El Torito Style Tortilla Soup and Caesar Salad

It was my turn to cook "Family Dinner" for my friends this week. We have a dinner party every Thursday night to bring together old friends who no longer live together and don't always get to hang out. Naturally, providing the food is a big responsibility. Unfortunately, I had a jam-packed day. What's a girl to do?

I decided to go with Chicken Tortilla Soup, a recipie given to me by my mom. I adapted it to be slow-cooked in my giant Crockpot and doubled the ingredients. The following can be halved for smaller parties:

Ingredients:

2 onions, diced
4 carrots, diced
4 stalks celery, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 potato, diced
1/2 cup tomato paste
2 bay leaves
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 t Mexican oregano
Salt
Pepper
2 zucchini, diced
4 tomatoes, diced
4 pan cooked, shredded chicken breasts
6 corn tortillas
Vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup jack cheese
Avocado slices

The night before, I prepared the onions, carrots, celery, bell pepper, potatoes, bay leaves, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper and refrigerated them.

The morning of the party, I put the previous day's ingredients, along with 7 cups of chicken broth into my Crockpot and turned it on high for 10 hours.

At this point, I put half of the soup into a pot on the stove and brought it to a boil. I added the chicken, zucchini, and tomatoes. I let this simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I cut the tortillas into matchsticks and fried them in the vegetable oil.

The soup was served with tortilla strips, cheese and avocado toppings.


For the Caesar salad,

Ingredients:

4 corn tortillas
2 large heads romaine lettuce
1 cup pepitas
Vegetable oil
2/3 cup finely grated cotija cheese
2 tomatoes, chopped
Caesar salad dressing
Taco seasoning packet

Cut tortillas into matchstick size strips. fry in oil until crisp as for the soup. Mix taco seasoning with Caesar salad dressing. Add dressing to salad to taste and toss.

The party only turned out to be five of my friends and I (the flu epidemic sweeping Los Angeles colleges is partly to blame) but everyone enjoyed the meal immensely and we devoured the entire salad and half the soup, so I would recommend the serving size as is for parties of 10-12.