Food and Beverage
Give Comfort Food Classics an Authentic Mexican Twist
Last Updated on July 7, 2024 by Daily News Staff
(Family Features) If winter evenings have you stuck in a dinner rut, heat up the kitchen with family favorites everyone can look forward to. Shaking off the chill can start with a cozy blanket and comforting food that warms you from the inside out.
Soup is a wintertime staple thanks to its simplicity, and you can put a delicious spin on your next winter warmup with Mexican-inspired ingredients. Giving soup night a twist starts with Cacique Foods, one of the country’s top authentic Mexican food brands, that invites friends and family to share real moments while savoring authentic flavors.
This Smoky Chorizo and Chicken Pozole relies on the bold, hearty, spicy taste of Cacique’s Pork Chorizo combined with handcrafted Homestyle Salsa. Queso Fresco’s crumbly, creamy texture and milky, fresh flavor adds the perfect finishing touch, making this soup a perfect way to warm up weeknights with just the right amount of heat.
For a flavorful side that complements a variety of main courses while adding Mexican flair, consider Mexican Loaded Mashed Potatoes. This recipe is a familiar favorite with the unique twist of bacon and Pork Chorizo for a meat-infused recipe that will become a menu mainstay.
Plus, for an extra creamy texture, it calls for Cacique Crema Mexicana – an everyday table cream with a neutral, fresh-tasting flavor ideal for balancing out spice – and Oaxaca, a semisoft cheese with a mellow, buttery flavor.
Find more comforting recipes at caciquefoods.com.
Smoky Chorizo and Chicken Pozole
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Servings: 6-8
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large white or yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus additional, to taste (optional)
- 1 package (9 ounces) Cacique Pork Chorizo
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
- 1 container (16 ounces) Cacique Medium Homestyle Salsa
- 1quart chicken stock
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, trimmed of excess fat and diced
- 1 can (25 ounces) white hominy, drained and rinsed
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
- 3/4 cup crumbled Cacique Ranchero Queso Fresco
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- In large, heavy pot over medium heat, heat oil. Reserve 1/4 cup onion for garnish; add remaining onion to pot and season with salt. Saute until translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Increase heat to medium-high; add pork chorizo and break it apart with spoon. Cook chorizo undisturbed until deeply browned and cooked through, 3-5 minutes. Add smoked paprika and oregano; cook 30 seconds, or until fragrant.
- Pour in salsa and scrape up browned bits from bottom of pan. Bring to simmer 1-2 minutes, allowing it to thicken slightly then add stock and bring to simmer.
- Stir in diced chicken and hominy. Decrease heat to medium and cook 8-10 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Taste and season with more salt, if necessary. Remove from heat.
- Serve bowls of pozole with reserved onion, lime wedges, crumbled queso fresco and chopped cilantro.
Mexican Loaded Mashed Potatoes
Prep time: 35 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Servings: 10
- 3 pounds russet potatoes (about 9 medium potatoes), peeled and cubed
- water
- 6 bacon strips, chopped
- 1 package Cacique Pork Chorizo
- 12 ounces Cacique Crema Mexicana
- 1/2 cup butter, cubed
- 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup Cacique Oaxaca or Queso Quesadilla, shredded
- 1/2 cup Cacique Crema Mexicana Agria, for topping (optional)
- 3 green onions, chopped
- In Dutch over, add potatoes and cover with water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; cook, uncovered, 10-15 minutes, or until tender.
- In skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towels, chop into small pieces and set aside. Remove bacon grease from skillet and cook chorizo over medium-high heat, 6-8 minutes.
- Drain potatoes; add to pan. Mash potatoes, gradually adding crema Mexicana, butter, onion powder, salt, garlic powder and pepper. Transfer to greased 13-by-9-inch baking dish; sprinkle with cheese, chorizo and bacon. Refrigerate, covered, up to 1 day.
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Remove potatoes from refrigerator and let stand while oven heats. Bake, covered, about 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 10 minutes, or until heated through.
- Drizzle with crema Mexicana agria and chopped green onions.
SOURCE:
Cacique
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Food
Hellmann’s Calls the Plays for Game Day Food With New Football Campaign
Hellmann’s is kicking off football season with “Call for Hellmann’s,” a new campaign combining the language of the gridiron with burgers, chicken tenders and other game day favorites.
Football season is back, and for many fans, what’s on the table can be almost as important as what’s happening on the field.
Hellmann’s Kicks Off Football Season With New Game Day Food Campaign
Hellmann’s is leaning into that connection between football and food with “Call for Hellmann’s,” a new fall campaign built around burgers, chicken tenders, sliders and the familiar language of the sidelines.
Announced September 2, the campaign puts a football spin on game-day cooking, positioning Hellmann’s mayonnaise and flavored condiments as part of the playbook for tailgates, watch parties and Sunday afternoon spreads.
Turning Game Day Food Into a Football Play
The campaign takes familiar football terminology and applies it to another game-day ritual: deciding what everyone is going to eat.
Two advertising spots anchor the campaign.
In “Make the Call,” Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise is paired with a classic burger, while “Chicky Tenders” features chicken tenders served with Hellmann’s Chipotle and Spicy varieties.
The commercials use coach-inspired direction, football language and original music influenced by classic football movies. The result is a combination of sports nostalgia, humor and plenty of food imagery.
“Football and food have always gone hand in hand and Hellmann’s has a natural place in so many of the dishes that fans reach for on game day,” Jessica Grigoriou, SVP Marketing, Condiments at Unilever North America, said in the announcement.
Grigoriou said the campaign is designed to have fun with language football fans already recognize while celebrating the foods and traditions that bring people together throughout the season.
Hellmann’s Heads to the Stadium
The campaign isn’t staying on television and social media.
Hellmann’s plans to bring its Manny Mayo mascot and food truck to several NFL stadiums during September and October, serving sliders while offering trivia, giveaways and other activities.
Scheduled appearances include:
- September 13 — MetLife Stadium
- September 20 — MetLife Stadium
- October 4 — Lincoln Financial Field
- October 11 — Gillette Stadium
The activation complements Hellmann’s existing football partnerships, which span both the professional and college games.
The brand has relationships with the New York Giants, New York Jets, New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans, along with the Big Ten Conference and college programs including Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Texas and Georgia.
Game Day Is Also Food Day
The campaign taps into something football fans have known for generations: watching the game is often a food event of its own.
Burgers, wings, chicken tenders, nachos, dips, sliders and sandwiches have become staples of football weekends, whether fans are tailgating outside the stadium or watching from the couch.
That makes condiments particularly easy territory for a food brand to connect itself with football culture. Rather than introducing an entirely new game-day tradition, Hellmann’s is putting its products into foods many fans are already preparing.
And the campaign arrives just as kitchens, grills and backyard patios across the country are getting ready for another season of football gatherings.
What’s on Your Game Day Menu?
Maybe it’s burgers hot off the grill. Maybe it’s a giant plate of wings. Perhaps your football tradition involves nachos, chili, sliders or a bowl of homemade dip that disappears before halftime.
Whatever your starting lineup looks like, Hellmann’s wants a spot on the roster this season.
The “Call for Hellmann’s” campaign will run throughout football season across national television, streaming platforms and social media.
For football fans, meanwhile, there is another important call to make:
What are we eating during the game?
Official Hellmann’s resources:
Hellmann’s Game Day Recipe Ideas
Hellmann’s Game Day Recipes
Hellmann’s Game Day Dip Recipes
Source: Hellmann’s/PRNewswire, September 2, 2026.
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Entertainment
M&M’S Brews Up ‘Practical Magic 2’ Movie Night Hype With Limited-Edition Amas Veritas Spell & Snack Packs
M&M’S is leaning hard into spooky-season nostalgia ahead of Practical Magic 2, teaming up with Warner Bros. Pictures on a limited-edition release designed for Halloween movie nights. The brand announced the M&M’S Amas Veritas Spell & Snack Pack, a collectible add-on built around the iconic “Amas Veritas” love charm from the original 1998 film—timed to the sequel’s theatrical release date: September 10, 2026 (in theaters only).
The pack features custom-designed M&M’S candies printed with eight whimsical symbols inspired by the original spell, plus an “extended verse” of four new symbols that the company says hint at mysteries in the sequel. The drop is positioned as part fan-service, part snackable merch—something you bring to a watch party, but also something collectors will want to grab before it disappears.
Availability is limited and online-only. The Spell & Snack Pack is offered exclusively atMMS.com/Practical-Magic as a gift with purchase when fans buy an M&M’S Milk Chocolate Fun Size Sharing Bag, while supplies last. In a nod to the film’s midnight vibe, there are two timed drops at 12:00 a.m. ET: September 3, 2026 and September 14, 2026.
To push the nostalgia even further, M&M’S is also partnering with actress Camilla Belle—who played young Sally Owens in the original film—to recreate her spell scene with an M&M’S twist in social content on Instagram and TikTok. For Halloween hosting, the brand also flagged seasonal staples rolling out nationwide, including its Fun Size Halloween Variety Pack and Halloween Blend options in both Milk Chocolate and Peanut.
Source
- PRNewswire / Mars, Incorporated press release (Sept. 2, 2026): “M&M’S® Brews Up Movie Night Magic This Halloween Season With Limited-Edition ‘Amas Veritas’ Spell & Snack Packs…”
Related links
- Limited-edition pack page: https://www.mms.com/Practical-Magic
- Mars, Incorporated: https://www.mars.com/
- M&M’S (main site): https://www.mms.com/
- Warner Bros. Pictures: https://www.warnerbros.com/
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Entertainment
Eastlake, Ohio: The Small Lake Erie City Behind the Golden Girls Kitchen Nightmares Episode
For many television viewers, Eastlake, Ohio, may not have been a familiar name before Gordon Ramsay arrived in town. That changed when the Lake Erie community appeared on Kitchen Nightmares, with Ramsay attempting to rescue the struggling Golden Girls Restaurant.
The episode offered more than the familiar formula of disappointing food, frustrated owners and a dramatic restaurant makeover. It also briefly placed a national spotlight on Eastlake—a small Greater Cleveland city with a waterfront identity, a minor-league baseball team and a population of approximately 17,000 residents.
Unfortunately, the Golden Girls story did not end as viewers might have hoped.
Gordon Ramsay Comes to Eastlake
Golden Girls Restaurant was presented on Kitchen Nightmares as a neighborhood diner operated by two best friends who had become co-owners. According to the episode’s description, the restaurant was struggling with unappealing food and a local community that had lost confidence in the business.
Those problems made Golden Girls a natural candidate for Ramsay’s intervention. As he typically does on the program, the celebrity chef examined the restaurant’s food, kitchen practices, leadership and relationship with its customers.
Ramsay’s challenge was not simply to create a few improved dishes. He needed to help the owners restore consistency, rebuild trust and give Eastlake residents a reason to return.
The Golden Girls makeover reportedly took place in June 2025. That was more than a year before the episode reached television, creating an unusually long gap between Ramsay’s visit and the public broadcast.
Golden Girls Closed Before the Episode Aired
By the time television viewers watched Ramsay attempt to save Golden Girls, the restaurant had reportedly already closed.
The Eastlake diner shut its doors in January 2026, approximately six months after the Kitchen Nightmares makeover and several months before the episode aired. The result was a bittersweet viewing experience: audiences were watching a rescue effort whose ultimate outcome was already known locally.
Online reviews and community reactions reported by sites following the program suggest that Golden Girls continued to face problems after the makeover. However, the complete circumstances behind the closure have not been publicly documented in detail.
The restaurant’s fate illustrates an important reality frequently hidden behind the drama of restaurant-makeover television. A renovated dining room, simplified menu and burst of publicity cannot automatically resolve debt, staffing problems, ownership conflicts or years of lost customer confidence.
Television can provide a second chance, but the restaurant must sustain the changes long after the cameras leave.
Where Is Eastlake, Ohio?
Eastlake sits in Lake County approximately 19 miles northeast of Cleveland. The city is part of the Greater Cleveland metropolitan area and occupies about 6.5 square miles near the Lake Erie shoreline.
The U.S. Census Bureau counted 17,670 residents in Eastlake during the 2020 census. Its July 2025 estimate placed the population at 17,357, representing a modest decline from 2020.
Eastlake’s geography is strongly connected to the water. The Chagrin River travels nearly 48 miles before emptying into Lake Erie at Eastlake. The river and nearby lakefront support boating, fishing, paddling, birdwatching and other recreational activities.
Chagrin River Park also has a western entrance in Eastlake, giving visitors access to trails and natural areas along the river corridor.
Although Eastlake is part of a large metropolitan region, it retains the atmosphere of a smaller, largely residential community. That setting helped make Golden Girls appear like the kind of locally rooted diner where regular customers, employees and owners often know one another personally.
When a restaurant loses the trust of such a community, repairing that relationship can be especially difficult.
Eastlake’s Baseball Connection
Golden Girls may have brought Eastlake to the attention of Kitchen Nightmares viewers, but the city’s most recognizable attraction is Classic Auto Group Park.
The ballpark is home to the Lake County Captains, the High-A minor-league affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. The stadium opened in 2003 and hosts baseball games, concerts, fundraisers and community events.
For residents and visitors, Captains baseball gives Eastlake a regional identity that extends beyond its residential neighborhoods. The team also connects the relatively small city directly to Northeast Ohio’s larger professional baseball culture.
A City Connected to a Historic Blackout
Eastlake also holds an unexpected place in modern North American history.
The massive power blackout of August 14, 2003, began after problems developed within FirstEnergy’s Ohio transmission system. An Eastlake generating unit had gone offline earlier that day, although investigators determined that the cascading outage involved a more complicated combination of overloaded transmission lines, inadequate tree maintenance and failures in monitoring and alarm systems.
The blackout eventually affected an estimated 50 million people across portions of the United States and Canada.
It is a remarkable historical connection for a city that many Americans may otherwise know only as a Cleveland suburb—or now as the setting of a memorable Kitchen Nightmares episode.
More Than the Setting of a Television Episode
The Golden Girls episode may not have produced a lasting restaurant turnaround, but it introduced millions of viewers to a community they might never have encountered otherwise.
Behind the televised kitchen problems is a real city shaped by Lake Erie, the Chagrin River, neighborhood businesses and summer nights at the ballpark. Eastlake represents the kind of smaller American community where independent restaurants can become gathering places—and where their closure can leave a noticeable gap.
Golden Girls is gone, but its appearance on Kitchen Nightmares has given the restaurant an unusual afterlife. Viewers discovering the episode will continue searching for the diner, wondering whether it survived and, in the process, learning a little more about Eastlake itself.
For some viewers—including this writer—that simple mention on a television program was enough to put a previously unfamiliar Ohio city on the map.
Sources and Related Links
- U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Eastlake, Ohio
- City of Eastlake
- Lake County Captains and Classic Auto Group Park
- Chagrin River — Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
- Chagrin River Park — Lake Metroparks
- Season 10 restaurants featured on Kitchen Nightmares
- Golden Girls post-show update
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