Cilantro-Lime Pork Enchiladas

The Date: 18 February 2012

The Occasion: Saturday night dinner

The Recipe: From Pillsbury 2009 Annual Recipes cookbook

How it went: I did this differently from the recipe’s instructions. I’ve never had luck with cooking pork in a skillet, which is what this recipe suggests. So I slow-cooked this in the crock pot all day. It was only supposed to be marinated for 1/2 - 2 hours, but I cooked it for probably 9 or 10 hours. I think this made the pork really tender and good. I've written the recipe below the way I did it, but the original recipe can be found here.

What You Need:

Vegetable broth or bouillon 

One lime

Cilantro

Garlic clove

Crushed red pepper flakes

1 lb boneless pork loin chops

2 small onions

1 can refried beans

Flour tortillas (about 6)

Shredded cheese (Mexican flavor, or Monterey Jack is good)

Salsa

Sour cream

Your Turn:

In a crock pot, place 1 lb boneless pork loin chops.

Add

· 2 C vegetable broth (I use 2 C boiling water over 2 vegetable bouillon cubes)

· The grated peel of the lime

· As much lime juice as you can squeeze from one half of the lime

· The other half of the lime, with the skin cut off

· 1 minced garlic clove

· 1 T fresh cilantro, finely chopped (more, if you love cilantro like we do)

· 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Let cook 7 or more hours on low.

When you’re ready to assemble the enchiladas, you can drain the pork and discard the marinade (or I guess you could save it for something else, if you wish). Chop 2 small onions and sauté in oil or butter until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Open a can of refried beans, empty them into a bowl and zap for 1 minute or so in the microwave until warm. Prepared some shredded cheese, Mexican blend or another type of your choice.

Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray. 

Assemble enchiladas as follows:

On a tortilla, spoon a few tablespoons of refried beans down the center. Top with some pork, onions, and shredded cheese. Roll up and place, seam side down, in the casserole dish. (I bet this would also be great with some rice in each enchilada!) I only made 5 enchiladas, but how many you can make depends how full you stuff them. Sprinkle additional cheese, and any onions you have left, over the top of the enchiladas. Bake 18-24 minutes at 375, until edges are golden brown. Serve with salsa and sour cream. 

Hawaiin Stir Fry

The Date: 6 February 2012

The Occasion: Weeknight dinner

The Recipe: From Taste of Home’s 2011 Annual Recipes Cookbook. It was in the “Cooking for One or Two” section. Perfect of us, you would think. But I doubled it, and therefore defeated the whole purpose of the recipe. But it lasts longer this way.

How it went: This is a pretty good meal. A little strange, maybe, but it’s tastier than you might think. 

I added some Orange Ginger Sugar
from this set of gourmet sugars
Mom got me for Christmas.
Quite yummy!!

What You Need:
1 lb ground beef or turkey

1 onion

2 or 3 stalks celery

1/2 green pepper

Garlic

Butter or oil

1 can (12 oz) pineapple chunks

1/2 C brown sugar

2 T flour

2 T vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

Cooked white rice

Your turn:
In a skillet, cook the ground meat until no longer pink.

Drain grease and set aside.

In the same skillet, sauté

· 1 onion, diced

· 2-3 stalks of celery, chopped

· 1/2 of a green pepper, chopped

· The pineapple from a 12 oz can (save the juice—you’ll need it later!)

· Some fresh minced or dried minced garlic, to your liking

in butter or oil until veggies are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.

To the pineapple juice you’ve saved, add

· Enough water to measure 1 C

· 1/2 C brown sugar

· 2 T white flour

· 2 T white wine or rice vinegar (I tried it with apple cider vinegar, but it made the whole thing too cidery)

· 1/2 tsp salt

Whisk until smooth. 

Add to veggies in skillet and bring to a boil. Cook and stir over medium heat about 2 minutes. Add meat back to the skillet and stir to heat everything through.

Serve with white rice, and (optional) cilantro! 

Marinated Oven Steaks

The Date: 5 February 2012

The Occasion: I was out shopping on a Sunday afternoon, and thought that it might be nice to have a “real dinner” on Sunday evening. I bought some cheap steaks and used a marinade recipe I’d liked once before.

The Recipe: From Sara Lee’s Semi-Homemade Meals Cookbook.

How it went I guess this would be better with high quality steaks, but considering I bought the cheapest ones I think this came out pretty well. 

What You Need:

Steaks

2 T Olive oil

2 T Worcestershire sauce

2 T Some kind of red wine

1 T Steak seasoning

Your turn:
Combine

· 2 T Olive oil

· 2 T Worcestershire sauce

· 2 T Some kind of red wine

· 1 T Steak seasoning

in a wide shallow bowl. Stir gently to combine.

Place steaks in marinade. Prick each one a few times with a fork to let the marinade into the meat. Turn steaks over and prick again. Let the steaks marinate for as long as you like, the longer the better, I suppose.

Mash up some potatoes or cook green beans or something.

Place steaks on a broiler pan covered with aluminum foil. Broil 4-6 inches from the heat for about 8 minutes. Flip steaks over and broil 8 minutes on the other side. (Longer or shorter, depending on how rare you like it.) 

Serve and enjoy! 

Ravioli with Pesto Cream Sauce

The Date: 31 January 2012

The Occasion: Easy weeknight meal.

The Recipe: From a 2010 Betty Crocker Annual Recipes cookbook.

How it Went: Great. This is really simple, and makes an all-in-one meal. You can easily swap the vegetables in the recipe for what you like or have on hand. I skipped tomatoes and used carrots instead, but you could use plum tomatoes if you like. Sometimes I've used onion too. The green beans are really good, though.

What You Need:
frozen ravioli
olive oil
bell pepper
green beans (fresh or frozen)
carrots
salt
sour cream
pesto
lemon

Your Turn:
Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and cook 1/2 sliced bell pepper (any color), 3/4 C sliced carrots, and 1 C green beans (fresh or frozen, about two handfuls), stirring frequently until tender. Add 1/2 tsp salt and stir.

Meanwhile, cook 1 package (16 oz) frozen ravioli as directed.

Mix 1/2 C sour cream, 1&1/2 T pesto, and 1/2 tsp grated lemon peel.

Toss hot cooked ravioli with vegetables and pesto cream sauce.

Chicken Broccoli Casserole

The Date: 25 January 2012

The Occasion: Just wanted to make this old favorite of Husband's.

The Recipe: From my mother-in-law, just slightly tweaked.

How it Went:
We love this tasty, comfort food casserole. Yumm!

What You Need:
broccoli
cooked chicken
rice
flour
butter
milk
chicken broth
mayonnaise
lemon juice
cheddar cheese
bread crumbs

Your Turn:
You'll need 2 C of cooked chicken, so get this prepared ahead of time, if you can. If not, slice up a few chicken breasts and bake them in the oven for a half hour or so until they're cooked through. Then cut or shred. (FYI: That Pinterest trick of putting just-cooked, still-warm chicken breasts in your KitchenAid stand mixer and turning it on low totally DOES work to shred chicken!)

You'll also need 2-3 C cooked rice. So go ahead and prepare this too.

Now, cut up two medium sized broccoli crowns into pieces (about 2&1/2 - 3 C).

Boil about an inch of water in a saucepan. Add the broccoli and steam for about 10 minutes, until tender. Then arrange in the bottom of a greased casserole dish.

Now, your rice should be cooked, so add the chicken to the rice and mix well. Add some salt and pepper, and various herbs if you wish. Mine was kind of a homogeneous mixture because I used chicken that I'd cooked in the crock pot a few days ago so it was fall-apart-tender and mixed smoothly with the rice.

Arrange this chicken and rice mixture over top of the broccoli.

In the saucepan you just took the broccoli from (I'm all about creating as few dishes to wash as possible), melt 4 T of butter. Slowly add 6 T of flour, stirring constantly to keep it smooth. Remove from the heat and slowly add 1 C of milk and 1 C chicken broth, stirring constantly. Return to the heat and bring to a boil, then cook while stirring until it thickens. Remove from heat.

To this mixture, add 1/2 C mayonnaise and 1/2 tsp lemon juice, and stir well.

Pour this over the chicken and rice.

Sprinkle with 1/2 C shredded cheddar cheese.

Melt 1 T butter and stir in 4 T dry breadcrumbs. Sprinkle this over the top as well.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until top is bubbly.

Enjoy!

Crescent Calzones

The Date: 23 January 2012

The Occasion: I thought Husband would like these and they looked like a fun challenge.

The Recipe: From a birthday gift, a Pillsbury Cookbook from Mom.

How it Went:
We both really liked these! The instructions weren't quite detailed enough for me, in terms of how you closed and sealed up the calzones, but I figured it out. I thought these looked mighty small and was worried about 4 of them being enough. But we each had just one! The other two were lunches for the next day. I'd definitely make these again.

What You Need:
sausage
bell pepper
onion
Italian seasoning
crescent rolls
tomato sauce
mozzerella or Italian blend shredded cheese
pepperoni
egg

Your Turn:
Preheat the oven to 375 and spray a cookie sheet with PAM. Set aside.

Slice two sweet Italian sausage links down the side and peel off the casing. Break up the sausage meat and cook it in a medium skillet with 1 bell pepper, chopped (any color) and 1/2 a yellow onion, chopped. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Cook until meat is no longer pink, stirring occasionally to break up sausage.

I bought a lb of the sweet Italian sausage links which was 5 links. The recipe asked for a 1/2 lb, but the two links were actually more than enough! I used a yellow bell pepper because it's what I had, but green would be good too, if not better. You could put mushrooms in also, if you like that. 

On greased cookie sheet, open one 8 oz package of crescent rolls. Unroll the dough and separate it into four 7" x 4" rectangles. (Each rectangle will be made of two triangles. Press together at the seam to seal.)

Spread about 1 T of tomato sauce (4 T tomato sauce in total) on each rectangle. Then top each with about 2 T shredded mozzarella or Italian blend cheese (1/2 C shredded Italian cheese in total).

These could have had a bit more cheese on them.

On each rectangle, place a few pepperoni slices. I had room for three on each. Then top half of each rectangle with a spoonful of the sausage/onion/pepper mixture. Not too much, or you'll never get the calzone to close!

This is actually a little too much filling. You have to fold the calzones in half next, so don't pack it too full!

Now, fold half of the calzone over onto the part with the filling. Seal the edges together with a fork. You might need to do some extra pressing on the seam too. Mine were splitting open. Poke some holes in the top with a fork too.

Beat one egg with a fork. Brush egg on top of each calzone and sprinkle the top with some Italian seasoning.

They look pretty messy at this stage...

Bake at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Serve with salad.

Just like the pizza shop makes!

Crunchy Chicken Casserole

The Date: 16 January 2012, with half eaten as leftovers tonight

The Occasion: This is a favorite recipe. Husband had asked for more casseroles, instead of the soups I'd become accustomed to making twice or more a week. So I whipped out this favorite.

The Recipe: From Husband's mom, photocopied from Reminisce magazine, I think.

How it Went:
I liked how I did the chicken this time. I've done it a few ways (most often, chopped it small, then sauteed it on the stove), but this was by far the most successful and tasty. It was also the easiest. In the morning, I put about 2 lb of chicken breasts in the crock pot with 2 cups of chicken broth and some herbs. It cooked all day, and by the time I got home, I just had to poke at it with a fork and it fell apart in perfect shreds. Mmmm. I was also then able to use that broth in the recipe and it was much more flavorful than it would have been otherwise, right out of a can or something. And I had extra chicken and broth which I saved for another meal.

I do this dish a bit differently from the recipe in a few respects. First, I don't use a can of cream of chicken soup. I make my own. Those instructions are included below. Second, I don't saute the celery first, as suggested. This is unnecessary. Also, I find this to be a perfect dish for which to use celery that is a bit past its prime. When I've bought it for salad or stir fry or something and then not used it all. This is perfect because it will be baked anyway, and its crunch factor is just slightly lowered. I also use half an onion instead of the recipe-suggested 2 tablespoons. Two tablespoons? You wouldn't even taste that!

What You Need:
chicken
rice
celery
onion
butter
flour
milk
chicken broth
mayonnaise
water chestnuts
almonds
corn flakes

Your Turn:
You need to start with 2 C of cooked chicken.
Get it cooked however you prefer, but I suggest crock-potting it all day and using it in that shredded form. It's better for the casserole than cubes of chicken cooked in a skillet. 

Cook 2 C water with 1 C rice to get 3 C cooked rice.

Time to chop your crunchy things!

Chop up

• 1/2 medium yellow onion
• about 3 stalks of celery
• 1 (8 oz) can of sliced water chestnuts

Blend these in a large bowl. Add about a 1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper.

Now, in a medium saucepan, melt 3 T butter. Add 3 T flour, one at a time, until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat and slowly add 1/2 C milk and 1/2 C chicken broth, stirring constantly, until smooth. Return to heat and bring to a gentle boil. Stir constantly until it thickens. Add a few pinches each of salt and pepper. (My version was extra flavorful since I used the broth that had been cooking with the chicken and herbs all day.)

Add this, along with the rice and chicken and 3/4 C mayonnaise, to the mixing bowl.

Toss in 1/2 C sliced almonds.

Stir to mix well. 

Spoon into a casserole dish. 

For the topping, melt 2 T butter in a small bowl. Add 1/2 C crushed cornflakes and stir well. Sprinkle over the top of the casserole. If you forgot to buy cornflakes, like I did, just add extra almonds on top.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Enjoy with a salad or fresh fruit!