DIY Taco Salad Shells

I don't know about you, but where I live the local grocery store has a taco salad shell kit that comes with 4 flour tortillas and paper shells to bake them on.  It costs a little over $4 for this kit and frankly, I find that to be outrageous.  With a little effort, the same shells can be achieved for a little under $2.00.  The first step is to invert a muffin pan and place it on a cookie sheet.  Then take four wide-mouth canning jars and place them on the muffin tin, as seen below.

Next spray the jars with nonstick spray and drape one 10 inch flour tortillas over each jar.  Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 6 to 8 minutes.  I had to move my oven rack to the lowest setting in order to put the tray in the oven.  

 

Then fill with your favorite taco fillings and serve.  

Berry Cobbler

I had planned on posting this several weeks ago, but on Labor Day weekend, our house was struck by lightening.  It has been a long process working with our homeowner's insurance, getting quotes to have our stove, refrigerator, laptop, washing machine, and hubby's shop equipment repaired or replaced.  We almost immediately bought a new television but are still without our blue-ray player and I think all of us are having Netflix withdrawals.  At least our son can watch his cartoons on the Kindle.  We were without internet and phone service for almost a week because of the holiday weekend, so I had to go "old" school and get out my cookbooks to find something new to put on the table.

One of the features on the evening news that I used to love to watch was Mr. Food, so well before hubby and I were married, I had bought several Mr. Food cookbooks.  I remembered that on these segments he always seemed to use common items that most people would have in their pantry and this berry cobbler was no exception to that rule.  The original recipe called for blueberries, but I didn't have enough in the freezer to make a this recipe, so I substituted blackberries for the one in the picture.  Since then I've made the same cobbler using a mixture of frozen strawberries and blueberries (my favorite) and also using canned peaches (hubby's favorite).     

Berry Cobbler

3 cups fresh or frozen berries
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups biscuit mix (Bisquick or Jiffy Mix)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Splenda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup butter or margarine cut into small slices for dotting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, toss together the berries, lemon juice, vanilla and Splenda.  Spoon the mixture into a prepared 8-inch square baking pan.  In another bowl, combine the biscuit mix, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Sprinkle over the berry mixture, then dot with the sliced butter.  Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until just crispy.

This recipe was adapted from Mr. Food Cooks Real American by Art Ginsburg (Mr. Food)