Grilled flour tortillas stuffed with carne asada, green onions, cheese, & crispy corn tortilla chips for extra crunch! It’s everything you always wanted in a quesadilla but with more crunch!
Appetizers
Street Corn Cups
My version of Elote en Vaso. Roasted corn kernels in a creamy, cheesy sauce seasoned with chile, lime and chives.
Easy Shrimp Cocktail, Sonoran Style: Coctel De Camaron
This easy Mexican shrimp cocktail with crisp cucumber, creamy avocado, red onion and hot sauce is ready in about 5 minutes. The recipe is an excerpt from the Taste of Tucson cookbook by Jackie Alpers
Parmesan & Pepperoni Crustless Pizza
If you bake a layer of Parmesan cheese in the oven it will crackle and pop after a while, turning into a crispy, cheese cracker that’s much tastier than any pizza crust I’ve encountered. I topped this baked cheese crisp  (which is a popular dish called Frico in Italy) with pizza spices and toppings before sliding it into the oven. The results: crustless pizza!
Sunny Parmesan Pepperoni Crisps
Bring a little sunshine into your life with these bright and happy two-ingredient pizza flavored cheese crisps.
Parmesan Crisps with Caviar and Crème Fraîche
Festive enough for New Year’s Eve, this pretty appetizer only takes about 5 minutes to make. Bacon infused caviar adds a unique smokiness that will intrigue your guests and is fairly inexpensive, but any decent quality caviar will do. The one-ingredient parmesan crisps are a savory, no-carb alternative to blini.
Chiltepin Hot Salsa Recipe From the Taste of Tucson Cookbook
Chiltepin salsa is an all-purpose salsa that can be used for dipping, for seasoning, and as a taco sauce. A little goes a long way, so if you prefer a milder salsa, cut the amount of chiles down by a half or a third. This recipe is from the Taste of Tucson cookbook by Jackie Alpers.
Buffalo Chicken “Rumaki” Bites
Whatever happened to Rumaki, that vaguely Polynesian appetizer that they used to serve at tiki themed parties in the 70s? Maybe making buffalo-style rumaki will help modernize them a bit and bring them back into the public lexicon? Let’s all try serving this recipe at our next soiree and see what happens.
Two Ingredient Beer & Cheddar Cheese Dip
Beer, cheddar cheese, and pretzels — what more could you want? How about that it’s only got two ingredients and you can make it in ten minutes or less?
Lasagna Dip
A creamy, warm, vegetarian layered dip that tastes like lasagna. This recipe is loaded with cheese. Serve with fresh veggies.
Spicy Ranch French Onion Dip
Spicy Ranch French Onion Dip. Two Dips That Live As One, Together At Last!Â
The Cheesiest Cheese Crisp with Chipotle Ranch Drizzle
The cheese crisp is the perfect comfort food. A cross between a Mexican pizza an an open-faced quesadilla, Southern Arizona restaurants started selling the dish more than 50 years ago and it’s become a staple of our local Sonoran style cuisine.Â
Sweet Pepper Poppers
How To Make Sweet Mini Pepper Poppers. I first developed this recipe for the Food Network.
Vegan Cocktail Pups recipe With A SECRET INGREDIENT!
These vegan, slow-cooker barbecue flavored cocktail pups are made with baby carrots instead of little smokies.
Cincinnachos! Cincinnati Chili-Cheese Nachos
Ohio meets Arizona! Cincinnati style chili cheese nachos, “Cincinnachos” as they will henceforth be known. The best of everything for snacking season. Start with my recipe for Cincinnati Style Turkey Chili, substituting ground grass-fed beef or vegetarian ground beef crumbles if you prefer.
Easy Chipotle Chicken Salad
This spicy and crunchy Sonoran chipotle chicken salad can be served in lettuce taco wraps, tortas and sandwiches or meal sized salads.
Sprinkles Fairy Bread Sandwiches
Make any day a celebration! Just barely sweet, these sparkly sandwiches make a fun breakfast surprise, after-school snack, or party food.
Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem “Fairy Bread” from A Child’s Garden of Verses, fairy bread is a popular treat at children’s parties in Australia, New Zealand, and other little pockets of the world.
This recipe is from my book Sprinkles!:Â Recipes and Ideas for Rainbowlicious Desserts. The photograph is previously unpublished
Grilled Mini Pizzas With Edible Flowers
Celebrate spring with these easy, grilled pizzas topped with lemon flavored Mascarpone cheese, fresh tomatoes, pepperoni and oregano flowers.
Sparkling Cranberry and Brie Crostini
Visually stunning sugared cranberries are a study in contrast. The tart, dark berries which appear to have been encrusted in tiny jewels, add a magical quality to these brie crostini.
New York Style Hot Dog Bites
Everything you love about New York style hot dogs in cute appetizer form.
Italian Style Marinated Baby Artichokes
There was a basket of cute purple and green baby artichokes in the produce section of the market. My intent was to buy the larger globe artichokes for my recipe but these charmed me. I figured that I would grill these up and serve them with lemon-butter. Then I realized that was all wrong. They needed to be marinate, not dipped and scraped like their larger counterparts. So, I boiled them up and placed them in a big bell jar with a simple italian style marinade.
Fennel, Blue Cheese & Spanish Chorizo Mini Pizzas
The fun thing about pizza is that I can throw a bunch of seemingly unrelated items together and make something new. I’ve been experimenting and have found that almost any combination that tastes good on a salad will also be good on a pizza.  For these mini pizzas I started with a classic herb and cheese crust. I used good olive oil and balsamic vinegar instead of tomato sauce. For the toppings I did a hot layer of fennel and blue cheese, and then a cold layer once it came out of the oven. of meats and fresh tomatoes.
Chicharrones, Cornichons & Chicken Liver Pate Bites
My choice for snack of the day is a crunchy Sonoran style Mexican and Jewish deli mashup. Try it, you’ll like it.
Tiny Sweet Peppers Stuffed with Cheese
Miniature sweet peppers are adorable and perfect for little snacks and appetizers.
Arizona Cowboy Caviar
My Arizona Cowboy Caviar recipe is made with lentils, chile peppers and red onion in a spicy citrus vinaigrette.
Grilled Chipotle-Lime Mexican Style Corn
Every year on the 4th of July I make a different version Mexican grilled corn, along with the Sonoran style...
Sonoran Style Chunky Guacamole
This chunky guacamole recipe from the Taste of Tucson cookbook is spicy, salty and creamy – yet crisp and bright with lots of citrus and a tiny bit of crunch.
Black and White Nachos
This recipe makes a white nacho cheese sauce instead of the traditional yellow. Black beans add contrast, fiber and a bit more protein. There are more colors here than just black and white. but you get the point.
Fast, Yet Fancy Looking; Hummus Snack With Baked Pita Chips
Recipe for a fast, yet fancy looking snack Hummus With Baked Pita Chips
Chipotle Deviled Eggs
I’ve been having an unyielding urge for deviled eggs. Since I like a salty-spicy combo I’ll use caviar for a garnish when I’m feeling fancy. Otherwise I’ll just use capers. I feel that it’s important to buy organic eggs and I always try to buy eggs that come from chickens that are fed flax seed, giving their eggs a healthy dose of Omega3. They’re a great idea for vegetarians.I learned how to make hard boiled eggs from Martha Stewart (not in person… on her website). Here’s the link if you want to check out her instructions.This recipe serves one as a snack. For a crowd, multiply the recipe by the number of people expected to eat them.
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