Enchilada Pie

"In the absence of bread, tortillas will do."
- Mexican saying

This is another recipe I borrowed from my in-laws.  It is so easy to make that you will marvel at your newfound ability to put quasi-Mexican food on the table at record speed.  It also happens to be a dish that I prefer on the second day, after it's been reheated (kind of like Soup Beans, which are better with a little age on them).  The ingredients are easy to find, and you only need a skillet and a microwave proof round dish (and a stove top and microwave) to whip this up.  Enough talk.  Thank me later!

Enchilada Pie

1 lb lean ground beef
2 15oz cans enchilada sauce (Old El Paso Medium is my preference)
2 cups shredded Taco Blend or Mexican cheese
4 FLOUR tortillas (8" or larger, depending on the size of your microwave bowl)
Toppings and sides of your choice (salsa, sour cream, rice, refried beans, etc)

1. Brown beef in skillet over medium-high heat, drain, and return beef to skillet.  Add one can of enchilada sauce and bring to a bubble before turning off heat.

2. In bottom of microwave proof round dish (we use a lidded 8" Corelle baking dish - sans lid) spoon enough enchilada sauce from the second can to cover the bottom with a thin layer.  Place a tortilla on the sauce.

3. On top of the tortilla, spread 1/3 of the beef mixture.  Pour approximately 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce on top of beef, then top with 1/2 cup cheese.  Top with a tortilla.  Repeat this twice more for a total of 3 layers of beef sandwiched between 4 tortillas.

4. On top of the last tortilla, spread the remaining enchilada sauce and sprinkle the remaining cheese.  Place dish in the microwave (uncovered), and cook on high for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted.

5. Serve with salsa, sour cream, and a side of rice and refried beans if you'd like.  This generally serves 8, and you slice it just like a pie.  It even helps to use a pie server to lift the pieces out.  Enjoy!

Roast with Veggies

"There is no sight on earth more appealing than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone she loves." 
- Thomas Wolfe


This is a recipe that I don't ever really measure - but I tried!  Let me say that the cut of meat you purchase will inevitably affect the quality of the finished meal.  I used bottom round roast this time, and I felt like I was chewing a leather belt.  I typically use a blend of chuck roast and rump roast - or all rump.  Just keep that in mind when shopping.  Also, I ordinarily do this in the crock pot, but I didn't want to have to lug that across town when I took the food to my parents' house to eat, so I broke tradition for only the second time and did it in the oven.  The instructions for crock pot cooking will be below the instructions for using the oven.

Roast with Veggies

1 lb carrots, peeled, cut into 2" long sections (halve lengthwise if thick)
8 medium potatoes, peeled, quartered
1 large purple onion, skin and outer layer removed, cut into chunks (I did 16)
4lb roast (rump, chuck, round)
3/4 c oil
1/2 c Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper

1. Prep all veggies.

 

 2.  Mix together oil, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and pour half of it over the veggies - toss to coat.  You may want to add more salt and pepper.

3. Cut meat into 2x2" cubes or slightly larger.  Toss with remaining oil mixture, adding more salt and pepper if desired.

 4. Layer veggies then meat in large glass baking dish (11x15"-ish).  Cover with tented foil.  Bake at 350º until internal temperature of meat reaches 145º (Doneness Versus Safety) - around 1 1/2 hours.  I was going by the old guidelines which suggested cooking whole cuts to an internal temp of 160º, which is another reason mine came out tough.  The new guidelines have lowered the safe cooking temperature for whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and veal.

11-04-12:  When I reheated the leftover roast and vegetables, I picked out all the meat and put it in the pressure cooker and filled it to the half-full line with water.  Once the jiggler started doing its dance, I gradually stepped back the heat so it maintained a steady pace.  I let it cook for 10 minutes.  In the meantime, I had the veggies and cooking liquid in a separate saucepan boiling to tenderize them a bit more.  In all it took about 20 minutes or so.  If it's any indication of how much more tender the meat was, my daughter had smelled it cooking and thought I had made vegetable soup (one of her faves).  I told her it was roast and carrots and potatoes and asked if she still wanted some.  She said she did, so I fixed her a plate with one good-sized chunk of meat and a couple of carrots and potatoes.  She ate the meat (with bbq sauce) and left the veggies!

Crock Pot Instructions

Same ingredients.  Same prep for veggies and meat.  Here's where it changes.

1.  Layer veggies in crock pot with carrots/potatoes on bottom, onions on top of them.

2.  Season all sides of meat with salt and pepper.  Add to crock pot.

3.  Add Worcestershire sauce.

4.  Put on lid, and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until veggies and meat are tender (at least 4 hours).

Serve it either way with Blue Ribbon Buttermilk Biscuits, White Lily Cornbread, or crusty Italian or French bread.

Easy Spaghetti Sauce

"So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being."

– Franz Kafka

This is my version of spaghetti sauce.  I didn't have any store bought sauce once early in my marriage, and we wanted spaghetti, so I improvised.  It is super easy and quick to make.  My kids still prefer bought sauce, but I make this whenever we're out.

Easy Spaghetti Sauce

1 14.5oz can tomato sauce

1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes

1 6oz can tomato paste

1/4 cup Parmesan

1/4-1/3 cup Tone's Spicy Spaghetti seasoning (I didn't have enough, so I used ~3Tb + 1Tb Italian)

Salt and pepper to taste

1lb angel hair or spaghetti

1.  Mix together everything except pasta.

2. Prepare pasta according to package directions.  I break my spaghetti in half so it fits in the pot better.

3. When the sauce comes to a bubble (be careful of splattering!), turn it down to keep it warm until the pasta is done.  Drain the pasta and return it to the pot you cooked it in.  Pour on sauce and toss to coat.

 

Two for One: Vegetable Soup with Pasta & Cheesy Potato Soup

"When baking, follow directions.  When cooking, go by your own taste."
- Laiko Bahrs

I am one of those people who loves vegetable soup.  I love it with meat, I love it with beans, I love it with pasta, I love it with barley, I love it with just vegetables.  As far as I'm concerned there are few ways to mess up a pot of vegetable soup - except with too much salt!  I've been trying out menu planning, and I will eventually (probably in 3-4 weeks) get my sample menu and weekly shopping lists up so you all can check them out.  To that end, today was Veggie Soup day on my calendar.  My four-year-old daughter, Emelyn, helped me plan the menu, and shockingly enough she loves vegetable soup almost as much as I do (may have something to do with the cornbread on the side).  My mom was helping tonight by peeling and dicing potatoes, and she dumped too many in the sink to wash.  So we ended up with two soups on the table, which suited everyone fine (except my two-year-old son, Jaxson, who splattered his everywhere).  Have fun with these just-right-for-fall soups.

Vegetable Soup with Pasta

1 can each: 

   - green beans

   - corn

   - peas

   - carrots (I had none, hence their absence in pictures)

   - diced tomatoes

   - chicken broth

   - condensed tomato soup

   - tomato sauce

   - you can also add a can of Garbanzo beans

3-5 medium potatoes, washed, peeled, diced (1/2")

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni

1 cup water

1.  Empty all cans into large heavy-bottomed stockpot or Dutch oven.  Add potatoes.  Stir to combine.  Bring to boil, reduce to simmer.  Simmer gently over medium-low heat (may have to turn up to medium depending on size of your pot) uncovered until potatoes are fork tender but not falling apart (approx. 45 min).

2.  Add elbow macaroni and cook until tender.  The pasta will absorb a fair amount of the liquid in the soup!!!  This is where the water comes in handy.  Once the pasta has cooked, remove the soup from the heat and add the cup of water if needed.  You may not need it, I did.  I wouldn't have if I had removed it from the cap as soon as it was tender, but I left it sitting and it kept absorbing...

Cheesy Potato Soup

~3 lb Potatoes, washed, peeled, diced (1/2")

1 lb Velveeta

Water

Salt to taste

1.  Dice potatoes directly into small amount of water in large heavy-bottomed stockpot or Dutch oven.  Add enough water to barely cover the potatoes, and salt to taste.  You will not be draining this, so go easy on the salt.  No one that I know likes brined potatoes.

2.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce to medium-low and simmer until potatoes are easy to smash with a fork.

3.  Slice Velveeta directly into soup.  Stir until melted.  And of course, once you have the soups almost done, whip up a batch of White Lily Cornbread to have along with it.

Mom's Spaghetti Meat Sauce

"The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again."
- George Miller

This is the spaghetti sauce I grew up eating.  To some that might seem strange.  Not many kids enjoy eating mushrooms, peppers, and onions.  Go ahead, call me weird.  I don't mind at all.  The only thing that would make this recipe, and the resulting sauce, any better (and more authentic to my childhood, mind you) would be if Spice Islands would suddenly bring back their spaghetti seasoning.  Hear my plea, Spice Islands!  At any rate, this is a pretty quick and easy sauce to throw together.  You can simmer it all day if you'd like, or it can be done in about 45 minutes (including picture taking time here, folks).  It all depends on how tender you like your veggies to be.  Me?  I don't mind a little crunch.  You can easily increase the size of the batch, since everything is in ones.  When we double (ahem, quadruple) the recipe, whatever we don't use immediately we freeze for later use.  If you do this, just be sure to either use freezer zipper bags (lay them flat on a rimmed pan with the bag folded just under the zipper, resting on the rim - once they are solid, stack them or stand them up) or freezer-safe lidded plastic or glass containers.  Do not, under any circumstances, freeze or store this in metal.  The acid from the tomatoes will do very unpleasant things to the metal and also taint the sauce.

Mom's Spaghetti Meat Sauce

1 can Campbell's condensed tomato soup

1/2 can of water (use soup can)

1 (15 oz) can Hunt's tomato sauce

1 Tb Italian seasoning (or more if you like it herbier)

1 lb ground beef

1 bell pepper, diced

1 onion, diced

1 (4oz) can mushroom stems and pieces, drained, diced

1 lb spaghetti or angel hair pasta

1 loaf crusty bread (Italian, French, etc)

1. Dice pepper, onion, and mushrooms.

2. Mix soup, water, sauce, seasoning, pepper, onion, and mushrooms together in large, heavy-bottomed (to prevent sticking/scorching) pot or Dutch oven.  Simmer over medium-high heat.  If it starts to splatter everywhere, turn it down a notch or two.

3. Start your pasta water heating so it will be boiling by the time you finish this step.  Brown beef over medium heat, drain, add to sauce.  Stir to mix.  Simmer sauce over medium-low heat until spaghetti is done.

4. Prepare your favorite type of spaghetti or angel hair pasta (or any other pasta for that matter) according to package directions.

5. Using tongs, remove pasta from cooking water and add to sauce.  Stir thoroughly.  My biggest complaint here is that the sauce tends to want to sink to the bottom, so you might want to turn the spaghetti out into a serving platter or large bowl so most of the sauce is on top.

6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Slice bread into thick (~2") slices and place on a baking sheet.  I used a pizza pan with vent holes in it.  Bake for 5 minutes, just until the bread is heated through.

7. Serve the spaghetti with pre-grated parmesan (or freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano) and bread with butter.

Creamy Chicken and Black Bean Burritos

"When baking, follow directions.  When cooking, go by your own taste." 
- Laiko Bahrs


My brother is somewhat the inspiration for this crock pot meal.  When we vacation in Treasure Island, FL, we typically visit The Floridian, a wonderful little hole-in-the-wall Cuban sandwich shop.  Their pressed Cubans and black beans and rice are delicious!  I have tried in vain to recreate the beans and rice, so instead I decided to make them into a burrito.  This recipe requires either 2 crock pots or a crock pot and a stock pot large enough to cook 1 pound of beans.  I created this recipe November 30, 2009, and I am only now making it a second time.  That may make it seem like the recipe wasn't very good, but I have a large cookbook collection, and I jump around a lot and try my hand at creating my own recipes.  I christened my mom's new stove this time - running my pot of boiling beans over before I soaked them.

Creamy Chicken and Black Bean Burritos

1 lb dried black beans
3 1/2 cups water
1 beef bouillon cube (Don't have this?  Substitute 1 cup broth and cut water to 2 1/2 cups)
4 large boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into strips (~1/2" wide/thick x 4" long)
1 med green bell pepper, cut into strips
1 small yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
1 med onion, cut into strips
1 can each condensed Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 can Rotel Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies
1 TB Durkey 6 pepper Grill Season blend (or your favorite peppery blend)
Flour tortilla shells
Sour Cream
Shredded Cheese
Salsa
Rice

1. Soak your beans!  Actually, first you need to sort your beans and boil them.  I do not follow the package directions for this.  I sort my beans (see how HERE), rinse them, put them in a large stockpot, and then add 8 cups of water per pound of beans.  The good news is that black beans are much easier to sort than pintos - there is less debris to pick out it seems.  Once they are in the stockpot, bring them to a boil over high heat for a full 5 minutes.  Then turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for at least 2 hours.  I prefer to do this the day before and let them soak overnight, but 2 hours is usually enough to at least get them a little soft.  They might have a bit of a mealy texture, so if you are texture-sensitive, definitely soak overnight!

2. In one crock pot (or in the stock pot) combine soaked beans with water (if you are doing this in the stockpot, increase water to 6 cups) and bouillon cube (or broth if you don't have bouillon).  Cook on low 8 hours or on high 4-6 (if stockpot, medium or medium low - simmer - 4-6 hours). *This time I am low on cooking time, so I bumped it up to high and am checking it frequently for doneness.  Sometimes you have to improvise!*

3. In second crock pot combine remaining ingredients except chicken.  Stir well to combine. 

4. Add chicken.  Stir to coat.  Cook on low 4-6 hours or until beans are done.  *Again, this time I am cooking on high and checking frequently.*

*I forgot my Rotel, so I added it about an hour into cooking.  That accounts for the lack of red in the pictures above.  You will see the Rotel in the finished product.*

5. To serve, use a slotted spoon for the beans (you don't want it liquidy) and a serving spoon or ladle for the chicken (you want the sauce), wrap beans and chicken mix in tortilla shell, add cheese, salsa, and sour cream.  You may want to serve a side of rice (we used Knorr - formerly Lipton - Taco Rice), too.  *It took about 3 hours on high to get completely done.*