Enchiladas are not Manicotti

I am a native Californian. You'd have thought that I'd have enchiladas down cold. Growing up we ate them out, at Lupe's, not at home. Every attempt I've made resulted in mushy tortillas that fell apart. Apparently I was under the impression that enchiladas were manicotti and needed to be covered with sauce. Someone brought homemade enchiladas into the office and I realized that the sauce should only come about halfway up the enchilada. I made them for my dad and used queso fresco. They came out great. I tried them out on my significant other, who grew up eating at Sal's, and loves good Mexican food. He actually said these words "Yummy, yummy, yummy!" He's not exactly prone to flattery so I felt that I had a victory. I'm still not confident in sauce making so I used an authentic Select brand enchilada sauce and the recipe that came with it. Here's the technique:

1 jar enchilada sauce
water
corn tortillas
1 small can chopped green chilis
chopped or shredded chicken
8 oz Mexican blend grated cheese
4 oz queso fresco
chopped green onions for garnish

Pour 1/2 the jar of sauce into a pan along with half again as much water. Heat just until warm.

Pour enough sauce to cover the bottom of a 13x9 inch pan.

Take a corn tortilla and soften it in the warmed enchilada sauce. Lay it in in the pan. Sprinkle 1-2 TB green chilis, 1-2 ounces of the cheese blend and a handful of chicken. Don't oversuff. Roll up putting the seam on the bottom. Continue with the rest of the tortillas until the pan is filled. Pour more sauce over the rolled tortillas until it's about halfway up the enchiladas. Sprinkle with more cheese. Cook 20 minutes or so and sprinke with queso fresco. Cook another 10 minutes or so until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly. Sprinkle with green onions.

A Tale of Two Coffeecakes

I'm not a big one on using biscuits from a can. As much as I love Pillsbury, those things always taste processed to me. For this recipe an exception will be made. The fact that it's really easy to make is a new concept to me. A few weeks back I went to a friend's house for a day of scrapbooking and was served this cake. After a whole week of no sugar this thing was heaven on a plate. It's a Paula Deen recipe and it's her picture here. Brown sugar was substituted for part of the sugar and plenty of orange rind was used. We speculated about adding marmalade to the cream cheese. Would it make it too sweet? Here's the recipe as we made it.

Nutty Orange Coffeecake

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 oranges worth of orange zest
2 (12-ounce) cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (10 count)
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar, pecans, and zest; set aside. Separate the biscuits. Place about 3/4 teaspoon cream cheese in the center of each biscuit. Fold each biscuit in half over the cheese, pressing the edges to seal. Dip the biscuits in melted butter, then dredge in the granulated sugar mixture. Place the biscuits, curved-side down, in a single layer in the hollows of a lightly greased 12-cup bundt pan, spacing them evenly (do not stack). Place any remaining biscuits around the tube, filling any gaps. Drizzle any remaining butter over the biscuits, and sprinkle with any remaining sugar mixture. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Immediately invert the cake onto a serving platter. Combine the confectioners' sugar and orange juice, stirring well; drizzle the glaze over the warm cake. Serve warm.

I made this for an office brunch and also got rave reviews. I dipped the cream cheese in the sugar nut mixture before rolling the biscuit around it. One of the women I work with pointed out this recent recipe that is basically the same concept. It was in Food and Family, a free magazine from Kraft that always has a bunch of good recipes.

Pull Apart Maple Sticky Buns

3/4 cup PLANTERS Chopped Pecans
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, divided
1/3 cup maple-flavored or pancake syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 cans (12 oz. each) refrigerated flaky buttermilk biscuits
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cut into 20 cubes

PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Spray 12-cup fluted tube pan or 10-inch tube pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle pecans evenly on bottom of prepared pan; set aside. Melt 2 Tbsp. of the butter in small microwaveable bowl. Add syrup; stir until well blended. Drizzle over pecans in pan; set aside.
MELT remaining 6 Tbsp. butter; set aside. Mix sugar and cinnamon in shallow dish; set aside. Separate dough into 20 biscuits; press each slightly to 1/4-inch thickness. Roll cream cheese cubes in cinnamon sugar mixture until evenly coated on all sides. Place 1 cream cheese cube in center of each biscuit circle; gather up sides of dough to enclose filling. Press edges of dough together to seal; roll into a ball. Dip top of each ball into remaining butter, then into cinnamon sugar. Arrange half of the balls, cinnamon sugar-sides up, in prepared pan. Repeat with remaining balls to form a second layer. Drizzle with any remaining butter; sprinkle with any remaining cinnamon sugar.

BAKE 30 min. or until golden brown. Cool 1 min. in pan; invert onto serving platter. Scrape any remaining pecans left in pan; spoon over buns. Serve warm.

Variations would be easy to create.

I've been away for a while now. Life can really interfere with blogging. I never stopped cooking though and since the whole idea of this blog was to keep track of my experiments, I want to go over some of recipes that have been successes.

Last December my friend Carol had an Italian themed Christmas party. I came up with an appetizer version of a Caprese salad. I love cute food that can be eaten in one bite. I took the tastiest cherry tomatoes I could find, cut off the tops and scooped out the middle. I tucked in a basil leaf and then stuffed them the small fresh mozzarella balls. There's a name for them, I don't remember it. I came across Rachel Ray's version which also looks delicious, and perhaps a littl easier. Mine's cuter though!


Braciole was a successful maindish - recipe courtesy of Alton Brown. An electric knife really helped cut it into nice looking slices.







Brutti ma buoni are my dad's favorite:
32 cookies
2 cups hazelnuts (10 ounces)
9 large egg whites
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarselychopped

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line abaking sheet with parchment paper, andspread hazelnuts in a single layer on the sheet. Place in the oven and toast until nuts smell sweet and fragrant,about 10 to 12 minutes. Wrap the warm nuts in a coarse textured kitchen towel. Rub to remove skins from nuts, and discard. Coarsely chop hazelnuts; setaside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on low speed until foamy. Add sugar gradually, beating on medium-high, until stiff peaks form andthe meringue is stiff and shiny, about 3 to 5 minutes. (You can also beat the egg whites by hand using a balloon whisk; the beating times will approximately twice as long.

3. Fold in chopped hazelnuts, vanilla extract, and salt using a large rubber spatula.

4. Transfer mixture to a shallow,heavy-bottomed saucepan. Set over medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is lightbrown and pulls away from the sides ofthe pan, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Removefrom heat. Transfer to a medium bowl tocool slightly, about 5 minutes. Fold in chocolate chips.

5. Using two spoons, drop a heaping tablespoon of batter onto a baking sheet lined with a nonstick baking mat,repeat, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart.Bake until cookies are firm to the touch but still soft and chewy inside, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove to rack and cool.

One of the prettiest cookies I made, if not the tastiest, was
spumoni slice cookies - sugar cookies with layers that look like spumoni ice cream slices. Despite the cherries and pistachios these tasted like plain sugar cookies. Maybe I'll bump up the rum extract next time.

I Make Baking Powder and Amaze Bruce

I took another stab at chicken and dumplings tonight because I had just made some chicken soup. The soupier version is what my significant other was after so I tried again. I use a rotisserie chicken to make soup. Cover and simmer for 2 hrs with 1 bay leaf, half an onion, carrots and celery. Drain and pick off the chicken bits, set aside. After the broth has cooled in the refrigerator the fat is easy to take off.

Usually I cheat with the broth and add some Better than Boullion, but there was none to be had. Simmering the broth for about a half an hour concentrated the flavors. I sauteed some onion and carrots and added them to the broth along with a teaspon of thyme. Now for The Dumplings: (Melinda Lee's recipe)
1 cup, all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon, baking powder
1 teaspoon, coarse salt
1 tablespoon, chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon, finely chopped fresh chives or minced scallion greens scant
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 large egg at room temperature
6 to 8 tablespoons, whole milk at room temperature
2 tablespoons, unsalted butter melted and cooled

I had no baking powder! Plenty of parsely this time, but no baking powder. I remembered that baking powder can be made with cream of tartar. How many people actually have cream of tartar in their pantries I don't know. I don't know why I did but it saved the day.

Here's the recipe:
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cornstarch.

My significant other said the chicken and dumplings were very good, "better than cowlips!" (He was watching Amazing Race at the time.) I emerge victorious.

Green Split Pea Soup with Ham

I'm the first to admit that pea soup is not very photogenic so I took a picture of ingredients. My significant other is not the only one I know that won't touch the finished product with a ten foot pole. I have a great recipe and my dad and I enjoy it for weeknight dinners.

Andersen's split pea soup is famous in these parts. Billboards along 101 on the way to Buelleton feature a cartoon of two chefs, Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee trying to split a pea with a mallet and chisel, or stirring a huge pot of soup. I finally tried the famous soup a while back. What a disappointment! Their recipe is almost identical to mine but it didn't include the ham. It even needed salt. My recipe is much better.

Here's the recipe:
2 cups of dried green split peas
1 cup chopped celery
1 bay leaf
1 quart water
1 quart chicken stock
1/2 cup chopped water
1/4 tsp thyme
1 ham bone (HoneyBaked if possible)
1/2 cup diced carrots
salt & pepper
Put everything into a crock pot on high for 1 hour, turn it down and cook 4-5 hours or longer.
Take out the ham bone then spoon the liquid off the top and strain any fat. Add the strained broth back to the rest of the soup. Use a wand blender if you like the soup smooth. Add any ham bits to the soup and salt and pepper to taste.

This can also be made on the stove top. Simmer covered 2 1/2 to 3 hours