Grandma Nola's Chocolate Chip Cookies

My son, J, thinks these are the best. It’s a pretty standard recipe, but the added vanilla pudding makes things a bit more interesting. Recipe can be halved.

Ham and Cheese Casserole

This recipe starts out based on Cook's Country's macaroni and cheese casserole with some minor changes, such as adding ham. I dress it up a bit with some thyme and chicken broth, too. The whole point is to use up those bits of ham left over from your holiday meals. Although it’s already cooked, I like to brown the ham first just to get a little more flavor into the casserole. Happy eating!

Rolled Tacos

Growing up on the Arizona/Mexico border, I ate a lot of Mexican food. One of the treats that I especially loved was rolled tacos (taquitos). These were usually made with leftover roast. They were just a way to use up leftovers, but they were so popular that some restaurants served them with beans and rice as a menu item. Our high school served them every couple of weeks, and the students loved them. By the way, the lunch ladies could be seen early in the morning actually rolling the tacos. No frozen, pre-formed cafeteria food back then!

What you need for rolling tacos are fresh corn tortillas. If they’re fresh, you don’t have to soften them before rolling. My mom bought tortillas at the tortilla factory behind our local Safeway store. She got them hot off the press and could roll them while they were still warm. If you don’t have a factory nearby, try a Mexican grocer or any store that sells a lot of Mexican products. Otherwise, just buy the corn tortillas in your favorite grocery store and soften them (see notes).

The salsa is homemade. I’ll save that recipe for another post.