Backyard Taco Night -

What an easy way to host people! I just love taco night. I couldn’t even count how many times I’ve hosted taco night for my friends. (I am Texan after all and queso is life.) I wasn’t planning on blogging about last night’s dinner with my friends Jessica (who, by the way, photographed most of my original Disney Dinners!) and Ismail but it was just such a lovely night in the garden, I had to share it with you!

I set my back patio dining table for three with my Deruta plates (which I’ve wanted since I first saw them on Cooking Channel’s Extra Virgin 10+ years ago), white cloth napkins with my old bamboo napkin rings, bronze outdoor wine glasses, my favorite white lantern, a couple of white pumpkins, and fabulous purple/blue/green hydrangeas.

I set out a chip trio: homemade loaded guacamole with bacon and feta cheese (a favorite recipe of mine that’s in my new cookbook!), queso (store bought this evening but get my fav. queso recipe here), and salsa. This is my new thing for taco night, serving guac, queso, and salsa in this shell dish that my sister-in-law got me from Pier 1. (My SIL has such an eye for Rose Table stuff, doesn’t she? She knows me so well!)

I also made my Crockpot fajita shredded chicken for our soft tacos. I love this recipe because you just toss a few things in the crockpot in the morning and it’s ready to go by dinner. So easy on a busy workday! I’m very proud to say that I used homegrown jalapeños in this dish too!

I also made grilled Mexican street corn salad, a favorite of mine for taco night. You basically grill corn, zucchini, and bell pepper, then toss the veggies with tomato, cilantro, onion, and a delicious cumin dressing.

The fun thing about this dinner is that it can all mix-and-match. You can eat chips with the dips, you can put any of the dips in the tacos, eat the salad on the side, put the veggies in your tacos. I just love a casual night al fresco! Apparently I was too busy talking and laughing to get photos of my tacos. Jessica and Ismail also baked delicious port brownies that were super dark and super rich, just how I like my dessert. What a fun evening in the garden!