American

I love Dr. Pepper. I love brisket. I love brie and I love tacos. So, this seems like a pretty logical meal choice...for me! I even add a little chile-lime flavor to the meat and it goes surprisingly well with the brie, which is just a great melting cheese anyway.

I do like to cook my meat in the slow-cooker in Dr. Pepper. The soda concentrates down with a wee bit of complexity and offers a very slight background sweetness to the meat. It tenderizes...it flavors...I'm using the Pepper.

When the meat is done cooking, I remove the fat and pull the meat apart. I place the pulled meat back in the slow-cooker with a slight bit of liquid from the original cooking process and season it with a chile-lime salt called, tajin clasico seasoning. The seasoning, I see it everywhere from Walmart to the regular grocery store. If you do not have it, the same result can be achieved with fresh lime juice, some salt and chile powder stirred into the meat. Just keep tasting and adding until you get the flavor result you are happy with. It's so delicious especially since beef and lime are so classic together.

I use brie because it is such an unlikely character to be found in tacos, it tastes good and just generally freaks everyone out that I'm using brie in a taco with a chile-lime flavored brisket...that has been cooked in Dr. Pepper. Of course once they taste it, they get it...because it is so good!!! And then they think I am a genius. And a master at putting flavors together.  As an aside, I always use President brie in the little wheels for a recipe like this. Your really expensive triple cream brie will melt too fast and just be all over the place. 

Anyway, this is an easy meal...set it and forget it, until it's time to eat. And then you will never forget the flavors you experienced. Yum.

New potatoes and peas are treated to a creamy sauce for this special side.  Add Parm for a cheesy taste!

Though it may seem otherwise, this cheesecake isn't overly sweet, and I really love how the strawberry flavor is heightened by the tanginess of the cream cheese.  I can't help but think it would be a good pick-me-up for someone feeling blue. It's almost impossible to be unhappy around all those sprinkles!

Bacon...bread...asparagus...I love it.  I normally buy asparagus when it's nice and slender and easy to pan fry in a skillet for a quick side dish.  However, I had a plan for the thicker asparagus I found at the store.  Why not wrap it in bacon and bread stick dough....it didn't take much to convince myself that this was a good idea.

This easy weeknight recipe is a complete one-dish meal. Cooking the pasta, peas, and asparagus together is efficient, and adding goat cheese at the end creates a creamy sauce.

These golden brown rounds  have lots of pepperoni flavor. "They're easy to make, and really good!

Rich, decadent, and just heavenly, and while you may not want to eat this side dish on a daily basis, it sure turned out mighty good

These little biscuit cup treats are filled with bacon, cheese, tomato and basil are like little mini-BLTs in a bite sized form, perfect for parties!

This creamed begins with a simple white sauce, which begins with a roux, which is a cooked mixture of butter and flour, which is the basis of a cream sauce, which, when bumped up a notch by finely diced onions and garlic, is one of the best things you’ll ever learn to make.