Monday, May 31, 2010

Potatoe Crunchers




These are super easy and super yummy!!! My kids can help make these!
LOVE the kid "friendly" recipes! Sometimes they don't really help me even though they think they are! :) I love being able to cook with them and am always on the look out for recipes they can do with me!





The olive oil and herbs ready to be mixed with the potatoes

Ready to go into the oven


Ready to eat! (Wish this was scratch and sniff, smells sooooo good!!!)

Potatoe Crunchers

16 small red or white new potatoes
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon oreagno or italian seasoning, or 1/2 teaspoon of each
1 teaspoon garlic salt (or more if you want more garlic flavor!)
Dash of salt and pepper

Pour all the above ingredients in plastic zip lock baggie, gallon size. Then place all your potatoes in the baggie, zip it shut and shake til all potatoes are covered.
Place on baking sheet and put in 350degree oven for 30 minutes. Turn the potatoes over and bake for another 20-30 minutes, until they are soft and tender.
Enjoy!!!

*I only did about 10 the first time I made these. Just cook as many as you need! Great as leftovers though!
These are REALLY easy to make and oh so good!!!! The kids love them becasue they are the small potatoes!
You don't have to use these herbs/spices, you can use others, depending on what you like! I omitted the thyme one time and was just as good....
You could also place these ont he grill! YUMMY!!!!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Jalapeno Sauce

I kinda made this up... But it tasted really good!!! :)




Roast the peppers in a dry skillet, don't add oil!

Soak the peppers for 20 minutes


All the ingredients put in the blender


All mixed up


After adding the heavy cream and it's all cooked, ready to go! :)



Jalapeno Sauce

4 jalapenos
1 medium tomato
2 - 3 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 cup beef or chicken broth (depending on if you are using chicken or beef, that's why the beef or chicken broth)
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup heavy cream

Cut the jalapenos in half, discard the seeds, but be careful! :)
Toast the jalapenos but do not burn them or you will lose all the flavor and they will be bitter!
Put the jalapenos in a bowl and cover with hot water. Let sit for 20 minutes. Drain and discard the water.
Put the jalapenos', tomatoes, garlic, dried oregano, cumin, marjoram, chicken or beef broth, and water in a blender. Blend, in batched if you have too, to make a smooth puree. The sauce should have the consistency of heavy cream. If too thick, add about a tablespoon of water at a time.
In a saucepan, heat the mixture over medium heat. Reduce the heat to med-low, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir it frequently.
Stir in the heavy cream and heat through completely for 3 to 4 minutes. The sauce is ready to use or store up to3 days in frig, covered. Freeze up to 3 months.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Stacked Beef Enchiliadas



YUMMY! That about sums it up! :)

This was sooo good! The kids LOVED it!!

Now it did take a bit of work to make, but it wasn't that bad and was oh sooooo good! Think I may need to go heat a piece up while I post this blog! :)





Brown the stew meat on all sides
This is how it will look, or should, just brown it lightly... Some sides didn't fully get browned, and that's ok.


Add garlic with the meat


Then the beef broth


and cook it for atleast an hour and a half, it may need longer depending on size of meat and how much meat you are cooking...

Pull the meat apart with a fork, or what I ended up doing was using my fingers, so much easier and faster! :)


The shredded meat



Fry up onions, then add the can of green chilies and chopped tomatoes

Add the meat and stir it up! (It is soooo good!)


Put a spoonful of your jalapeno sauce in the bottom of a 9x 13 inch pan


Layer 2 corn or flour tortillas


Then put your meat mixture on top. Keep layering this until you run out of meat. I think I had 4 or 5 layers. On the 3rd layer I pour the jalapeno sauce all over the tortilla mixture.


Then on the last layer, pour your remaining jalapeno sauce all over the top. Pop it in the oven and then enjoy!


Without the sour cream and olives on top...


With the sour cream and olives. It was good either way, but this way was better! :D




Stacked Beef Enchiliadas

2 pounds boneless beef stew meat
Vegetable oil for frying
5 cloves of garlic
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
Dash of salt and pepper
1 large white onion
1 (7oz) can diced green chilies
1 /2 teaspoon cumin
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
12 (6-7 inch) corn tortillas
Jalapeno Sauce (see recipe)
Sliced black olives
Sour Cream

Heat oil in large pot. Brown the meat on all sides. You may need to do it in batches. Return all meat to the pot (if you did do it in batches), add the garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and 2 1/2 cups water to a boil; then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until the meat is VERY tender. Remove from the heat and cool in pan until lukewarm. Cover and reserve the broth. Save it for the sauce you will make, jalapeno sauce. Remove the meat and shred.
Prepare the Jalapeno Sauce. Then heat some oil in a large skillet and cook the onion, stirring until it starts to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the diced green chilies, cumin, and tomatoes. Stir for about 3 minutes. Add the shredded meat. Remove from the heat.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large 9x13 inch pan. Ladle a thin layer of Jalapeno sauce on the bottom of the pan. Place 2-3 tortilla in the pan, they can overlap a bit, but not much, so if 3 is too many, just do 2! :)
Top with meat mixture, another tortilla layer, more meat, another tortilla, meat, then the jalapeno sauce, then another tortilla, more meat, then one more layer of tortilla, then top with the remaining jalapeno sauce.
Baked uncovered for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and serve each with a dollup of sour cream and olives.

*I bought cut up stew meat, it was easier. You can just buy a big roast and do it that way...
For you sauce, you can use any kind of "hot" pepper, I just chose jalapeno because that was the only kind I could find at the store! :)
You can sprinkle in the middle a layer of any kind of shredded cheese, like cheddar, mexican, or monterey...
You can also use shredded chicken instead of beef...

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Strawberry Dream Cream





Since it's getting nicer and warmer outside, I figured I should be posting this! I am soo far behind... I am not gonna apologize this time... ;) Finally got the oldest DONE with her school work, now I can "hopefully" catch up on some blogging!

This was soooooooooo good and easy, and the cool thing is, you DON'T need an ice cream maker! That's right, you do NOT need one! :)

You don't have to make it this way all the time, you can play around with different flavors. I made chocolate with mini chocolate chips, super good! :)



Chopped up strawberries



Whipping cream ready to have all the other ingredients added


Ready to help! :) Adding the sugar


Another one that wants to help! He added the other half of the sugar


YUMMY!!! Ready to be frozen

Look at all those strawberries! YUMMY! :)


Out of the freezer after the 1st 3 hours... Ready to be whipped up!


Ready to go back to the freezer for the 2nd time!


I already ate a couple spoonfuls at this point... I mean, I just HAD to try it to make sure it was good! I could've just drank a cup of this! Who cares if it wasn't frozen hard! :D


All done and ready to be eaten! The kiddos LOVED this!!!! Okay, so we all did!!! :)




Strawberry Dream Cream

2 - 3 cups strawberries, chopped up nice and small, or you can mash them
2 cups whipping cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup cold water
6 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Pour whipping cream in a chilled mixing bowl. Beat until soft peaks form.
Then add the sweetened condensed milk, cold water, sugar and vanilla. Mix it all up, then add the strawberries.
Beat again until mixed.
Pour mixture into a 9x13 pan. Freeze until mushy, about 3 to 4 hours. Remove from the freezer and put back into the mixing bowl, beat until smooth but not melted. Pour the mixture back into the container and freeze until ready, about 3 hours.
ENJOY!!!!!

*Make sure you chill your mixing bowl before adding the whipping cream. ;)
I used the tupperware 9x13 container that has the lid, works GREAT!
Try using other flavors, add chopped up oreo's, your favorite candy bar, chocolate chips... the possibilities are endless with this!
I made it chocolate and used about 1/2 to 3/4 cup chocolate powder, then added some mini chocolate chips I had. SOOOO good!!!
The one thing about using chopped strawberries instead of mushed, the strawberries are kinda hard, but it was good! :)