My Enchalito Casserole, so Fab!

This dish just happened to surprise me.

Make ahead- 1 package Knorr Taco Rice, it cooks for 7 min in microwave.

Mix 1 can Cream of Mushroom soup

1 small can green enchilada sauce

1 1/2-2 cups sour cream

Layer on bottom of 8x8 pan

Then tear 5 corn tortillas (I like white corn) in pieces and layer on sauce

Then sprinkle some cheddar cheese.

Then add a layer of taco rice.

Next add another layer of sauce.

Then tortillas, etc, keep layering.

After done, there should be sauce as final layer.

I added crushed up Fritos on top for fun and I had some cilantro laying around and added some of that throughout. It was SOO yummy. My 10 year old had 3 helpings and wanted it for lunch the next day. (And she had it!)

Mama Tiffany's Chicken Cacciatore

Mushrooms

Chicken Breast, chopped and sauteed in onion and garlic, till no pink

More garlic

1 can diced tomatoes

Artichokes from can, cut down a bit or separated out

Parsley flakes

Garlic salt, Seasoned salt, pepper

Could add water, or tomato sauce or a touch of cooking wine. Serve over any type of noodles you prefer. So yummy!

If I did this vegetarian style, I would take out chicken and add zucchini and maybe get button mushrooms and leave whole instead of sliced. Who knows. But it's fun to create!

The Birthday Girl!

Gabs had her 4th birthday party at the park on Wednesday and it was really fun. They day was overcast and breezy but then went to a partly cloudy afternoon. We did the party in the morning, but it went well! We had lots of friends come since it was Spring Break. Gabby got lots of nice presents, with jewelery, purses, webkinz animals, bubbles, etc. We got her a little tennis racquet and some tennis balls. She will get the rest of her gifts on her birthday day, Saturday, from the grandparents and such. Thanks to everyone who made it a special day!! We have great friends! Gabs is very happy.

Also, I like to spell her name as Gabby now, but then Kev has just told me that he likes the way we were spelling it, Gabi, and has been teaching it to her. So then I wrote both down and asked which she liked, and she pointed to the one I like, but now, she knows how to write her 'i' and likes to write her name with an i. So I have no idea how her name is going to be spelled and so I will spell it lots of different ways until she finally decides which way she likes it, and then I will let everyone know. Funny.

Pie for you, pie for me

Thanks to the wonderful website www.ourbestbites.com, I was told by my friend Jennifer about this site and the Pies-in-a-Jar recipe. Super fun!! Jen and I were supposed to make these together but her son was sick, so I went ahead and made 7 blackberry pies. The kids and I ate them as after school snacks, they were yummy! The only thing I did wrong was not add as much sugar to the filling as I thought it was going to be too sweet. After I was eating the pie I realized how pie filling and jams/jellies, are just fruit and sugar. Ha! So yeah, next time, keep the right amount of sugar. It wasn't bad, but blackberries can be really tart and the sugar helps with that. I used 3 cups of blackberries. I used my Grandma Virginia's yummy crust recipe, which is with vegetable oil. She doesn't put sugar in it, and I add sugar because I like a sweeter crust. I also doubled the crust recipe since I wasn't sure how much I would need. I didn't follow ourbestbites.com really, I just used it for the cooking time, etc.

So I have two left in the freezer, since Kev was out of town during the creation, and so we will eat them next week. These are super cute for gifts! Oh, and I got the half pint jars at HEB with the lids and all, 12 jars for $6.77. I thought that was a good deal. I LOVE HEB!

The most work for this recipe is lining the jar with the crust. I was also doing other things during this process, but it seemed that was where a lot of energy went. But I would still do it again. In fact, I plan to as I have pear pie filling my Bishop's wife gave to me that she canned lasted summer. I also didn't mention the great feature that the pie just slides right out of the jar onto a plate, it was easy to eat and clean! And you don't have to grease the jar, the oil from the crust makes it not stick.

Baked Potato Farmer Casserole

Before and After baked pictures... Yum.

This is my creation but with inspiration from the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. I love that thing!

I am not going to put exact measurements on this recipe at the moment...

2 or 3 Cups Ore-Ida Hash Browns Southern Style, Thawed/steamed... enough to line bottom of pan (I used 8x8 for our family).

3-4 eggs beaten with a half to 3/4 cup milk mixed in. Add pepper and sea salt 1/2 tsp+). In fact, I added the salt on top of the potatoes first. Then added some to the egg mixture. The egg/milk mixture is fun to mess with as it makes the egg more fluffy and less dense when more milk is used, so I like adding more to it.

Pour egg mixture over potatoes.

Add Oscar Meyer Real Bacon Bits, enough to your liking.

Grated Cheddar cheese. Then I added crumbled Feta cheese. That is a fun flavor enhancer!

Then chopped green onions to top with.

Bake 350 for 35 min, but check on it and make sure it looks done and cheese is bubbly. I also don't like my eggs cooked hard or scorched brown, so I baby mine and check on egg type dishes regularly. In fact, whenever I bake now, I just leave the oven light on the whole time. Now I just need an eye-level oven!!

The combinations for this casserole are endless. Obviously, avacado, cilantro, salsa, green chilies, sour cream, olives, ham, you name it, could be added before/during/after. I LOVE casserole. I was also wondering about if I fried up my hash browns before lining the pan for a bit of crispness... not that the extra oil is needed, but yum, I bet that would be a tasty way to do this as well.

And the fun thing about this is it can be made (not baked) ahead of time and then when ready, remove from fridge and just throw it in the oven for 10-15 min longer.

Enjoy!

Black Forest Lava Cake

So this picture doesn't do it justice, but if you love cherries and chocolate, this is an awesome recipe!

4 tablespoons Butter

1/3 cup white sugar

3 eggs (beaten in their own bowl)

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup flour

1 1/3 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (I like Ghiradelli)

Preheat oven to 400.

Spray or butter and sugar (sprinkle to coat) muffin pan (6 or 7 muffin cups).

In my Kitchen Aid, I cream butter and sugar. Add beaten eggs. Add the vanilla, then salt. Add flour. Melt choco chips in bowl in 30 second intervals until completely melted. Add into batter and mix until blended. (Just a few seconds in the Kitchen Aid). Pour into the prepared muffin pans. Bake 8-10 min. 8 minutes seems to work great for me.

The pictures I took, I did not have my cakes turned over to look more like a mountain, but however you want to serve it, (even serving them baked in ramkins is great), dust with powdered sugar. Add cherries (cherry pie filling), and can use whipped cream, piped in for added decor/flavor. (Black Forest Cakes definition are cherries, whipped cream, and chocolate cake). I liked just having the powdered sugar. I wish I took a picture of the nice oozy center. These turned out fantastic!! I. ate. two. Ha!

Another thought was to put some cherry pie filling into the muffin pans and THEN the chocolate cake and then bake, turn it over and have the yummy cherries on top, baked into the cake. So I will try that next time. Anyway, this recipe is super fast and easy. The longest part is the melting of the chocolate chips, but totally worth it, as you get to lick the spatula after... yum!

Food

So I decided to go the food direction and post foods I've made or created on here, because I realized I am pretty passionate about it, I just really enjoy putting flavors together, so why not! And I have REALLY been enjoying the other food blogs I've been reading. It's been so inspiring.

The bad thing is, either I need to take a photography class or a different camera. I tried taking a picture of the creamy artichoke dip I made, and with the flash, it made the food all washed out. So bummed! Anyone have any tips??

So this week I made white wheat bread, salsa verde, artichoke dip, bruschetta, and now I'm going to make molten lava cakes. I have an idea for the lava cakes but first I want to try the regular recipe and then see if my idea works in the next batch. Fun to create! I'll let you know how it turns out. So yeah, bummer about not being able to post the pictures of what I've made so far...

Here is another website that I just discovered that is super cute! If you know anyone that loves food, this site is great for gift giving and having little boutique type items... http://foodzie.com/.

I will keep you posted on my lava cakes.