Seriously, these are so easy to make it is almost embarrassing. […]

  • Mexican pinwheels

    Hilary and Aaren would kill me if I didn’t post this recipe soon. So here we go. But don’t think you are going to get the recipe without a story. One of the cookbooks I use quite frequently (mainly because it has a lot of my mother’s recipes in it) is the Severna Park Newcomers […]