My Request

While I was away I was craving enchilada casserole so Phil was sweet enough to make it for me when I came home. It is a family recipe but throughout the years he has put his own spin and flavors in it that I love.

Start with onion and bell pepper, he put red and green. 

 

He adds green onion, a little garlic and some mushrooms. Let it all simmer together. Then add the meat and cook it all together, he used ground turkey which is a little lighter than beef.

You also need corn tortillas, a huge mound of cheese, enchilada sauce, and we put olives.

 

Heat the sauce in a pan and dip each tortilla before you lay it in the casserole dish.

 

With each layer spread the meat, cheese, olives, and pour a little sauce over it. Then Repeat.

 

 

Bake for about 40 mins

Garnish with sour cream and a few green onion slices.

 



 

Dig in! Its so good.

 

 

enjoy

 

 



 

 

 

 

Halloween 2012

For a  little Halloween treat I made chocolate raspberry bars. I saw this recipe on one of Giada De Laurentiis shows. She made it with white chocolate and almond topping but I made mine a little more simple. For her recipe go here,

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chocolate-raspberry-bars-with-white-chocolate-and-almonds-recipe/index.html

you need:

2/3 cup raspberry jam

1 box brownie mix (Duncan Hines chewy fudge)

3 eggs

½ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup water

1 package chopped walnuts

 That’s it!

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Butter and flour a 9 x 13 in baking pan.

 

 Ive never floured my pan also but Giada gets what Giada wants!

In a large bowl mix together your brownie mix, eggs, vegetable oil (I used olive oil and they say not to because olive oil has its own taste but I can never taste the difference.) and water.

 

You all know how to make brownies!

 

 

 

 

 

For the jam, heat in a small saucepan and stir constantly over low heat for about a minute, until it is pourable. (for got to take pics of this sorry haha)

Pour the brownie batter in to the buttered baking pan. Then, spoon the jam over top the batter using a small spatula to swirl into the batter. Pour the chopped walnuts on top. 

Into the oven it goes. Can you see the pretty jam swirls

 



 

Bake for 27 to 30 mins.

 

Yum!

 

Happy Halloween!

 

 

 

Food of Minnesota 2012

 

For our summer trip we went to the Tabyanan Family Reunion in

 Bemidji, MN.

It was full of delicious food all day and all night long.

 

Here are the ladies preparing the bacon wrapped catfish.

 

Pretzel Salad with toffee pretzels, cool whip, and pineapple chunks. Very sweet.

 

Uncle Izy preparing for the famous pig roast.

 

Homemade biscuits and gravy. Amazing.

 

The PIG ROAST 2012

 

 

 

It was a great trip.

Curry

The other night we made chicken curry. If you are looking for something fast and easy and you like curry then this is a good meal for you.

 

First cut the chicken into small bite size pieces and start to sauté in a pan. At the same time start cooking 1 cup of rice. Traditionally curry goes with white rice but we had brown and it taste just fine. We also like to add veggies, for this we had frozen veggies that got stirred up in the mix. Eventually once the chicken is almost cooked through pour in your curry sauce. Serve over rice.

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Beer Bread

A little while back I made beer bread from scratch. I had made it from a box before and really liked the texture of the bread. It is a little more dense and heavier of a bread. The taste from the box bread is good, real simple. When I made it by scratch the flavor of the beer was more noticeable so make sure you use a beer you like to drink.

People use if for dips and things, I like it plain and simple!

Here you go:

Beer Bread, yields 1 loaf.

3 cups flour (all purpose)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup granulated sugar

12 ounce can / bottle of beer

4 tablespoons of butter, melted

Preheat over to 375 degrees and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar. Pour in beer and mix just until incorporated. Put batter evenly into baking pan and pour melted butter over the top of the dough.

Bake for 40 - 45 mins or until the middle is set and the top is browned.

Allow to cool in the pan to 5 to 10 mins.

Enjoy!

Eggplant

The other night we tried something new. While grocery shopping they had a ton of huge good looking eggplants so we decided to make eggplant parmesan.

What you need:

1 Eggplant

Panko (or Italian bread crumbs)

Parmesan cheese

1 egg

Italian seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic salt, oregano, dried basil…)

Oil

Marinara sauce

Mozzarella cheese

Cook:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Once the oven is heated put the baking sheet in to warm up for five mins. Beat the egg in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Put the panko or the bread crumbs in another bowl. Season the panko with dried herbs, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Slice the eggplant in half inch circles. After the pan is heated pour a little olive oil on there. Dip the eggplant slices in the egg and then the panko and put on the baking sheet.  Put in oven and bake for 15 mins. After that, flip them over and bake again for 15 mins. Once that’s done grab a 9 x 13 dish pour marinara sauce on the bottom then overlap the eggplant slices, pour a little bit more sauce on top, add mozzarella cheese on top and bake for the last 15 mins. Take out and enjoy!

Chicken Tacos

Hello All,

Its been a while, our little camera broke and can not be fixed. Good news is we get a new camera, bad news is our camera is discontinued and we have to find another. In the mean time I took some photos on my phone! This past weekend was Cinco De Mayo. I love Mexican food so I told Phil we had to have some.

These chicken tacos took some time and preparation but they were worth it.

Start with the chicken. Season it up with some salt and pepper and put it in the slow cooker with fire roaster tomatoes, some chopped onion and a little bit of water to cover the chicken. I think we let it cook for a good 6 hours. By the time its done the chicken will fall apart and is real easy to shred.

We made the tacos the day after we cooked the chicken so to avoid the chicken being a little dry Phil heated it up with some oil and chicken broth. He also added a little chopped onion and green bell pepper to spice it up.

Next, get your taco spread ready...

Heat up your tortillas. These corn tortillas are delicious.

Start putting on the goodness.

These tacos were very delicious. They were not greasy and heavy but had a ton of flavor.

Don't forget a squeeze of lime and your done.

Enjoy.

Stuffed Chicken

The past couple days have been leftovers for dinner but I wanted to share a delicious meal we had late last week.

Phil has always taught me that there is no right or wrong in cooking and one of the best things about cooking is creating.

Times before we have stuffed chicken breast with spinach and goat cheese but this time we did not have too much goat cheese left so I added the equal amount of plain cream cheese as well. Now comes the creative part. Start looking around your kitchen for things you think will mix together well. I ended up with olives, sun dried tomatoes and fresh cut basil. Mix it all together.

To make this chicken even more special I let it marinade in freshly squeezed lemon juice, orange juice, and chopped garlic.

When you are ready to cook, slice a hole in the chicken and stuff with your cheese mixture. Bake until the chicken is roasted and cooked thoroughly. This chicken was so flavorful we felt it did not need salt or pepper but of course you could season your chicken a bit more.

Enjoy!