Chicken Enchiladas

Who doesn't like enchiladas? Cheesy, spicy, and all-around delicious.

This is how I make enchiladas, as taught by my husband, as taught by his Mexican grandmother.

Chicken Enchiladas
Bone-in skin-on chicken breasts
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 can Las Palmas enchilada sauce
Corn tortillas
Shredded cheddar
Shredded jack cheese
Minced black olives
Minced red onion
Chopped green onion

Gently poach the chicken with the onion and a clove of garlic until cooked through. Let cool, then shred the meat. (Save the chicken water, as it's pretty much chicken broth!)

Warm the enchilada sauce in a pot with a smashed clove of garlic and salt to taste. Add enough sauce to the shredded chicken to make it moist but not soupy.

Spread some sauce on the bottom of a baking dish.

For each enchilada, warm a tortilla in a skillet with a bit of PAM, and drag it through the enchilada sauce (again, moistened but not dripping). Fill with chicken, cheese, minced onion and minced olives, and roll up. Place in the baking dish seam-side down. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

Drizzle sauce over the enchiladas, sprinkle with cheese, more black olives and red onion, and green onion. Bake in a 350 degree oven until the cheese is bubbly and the enchiladas are heated through.

Grilled Cheese with a Twist

Yes, it's a grilled cheese sandwich, with provolone. Nothing special, right? But look at the crusty outside.

The bread was spread with tomato vodka sauce and sprinkled with grated parmesan before grilling.

Delicious. I don't think I can have a grilled cheese any other way from now on.

Poached Egg on a Tortilla

Yes, I'm addicted to poached eggs. I blame my husband.

This was a lightly toasted tortilla, some cheddar cheese, green onions, tomatoes, poached egg. Surrounded by green chile salsa.

Not glamorous, but tasty.

Poached Egg and Smoked Salmon on Toast

Just reading the title made me want this dish again.

Apparently, my husband can poach eggs. Perfectly. I'm a little miffed that I didn't know this for the first 13 years of our relationship. But now that I know, he's going to be in the kitchen a lot more frequently.

What you see below is completely my husband's doing. Lightly toasted sourdough, a smear of a French herbed cheese, sliced baby heirloom tomatoes, olive oil, lemon salt, pepper, smoked salmon, chives, a couple pieces of arugula, poached egg.

Look at that gorgeous yolk. There was absolutely nothing I would have changed with this dish.

Asparagus, Fingerling Potato, and Goat Cheese Pizza

I had some fingerling potatoes and a beautiful bunch of skinny asparagus to use up. Searching Epicurious, I found this recipe for Asparagus, Fingerling Potato, and Goat Cheese Pizza. Why not?

I followed the recipe, except for reducing the amount of goat cheese, since neither my husband nor I like large amounts of goat cheese.

Was it good? Yes. Would I make it again? Probably not. I guess I just don't like potatoes on my pizza. As a matter of fact, I roasted the leftover potatoes and asparagus in some olive oil, and we preferred that over the pizza.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Squash Blossoms

It's zucchini season, which means it's also squash blossom season. Since we're currently vegetarian, I couldn't make my parents' recipe of beef-stuffed blossoms, so I went with cheese instead.

I mixed some finely chopped green onions and basil into some goat cheese, then stuffed each flower with about half a teaspoon of the mix. Next up, I whipped up a quick batter of sparkling water and flour, about the consistency of thick pancake batter. (You could use beer or plain water, too.) Twist the top of each flower, give it a quick dip in the batter, and fry in about 1/4" of oil until golden.

Since I had some beautiful heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market, I made a quick sauce to top the flowers. But they're also delicious on their own.

Spanakopita, Almost

OK, it's not really spanakopita, because I used ricotta instead of feta. But that's what I had on hand, and the end result was delicious.

Making this reminded me how much I dislike phyllo dough. Super-thin sheets of dough that crack if you look at them wrong.

But, it was worth it. Crispy flaky layers, rich cheese and spinach with a hint of nutmeg.

Cheese-Stuffed Bacon-Wrapped Tater Tots

Doesn't that sound incredible?

I thought so when I saw this post by Lori of Recipe Girl. So I ran out and bought some tater tots.

These are super-easy to make - partially thaw the tots, cut a lengthwise slit into each one, stuff with a bit of cheese. Sprinkle with hot sauce, and wrap in bacon, and stab with a toothpick.

Bake at 450 for about 15 minutes, turning once.

Not health food, but oh so good.

Things I've Cooked Lately, Part II

So this is a clean-out-the-camera post. Some of these I made quite a while ago, some pretty recent. And now, for your viewing pleasure:

Corned Beef Hash. Egg is not optional.

Adobo made with country-style pork ribs.

Indian spiced pickled kumquats.

Tomato & blue cheese soup repurposed as a pasta sauce.

OK, Sami, I finally posted something. Are you happy now?

French Onion Soup Cups

I rarely buy those packages of refrigerated biscuits, but I read On My Plate's post on French Onion Soup Cups one day, then saw that Trader Joe's makes their own dough-in-a-tube. Coincidence?

I modified the recipe slightly, using milk instead of cream. I also caramelized the onions for about an hour at low heat, instead of the higher heat / shorter cooking time in the recipe. Left out the thyme (Hubby hates it), and added bacon (because I could).

The end result was happy sweet onions in a cheesy peppery sauce, studded with bits of always-delicious bacon, topped with more cheese, all in a carbo-cup.

That's some serious comfort food.

Cornmeal Crunch from 101 Cookbooks

Heidi at 101 Cookbooks posted this Cornmeal Crunch back in November '08. It looked delicious, so why am I just getting around to making it now? Because I currently have 890 recipes in my "Not Tried" folder. It's getting a little unruly, I think I need to weed it out a little. For example, I've got 4 recipes for birria. And nowhere have I ever found goat meat. But that's another blog post for (hopefully) another day.

Back to the Cornmeal Crunch. Basically, you cook polenta stovetop, mix in Parmesan and browned onions, spread into a pan, and bake until the top and edges get crusty. Top with more onions, slice and serve.





















Very tasty. It's most definitely crunchy on the edges, creamy in the middle. I'm contemplating making a batch of red lentil soup right now, so I have something to dunk it in. Or maybe cutting it up into cubes and making stuffing.

Bottom line, if you like polenta and caramelized onions, you'll like this.

Cheesy Oniony Potato Pierogi

To accompany my wild mushroom soup, I also made some pierogi. I used this recipe from Bake List, which is an adaptation of Grant Achatz's recipe. Other than substituting parrano cheese for the Gruyere (since that's what I had, and my local supermarket doesn't carry Gruyere), I followed the recipe.

Well, I kind of followed the recipe. At the almost-done point in the assembly of the pierogi, I got fed up with the dough - very elastic and sticky. So I made one big-ass pierogi, about 10" across at the widest point. It fell apart into 3 pieces while boiling. But it didn't leak (too much), so I proceeded as normal with the pan-frying in butter. Ugly, but good.
















These are definitely not health food - butter, cheese, sour cream, fried in butter. Ironically, I found out that my cholesterol is "slightly high" right after I made these. I think I see a lot of salads in my future. Good thing I made the pierogi when I did.

Mezze

I bought some hummus, made some tzatziki, chopped some olives, peperoncini and cheese, and grabbed a few crackers. Dinner is served.

















The tzatziki was Greek style yogurt, with chopped salted & drained cucumber, and salted & mashed garlic.

The cheese was double Gloucester with green onions.

















The hummus was nothing spectacular. I still can't find a good store-bought one.

And some closeups of the peperoncini and olives, because I finally have my camera back (even though it now makes a funny noise when the lens retracts).

































Simple, delicious, perfect no-cook dinner for a hot day.

Stuffed Tomatoes

I found some beautiful tomatoes at the market, about 1.5 to 2" in diameter, still on the vine. Had to buy them. I decided stuffing them was the way to go.

















I cut them in half, removed the seeds, salted them and let them drain for ~15 minutes, then stuffed them with my "egg ball" mix, shredded Gruyere, chopped capers, and chopped green onions.

















(The egg ball mix is a blend of fine bread crumbs, garlic, parmesan, and herbs. It's called "egg ball" mix because you mix it with eggs, then fry spoonfuls of the batter. The resulting fritters are great in tomato sauce for a meatless dinner. The mix also works well for stuffing artichokes. But those are other posts that I haven't written yet.)

















I then placed the tomatoes in a olive oil-coated baking dish, and baked for about 20 minutes. At that point, they looked like they needed more cheese, so I added some more shredded Gruyere, and placed back in the oven (turned off) to melt.

















Absolutely delicious.

















You'll probably notice that there are way more pictures than normal in this post. For some reason, almost all my pics turned out very well (at least in my eyes). Diffused natural light and a little luck makes for droolworthy (in my humble opinion) photographs .

French Onion Soup

After I braised my beef shanks, I had a lot of the braising liquid left over. Yes, the dogs would have enjoyed it on top of their kibble, but I'm a little selfish sometimes, and I thought that I'd appreciate the depth of flavor more than they would.

In addition to the happy almost-sticky shank-braising liquid, I was also lucky enough to have some jus left from a recent beef dip expedition. (If you live in north San Diego County, you must try Agrusa's Super Sandwiches in Escondido.)

With all that beefy goodness in my fridge, I knew I had to make French onion soup.

















Caramelize a couple pounds of sweet onions, add a few good glugs of red wine, simmer until almost all the liquid's gone. Pour in braising liquid and jus, toss in a bay leaf and some black pepper. Let simmer and reduce. Toast some good bread, grate some Gruyere. Ladle soup into ramekins, top with toast and cheese, and broil.

Now that's tasty.

Cheese and Crackers, Grown-Up Style

Go out and buy yourself some of these Trader Joe's pita crackers.





















And some of this Spanish cheese.

















And some Peppadews. Don't know about Peppadews? Here's the wiki, and here's the US website. Normally I'd laugh at the idea of brand name produce, but these are really really good.

















And finally some smoked salt.






















Fill pepper with cheese, sprinkle with crushed smoked salt, place on cracker. Crunchy cracker, creamy tangy cheese, sweet and lightly spicy pepper, smoky salt. Truly amazing.

If you can't find Peppadews, I'm sure roasted red bells would work. Or just nix the pepper altogether. And the cracker's pretty much just a vehicle, you don't really need that either. I keep finding myself walking through the kitchen, scooping a knife-point of cheese (it's that soft), sprinkling with salt, and popping it in my mouth.

The only downside is how expensive the salt is, $12 for 7 oz at my market, but honestly, it's worth every penny. I've been drooling over the SaltWorks website for the last 10 minutes. Check out their amazing salts here.

Note: Even Hubby liked the smoked salt, and he's normally strictly a table salt kind of guy.

Grilled Cheese with Tomato and Bacon

Hey, did you know it's National Grilled Cheese Month? It's also Holy Humor Month and National Straw Hat Month. And how could we forget the 13th through the 19th - it's Egg Salad Week! Don't believe me? The Internet told me so.

But back to the important stuff - cheese! Kathy at Panini Happy has organized a Grilled Cheese Pageant. Her roundup, er, list of finalists, will be posted on April 20th. I can't wait to see all the delicious contestants. is posted here. Go check it out! I dare you to not drool on your keyboard.











Never being one to pass up a grilled cheese opportunity, I had to make a sandwich for Kathy's event. I was literally dreaming about what kind of sandwich I could make. Fontina, arugula and fig preserves on ciabatta? Prosciutto, provolone and peperoncini on a nice crusty Italian? Roast beef, Havarti and horseradish on rye?

In the end, I didn't feel like going to the store, so I ended up with American cheese, bacon and tomato, on store-brand sourdough. Although every time I re-read the preceding paragraph, I drool a little. Have to make those...

















Please excuse the photographs, my kitchen is the worst for lighting. No, I take that back, the bathroom's probably worse, but you know what I mean.

Here's what I did:

Cook bacon.
Slice and pat dry tomatoes.
Butter bread, using a little less butter than you normally would.
Assemble bread, cheese, tomatoes, bacon, bread.
Heat a skillet with a little of your bacon fat.
Cook sandwich.
Eat sandwich, preferably with hot sauce.
And a glass of Chianti.

















Want to get in on the fun? It's not too late! Kathy's accepting contestants until noon (PDT) on Friday the 17th.

Linguine with Italian Sausage, Zucchini, Olives and Capers

Given the success of my sautéed tortellini salad, Hubby requested another pasta dish.

This time I went with linguine, some hot Italian sausage, zucchini, black and green olives, capers and tomatoes. And parmesan cheese, of course.

















The recipe that follows is what I did, but I think next time I might add 2 more chopped tomatoes, at the same time the sausage is added.

Linguine with Italian Sausage, Zucchini, Olives and Capers

3/4 lb linguine
3-4 links Italian sausage
1 zucchini, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
small handful black and green olives
2 t capers, drained
parmesan
olive oil
salt

Cook linguine. Drain, saving some of the pasta water. Parboil sausages, remove casings, and chop into bite-size pieces. In your largest skillet, fry the sausages to cook all the way through and to start getting some nice caramelization. Drain on paper towels.

Sauté the zucchini, garlic and tomatoes in the sausage fat remaining in the skillet, adding more olive oil if necessary. When the zucchini is done to your liking, the tomatoes will most likely have broken down and started to create a sauce. Add the sausage, olives, capers, some parmesan (or a lot), and salt to taste. Splash in some pasta water, enough to create as much saucy goodness as you like.

Add the cooked pasta to the skillet, and toss. Serve with more parmesan cheese.

Here's proof that children will eat this, even if they do pick out the olives.

Kale, Mustard Greens and Emmenthaler Panade

That's a mouthful, isn't it?

I first came across the recipe for Kale and Gruyere Panade on Desert Candy, and thought it sounded amazingly comforting. A little bit of research revealed that most Interwebs panade recipes were based on one in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook, which I don't own, but I have nothing but good things to say about it. Have you tried the Roast Chicken and Bread Salad? Yes, the recipe is pages long, and yes, it takes days, but it's also worth every minute.

But, back to the panade: It's layers of sauteed onions, stale bread cubes, wilted greens, and cheese. The whole mess is moistened with broth, then baked slowly. Sounds good, right?
















I subbed Emmenthaler for Gruyere, since Gruyere was way too expensive for this experiment. I also used one bunch of kale and one bunch of mustard greens, instead of all kale. And I used a mix of onions and leeks, rather than just onions.
















None of those tweaks to the recipe can, however, explain the outcome. It wasn't bad (meaning, I ate it, but won't eat the leftovers), but it wasn't all it was cracked up to be by others. What happened? I think it was the fact that the bread I used had been in my freezer for who-knows-how-long, stuffed in there by God-only-knows-who, and was slightly freezer-burned. So instead of turning into silky souffle-like pillows, I got mush. Meh.

The long-braised cheesy kale & mustard greens, though - wow. I found myself picking around the texturally unpleasant sog, in order to enjoy the fantasticness that was the greens.

So, this one isn't relegated to the recycle bin, but rather to the re-try shelf. With good stale bread, not frostbitten crumbly trash.

Macaroni & Cheese with Bacon & Tomatoes

A month or so ago, I read Kelly's post on Macaroni & Cheese with Bacon and Tomatoes over at Sass & Veracity. Pasta, cheese, tomatoes...bacon! Bookmarked immediately.

Digging through my fridge the other day, I saw some cheddar, some blue cheese, and some feta. And I knew there was bacon in the freezer and pasta in the pantry. Off to the store to get colby jack and a few (sorry-looking February) tomatoes, and I was in business.
















You could use practically any combo of cheeses here, although I'd shy away from something really funky like bierkäse or raclette. The bacon (obviously) adds some deliciousness, and the tomatoes add some sweet acidity to cut the richness of the cheese sauce.

I love crunchy toppings, so of course I was digging on the idea of the panko-parsley mix spread on top of all the creamy cheesy loveliness.

Verdict? Absolutely heart-stoppingly-tasty. (Yes, stoppingly is a word, I just made it up, so there.) I deliberately didn't add any salt to the cheese sauce, and served the mac&cheese with a sprinkling of some flaky pink Australian salt, which not only supplied the required NaCl, but also enhanced the crunch factor.

Like Kelly said in her post, you could add cauliflower or spinach, and/or enhance the dish with red chili flakes. Heck, you could completely change the flavor profile and add some smoked trout. Or you could go totally porky and add some shredded carnitas or smoked pork shoulder. The world is your oyster. (Hey, maybe you could add chopped smoked oysters!)

Whatever you add or don't add, this recipe is a very good mac & cheese. So go make it already!