[1] Ice cream tacos: olé! (photo © Taste Of Home).

[2] Chocolate shavings for “taco’ garnish (photo © Hebert Candies).

How about ice cream tacos for Cinco de Mayo?

You can make them the easy way, with frozen round toaster waffles, or make crunchy pizzelles and fold them into taco-like shells.

But we adapted this recipe from Taste Of Home, which uses actual tortillas. As a neater alternative to tacos, you can form the tortillas into a bowl (drape them over an actual dessert bowl).

Prep time is 20 minutes. With all due respect to Klondike’s Choco Tacos, these taste a lot better!
 
 
RECIPE: ICE CREAM TACOS

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Choice Of Toppings

Select two toppings; you’ll need two tablespoons of each.

 
Plus

1. COMBINE the sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle on one side of each tortilla.

2. HEAT the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the tortillas, one at a time, with the cinnamon side up. When the tortilla starts to brown, fold it into a taco shape and drain on paper towels.

3. USING the same skillet, cook and stir the pecans for 2 minutes or until lightly toasted.

4. ASSEMBLE: Line up the taco shells in a baking dish to keep them upright, open-side up. Place two small scoops of ice cream in each tortilla shell; add the toppings, drizzle with sauce and finish with the whipped cream.
 
 
HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE CURLS OR SHAVINGS

To shave chocolate or make chocolate curls, start with your favorite chocolate bars—solid, without nuts or other inclusions.

1. WARM the chocolate bar in a microwave for 3 seconds. Use a vegetable peeler to scrape down the side (not the front/back) of the bar, forming curls.

2. PLACE the chocolate curls on a wax paper-covered dish or baking pan and refrigerate until firm. It is easiest to move the curls with toothpicks.

This isn’t exactly an authentic Mexican recipe, but it’s close enough for Cino de Mayo. Presented by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (“Beef, it’s what’s for dinner”), it’s a stylish, fresh way to serve guacamole or salsa with tortilla chips. Just add some steak to it!

The total recipe time is 35 to 40 minutes. It’s delicious with beer, savory cocktails and wine.

Find more steak-sational recipes at BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com.

RECIPE: GRILLED SALSA STEAK APPETIZER

Ingredients For 24 Pieces

1. PLACE the beef steaks and 1/2 cup of the salsa in food-safe plastic bag; turn steaks to coat. Close the bag securely and marinate in the refrigerator 15 minutes to 2 hours.

2. COMBINE the remaining 1/2 cup salsa and chopped cilantro; cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

3. REMOVE the steaks from the marinade; discard marinade (always discard a marinade when finished; bacteria, which die when the protein is cooked, can remain present in the marinade). Place the steaks on a grill over medium-hot, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 10 to 14 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill, 12 to 16 minutes) for medium rare (145°F) to medium (160°F) doneness, turning occasionally.

4. CARVE the steaks into thin slices; cut the slices into bite-size pieces.

5. ARRANGE the tortilla chips on a platter. Top each chip evenly with the reserved salsa mixture, a piece of beef and topping of guacamole. Garnish with a cilantro leaf. Serve immediately.

Flat iron steak (also called top blade or patio steak) is cut from the shoulder of the steer (the top blade roast), producing a cut that is flavorful, but a bit tougher because it’s cut with the grain. It thus requires marinating and cooking to no more doneness than medium; but produces a piece of beef with deep, rich flavor.

If it seems like a newer cut, it is. It was developed by teams at the University of Nebraska and the University of Florida, with research funded by the National Cattleman’s Beef Association.

The problem presented to the university researchers was the best way to use a challenging cut of beef from the shoulder of the steer. Though a flavorful and relatively tender cut of meat, the top blade roast has a serious flaw in the middle of it; an impossibly tough piece of connective tissue running through the middle.

To make the flat iron steak, the top blade roast is separated into two pieces by cutting horizontally through the center to remove the heavy connective tissue. The result: the roast was turned into tasty, tender, economical steaks.

See our beef glossary for the different cuts of beef.

If you’re having tortilla chips on Cinco de Mayo, celebrate with a better chip. We received a sample of Cabo Chips, and the toughest part has been restraining ourselves so there are still chips left on May 5th.

Cabo Chips were born during a beach vacation to Cabo San Lucas in Baja, Mexico. Created by a college student who set out to make “the best,” these are artisan chips. The company actually grinds whole corn kernels, makes tortillas, and cuts and batch-fries them into the chips.

The seasonings are top drawer, too: fresh lime juice, sea salt, powdered mango (not “mango flavor”), organic cinnamon and sugar. You’ll taste the difference: fresh and natural.

There are currently four flavors:

If you can’t find Cabo Chips locally, you can buy them online at CaboChips.com, in 1.5-ounce snack packs and 5.5-ounce bags.

WHY BLUE CORN IS BETTER FOR YOU

Long ago, we bought our first bag of blue corn chips because we were attracted to the color, and then the naturally sweeter flavor. Much later, we learned that blue corn was better for you than white or yellow corn.

Blue corn-based foods were originally developed by the Hopi natives of Arizona and New Mexico, who bred the blue corn. Blue corn is actually regular yellow corn that has a high level of anthocyanins, powerful antioxidants that give the corn (and blackberries, blueberries, etc.) its blue hue.

THE HISTORY OF TORTILLA CHIPS

Surprisingly, tortilla chips are not a traditional Mexican food. They were first popularized and mass produced in southwestern Los Angeles in the late 1940s by Rebecca Webb Carranza, who, with her husband, owned a Mexican deli and tortilla factory.

Misshapen tortillas were rejected from the tortilla manufacturing machine, so Ms. Carranza turned them into snack chips. She cut them into triangles, fried them and sold them in snack-size bags.

Needless to say, they sold well and became a popular appetizer in California’s Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants. They expanded across the U.S. in a big way in the late 1970s, with the growth of Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants. They replaced corn chips like Fritos as America’s favorite corn chip* snack.

And yes, they made their way to Mexico.

 
*The main difference between the two types of chip is that a tortilla chip is cut from a whole tortilla. A corn chip is corn meal that is processed into a particular shape.

Why is blue corn better for you? See the explanation above. Photo courtesy Cabo Chips.

Some are obvious, some are new:

 
Have we left out your favorite uses? Let us know!
 
†A great use for the broken pieces! Shake ‘n Bake was created to use Kraft’s supply of cereal crumbs.

‡Pulse in a food processor into a flour.

For a cheesecake-loving mother who has given up sugar, here’s a find: sugarless cheesecake from Cinderella Cheesecake Company.

It’s sweetened with maltitol, the finest-quality sugar substitute, and has a gluten-free cinnamon cracker crust.

The classic-style cheesecake recipe also includes cream cheese, eggs, sour cream, natural vanilla flavoring. It tastes just as it should: rich, creamy, wonderful. Sugar-free observers, rejoice!

Cinderella Cheesecake Company is a family-owned business founded in Riverside, New Jersey in 1965 with a broader product line. But by the early 1980s, the cheesecake business was so rocking that founder Alfred Rezende decided to drop the other baked goods to focus on expanding the cheesecake operation.

The company sells cheesecakes to distributors, restaurants and non-profit groups for fundraisers, as well as direct to consumers online.

All cheesecakes are eleven inches in diameter and precut into 16 slices. A four-pound cheesecake is $38.00. It freezes nicely.

Get yours at CinderellaCheesecakeCoInc.com.
 
  

For Cinco de Mayo, these mango bowls are great as a dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or lemon sorbet.

The recipe is from Urban Accents, which makes it with its Rio grande chili blend, an award winning chili seasoning that balances a smoky mesquite flavor with chili pepper, onion, garlic and bell pepper.

But mixed with the honey, it creates a spicy-sweet glaze.

Prep time is 10 minutes, cook time is 5 minutes.
 
 
RECIPE: GRILLED MANGO-CHILE-HONEY BOWLS (OR SLICES)

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
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Preparation

1. PREHEAT the grill for medium heat. Make the glaze by combining the orange juice, honey and chili blend in small bowl, Mix well.

2. SLICE the mangoes by cutting the two large side portions from each side of the mango pit. Score each side in a crosshatch pattern, cutting down to, but not through, the skin.

3. PLACE the mango halves on the grill, cut side down, and cook for 2 minutes until light grill marks form on the fruit. Turn over and brush liberally with the glaze, trying to get glaze to drip down into the cut slits. Turn glazed mangoes over and grill for an additional 30 seconds; then remove from heat.

4. COOL the mangoes to room temperature; then turn them inside out by pushing them from the skin side. Serve resting on the skin as a tasty side dish or as a dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

You can stretch the recipe to 6 servings by slicing up the grilled mango halves.
 
 

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