Taco Ring

Many years ago, when I still seriously thought you needed a box to make pancakes, the Pampered Chef craze swept through my neighborhood. I got invited to a lot of parties and I even hosted a couple of parties during those years. I ended up with a ton of kitchen tools that I loved and a few that were clunkers. The best thing those parties gave me, by far, was the feeling that I could make good meals at home. They were the beginning of my journey to cooking from scratch at home. One of the first recipes I learned to make was a Taco Ring. Taco Rings look beautiful, taste terrific, are easy to make, and the whole family likes them. So, if you haven't tried them, I urge you to give it a try.

Taco Ring

1 pizza stone (Pampered Chef - of course!)
2 cans of crescent rolls (I used Albertson's)
1/2 lb of ground meat (I used ground turkey)
1 package taco, burrito, or fajita seasoning (I used Fajita)
1 cup/can refried beans (I used homemade, but a small can of Rosarita or your favorite will be fine)
1 cup grated cheese (I used the cheddar/jack mix from Costco)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cook ground meat in seasoning. Place cooked meat in bowl and mix with refried beans. Set aside.

Open both cans of crescents and lay out each crescent flat on your stone in an alternating pattern. (If you think of each crescent as a triangle, the short side is the base and you have a long, skinny triangle, okay?) For the first piece you lay down, have the base point to the center of the stone and the triangle tip hang over the stone, then when you lay the next crescent down, overlap it on the previous piece and have the base point to the outside of the stone and the point of the triangle is toward the center. Go all the way around the stone and it will look like a sun or a flower with petals on both sides. The bottom of each crescent will form a base for the filling. (I didn't think to take a picture of the crescents when I laid them out, but if you need a visual, let me know and I'll get something to you.)

Once you have your dough laid out, spoon the meat/bean filling onto the base of your crescents, going completely around the circle. Then take your grated cheese and sprinkle it on the top of the filling. The last step is to take all the triangle pieces and bring them up and over the filling and tuck the points under the base. (I know it sounds complicated, but it really isn't- if you look at the photo, you can see the ends of the triangles where I tucked them under...I am just not doing a good job of explaining it...I'm sorry!)

Put your taco ring in the oven for 20 minutes or until the crescents are browned. Serve with chopped lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and anything else you can think of.

Note: When I make this, I make it easy on myself by cooking a pound of ground turkey and using roughly 2 cups of beans. That way I already have burrito or taco filling for another meal ready to go. I still only use 1 package of seasoning.

Give it a try, I'm certain you won't be disappointed...