Fiesta!

On Friday evening, to counteract the frigid temps and light snowfall, I decided to prepare a tex-mex feast reminiscent of summer for James and I. The other weekend we had indulged in some margaritas which made us long for the warm months yet to come filled with grilling out, summer drinks and relaxation.

This time, I took a slight departure from our regular margarita concoction (equal parts frozen limeade, corona, silver tequila and sprite) and bought some grapefruit soda to replace the sprite and limeade. For apps, I modified a refritos recipe from Emeril to make a heavenly spicy, refried bean dip. I also prepared some fresh salsa (gotta have something healthy in there!). Then for the main course, I adapted a Cooking Light recipe for Tortilla Chip Casserole. And by adapted I mean adding more cheese, more chicken and more cream sauce. Cooking Heavy. Yes.

Sadly, I wasn't as excited with the results. I thought the recipe lacked zing. It came off too blandly. I think what could help it satisfy my palate next time would be to add a spicy and spunky red salsa to the top layer before the cheese. The recipe had called for green enchilada sauce, but the one I had lacked depth of flavor. At least the grapefruit margaritas made me forget I hated it in the first place. Win.