From the Hound's Kitchen: "Homemade" Tortilla Chips

Hey everyone, Dork_Syd again. It seems that I will be the one writing when food is involved.

Elfie and I LOOOOVE chips and salsa. So much so that we will often eat enough of them to constitute a full meal. This poses a couple of problems. One of them is nutrition. Store bought chips are fried in oil and covered in way to much salt, not to mention the processed ingredients. For the most part I don't really care about processed ingredients but we have found in many cases we can find cheaper and healthier alternatives if we take the time to look. By making our own chips, we can control what goes into them and how much , and what kind of, salt is used thereby getting better nutrition. The other issue with store bought chips is price. The average 10 oz bag of tortilla chips is about $3 and lasts the 2 of us maybe 4 sittings. We were fortunate to have one of our friends post a "recipe" to make your own tortilla chips. All you need is soft corn tortillas like these and some sea or kosher salt. The tortillas in link made enough chips to nearly fill a 40 cup, 16.5 in x 11.5 in x 5.5 food storage container like this. This poses more than a 50% cost savings over store bought chips.

Please know that this will be the most complicated recipe you will EVER see.

1. Acquire ingredients
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
3. Take a 2-3 inch stack of tortillas and place them on a cutting board.
4. Cut into sixths
5. Place cut pieces on UNGREASED cookie sheet
6. Sprinkle with sea or kosher salt until desired cover is reached*
7. Bake until crispy. I recommend starting at 10 minutes and increasing by 2-3 minutes until desired crispiness is reached.
8. Place on cooling rack
9. Store in airtight food storage container

*Also works with other spices. We recommend a cinnamon sugar mix, fiesta citrus spice blend, and any of the flavored popcorn salts.

These chips work well with any type of salsa. However, one of our favorites is Jake and Amos' Corn Salsa from Pa Dutch Food and Candy Company. Not very spicy but definitely full of flavor. The PA Dutch Food and Candy Company has a wide variety of salsas most of which we have tasted and highly recommend.


Unfortunately, We did not take any pictures with this process so please enjoy this gratuitous picture of our basset.

From the Hound's Kitchen: Easy Chicken and Rice Burritos

Hey everyone, Dork_Syd here again. The boss said she wanted burritos for dinner tonight. I could think of no reason to argue. I was, however, able to come up with 2 good reasons not to argue. 1. Despite not being pregnant, it is still a bad idea to get in Elfie's way when it comes to food. 2. That sounded like a good idea. I, once again ignoring doctors' orders, got to thinking. We still had plenty of taco season left over from PA Dutch Tea and Spice Company and we came up with the idea for Easy Chicken and Rice Burritos. The taco seasoning's product page says to add 1 teaspoon to 8 oz of tomato sauce.We used this method for our burritos. On a side note, the 8 oz bag costs $9.15. This may seem like a lot until you consider the quality of the product and the fact that the average packet from a grocery store costs $1+ and is only about 1/2 oz.

Anyway, that's enough math for one post. In our efforts to save money, Elfie and I have done everything we can to plan meals around items we have in the house and/or to plan the week's meals before shopping so we only purchase what we absolutely need. We had all but three ingredients in the house already, so this was pretty easy to plan. FYI: these taste awesome and are super filling.

Without further ado, here is our recipe for Easy Chicken and Rice Burritos

3 cups cooked rice
1 Chicken Breast, boiled and shredded*
2 green bell peppers, chopped
1 heaping tablespoon  of PA Dutch Taco Seasoning
1/2 large onion, chopped
Burrito tortillas
1 28 oz can of tomato sauce
1 tbsp butter
1 15 oz can of black beans (optional)


*One of the ways we have cut down costs is by eating less meat. You may want to use two or three breasts instead. Also, the recipe also would work with cubed or diced breast.

1) To cook the chicken, place in a saucepan and cover in water, heat on high. Cook for approximately 20 minutes. When chicken breast is fully cooked, use two forks to shred.

2) While the chicken is cooking, heat the butter in a large frying pan. Once melted, add the chopped bell peppers and onions. Cook for 5 minutes.

3) Add tomato sauce, Taco Seasoning, chicken and rice to the pepper and onion mixture. Add the beans to the mixture as well if you desire. Bring to a simmer, let mixture simmer for 10 minutes to cook off excess liquid.

4) Serve on tortillas & enjoy.

From the Hound's Kitchen: Southwestern Mac & Cheese

Whether through intent or serendipity, our blog's name adequately describes what we cover. Home: We're new home owners and will use this blog to chronicle our adventures in home ownership: repairs, remodels, and upgrades. Sweet: We love to cook. That's how Dork_Syd wooed Elfie. She did homework while he cooked the world's best* spaghetti as their first date. The rest, as they say, is history. Hound: We love our Basset Hound, usually. We don't have children yet so we dote on our 4-legged children.

*not verified by unbiased parties.

Dork_Syd grew up with a lot of GOOD Italian cooking and is a firm believer in choosing the right spices can really make a dish pop. He and Elfie were fortunate enough to stumble into PA Dutch Tea and Spice Company and PA Dutch Food and Candy Company. These have to be two of the best food related store that we have been in. The tea and spice store has hundreds of teas and spices as well as things like tea infusers, tea pots, honey, and cookies (biscuits if you prefer the authentic British tea experience.) You will be very hard pressed to find many of the items featured in either store in your average grocery store(not to mention the best taco seasoning, ever, in my opinion). The Food and Candy store really brings credence to the old adage "kid in the candy store" reaction. They have chocolate, gummies, European and Asian candies,  and nostalgic candies like wax bottles. Sounds amazing, but that is only half of the store. The other half has so much that it will be difficult to cover it all, but here I go anyway. They have cake and bread mixes (some of them gluten free), pickles (many types), salsas, sauces, dried fruit and vegetables, pasta, snacks like flavored chips and pretzels, and sodas. I may have missed some things. To see their entire product line up, check out their Amazon Store. There is also a link to their page in the upper left corner of this page. Anyway they're some great people with great products and a great small business.

Despite being ordered by doctors not to do so, Dork_Syd was thinking today... he and Elfie just got some taco seasoning and wanted to see what could be done with it besides tacos. Here is what Dork_Syd came up with. 

Southwestern Mac & Cheese Bake

2 cups Uncooked elbow macaroni 

4 tsp  PA Dutch Taco seasoning (secret ingredient: Do not use store brand)

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups milk

16 ounces Mexican blend cheese, shredded

2 Green bell peppers

2 cups diced tomatoes (we used quartered cherry tomatoes)
3/4 cup chopped onion (about a quarter of a large onion) 

1) Preheat Oven to  375 degrees.

2) Cook the Macaroni. Drain and set aside.

3) While pasta is cooking, melt 1 tbsp of butter and sweat onions and green bell peppers until fragrant. Add tomatoes cook for another 4 minutes. Drain excess liquid add to bowl with noodles. Avoid over cooking veggies otherwise they will turn to mush once baked.

 4) In 4 cup glass measuring cup melt remaining 2 tbsp of  butter on HI for 45 seconds. Stir in flour. Set aside.

5) Pour milk in 2 cup glass measuring cup and cook on HI for 1 minute or until warm.

6) Gradually stir milk into flour mixture. Cook on HI 3 minutes, stirring once during cooking. Stir, cook on HI 1 minute, or until smooth and thickening. 

7) Blend in cheese and taco seasoning. Stir until melted.

8)  In the bowl combine sauce, veggies and noodles. Stir. Once coated transfer to 9 x 13 casserole dish. 

9) Bake at 375 for 25 minutes, or until bubbling

10)Serve and enjoy!