Queso Fundido de Chorizo con Nopales {She Made/Ella Hace}

Spicy Mexican chorizo with nopales topped with loads of ooey, gooey melted queso fresco and queso Oaxaca.


Queso Fundido - lacocinadeleslie.com

Are your ready for some football? Or better yet, are you ready some finger-lickin' good game day eats?! Then you are in the right place, because this month for She Made/Ella Hace my friend Heather, from All Roads Lead to the Kitchen are serving up super appetizers to enjoy while watching the big game. Heather is serving up Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts, while I am sharing a delicious Queso Fundido de Chorizo con Nopales.

Homemade Pizza de Mole (Chicken Mole Pizza)

This flavorful pizza topped with a rich mole sauce, shredded chicken, and Oaxaca cheese is sure to score a touchdown with friends and family when watching the big game.


Chicken Mole Pizza - lacocinadeleslie.com

I don't know if you've heard or not, but there's a big football game coming up in the next couple of weeks, and last night my favorite team secured their place in the main event. Woo-hoo! Go Patriots!!! To celebrate my team's big win, I'm sharing one of my game day favorites, because as much as I love watching football and rooting for my team, the thing I look forward to most is the food. My ideal game day menu includes nachos, chicken wings, tacos, guacamole, beer, and lots and lots of pizza. Like this Pizza de Mole (Chicken Mole Pizza), topped with a store-bought mole sauce, shredded chicken, Oaxaca cheese, red onion, and chopped cilantro. No matter who you're rooting for, this pizza will be the real winner!

Blogging Resolutions for 2017

I’m just going to say it… I love New Year’s resolutions! Whether I keep them or not, I love them. New Year’s resolutions motivate me to not only try to become a better version of myself, but they also inspire me to keep dreaming and to continue pursuing whatever my dream may be at that moment in time.




food blogging goals for 2017 - lacocinadeleslie.com

Every year I compile a short list of resolutions (or goals) I hope to keep throughout the new year and share it on my personal blog, La Casa de Leslie. While listing out the things I want to do and accomplish in 2017, a lot of what I came up with pertained specifically to my cocina blog, so I compiled a separate list of blogging resolutions/goals just for La Cocina de Leslie.  

Before I share my blogging resolutions, I’m going to get a little personal and share a bit of what last year was like and why I haven’t been as consistent with my blogging. Cooking and sharing recipes here on La Cocina de Leslie has always brought me great joy. I love cooking, in general, and I also love sitting down to write about the recipes I share, the stories behind them, and sharing why they mean so much to me. No other hobby of mine has ever made me as happy as this little blog.

For the past three and half years I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time as I would have liked to my beloved cocina blog, because being a wife, mom, and full-time caregiver were my top priorities. 2016 was a rather difficult year for us as a family. We moved out of the rental house we had called home for 13 years and moved into my suegro’s (father-in-law's) home, and my suegro’s health continued to rapidly decrease as the months flew by culminating in his passing away in mid-September. 

My suegro's passing was devastating to us all, even though we knew it was coming. After my suegra’s (mother-in-law's) sudden (and unexpected) passing in 2012, we foolishly thought a prolonged illness might be less devastating, but in 2016 we learned that it wasn’t. We´ve spent the remaining months of 2016 mourning the loss of Don Chuy, who was such an integral part of our family. My family and I spent every day with my suegro, caring for him, sharing each of our meals, listening to his stories, and laughing with him. Even before we moved in with him, we counted him as part of our family of seven. 

We are still mourning his loss and will for quite some time, but with the start of the new year we realize we need to try to pick up the pieces and focus on the things that matter most and make us happy. For me those things are my family and my writing.

This year I want to get back to doing what I love most and that includes sharing recipes here in my cocina.  

Blogging goals 2017 - lacocinadeleslie.com

My Blogging Resolutions/Goals for 2017: 

  • Blog consistently! One of my main goals is to post new recipes on a regular basis, like two or three a week. Because it's been a while and I'm a bit out of practice, we'll start with two new recipes per week and work our way up to three later in the year. I may not have blogged much in 2016, but I did cook and even managed to snap a few pics, and now I have quite a few recipes in my drafts folder just waiting to be shared. 
  • A to Z Challenge: Speaking of blogging consistently, in April I will be participating in the A to Z Challenge and posting a Mexican recipe for each letter of the alphabet. That's 26 new recipes! Ay, ay, ay!  
  • New monthly series: To help fill the void of the now defunct Secret Recipe Club, I’m starting a new monthly series here on my blog. I’m still working on a fun/cute name for my 2017 series which will focus on classic Mexican pan dulce (pastries). If you have any suggestions for series titles (all I’ve got so far is Pan Dulce 101) or pan dulce recipes you’d like to learn to make at home, let me know in the comments.
  • Cookbook reviews: This also falls under the “new series” category, and is something I have been wanting to do for quite some time. I love cookbooks and I would love to share some of my favorites from the two shelves full of cookbooks in my bookcase and the dozens I also have on my Kindle. Because this blog’s main focus is Mexican food, I’m going to start with reviewing my favorite Mexican cookbooks (in no particular order) and then we’ll move on to other types of cookbooks. The plan is to review one cookbook a month. If you have suggestions of cookbooks you’d like me to review, let me know in the comments. 
  • A monthly round-up: When I started this blog back in 2009, I didn’t think anyone besides a handful of friends and family would ever read it. And I certainly never imagined that someday I would also be invited to share my recipes on other websites. I used to share links to those recipes via Facebook or Instagram, but it’s one of those things that got pushed to the back burner. Starting this month, I’m going to post a monthly round-up of any recipes I’ve shared on sites other than my cocina
  • Bringing She Made/Ella Hace back! My friend Heather (from All Roads Lead to the Kitchen) and I will be starting back up with our monthly She Made/Ella Hace series. Yay! (Insert happy dance here.) I’m not only excited to get back to blogging, I’m also super excited to get back to cooking with my dear amiga.
  • Sharing about my cookbook. One of the good things to come out of 2016 is that one of my biggest dream came true... I wrote a cookbook! I still don't know how I managed to do it, but Taquería Tacos was published in October of 2016. In the coming months I will be sharing an in-depth look at my cookbook along with some of the recipes, and I'll even be hosting a giveaway or two. So, stay tuned! 

I really am excited to get back into the swing of things, and hope you’ll come along for the ride. 



This post is part of the SOTB Blog Hop hosted over on my casa blog