Green Chile Sauce

This recipe makes a great green enchilada sauce. I've started using it in place of the stuff in cans since the price of buying the chiles is comparable, plus I sort of prefer the taste to the canned sauce. So far I've only used it in these honey lime enchiladas, once with chicken and once with pork (both were good).

The recipe is really easy, but does take a little time. Next time I make it I'm going to double or triple it and freeze some for later.

Recipe from Cooking Light magazine, December 2007

6 fresh Anaheim chiles (long, slender green chiles found in most grocery stores)
1 T. canola oil
2 c. chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T. all-purpose flour
1 t. ground coriander
1/2 t. salt
1 14-oz. can chicken broth

Preheat broiler.

Place chiles on a foil-lined baking sheet. Broil chiles for 14 minutes, or until blackened and charred, turning after 7 minutes. Put charred chiles in a heavy-duty ziploc and seal. Let stand 15 minutes. Remove from ziploc and peel and discard skin. Cut a lengthwise slit in each chili and remove tops and seeds (I find that they're usually attached, so when I pull off the top the seeds come along). Chop chiles and measure 3/4 c. (I always end up with more than 3/4 c. chopped chiles, but I throw it all in anyway. I suppose you could save the rest of the chopped chile for later and use in place of a can of green chiles or something.)

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan and saute for 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. (Mine always starts to burn when I add the garlic, so you might try reducing the heat a bit, or stir more often.) Stir in flour; cook 1 minute. Add chiles, coriander, salt, and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Scoop half of chile mixture into a blender. Remove center piece from the blender lid so team can escape and put a dish towel over the opening while you blend. Blend until smooth. Return blended mixture to pan and stir well. Remove from heat and cool.

Makes about 3 cups sauce.

chocolate mousse

From Betty.

• 4 large egg yolks
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 6 oz semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream

1. Beat egg yolks in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed (about 3 minutes) until thick and lemon colored. Gradually beat in sugar.
2. Heat 1 cup heavy whipping cream in 2 quart saucepan over medium heat just until hot (do not boil).
3. Gradually stir at least half of the hot cream into egg yolks mixture, then stir back into hot cream in saucepan. Cook over low heat about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens (do not boil).
4. Stir in chocolate chips until melted. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours, stirring occasionally, just until chilled.
5. Beat 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream in chilled medium bowl on high speed until stiff. Fold chocolate mixture into whipping cream. Pipe or spoon mixture into serving dish. Refrigerate until serving. Store covered in refrigerator.

I serve it with berries and whipped cream. I know, that’s a lot of whipped cream.

key lime pie

From my SIL.



Ingredients:

• 8 oz of cream cheese
• one can sweetened condensed milk
• half cup fresh lime juice (about 5 limes).
• 5 oz whipped topping
• one 9 inch graham cracker crust (make the crust. it's worth the time)*

Directions:
Blend cream cheese and milk until smooth. Add lime juice and mix. Stir in thawed whipped topping. Pour into graham cracker crust. Freeze for firm pie or refrigerate for 6 hours.

*Graham Cracker Crust:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups finely crushed graham crackers (about 20 squares)
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 3 Tbs sugar

Directions:
Mix all ingredients and press firmly into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until lightly brown. Cool.

Zesty BBQ Chicken in the Crock Pot**

This one is from my SIL. It's so good and EASY!

INGREDIENTS
• 6 boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce (I always use Sweet Baby Ray's)
• 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
DIRECTIONS
Put chicken in a crockpot. In a bowl, mix the barbeque sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken. My crockpot cooks this in 4 hours on low.

**Question: is it crock pot or crockpot or crock-pot. :)

Fake rotisserie chicken in the crock pot

Ingredients:
- 2 lbs chicken breast
- 1 can chicken broth
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried parsley flakes
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground pepper
- 1 Tbsp melted butter
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 2-3 cloves minced garlic

Directions
Put the chicken in the crockpot. Mix everything else in a bowl and pour it on top. My crock pot cooks this for 4 hours on low or 2 hours on high. She makes things fast. Do not over cook!

Rosalee's Peanut Butter Bars

Rosalee's Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients:

• 1 c. butter
  
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. creamy peanut butter
• 2 c. flour
• 2 c. oats
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla

+

• 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:
Mix butter, sugars, eggs until fluffy. Add peanut butter mix until creamy. Add flour, oats, baking soda, salt and vanilla. Mix it all up.
Lightly grease a 12x18 jelly roll pan (jelly roll pan? you mean a cookie sheet with 1 inch edges. i'm so unleanred). Spread with a rolling pin until even in the pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
Cool for 20-30 minutes.
Spread 1 cup peanut butter over the top.
Melt chocolate chips and spread over the peanut butter. The peanut butter and chocolate will mix up a bit - so so yummy!

Betty gets all the credit for these fajitas.

(but I did change a few things...of course.)

This was the second real meal I made for my husband after we were married. 2 1/2 years after we were married. I've come a long way.

I doubled the marinade. I used 2.5 lbs of chicken instead of beef. I cut the chicken into strips before marinating for 3 hours. I replaced the onion with an orange pepper. I sauteed the peppers for 3 minutes in my huge skillet, then added the chicken and marinade and cooked it in the skillet it with the peppers for 7 minutes. I just warm my tortillas in the microwave. And I forgot the sour cream, which is sad because these taste so good with sour cream. Oh, wow. Maybe I should've rewritten the recipe... If I get a comment saying this is too tricky to follow, I will.

I will never write a cookbook

Ya know when you've made a meal a few times and you just know what to do and then you try and write it down for someone else and they call you and they're like "hello, this recipe doesn't make sense" and you feel kinda sheepish?

I do.

I rewrote the Mommie's Corn Chowder.

Sorry (Liz).:)

Sausage Ratatouille

Recipe inspired by one I found in Family Fun - took out the onion and replaced the eggplant with yellow squash. And made some other changes. Ya know, like we all do.

• 14 oz sausage
• 4 T olive oil
• 2 small yellow squash, sliced
• 2 small zucchini, sliced
• 1 medium green bell pepper, sliced
  
• 2 to 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 1/2 14 oz cans diced tomatoes
• salt and pepper
• 1t dried parsley
• 2t dried basil

Slice the sausage and cook in a large skillet - about 2 minutes on each side over medium heat. Transfer sausage to plate (leave all the delicious sausage juice in the skillet). In the same skillet saute yellow squash and zucchini in 3T olive oil for about 7 minutes, then transfer to plate. Put 1 T olive oil in skillet, saute bell pepper for 3 minutes, add garlic, parsley, basil and sausage saute for 3 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, zucchini and squash. Partially cover skillet and gentle simmer for 5 minutes. Season with salt n pep. Serve with french bread, pasta or rice.

Chipotle Shredded Beef

I made this recipe up to put in tamales and it was surprisingly delicious. It would work well for tacos or tostadas too!

Ingredients:

4 lb. beef (like a roast... I don't remember what exact cut I used, but it was cheap)

3 c. chopped onion

13 cloves garlic, minced or crushed

1.5 T oregano

1 can chipotle adobo sauce with 2 whole chipotle peppers (I ended up just getting as much sauce out as possible and then spooning in two of the peppers as well, and it was spicy enough for me, but not too spicy for my husband or kids)

1 1/4 t. salt

1 c. chicken or vegetable stock

Directions:

Throw everything into the crock pot and cook on low heat for 8-12 hours. Shred and enjoy!

** Makes enough to make about 95 tamales... could easily be halved (or quartered), and I would even wager that any excess could probably be frozen.