Meat and Cheese Enchiladas

This dish is a favorite that our friends introduced us to during one of their many great gatherings over the years!  They are always trying new things and coming up with amazing food.  It is one of their best and generally makes an appearance when it is time for a really flavorful south of the border dish! 

A snowstorm is getting ready to roll into town today with some freezing rain and a ton of snow so it is the perfect time to warm us all up!   I am going to hand you over to friends Brian (and his wife Deb) for something you don’t want to miss and will love as much as we do!

Sheri

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It’s winter which means COMFORT FOOD!  While many people think of pot roast or mac & cheese I think ENCHILADAS!  What a great combination of Mexican flavors.  Rich and cheesy with the wonderful taste of corn.  Makes my mouth water just writing about them!

This recipe is one of my favorites and I found it in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  It’s not easy as it takes time and patience.  But you can make it ahead of time and put it in the oven when ready to eat or after friends arrive.

These enchiladas start with great, fresh ingredients.  Onion, celery and bell pepper give the ranchero sauce and meat filling just a bit of crunch and lots of flavor.  The sauce simmers for 30 minutes or so and fills the kitchen with all the aromas of your favorite Mexican restaurant.  Both are spiced with a Tex-Mex seasoning blend you make yourself with garlic powder, cumin, kosher salt and pepper.

One of the unique things about enchiladas is the tortillas are dipped in sauce before filling.  The name “enchilada” comes from the Spanish word “enchilar” which means “to add chile pepper to,” which in this case means dipping them in the ranchero sauce.  This is perhaps the trickiest part of the recipe.  You first dip the corn tortillas individually in hot vegetable oil for just a few seconds.  They wilt almost immediately and you put them on paper towels to drain.  After the tortillas have cooled enough to handle you dip them in the ranchero sauce before filling with meat and cheese.  This requires you to get “hands on” with the enchiladas and works better if you have a “kitchen assistant” to spoon the meat and cheese in before rolling.  But all of this work is definitely worth it.  As a friend of mine told me years ago “the harder something is to make in the kitchen the better it tastes!”

 

After rolling the enchiladas and placing them in a casserole pan (seam side down) you top with the remaining sauce and meat and then cover with shredded cheese and bake for 20-30 minutes.  If you are entertaining I highly recommend doing all of the leg work up to baking BEFORE your guests arrive.  In one case (before I was an enchilada “expert”) I tried making this for friends while we were all gathered in the kitchen and had some difficulty keeping the hot enchiladas in one piece.  As a result they turned into a layered enchilada casserole instead.  While it tasted good it just wasn’t the same.  If you have refrigerated the enchiladas prior to baking let them get to room temperature before putting in the oven and bake a little longer (30 vs. 20 minutes).

 

I also recommend a nice garnish on the plate and always make Mexican rice and black beans as side dishes.  A little chopped lettuce, tomato and avocado and a dollop of sour cream garnished with a lime wedge make for a wonderful presentation.  But no matter how good they look I think you will agree they taste even better!

The black beans are an easy and quick side dish.  Chop a little onion and garlic and sautee in oil until soft and fragrant.  Add drained can of black beans and let them sautee 2-3 minutes.  Add a little chicken stock, salsa, cumin and chopped fresh cilantro and simmer until the liquid mostly cooks off.  Do not overcook as the sauce will get a bit pasty.  If it does just add a little more stock until they reach your desired consistency.

I hope you take the time to try these delicious enchiladas.  They are worth the effort!  It’s great for entertaining and your guests will think you took a cooking class in Mexico!

Recipe courtesy of St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Blog & Photos – Brian Hill (Guest Blogger)

6 servings

For ranchero sauce:                                                    For meat filling:

1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil                                   ¼ cup finely chopped bell pepper

½ cup chopped white or yellow onion                      ¼ cup chopped celery

¼ cup chopped celery                                                ½ cup chopped white onion

¼ cup chopped bell pepper                                       1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoon Tex-Mex Spice*

1 tablespoon Tex-Mex Spice* (see below)                  1 pound lean ground beef

1-1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup chicken broth                                                      To assemble enchiladas:

½ of an 8-ounce can tomato sauce                            1 cup vegetable oil

½ of a 14-1/2 oz. can whole tomatoes                        12 corn tortillas

Water, if needed                                                           2 – 3 cups shredded cheese of your choice

                                                                                      Sour cream, for garnish

Step 1: Prepare sauce.  Heat oil over medium heat in a 1-quart saucepan or 10-inch cast iron skiller.  Add onion, celery and bell pepper.  Reduce heat and cook just until onion is translucent.  Do not let vegetables brown.  Add Tex-Mex Spice and flour, mixing well.  Cook until flour begins to brown, about 3-4 minutes, watching carefully to prevent burning.

Step 2: Add chicken broth, tomato sauce and tomatoes.  With a flat spatula scrape bottom of pan and break up tomatoes.  Reduce heat to low and let simmer gently for 25-30 minutes.  If necessary add 2 cups water to make 2 cups sauce.

Step 3: While sauce simmers prepare meat filling.  In a cold skillet stir together bell pepper, celery, onion and Tex-Mex Spice.  Spread uncooked meat on top.  Turn heat to medium.  When the mixture starts to simmer break up meat.  Simmer on low for 20 minutes.  Drain off any grease.

Step 4: Assemble the enchiladas.  Heat 1 cup oil over medium heat in a 10-inch skillet.  Dip tortillas in oil, one at a time, until limp (a few seconds).  Place on paper towels and drain.

Step 5: After all tortillas have been dipped in oil and drained, dip each one into the warm ranchero sauce.  Stack the tortillas on a cutting board or cookie sheet.

Step 6: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  To assemble enchiladas fill each tortilla with 2-4 tablespoons of meat mixture and 2-3 tablespoons of cheese.  Roll up and place side by side, seam down, in a 9X13 inch baking dish.

Step 7: Evenly pour or ladle remaining sauce over enchiladas.  Sprinkle with any remaining meat and cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Serve hot with dollops of sour cream and garnish.

NOTE:  Tex-Mex Spice – combine 1 tablespoon + ¾ teaspoon ground cumin, 1 tablespoon granulated garlic, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Enjoy!  

Brian

(Guest Blogger and friend of Tom and Sheri)

True Bingo

  When I was in San Francisco a few years ago, I had a really great cocktail and thought I should share it so you can enjoy one too.  I have named it "True Bingo".  The secret to this drink is Oronoco, a premium white rum from Brazil (made from Brazilian mountain cane).  The rum possesses hints of vanilla and molasses and yet has somewhat of a grassy scent.  It is very smooth.  The bottle is pretty cool - it has a leather wrap with a map of Brazil.  One sip and you feel like you're on the beach listening to soothing waves roll into the shore!

True Bingo
Oronoco Rum
Fresh Lime Juice (3 tsp.)
1 Ruby Red Grapefruit
Fresh Ginger  

Pour Oronoco Rum over ice until glass is halfway full. Fill balance of glass with freshly squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice.  Add 3 tsp. freshly squeezed lime juice.  Garnish with a lime wedge. Grate fresh ginger on top with Microplane.  
Click here for a printable version of this recipe.
Enjoy!   - Lara
Quick tip: Frozen ginger grates easier.

Roasted Butterflied Chicken

The other night I was trying to come up with a healthy and easy one dish meal.  It ended up being healthy, but it takes a minute to master the butterflied concept.  If you’re someone who doesn’t like carving up an uncooked chicken this may not be for you, but if you are adventurous, it is an excellent way to broaden your chicken dish options.  

Once you get the bird butterflied, it takes much less time to cook and the end result is incredible! 

In order to speed up the prep process, I used canned beans, but you can use dry if you prefer them. Just make sure you cook them almost completely before adding them to the roasting pan.  Give this one a shot for a great comfort food night! 

Roasted Butterflied Chicken Recipe

Recipe and photos by FT – Food Tasty! 

serves 4

1 – 5 lb whole chicken

½ yellow onion sliced

1 small zuchinni cut into medium slices

1 tomato cut into medium wedges

4 whole garlic smashed

1 can of White Northern beans (drained and rinsed)

½ cup chicken stock

2 tbls - olive oil

1 tsp - tumeric

1 tsp - coriander

salt and pepper

Butterfly the chicken by following the instructions from an example on YouTube that is pretty good - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-8tMEwBnSA.    Drizzle with olive oil and other spices evenly on both sides.  Spread vegetables and beans around the chicken skin side up for roasting.  Pour ½ cup of chicken stock into bottom of dish to ensure moisture.

Heat oven to 500 degrees and bake chicken for 40 minutes (until chicken is cooked through).  Let rest covered with foil for 10 minutes before cutting into serving pieces. 

Serve chicken with beans and vegetables.  Enjoy!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Sheri

Homemade Pizza

Hi, I’m Lara (Sister #2 – Although, I would like to refer to myself as Sister #1, but I’ll let it slide because she’s the oldest!)

When I was in third grade, I wrote a book named Snoopy In Person, which was a story about a talking dog (our family pet, Snoopy) doing all the things I liked to do at that age – going to Six Flags, visiting the candy store and the playground, eating pizza, playing four square and the list goes on.  In the back of the book there is a page “About the Author” which explains I am nine years old, have a sister named Sheri, a dog named Snoopy, and I really love Pizza!

Later in life, my husband, Craig, read my short story and realized just how much I loved pizza and we’ve been making homemade pizza dough ever since!  It really is one of my favorite things to do while enjoying good company.  Making your own pizza dough is the key and although it may seem overwhelming, it is well worth the trouble!  Craig now likes pizza more than ever, and here is the recipe:

~ Pizza Dough Recipe ~

Ingredients:

1 Package of Fast Rising Yeast

2 1/4 cups of Unbleached All-Purpose Flour*

¼ cup flour (for kneading)

1 tsp. Salt

Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (optional, to taste)

2 tbsp. of Honey (to Proof yeast)

1 ½ Tbsp. Honey (to Add to dough mixture)

Other Items Needed:

1 Large Bowl

3 Medium-Large Size Bowls coated with Olive Oil

2 or 3 Moist Towels

Ziploc Bag or Saran Wrap

Pizza Stone (in oven)

Large Cutting Board

Pizza Peel

Pizza Cutter   

* For healthier dough, use one-half Whole Wheat Flour and one-half Unbleached All-Purpose Flour.  This will also make the dough easier to work with when rolling it out.

Add yeast to 1 cup of warm water (115 degrees) and 2 tablespoons of honey...stir until dissolved.  Let sit until yeast proofs. (Live yeast will form foam at the top.  If no foam forms after 10 minutes, the yeast is either dead or your water was too hot/cold and you will need to start over with a new package of yeast.)

Meanwhile, put 2 1/4 cups of flour, a teaspoon of salt, crushed red pepper flakes (optional) into bowl and mix dry ingredients.  

Pour dissolved yeast mixture into dry ingredients and add 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey.  Continue mixing until dough forms a ball (If mixture is too dry, add hot water until dough forms a ball.)

Place dough ball on hard surface and knead 8-15 minutes.  Depending on how wet your dough is you will need to add flour during kneading to prevent sticking.  Keep your dough as wet as possible as it seems to produce a better result.

After kneading, form your dough in a ball and place in a bowl coated w/oil.  Place a moist towel over the bowl and place bowl in a warm area (we use a 110-120 degree preheated oven; make sure oven is turned off - you just want a warm place to let the dough rise) after about 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours, the dough will have doubled.

Pour the dough to a floured surface and separate it into 2 dough balls, place each ball into separate oil coated bowls, cover with moist towels and put back into the oven for another hour. Once they have risen again, separate each ball into 2 balls (a total of four balls).  

You can either put each ball into a Ziploc bag, or wrap the balls loosely in saran wrap, but make sure it is sealed to keep the moisture in.  You can use it immediately or wrap it in saran wrap and put it in the refrigerator.  We like to make one pizza immediately after the 2nd rising of the dough, put the rest in the fridge, and make pizza for the next 2-5 days.    Try it out to see at what point you like the pizza crust the best.  

When you are ready to use the dough from the refrigerator, let it sit out for 10-20 minutes to come up to room temp.  Sprinkle corn meal on your Pizza Peel so it will easily roll off onto the Pizza Stone.  Roll out your dough (we like it ultra thin) and place it on your Pizza Peel.  Add your toppings.  Shake the Pizza Peel to make sure your pie will slide.  Slide your pizza onto the stone (this may take some practice, but you will get the hang of it!) 



We always like to cook the pizza in the hottest oven possible (~500 degrees) and make sure you let the pizza stone get hot before cooking your pizza.  You can add whatever toppings you’d like, but some of the ones we love to use are: pesto, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, prosciutto, garlic, Kalamata olives, and red peppers.  Cook in a hot oven until crispy about 4-7 minutes depending on the thickness of your crust– Godetevi la vostra pizza! 
Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Close up of first rising

                 First rising

 

Dough after first rising just before separated into 2 balls



Dough ball after separating

Both pizzas before going into oven

Pizza just after cooking (yummy!)

Queso Fundido

If there is one dish that my husband can’t get enough of (other than most any barbeque) it is queso fundido.  Or really anything with chorizo in it for that matter.  We brought it to a New Year’s Day party a couple weeks ago, but apparently he didn’t get his fair share with all of the other great food.  So here we are, and he has made a special request for it. 


I braved the elements (just had a little snow storm roll through last night) and headed over to the Mexican market to pick up a few items.  You really don’t have to go to the market, except for some reason I always think it tastes better when the ingredients come from a Mexican place.  Even though you can really make it without the extra stop.  One thing is for sure; it will be a great way to warm up on a really cold winter night!

Most Mexican restaurants have some version of this dish; and over the last few years we have tried it almost every time we've seen it on the menu. The way we like to make it includes an extra splash of crumbled cheese at the end to make sure no one gets shorted with only the melted cheese.  Either way, it is really hard to mess this dish up because of all of the great ingredients!

Queso Fundido Recipe

Recipe and photos by FT – Food Tasty! 

(serves 2 for main dish / 4 for appetizer)

½ lb ground chorizo (I use pork)

½ yellow onion sliced

3 to 4 oz Mexican melting cheese (Monterey jack will work)

2 oz Mexican crumble cheese (not necessary just an extra touch)

6 – 8 small flour tortillas

sliced pickled jalapenos

Optional Garnishes

clinatro

lime

hot sauce or salsa

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap tortillas in foil and put in oven for 10 minutes.

In a medium sized skillet, over medium heat, brown the ground chorizo for 6 – 7 minutes and look to drain if there is too much residual oil.  Add onions and cook for another 6 - 7 minutes until onions are heated but still a little firm. 

Add the melting cheese to the top of the chorizo and onions then cover for a couple minutes with lid or foil until melted.

Serve immediately.  Fill tortilla shells with the yummy mixture and top with crumbled Mexican cheese and jalapeno slices as well as the rest of the optional ingredients based on your taste. 

It is great as an appetizer as we did recently, but can also be used as a main dish if you add a couple other sides to the menu and maybe even a margarita.  Enjoy!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Sheri

Mediterranean Chicken

Over the holidays a good friend of ours gave us a great looking tapenade as part of a Christmas gift and we have wanted to do something with it for the past few weeks.  Now that things have settled down in the new year, we decided to give a stuffed chicken breast a shot and throw in some goat cheese for good measure.  A playoff football watching Saturday was the perfect time to get this kicked off!  This is something both of us like, me the chicken part and my husband (Tom) all of the yummy extra things in the stuffing.  You can definitely make your own tapenade to use in this dish or just pick out your favorite if you want to go the quick route.  We usually like to find a recipe for guidance and then make it our own, however today we just did what we thought sounded good and it came out fantastic!   

Mediterranean Chicken Recipe

Recipe and photos by FT – Food Tasty! 

(2 servings) 

2 boneless / skinless chicken breasts

4 tbls green olive tapenade (use your favorite or make your own)

4 oz goat cheese

6 slices of prosciutto

2 tbls olive oil

½ cup chicken stock

2 tbls vermouth (white wine is also great)

1 or 2 garlic cloves minced

½  lemon (juiced)

salt and pepper to taste (don’t add very much salt since you have a lot included with the ingredients)

Slice the chicken breasts horizontally, leaving a very narrow end attached to open them up.  Once they are butterflied, put plastic wrap over them and pound them out with a mallet or rolling pin so they are even.  

Put ½ of the tapenade and goat cheese on each of the chicken breasts and spread it fairly evenly over each breast. 

Then roll them tightly up and wrap the prosciutto around each 

of them.  Now you are ready to get those flavors heated up.  Take a skillet (I like cast iron) but any oven safe pan will work.  Add olive oil and sear all sides of chicken breast.  Once browned nicely, throw in the oven at 375 for about 20-25 minutes, until cooked through. 

Remove chicken from pan to let rest and get started on your nice light sauce to serve over the chicken.  With the same pan, on medium heat, add garlic and vermouth and scrape the bottom of the pan to get all of the goodness from the earlier roasting.  After a couple minutes add the chicken stock and let simmer for 5 minutes to reduce to your preferred consistency.  At the end squeeze in some lemon juice to freshen it up.  Slice chicken into medallions and drizzle with lovely sauce.  Enjoy!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Sheri (Sister #1, only because I am the oldest)

Welcome to FT – Food Tasty!

My sister and I thought it would be fun to share recipes online so all of our friends and family can be a part of what we do all the time with our husbands.  The four of us love cooking and coming up with great food ideas to pass on for entertaining ourselves and anyone else that comes along.  Usually, we send each other the pictures over our IPhones, since we live in different cities, but this blog seems more efficient.  The only thing is we will have to start keeping track of our measurements and remember them long enough to write them down.  The remembering them part could be a problem since we all tend to like coming up with tasty and new drinks to consume during our food preparation.  This can make for recipes that end up amazing, but no one knows what we did to get them that way! 

We decided to give it a shot to see if we were any good at this and if we enjoy sharing all of our recipes as much as we do cooking and eating with our friends and family.

Why Food Tasty?  Because when our food is great, our husbands affectionately refer to it as FT! 

Sheri