Chicken Enchiladas

Fall is here and I have less natural light flowing into my kitchen. I'm afraid my pictures are getting a bit darker. If only I had a professional camera...'sigh'...oh well. We will manage!

Ok, here is a great recipe for fall. I like to be real organized with this recipe so it runs like an assembly line. Have all your cheese grated, chicken cooked and cut up, sour cream measured and ready to go and lots of room to work with.

Butter 10 tortillas with refried beans.
Dip each buttered tortilla into a pie dish filled with a large can of enchilada sauce.
Fill the wet tortilla with a hand full of cooked shredded chicken and cheddar cheese.
Roll up the tortilla and place seem side down into greased 9x13 pan.

When you are done assembling your tortillas you will have leftover sauce in your pie dish. whisk 1/2 cup sour cream into the pie dish with the sauce. Then drizzle this over the enchiladas. Top with cheddar cheese.

Cover with foil and bake at 400 for 25 minutes. Remove the tin foil and cook for another 5 minutes.

Cornbread

Here is a cornbread you can feel good about eating the second day! The secret is creaming the butter and sugar. Most cornbread recipes call for oil.

Cream for 2 minutes:

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar

add the following:

2 eggs
1, 1/2 cup milk

add the following and mix quickly:

1, 1/2 cup white flour
1 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes in greased 9x9

One Pot- Pot Roast Stew

I came up with this recipe last winter when I was sick of dirtying 3 pots just to make a simple stew. The secret to this stew is using left over pot roast and sun dried tomatoes!

Heat up 4 T oil in large soup pot and saute:

1 small onion, chopped

While the onion is cooking, cut up:

2 carrots (no need to peel)

Dump the carrots in with the onions. Now cut up:

3 red potatoes (no need to peel)

Dump the potatoes in with carrots and onions. Now add:

1 can beef broth
1 jar bottled tomatoes (or large can)
cut up leftover pot roast (about 2 cups or whatever you have)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 T sun dried tomatoes in oil

simmer everything on low with the lid on for 50 minutes.

I added one small zucchini the last 10 minutes. If you add a zucchini do it at the very end. Otherwise, it will be mushy.

Freezing Peppers

These peppers from Dad's garden are beautiful! I helped Dad freeze peppers this year. I'm using the term "helped" very loosely!!

Here's what you do.

First - Slice your peppers
Second - Place your pepper strips into rapidly boiling water for 30 seconds.
Third - Remove peppers from boiling water and place directly into ice water (just fill the sink or a big bowl with ice and water)
Fourth - Dry the peppers on towels. Let them air dry for about 30 minutes
Fifth - Place pepper strips onto cookie sheets and place into freezer for an hour
Sixth- Fill up a Ziploc freezer bag with frozen pepper strips. Seal and label.


You can enjoy your homegrown peppers all year round. Pull out a few for Philly cheese steak sandwitches or a big pot of chili!

Zucchini Bread

Mix in a large bowl:

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 heaping cups zucchini shredded
1TBLvanilla

Now add to the mix and whisk quickly:

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 T cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp

Now add:

1 cup chocolate chips

grease bottom only of 2 bread tins. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes. Cool in tins for 10 minutes. Remove bread.

Hot Potato Salad with Bacon

Potato salad is something nobody can agree on. Some like mustard. Some like goopy, some don't. I don't like the salads that are so goopy you can't see what it is your eating. I "made up" this recipe. In my experiment I found that the salad is best eaten hot. You can, however, serve this cold the next day!

Boil for 12 minutes:

10 red potatoes, cut up

cut up into small pieces and cook:

5 strips of bacon

after you have removed bacon onto paper towels cook the following in the bacon grease for 5 minutes:

3 celery sticks, cut up
1/2 cup red onion, cut up

for the dressing mix the following:

1/4 cup olive oil
2 TBL mayo (not miracle whip)
2 TBL red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dry dill weed

Toss all very gently. Serve on a bed of lettuce.

Tip: If you serve this cold, don't add the bacon. The bacon seems to get soggy. I added bacon bits right before serving.

Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe is my staple. It came with my Nutrimill Grain Mill.

In your mixer or in a large bowl combine and let sit for 15 minutes:

2, 1/2 cups warm water
1, 1/2 TBL SAF instant yeast
2 cups wheat

After 15 minutes dump into the bowl:

1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
1, 1/2 TBL Vital Wheat Gluten (found by the baking powder in Walmart)
2, 1/2 tsp salt
4 cups wheat

knead for 10 minutes. If you are mixing by hand mix for two 15 minute increments.

No need to let the dough rise. Just form 2 loaves in greased bread tins. Let the loaf rise for an hour. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Remove hot bread from tins immediately. Allow to cool at least one hour. I don't recommend serving wheat bread hot. The gluten strands are very fragile because of the weight of the wheat. Your bread will be mushy and taste undercooked. Serve the loaf bread cooled. Soft and moist!