Friday, October 19, 2007

Things I Love




I love my Salad Spinner! One of my favorite dishes is my taco salad dip. It's something I've been making for well over 20 years now and everyone seems to love it. It's great for cookouts, holiday get togethers or whatever. The only thing I didn't like about making it was the lettuce. I would wash the lettuce in the colander and then pat it dry on paper towels. That was not only time consuming, but a real pain in the ass. You see if the lettuce is wet it makes the dip runny and we don't like that. A couple years ago I bought a salad spinner. Yay! Now when I make the taco salad dip I don't dread washing the lettuce. So here's to you Mr. or Ms. Salad Spinner Inventor for making my life in the kitchen easier.

Taco Salad Dip
This recipe I make in a 9x13 inch pan. If you want to make a smaller batch, you can cut the recipe in half.

1 large can refried beans
1-2 Tbsp taco seasoning
1 large container of sour cream
1 envelope Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing
1 cup of salsa or picante sauce
shredded lettuce
cheddar cheese
chopped green onions
shopped tomatoes
sliced black olives

tortilla chips (Tostito Scoops are really good to use)

Mix beans and taco seasoning. If the beans are too thick, add a little bit of salsa. Spread onto bottom of pan. Next spread the salsa over the bean layer. In a medium bowl, mix together sour cream and ranch dressing. Dollop the sour cream mixture evenly over bean and salsa layer and spread carefully so you don't have pink sour cream. If you don't care then go for it. Layer remaining ingredients except for the tortilla chips ( those are for scooping the dip.......duh) Refrigerate for several hours or until chilled. Then dig in.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Socks


I Love these socks! Heather made them for me back in the summer but I haven't worn them until it started to get chilly outside. The other day I thought I should take a picture of them to post so I could tell Heather how much I liked them. After several pictures trying to get evetything right it dawned on me that this would be a good subject for my photo assignment. I've been taking a digital photo class for SLR cameras since last june and I love it. Last weeks class was about depth of field, motion control, etc. One of the pictures for the depth of field was to have the foreground in focus and the background blurred and the other with the background in focus and the foreground blurred. I had to take at least 50 or so pictures just to get a few that turned out half way decent. That's the great thing about digital, no film to waste, and if you don't like the shot you can delete it.

Back to the socks. Today I'm wearing the pink and white ones she made for me. Very comfy. I'm thinking I might have to put in a few more sock orders since I threw out all my old work socks. Hmmm might be a good Christmas present for ol Mom, ya think?