Author Archives: stacey

Enchilada Lasagna

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Made this delicious Enchilada Lasagna for dinner tonight. It’s all of the normal enchilada materials, only presented like a lasagna. It’s magic is in the velvety sauce. So good!

Enchilada Lasagna:
1 lbs Ground Beef
1 Tbsp Green Chilis (or cut up pickled jalapeno rings)
1/2 Tea ea: Onion Powder / Garlic Powder / Salt/ Pepper

3 Tbsp ea: Butter / Flour
1 Tbsp ea: Chili Powder / Paprika (any kind)
3 C Chicken Stock, hot
1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1/2 Tea ea: Oregano, crushed or rubbed / Cumin / Salt / Pepper / Sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp Taco Seasoning (from a store bought packet)

1/2 Onion, diced
2-3 C Pepper Jack Cheese, grated (or Marble)
Eight 7″ Tortillas

In a hot fry pan, drop meat to brown, chopping it up as it cooks down and the fat renders out. Add the chilis and the seasonings, stirring them in completely. Spoon out the fat into a small bowl for discarding later when the meat finishes cooking. Spoon out the meat into a bigger bowl; set aside for now.

Add the butter to the fry pan to melt completely. Add the flour. Whisk both together and let is cook for a full minute as the colour of the fat deepens. To this, add half the chili powder and whisk continuously before adding the second half to whisk in. Add the paprika one half at a time and continue to whisk as the second portion also goes in, whisking so none of the mixture burns.

Add 1 cup of the broth to the pan and whisk the butter mixture into the liquid. When it’s smooth and incorporated, add the next 1 cup and mix it in. Continue with the last of the broth. At this point, add the tomato paste and really work it into the sauce to evenly distribute it.

Place one seasoning at a time into the pan and give it a good stir before adding the next so each one gets time to meld into the sauce properly. Remove the pan from the heat and start setting up the baking dish, tortillas, meat, onions and cheese for assembly.

Lay two tortillas on the bottom of the dish. Ladle a small spoonful of the enchilada sauce over them, spreading it out thinly all over the tortillas. Top this with 1/3 of the meat, followed by 1/3 of the onions and 1/4 of the cheese. Continue this layering two more times until you finish with the last 1/4 of the cheese.

Top with foil and bake it 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Rest it after that on the stovetop for another 15 mins before cutting it into 4-8 portions. Plate it with some cut up lettuce, a dollop of sour cream, and some diced tomatoes or a small spoonful of salsa.

Week Round Up

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I was busy at work this week with the Easter rush. In addition, I woke up one morning with a crazy whiplash like pain on the left side of in my neck that ran down into my back, so it was hard to do anything when I wasn’t being paid to. All I wanted to do was sit or stand still until the pain went away eventually.

As a result of my immobility, we ended up eating a lot of quick things like chicken patties that I could give the McDonalds treatment to using my DIY McChicken sauce (1/2 C mayo + 1/2 teaspoon onion powder) and topping them with small tears of lettuce.

We also ordered in Swiss Chalet one night, and turned that Quarter Chicken dinner into chicken poutine on the fly by topping the fries with some grated mozzarella from my fridge and laying down the very hot Swiss Chalet dipping sauce to melt it.

At one point this week, this A&W coffee made up my dinner meal. I know, I know. Ugh.

A few nights ago I cooked some pan fried pizzas using some naan I had kicking around that needed to be used up. I bought some sauce (I really didn’t want to stand in front of a stove that night) and pepperoni. I added a few bits and bobs of veg and smothered each pizza with the last of the cheddar and the pepper jack cheeses. It went into the pan one at a time, and covered for up to 8 mins to crisp up the bottom and to melt the toppings.

Last night we uncovered the bbq smoker for the first time this year. It took us awhile to remember how to cook meat and in what order, but we got there eventually. I started with baked potatoes in foil as the temp started to rise from 200 up to 400. At that point, the chicken thighs were added to the grill. A bit later, the steaks went on.

Why do I think of The Ponderosa Steak House when I look at these steaks? *drooling*

 

Ways to Cut A Watermelon

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Once you crack open a watermelon and grab a few slices, then what? How are you going to break it all down to store it in your fridge? Or, if you’re like Ellen, give it away to your siblings for the kids? Here are some great ways. I used a few of these when working in catering, and they are very solid storage methods.

Anti-Pasto Platter

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A throwback picture to when I worked in catering and we’d have to make these huge anti-pasto platters for 100+ guests from time to time. To make it easier for us to make these on the fly, and for the times when only one of us would work on it because the other was too busy with another order, the catering manager standardized the look of the platters.

These boards really only changed minimally depending on what and how much of an ingredient we had on hand that day. I still like making these, but my husband isn’t into charcuterie boards. At all. Despite it being mostly meat. It’s baffling to me. 🙂

Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins

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I really need to make these strawberry cream cheese muffins again very soon. So good. *drooling*

How I did it: I made a basic oatmeal muffin using a bag mix, mixed up a cream cheese filling, and sliced up some strawberries.

I added 75% of the sliced strawberries to the batter and used the other 25% to the tops after dropping a big dollop of the cream cheese filling into the top middle spot of each muffin.

I used a skewer to swirl the cream cheese down into the filling a big before covering it up with one or two slices.

Bake as normal according to the muffin mix instructions.

Jalapeno Boats

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We love pub grub, but we don’t really like going to pubs around here. They all tend to be sports themed, and we’re not into that scene. We do like patio dining, but we’re not there yet weather wise. Until then, I make us some of our faves at home. First up, Jalapeno Boats. Love these so much.

Jalapeno Boats:
6 Jalapenos
8 oz Cream Cheese, room temp
1/4 C Cheddar Cheese, grated
3 Bacon Strips, cooked, crumbled
S&P
1 tea ea: Onion Powder / Paprika
1/2 tea Garlic Powder

2 tea Butter
1 C Panko (or any other breadcrumbs) *

Trim the tails off the jalapenos barely, leaving a wall of white flesh in tact to create the look of a row boat’s blunt end. Set aside.

In a bowl, mix cream cheese with bacon bits, seasons and cheese grate. When combined completely, scoop this creamy filling into each boat. Don’t overfill the boats. The mixture should be level and flush to the sides of the boats.

* Optional Topping: I tend to make these boats with a panko topping, but I’ve also made them without it. Sometimes, like in these pix, I top the boats with half a bacon strip. Both methods are delicious.

If you want to use the panko method, simply melt the butter in a shallow fry pan. When it bubbles, throw in the panko and move it around in the pan until the butter is all soaked up. Kill the heat. Shake the pan so the panko sits evenly across the pan’s surface.

Place a boat at a time in the pan cream cheese side down. Flip it over and add a bit more panko on the top. Place these finished boats on a foil lined sheet tray or baking dish.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 mins.

Old Timey Cake Mixes

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I may not like flour-based birthday cakes, but I do love the old timey cake flavours and the artwork on the boxes back when I was a kid. Let’s take a trip down memory lane. 🙂

I think, over my lifetime, I have eaten a slice of every one of these cakes at some point. A few of them are classics home bakers still scuttle back to a few times a year, but the decadent ones are huge throwbacks. They only get made when someone is feeling hardcore nostalgic, or bought from a good bakery when basic cakes won’t cut it.

I remember this Raspberry cake mix like it was yesterday. My aunt bought it to make at our house for one of her daughter’s birthday the year it came out, and she loved pink so it got paired with pink frosting. I can’t remember if I liked it or not, but I remember the standout look of her final cake most of all. And how tickled pink (yes, I went there) my aunt was with her creation.

My mother bought these two often. Every birthday cake was one of these mixes, and decorated by my mother to her tastes. I ate way too many slices of birthday cake in my lifetime given how many siblings I have, so I would never make one of these today.

I’m surprised so many cake flavours endure. They really do. I see the Butter Pecan and the Chocolate Fudge boxes in the grocery store all the time. They wouldn’t be on the shelves if they didn’t consistently sell. Shelf space is like a hairdresser’s chair – it’s there for paying clients only.