Category: MISC

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY ~ STRAWBERRY PIZZA & STRAWBERRY CREAM CHEESE PIE ~ SAME BASIC RECIPE 2 WAYS

STRAWBERRY PIZZA
1 package Pillsbury pie dough (or homemade if you have time)

2 eggs
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar + 3-4 tablespoons
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound strawberries, cleaned and sliced
whipped cream

  • In a medium mixing bowl sprinkle 3-4 tablespoons of sugar over sliced strawberries and toss. Set aside.
  • Cut out 4 – 5 inch rounds.
  • Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees.
  • Cool.
  • In a mixing bowl combine cream cheese, eggs, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla. Beat until well blended.
  • Bake cream cheese mixture 10 minutes until slightly thickened.
  • Spread over “pizza” rounds.
  • Top with spoonfuls of strawberries.
  • Add whipped cream and top with CARAMEL SAUCE and MOCHA HOT FUDGE SAUCE.

RUSTIC STRAWBERRY CREAM CHEESE PIE
1 package Pillsbury pie dough (or homemade if you have time)
2 eggs
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar + 3-4 tablespoons
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound strawberries, cleaned and sliced
whipped cream

  • In a medium mixing bowl sprinkle 3-4 tablespoons of sugar over sliced strawberries and toss. Set aside.
  • Fit crust into pie plate, prick bottom in a couple places with fork tines and bake 5 minutes at 400 degrees.
  • In a mixing bowl combine cream cheese, eggs, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla. Beat until well blended.
  • Pour into pie plate and bake cream cheese mixture 15 minutes until slightly thickened. You will need to lay a piece of foil over top for part of the time to prevent crust from burning.
  • Spread over “pizza” rounds.
  • Top with spoonfuls of strawberries.
  • Add whipped cream and top with CARAMEL SAUCE and MOCHA HOT FUDGE SAUCE.

Kitchen Dreams & Wishes

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Kitchen Wishes post, but as I progress through this temporary situation I find I am missing more and more of my “own” things.  So today with the help of King Arthur Flour I’m doing a little dreaming again.
Like for these Wisconsin Mixing Bowls – they are so versatile, durable and just plain useful.
And for this dual bladed pizza cutter – I use a pizza cutter to cut way more things than just pizza.  They work wonders on quesadillas and even better on scones.
And I really miss the specialty tools like a chef’s torch or the simple things like a flour wand.

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BALSAMIC BERRY SAUCE

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup fresh blackberries, pureed large
8 ounce can crushed pineapple, drained slightly
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

  • Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the berries, pineapple, sugar, and balsamic vinegar.
  • Cook until the strawberries are heated through and darkened to a deep purple.
  • Spoon berries over shortcake or ice cream and serve.

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Taste & Create, Anyone?

Min here, just doing a plug for my friend Nicole, the creator of the Taste & Create food blog event and fellow food blogger at For the Love of Food. Nicole’s been bogged down in housing construction, subsisting in a 400 square foot apartment with barely a kitchen, so in the meantime I’ve been hosting T&C.
Taste & Create is a fantastic event in which food bloggers are randomly paired off, tasked with choosing and preparing any of their partner’s recipes–and then blogging about it, of course. To read more about it, go to How It Works.
Do YOU want to play?
If you’d like to participate this month, please email me at cowgirlmin07 [at] gmail [dot] com by May 9th. I’ll send out partner assignments by the 11th, and submissions will be due on the Taste & Create website by May 24th.
That’s all there is to it. Usually we have a variety of participants from all around the world, and it’s a ton of fun to meet new friends and discover new ingredients!
Hope you’ll join us!

STACKED GREEN CHILE & GRILLED CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

I made this for daring cooks and then made it again and altered it for my family.  It turned out really good when paired with my homemade REFRIED BEANS.

STACKED GREEN CHILE & GRILLED CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

1½ pounds Fresh Anaheim chiles roasted, peeled, seeds removed & chopped coarsely.
7-8 ounces Tomatillos (about 4-5 medium) peeled and stems removed
4 cups homemade Chicken broth
3 cloves Garlic, minced
1 bunch green onions, minced
½ teaspoon sea salt to taste
¼ tsp Black Pepper to taste
2 tablespoons Cornstarch (dissolve in 2 tablespoons water, for thickening)
Hot sauce, your favorite, optional
3 Boneless chicken breasts

3 tablespoons canola oil

3 10-12 inch flour tortillas

8 ounces grated Cheddar/Monterey Jack
Cilantro for garnish, chopped and sprinkled optional
Roasting the Fresh Chiles
  • Coat each chile with a little vegetable oil. If you are doing only a couple chiles, using the gas stove works. For larger batches (as in this recipe), grilling or broiling is faster.
  • Lay the oiled chiles on the grill or baking sheet (line pan with foil for simpler clean-up). Place the grill or broil close to the element, turning the chiles so they char evenly. They should be black and blistered.
  • As they are completely charred (they will probably not all be done at once), remove them to a bowl and cover with plastic, or close up in a paper bag. Let them rest until they are cool.
  • Pull on the stem and the seed core MAY pop out (it rarely does for me). Open the chile and remove the seeds. Turn the chile skin side up and with a paring knife, scrape away the skin. Sometimes it just pulls right off, sometimes you really have to scrape it.
  • DO NOT RINSE!
Green Chile Sauce 
  • Put a medium saucepan of water on to boil and remove the papery outer skin from the tomatillos. Boil the tomatillos until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. You can also grill the tomatillos until soft. 
  • Drain and puree in a blender or food processor.
  • Return the tomatillos to the saucepan along with the chicken broth, chopped green chiles, minced onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.
  • Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
  • Add the cornstarch/water mixture and stir well. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and reduced to 4-5 cups, another 10-15 minutes.
  • Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce if you want a little more heat.
Assembling the stacked Green Chile and Grilled Chicken Enchiladas
  • Heat a gas grill to medium high or build a medium-hot charcoal Coat the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  • Grill the chicken until just cooked through, 4-5 minutes a side for boneless chicken breasts. I did them on the stove in a cast iron pan and they were awesome.
  • Cool and then slice into thin strips or shred.
  • In a small skillet, heat 3 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat until very hot. Dip the edge of a tortilla into the oil to check – it should sizzle immediately.
  • Using tongs, put a tortilla into the pan and cook until soft and lightly brown on each side, about 15-20 seconds per side (at the most).
  • Drain on paper towels.
  • Add oil as needed and continue until all 12 tortillas are done.
  • In a baking dish large enough to hold four separate stacks of tortillas, ladle a thin layer of sauce.
  • Lay four tortillas in the dish and ladle another ½ cup (4 ounces/112 grams) of sauce over the tortillas.
  • Divide half the chicken among the first layer of tortillas, top with another ½ cup of sauce and 1/3 of the grated cheese.
  • Stack another four tortillas, top with the rest of the chicken, more sauce and another third of the cheese.
  • Finish with the third tortilla, topped with the remaining sauce and cheese.
  • Bake until the sauce has thickened and the cheese melted, about 20 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes.
  • To serve, transfer each stack to a plate. Spoon any leftover sauce over the stacks and sprinkle with cilantro, if you wish. The stacks may also be cooked in individual gratin dishes.

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Cheating Grilled Corn On The Cob

Fire Day Fridays are about cooking something with live fire that anyone else can make on any other type of grill. No Big Green Egg required. No special equipment. Fire Day Fridays are about inspiring and getting people to use their own grills.
It is hard to beat the taste of grilled corn on the cob. The fire roasting brings out the best in the sugary starches hidden in those kernels.

But my favorite way of cooking corn on the cob on the grill is a lot of prep work, requires a long soak and takes at least 30 minutes more of actual cooking time. That makes it impractical if you are trying to serve it with most other grilled main courses unless you have two grills going at once.

So here is a way I tried tonight that makes it easy, you can do all but 5 minutes of it ahead of time, and you can make it early in the season when the only corn you can get at the stupidmarket is partially shucked corn like this.
Cheating Grilled Corn On The Cob
Source: Nibble Me This

4-5 ears corn on the cob, shucked and silks removed
3 TB butter
2 TB spice rub of your choice (I used a southwestern rub tonight, but you could go as simple as chili powder)

Fill a large pot half way with water (I used an 8 qt pot) with water, add 3 TB of kosher salt and bring to a boil. Add corn and boil for 5 minutes. Remove corn to an ice bath.

You can hold the process here for a few hours. Cook whatever main dish you are making on the grill, then once it is resting, finish the corn on the already hot grill as follows.

Melt the butter and whisk in the spice rub. Get your grill to a 350-400f temperature (medium high-high if using a gas grill, depending on your grill). Place the cobs over direct heat.

Brush with the butter/spice mixture.

Check occasionally until the kernels on the bottom start to brown/blacken. This will take about 3 minutes or so. Be patient.

Once it starts to turn, rotate about 1/3rd turn and cook until the next side starts to char. This time, it will probably only be a minute or so.

Turn 1/3rd way again and cook until the final side is slightly charred.

Remove and give one more quick brush of a butter mixture. Serve as the perfect side dish to any grilled meats.

Or in my case, slice off those rich smoky kernels and then use them in a dish like Sweet Tamale Corn Cakes. Or in a great black bean and corn salsa. Or in corn bread. Or in……oh, you get the point.

SUN DREID TOMATO PESTO SPAGHETTI CARBONARA

1/2 pound bacon /Pancetta, cut into 1 inch pieces

4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons Classico sun dried tomato pesto
3/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small-medium onion, chopped fine
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, if necessary depending on bacon
1 teaspoon white pepper
3 tablespoons butter, melted
fresh parsley
1/2 pound spaghetti, linguine or pasta of your choice
  • Saute’ the bacon and brown until crisp.
  • At the same time bring the pasta water to a boil. Timing is crucial on this dish, the pasta must be ready when the rest of the ingredients are.
  • Chop the onion into small bits.
  • Using a slotted spoon remove the bacon from the grease and drain on paper towels.
  • Add the onions to the bacon grease and saute. Add the garlic.
  • Using a slotted spoon remove the onions and garlic and add to the bacon.
  • Pour off excess bacon grease.
  • Seriously scrape bottom of pan to loosen the stuck on bits – we NEED those for flavor. Make sure the pan cools slightly so as not to curdle the cream.
  • Add the sun dried tomato pesto and let heat to thin slightly.
  • Add the heavy cream, cooking until heated through and bubbling.
  • Add back in the bacon, onion and garlic. Lower heat. Simmer a few minutes to heat through and reduce liquid.
  • In a large serving bowl whisk the egg yolks together. Add the majority of the Parmesan cheese and Parsley, saving just enough for garnish. Mix it together well.
  • Add the drained HOT** pasta and mix well.
  • Add the butter, pepper and the bacon mixture. TOSS, TOSS and TOSS again until well mixed.
  • Garnish and Serve immediately.
**Pasta MUST be hot in order for this to coagulate well.

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