Mexican Lasagna

I love Mexican food.  What's not to love?  This is one of my "go-to" recipes for a Mexican flavor.  It is easy and fast and my family loves it.  We also love the red rice.  This rice is not the spiced kind you might get in a restaurant.  It is just like my Mom made it, with tomato juice - although hers was better because she always used home canned tomato juice.  It is lovely.

Mexican Lasagna

18 corn tortillas

1/2 rotisserie chicken (about 2 cups of cooked chicken)*I have made this without the chicken and increased the beans :)

3 cans , 10 ounces each, green chili enchilada sauce (red is good, too)

 1 can (14 ounces) black beans, drained

2 cups frozen corn

1 cup sour cream

2 cups grated cheese (I use cheddar or Monterrey jack)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a 13x9 baking dish, cover bottom with 6 tortillas.

Spread 1/2 cup sour cream over the tortillas.  Spread 1/2 the chicken, 1/2 the beans, and 1/2 the corn on top of sour cream.  Sprinkle 1/3 of cheese on top of this.  Pour 1 can of enchilada sauce over this mixture.

Repeat.

Top with 6 more tortillas, 1 can of sauce and the remaining cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes, until heated through.  Let sit 10 minutes before cutting.


Red Rice

2 cups white rice, NOT instant ( I like medium grain for this)
4 cups tomato juice OR 1 can (14 ounce) tomato sauce and enough water to make 4 cups
1 Tablespoon oil (canola)
1 teaspoon salt

Put oil and  rice in a large sauce pot.  Heat over medium high heat until the rice begins to be more opaque, about 2 minutes.

Add tomato juice and salt.  Stir.  When the rice begins to boil, reduce heat to low and cover.  Let cook, covered, for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes, turn off heat, stir, and let sit, covered for an additional 5-10 minutes or until the rice is soft.

Peaches, peaches, peaches (salsa, jam and jam)

Nothing says summer like fresh, juicy peaches.  I love it when you bite into them and the juices run down your chin while your taste buds do a happy dance in your mouth.

I bought peaches.  We ate peaches.  A lot of peaches.  So I bought more peaches and even more peaches.  Then, lo and behold, my family said that they were done with peaches.  How about pears or apricots?, they said.  So, what do I do?  That's right, I start canning peaches.  This year I made normal peach jam, peach jam with vanilla and sweetened with agave, and peach salsa.  Yum.

I do peel peaches when I can them.  For the jam, you want them mashed.  If they are ripe, you should be able to just squeeze them over your bowl, after peeling them, and have the pulp and juice fall into the bowl.  Have your kiddos do this.  It's pretty fun.

I don't double jam recipes.  Whenever I have it has not set up.  According to Alton Brown (who knows), pectin (which is made from apples) breaks down quickly.  When the batch is too large the pectin breaks down quicker than the temperature can reach the correct point, thus not allowing the jam to set properly.  Cool.

For the salsa, I like the peaches diced.  I peel the peach, cut horizontal rings around the peach, then cut them vertically like I was sectioning an orange. Works every time.  My salsa turned out a bit spicy this year due to the spiciness of the jalapenos from my garden.  That's okay.  We like it hot.

You need to get your canning supplies ready - hot water bath, jars, new lids, rings, jar lifter, etc.

Peach Jam

 4 cups finely chopped or mashed pitted peeled peaches

4 tablespoons lemon juice

7 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 pouch liquid pectin

Prepare canner, jars and lids.

In a large saucepan, combine peaches, lemon juice and sugar.  Over high heat, stirring frequently, bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down.  Stir in pectin.  Boil hard for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and skim off foam.

Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar and screw on band.

Place jars in canner, making sure that the boiling water covers the top of the jars and boil for 10 minutes.  Place jars on dishtowel on counter to cool.

  Check seal.

Peach Jam with Vanilla and Agave

5 cups crushed peaches (about 4 pounds)

1 1/4 cup agave syrup (Costco has it for a good price)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 cup granulated sugar (if needed-I used it)

1 box +1 teaspoon low-sugar pectin (3 Tablespoons+1 teaspoon)

Combine peaches, agave, vanilla, and lemon juice in a large saucepan.  Taste it.  If you think it needs it, add sugar.  Sprinkle pectin on top (it could clump) and mix into peaches.  Bring to a hard boil.  Cook, stirring constantly, for 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Ladle into jars, leaving 1/4 in head space.  Wipe rims of jars.  Place lids and rings on jars.

Place jars in a boiling bath canner.  Return to a boil.  Process 10 minutes.  Cool on a towel on kitchen counter.  Check seal.

Peach Salsa

1/2 cup white vinegar

7-9 cups chopped pitted peeled peaches

2 cups chopped onion (red onion is pretty)

4-5 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 cup loosely packed chopped fresh cilantro

2/3 cup liquid honey

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 Tablespoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

juice of 2 limes

1 Tablespoon salt

Prepare canner, jars and lids.

In a large saucepan, combine all ingredients.  (I combine the vinegar and peaches first so the peaches don't turn brown.)  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.  Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Ladle hat salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space.  Wipe rim.  Place lids and rings on jars.  Place jars in canner.  Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes.  Remove jars, cool.  Check seal.

Caramel Corn

My mom made caramel corn a lot when we were growing up.  I love it.  I don't like buttered popcorn very much, and I don't like movie popcorn or microwave popcorn at all.  When I moved out of my parents house, I would occasionally buy caramel corn.  It's my favorite.  Then I had my oldest kiddo who came with a severe peanut allergy.  All of a sudden, I couldn't have caramel corn because I couldn't find any that didn't have peanut traces.  Sad.

Then I remembered Mom.

This caramel corn is really not hard.  I know, I know, many of you are afraid to try the candy-making thing.  Don't be afraid.  You can do it.  Remember, I've doubled it in the pictures.

Caramel Corn

Popped popcorn - about 2-3 batches in your whirly pop (about 1 cup unpopped corn) or 2-3 bags of microwave popcorn (seriously, do it on the stove, it's soooo much better)

If you want salted caramel flavor, salt the popcorn.

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/4 - 1/3 cup molasses

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon baking soda

Place the sugar, butter, molasses and water in a large pot.  Heat to boiling, stirring frequently.  Keep boiling until candy reaches 275 degrees on a candy thermometer. 

If you don't have a candy thermometer, drop a bit in ice water.  If it forms a hard mass - like candy -  it's ready. 

OR, do like I do, if a drip from the spoon spins a thread, like a spider web, that flits around in the air - it's ready.

Take off of the heat.  Add the baking soda and stir like crazy.  It will bubble up.  It's pretty cool.

Pour over your popcorn and stir until the popcorn has cooled and hasn't clumped together.

Easy Homemade Ice Cream

We have a church party today.  A few weeks ago, in a moment of insanity, I said that I would make homemade ice cream for this party.  Hmmm.

As I sent the kiddos to the garage to get the ice cream freezer (you know, the old-fashioned kind that you add ice and salt to freeze), I was thumbing through "Woman's Day" magazine.  I saw a recipe for easy ice cream that you don't use the specialized freezer with.  You just whip it up and put it in your freezer until it is hard.  I thought I would try it.

It is fantastic!

Easy.  10 minutes labor, tops.  I made 6 gallons.  Vanilla, fresh peach, oreo and banana.

When I followed the recipe exactly, it was a little too sweet.  That was fine for the vanilla and peach flavors, but I decreased the sweetened condensed milk for the oreo and banana flavors.  One quart of cream makes one gallon of ice cream.  I doubled the recipe - hello 6 gallons - but you can do what you want.

Ice Cream

2 cups heavy cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. 

 Beat until stiff.

Place in a freezer safe container.

Freeze overnight.

Yum.

This is really a rich ice cream, emphasis on the cream.

You can add any flavor you want.

I added things after I beat the cream, before I put in the container.

What I added:

peach: 5 chopped and slightly mashed ripe peaches

banana:  4 mashed bananas (I was going to add chocolate chips to this one, too, but didn't have any)

Oreo:  oreos (duh), about 1/2 a container, broken into pieces

Simple Meatloaf and Loaded Potatoes

My family likes meatloaf.  It's good the day of and the next day for sandwiches.  The meatloaf is very simple.  As the kiddos have grown older, I have tried to add other things - bell peppers, sauce, bacon, whatever.  Each time a resounding "What did you do to the meatloaf?!" echoed through the house.  Now I just stick with the simplest of meatloaves and no one complains.  I also bake my meatloaf on a broiler pan.  I don't like it when it is greasy.  This way the fat drains to the bottom.

When you think "meatloaf" you automatically think potatoes with it.  These are good because you can get them put together up to a day before and just stick them in the oven with the meatloaf when it is half done.  Easy.  I made ratatouille (see the salmon and ratatouille post) to go with the meal.  Yum.

Meatloaf

2-3 pounds of lean ground beef

1 egg

1 cup uncooked oatmeal

1 14 ounce can tomato sauce

1 envelope Lipton onion soup mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl.  With your hands, mix and squish the mixture around until it is evenly mixed. (I am wearing a glove because I had cut my finger  a couple of days before warranting a trip to the urgent care and a tetanus shot.)

Form the meat mixture into a loaf on a broiling pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Let the meatloaf rest for 10 minutes.  With two spatulas, gently lift the meatloaf onto a serving platter.

Loaded Potatoes

8 - 10 potatoes, cooked (baked or boiled) and cubed

1 (4 ounce) cube cream cheese

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter, cut in chunks

1/2 cup sour cream

milk

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

chives (optional)

4 strips cooked bacon, cut up (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the cream cheese, butter and sour cream in a large bowl until semi-smooth.  Add the potatoes and stir until the potatoes are covered, adding milk as needed to make them creamy.

Place potato mixture in casserole dish.  Top with cheddar cheese, chives and bacon.  Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.



Razzleberry Jam

It is summer and it is hot.

We introduced the puppy to the joys of playing in the hose today.

It is also canning season.  I have been experimenting with different things with mixed results.  Today, however, was a winner.

I keep buying/picking berries to make jam.  But my kiddos seem to know when I have fresh fruit. Like vultures, they swoop in for the kill.  Kiddo number 3 was caught in the act. Thus, I never have quite enough of one kind of fruit to make jam.  Today I took the remnants of the raspberries, blackberries and strawberries and combined them. 

All together I had enough to make one batch of jam.  It turned out pretty good.  The vultures have already gone through 1/2 of a pint jar, however. (It was pointed out that if I would buy chips and other forms of acceptable junk they wouldn't eat so much of my produce)

This is a basic, easy jam that doesn't take much time - less than an hour.  Really.

Razzleberry Jam

5 cups of crushed berries (I used about 1 cup of raspberries, 1/2 cup of blackberries and the rest strawberries)

7 cups of granulated cane sugar

1 box of powdered pectin

Bring a big pot of water to boil.  This is for the hot water bath.

Have enough clean jars to hold about 8 cups of jam.  Pour boiling water over the new lids (the flat disks) and let them sit in the hot water until you are ready to use them.  This softens the rubber ring so you get a good seal on the jar.

Crush the berries until you have a combined berry amount to equal 5 cups.  I used a "Pampered Chef" chopper.

Measure the sugar into a bowl.

Place the berries and pectin in a sauce pot.  I usually add a small pat (1/2 teaspoonish) of butter to this to reduce the foam that will occur when the fruit boils.  Bring this mixture to a full rolling boil.  This is a boil that doesn't stop when you stir it.  I used to call it an angry boil.

When it is in a rolling boil, add the sugar all at once.  Stir it up.  Keep stirring until it comes to a full, rolling, angry boil again.

Cook the jam, stirring constantly, for exactly 1 minute (that's what the box says - they seem very adamant about this).  Remove from heat.  Skim off any foam and feed it to your kiddos as a bread dip.  Trust me.

Ladle the jam into the prepared jars.  Wipe the jar rims and threads.  Cover with the lids and then the rings.  Screw the rings tightly. 

Place jars in the water bath using a canning mesh or a rack on the bottom of your pot.  You just don't want the jars to touch the bottom of the pot.  I have even put a dish towel in the bottom of the boiling water.  Make sure the water covers the top of the jars and boil the jars for 10 minutes.

Remove jars and place upright on a towel to cool completely.  As they cool, you should here "pops".  This is the lids sealing shut.  This is good.  If you have any jars that don't seal - you can tell by pushing on the middle of the lid, it should be down - keep those in the fridge to eat first.  The jars that seal can be kept in your pantry for a year.  I always write the year and the contents on the lids since you don't reuse lids.

Don't be afraid.  Try it.  It tastes a lot better than store-bought and is cheaper, too.

Brown Butter Cookies

On Monday we usually have a treat.  It's a tradition that goes back many years - even when my mom was a little girl.  It is an evening that is blocked off to spend time with family.  I think the treat was incorporated to make sure the kiddos wanted to be there.  We (theoretically - still working on the teenagers) turn off devices for a little while and concentrate on being together, hopefully happily.

For tonight's treat I made a new recipe for cookies.  It is based on a blog which is based on a recipe from the new Cook's Illustrated Cookbook, but I changed over half of it.    They turned out really good.  I love how the butter gives them a slightly caramel/nutty/rich flavor.  I used dark brown sugar because that is what I had, but I bet it wood be just as good with light brown sugar.  The cookies turned out pretty big, but I like that. The handyman, Charlie, was here raising the cabinets over the new fridge (we ended up removing them) and he said they were great. Here's what I did.

Brown Butter Cookies

1 3/4 cups butter (3 1/2 sticks)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 cups packed brown sugar (I used dark brown)

3 large eggs

2 Tablespoons vanilla extract (use the good stuff, Mexican if you can get it)

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat 2 1/2 sticks of butter (1 1/2 cup) in a skillet over medium-high heat until melted.  Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until butter is dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes.  Remove skillet from heat and place browned butter in a heatproof bowl.  Stir in remaining 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter into hot butter to melt.  Set aside for 15 minutes.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  In a shallow pan, mix granulated sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar until well combined.  Set aside

Add remaining 3 1/2 cups brown sugar and salt to bowl with cooled butter, mix until no sugar lumps remain.

Add eggs (can you tell which one came from our chickens and which ones were from the grocery store?) and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated.

Add flour, baking soda and baking powder and mix until combined, scraping down sides of bowl.  Chill for about 1/2 hour.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Scoop dough and roll into balls.  Toss balls in reserved sugar mixture to coat and set on prepared pan, spacing them about 2 inches apart (about 12 per sheet).

Bake at 350 degrees for 14 - 16 minutes (cookies will look raw between cracks.)  Cool cookies on baking sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.