Mexican Lasagna

Or Tacolasagna. I was watching Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals while ironing the other day. She was making what she called "Tacozanga". I thought to alter it a little for my family's tastes. Here's my recipe:


1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
5 chicken breasts
1/4 chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 bay leaf
cayenne pepper to taste
jalapeno pepper to taste
salt and black pepper to taste
cheddar cheese
1 29 oz can tomato sauce


Tortilla shells


In large skillet or dutch oven saute onion in vegetable oil. And chicken and seasonings. Cook until chicken is opaque. Mix in tomato sauce and let simmer until chicken will shred. Shred chicken with two forks. 
Using a 13x9 casserole or lasagna pan sprayed with cooking oil to help prevent sticking, build the "lasagna" by layering chicken mixture, tortilla shells sauce and cheese. End with cheese topping. You'll have to tear some of the tortilla shells, unless you choose a round casserole dish. hmm??... 
Bake at 350 for 30 until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly. Let rest. Cut and serve with salsa and a salad.


An idea for my vegetarian friend out there, you could probably do this without the chicken. Sort of like flat enchiladas. Let me know if you try it that way.

Theater Popcorn

I really like my Presto Pop. It makes the best popcorn. But how can I get a batch to taste like movie popcorn? Here's my base recipe. (Which basically means that I'll probably be tweaking it for years to come)

1 Presto Pop

1/3 cup kernal popcorn

1 TBLS vegetable oil

3/4 stick of butter

Artificial butter flakes

popcorn salt

1 big bowl to toss the popcorn

(1 microvae ;-) )

Popcorn: Please follow the directions for cooking your popcorn. I do nothing special for this step.

Sauce:

In a small skillet, melt the butter. Use a spoon and take off the fat leaving behind just the oil.

Putting it together: When the popcorn is finished cooking,:

• shake popcorn salt over the popcorn as you are dumping it into your serving bowl.
• Pour the butter oil over the popcorn
• Add a liberal amount of the butter flakes
• Toss

Let me know if you have another way?

Chocolate Cookie Cheesecake

Now, when you're 11 you get to have a birthday party with all your friends. If the real date of your birthday isn't a weekend date that you can have a fun birthday outing; then, you get to have two birthday celebrations. One on the real day with family. One on another day with your friends. Gosh, life is tough! Just kidding. 
For the "real" birthday celebration, there were tiny peanut butter cheesecakes [q.v.]. For the "fake" birthday, the cake was the first request: Chocolate Cheesecake. Why leave it at just chocolate when you can add oreos?

Tiny Peanut Butter Cheesecakes

Step one: go to New Year's Day party where cheesecake is served.
Step two: browse through cheesecake cookbook on kitchen counter.
Step three: walk home with recipe in hand.

All kidding a side, thanks to my friend Dawn and her son, David, I made these mini-Reese's cheesecakes for Colman's real birthday (more on 'fake' birthday later). Everyone agreed - YUM-O!!!

Basic White Bread

Ever run out of white bread? Don't have time to run to the store? Want to go to bed instead? Dump white bread ingredients in the bread machine. Wake up to fresh homemade bread. Simple? Yummy? Better than store bought?

INGREDIENTS:

  1 cup water

  1 1/2 tablespoon butter or margarine

  2 cups white flour

  1 tablespoon sugar

  1 teaspoon salt

  1 teaspoon bread machine yeast

METHOD:

  Select loaf setting: white

  Add ingredients to bread machine.

  Press Start

SERVINGS: approx. 6 (12 slices)

Pinwheel cookies

Had this idea and the components to put it together. On hand were two packages of sugar cookie mix. Yes, mix, nothing "dangerous about that". But, what happened next is out of the ordinary. Mixed up one batch according to directions. Mixed up the second batch and enough added Hershey's Cocoa Mix to make the batch chocolate looking and tasting. Chill both batches. Roll out each batch individually making them about the same size. Chill some  again keeping them flat. Layer chocolate batch on top of sugar batch and roll into a log. Trim edges as needed. Slice into cookie rounds, placing them on the cookie sheet as you go. Bake according to sugar mix package directions. They were a hit, and I have had requests to make them again.

Macaroni and Cheese

One of my staple recipes, and a recipe that kids love. There are lots of variations on this. I like mine. I acquired the recipe from a friend of mine and tweaked it over the years. If you know how to make a béchamel, you add cheese to the béchamel and bake it. I shred the block cheese in my food processor - way easier than by hand.

INGREDIENTS:

  Pasta:  2 cups elbow macaroni, (8-oz.)
  Cheese Sauce:
     2 tablespoons butter
     2 tablespoons Wondra flour
     2 cups milk
     1/2 teaspoon salt
     1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
     1 block Colby/Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
     1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
  Topping: sprinkle a thin layer bread crumbs on top (you can mix the bread crumbs with melted butter for an extra crisp.)
  Bake in a casserole for 325 for 45 min or until bubbly and the topping has crisped up.

Eggplant Parmesan

Perhaps not a dish for the children, certainly I'm thinking my vegetarian friends out there might try this one. I haven't had eggplant parmesan in ages. I had forgotten it was so good. I decided to use a Cook's Illustrated recipe. Unless you are a member of Cook's Illustrated online, you may not be able to see this recipe. It's a little a-traditional in that the eggplant is baked instead of fried. I'm putting the cart before the horse. 
First step, salt and drain the moisture out of the eggplant slices. Turns out to be a very important step. CI uses a homemade sauce. I think I'll stick with mine. You can use whatever tomato sauce you like, I don't think it will ruin the dish. We made a conscious decision not to use meat. As I said, slice salt and drain the eggplant. After a good amount of moisture drains out of the eggplant, squeeze slices between paper towels. I laid them flat unlayered and pressed them between layers of paper towels. Standard breading applies (flour, egg, bread crumbs). CI bakes the breaded slices. They seemed like they'd be ok. However, I didn't have a rig big enough to hold all the slice, and time was of the essence, so I fried the half that didn't go in the oven. Then, fried the ones that came out of the oven because they hadn't baked the requisite amount of time.  Once that's done, assemble with sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses and bake until "golden brown and delicious" (350 for 20-30 minutes). 
Serve with a wonderful wine, a salad and perhaps spaghetti or garlic bread; in other words your choice of Italian side accompaniments. 
YUM!

Macaroni Grill Recipe Secret

We took an unplanned hiatus from blogging - although not from cooking. I have a backlog of things to post. I'll get started with the recipe that came "in the mail".  I bought a cookbook at the Little River Elementary school book fair America's Most Wanted Recipes. Recipes from major chain restaurants. Well, not the actual recipes, knock offs, but very close. Wanting to do something different for dinner, I made this one. I thought it would be too lemony with the amount of lemon juice it called for. I cut the lemon juice in half and upped the white wine. Even with that, the sauce still had 'pucker' to it. I've never had the original MG version.


MACARONI GRILL'S SCALOPPINE di POLLO
Lemon Butter Sauce:
  4 ounces lemon juice
  2 ounces white wine
  4 ounces heavy cream
  1 pound (4 sticks) butter

6 to 8 (3-ounce) chicken breasts, pounded thin
Oil and butter for sauteing chicken
1/2 to 3/4 cup flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, for dredging
6 ounces pancetta, cooked
12 ounces mushrooms, sliced
12 ounces artichoke hearts, sliced
1 tablespoon capers
1 pound cappellini pasta, cooked
Chopped parsley, for garnish

To make the sauce: Heat the lemon juice and white wine in a
saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and reduce by one-third.
Add cream and simmer until mixture thickens (3 to 4 minutes).
Slowly add butter until completely incorporated. Season with salt
and pepper. Remove from heat and keep warm.

To make chicken and pasta: Cook pasta and drain. Heat a small
amount of oil and two tablespoons butter in a large skillet. Dredge
chicken in flour and saute in pan, turning once, until brown and
cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and add to pan remaining
ingredients. Heat until mushrooms soften and are cooked; add
chicken back to pan.

To serve: Place cooked pasta on each plate. Add half of butter
sauce to chicken mixture and toss. Taste and adjust, adding more
sauce if needed. Place chicken mixture over pasta. Garnish with
parsley. Alternately, mix pasta and chicken mixture together. Toss
with butter sauce.

Source: The Secret Recipe Forum http://www.recipesecrets.net/forums

Chicken Divan

You might think, golly, Chicken Divan, there are a gzillion recipes for Chicken Divan. Pick one.  This is certainly not adventurous or dangerous cooking. I agree. 
I was reviewing some recipes, and came across this and thought it an easy dinner to make. The recipe called for cream of chicken soup. Which I did not have on hand. More often than not I don't keep such cream soups in the house. I learned from AB years ago to create a homemade sauce and use that. So, I said to myself "self, use the lesson you learned". 
Made the roux, added the milk along with sour cream and mayonnaise. Well, this recipe didn't call for sour cream, but, others do. Then, in goes colby-jack shredded cheese (I used Sargento's); of course some salt and pepper. Diced and sautéd the chicken in my everyday pan with cumin, curry, salt and pepper. Juices accumulate, this turns out to be a good thing. Dump the cheese sauce into the cooked chicken. Dump the broccoli into the bottom of the pan. Pour the chicken and cheese on top. Bake. 
One key seems to be the addition of cumin. I did that one time by mistake. While making a different recipe for Chicken Divan, I reached for the curry. Then, after it was already in discovered I had a jar of cumin in my hand. Cumin. Curry. Yeah, they are about the same color and consistency. Not quite in taste. But, we love cumin around here, so I figured "what the heck". Easy mistake, huh? Turned out delicious.

Chicken Divan
Recipe By: Sue
Serving Size: 10
Yield: 13x9 casserole

Cheese Sauce:
2 10 ounce packages frozen broccoli
3 tablespoons butter, melted in saucepan
3 tablespoons Wondra flour
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 cup colby jack cheese, shredded 

Chicken:
4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Topping options
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated cheese
1 teaspoon butter
Fresh parsley flakes

Directions:
Arrange the broccoli on the bottom of the dish
Melt butter in saucepan until foam has dissipated. Add flour; a pinch of salt and pepper and mix together well and let cook 3-5 minutes. Slowly whisk in milk. Whisk in sour cream and mayonnaise. Mixture will be thick.  

Pour about 1 Tablespoon, once around the pan, vegetable oil in skillet or other wide pan. Sauté chicken along with spices (curry, cumin, salt and pepper). Let cook until chicken is opaque. Chicken will cook more in the oven, so it doesn't need to be completely cooked through. Juices will accumulate in the pan. 

Off heat, pour cheese mixture into cooked chicken. Mix together and pour over broccoli. 

Top with your choice of grated cheese and bread crumbs. You may mix bread crumbs with melted butter for a crisper topping. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. After baking, you may garnish with parsley. Serve over noodles or rice.

Kuhlua Cheesecake

So begins birthday season in our house. Bear with a little history here. Some years ago, not being a huge fan of cake, I requested a cheesecake for my birthday cake. Phil came through with flying colors. Yes, he made it himself! This started something: a tradition of cheesecake birthday cakes. 


This year, Nathan requested a Kuhlua Cheesecake. In scouring recipe sites for a place to start, all I found were chocolate laden recipes with a teeny bit of Kuhlua. What's up with that? I wanted the cheesecake filling to taste like the drink. There is no chocolate in a Kuhlua and Cream drink. I finally stumble on a Cappuccino Cheesecake recipe at Better Homes and Gardens. To get that Kuhlua and Cream taste it seems this needs less tweaking than some of the others. 

My version trades out half the espresso, because I didn't want it to taste like coffee. Adds in Kuhlua. I saved out cookies from the crust, as it seems too thick. I think I could make half as much and be ok. Same with the ganache - saved out half, but still have a lot left over. Everyone agreed the flavor of the cream cheese filling was just perfect.


Layers of the cake:

• Chocolate Graham cracker crust
• Chocolate Ganache
• Cream Cheese filling
• Frosting of cream cheese, sour cream sugar and a hint of vanilla
• drizzled with extra chocolate ganache.

Deep fried wings and easy hot sauce

WINGS:
Can I make wings as good as the my favorite wingeries (wing restaurants)? I have been a wings fan for a long time and a few years ago I decided that it was time to take matters into my own hands. Part of my research consisted of repeatedly watching "Throw down with Bobby Flay" where he challenges Wing King Drew Cerza at the famous Anchor Bar, watching Alton Brown steams and then bakes his wings (Sorry AB, but no way! ), and visiting various restaurants in the area. I like traditional un-breaded wings. And after many batches, I also like to season the raw wings with creole or chipotle seasoning salt.

Cooking the wings is really straight forward: season wings (liberal coating), oil(peanut), temperature(375 deg.) and time(10 min). Something I found interesting is that all of the episodes of deep frying chicken say 350 degrees. I tried a batch at 350 to 10 minutes and waited, 15 and waited, 17 minutes and the were finally done. They didn't turn out right. Adjusting the thermostat up to 375 and I started getting the results I wanted in the 10 min time frame.

EASY HOT SAUCE:

I've made an easy sauce which works in a pinch but I'm still not satisfied when I compare what the local restaurants serve. Here it is, submitted for you approval: 1 cup Franks Hot or Xtra Hot sauce, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 stick butter. Enjoy.

Homemade Krispy Kream Donuts

I had a hankerin' for donuts. I also have an affection for fresh hot krispy cream donuts. However, the nearest Krispy Kreme shop is 38 miles away. However, my desire for the convenience confection treat was much more appealing in the coziness of my kitchen with a hot cup of joe. I set out and did the next best thing...I found a recipe on google. I took the first result for "homemade krispy kream donuts recipe" and began.

I followed the recipe (for the most part). There were steps missing in the instructions and I replaced the shortening with real butter. I let the donuts rise in a 200 degree oven before I fried them. They were very good and mostly fluffy. They were not dense like a cake donut. I found the longer they rose the lighter they were. Which makes sense, but I'm so used to homemade donuts being heavy and more like cake.

NEXT DAY UPDATE:

The true test is the next morning. After trying 1-day-old-donuts I think I still need to do some research (this was done on a whim). The bread isn't sweet and glaze I made needs work. They were really good fresh, so I'll chalk this one up to experience ~b

Spaghetti with Meatsauce

Does kicking up jarred spaghetti sauce with onions, peppers and oregano and ground beef count as cooking dangerously? Since today involved a rather extensive recipe for cheesecake, perhaps so. The cheesecake episode will be revealed due time. At the moment it is sitting in the oven coasting to the finish line while the doctored meat sauce simmers on the stove. 

Salsa

Salsa has been a staple for quite sometime. Bill started it. Gave the recipe to us. I played with it, never changed the ingredients just modified the order of items in the food processor. Phil requested an alteration to the chunkiness - that is more chunky. The other night we made chicken enchiladas and the salsa for a topping. 

Yum.

Nagasaki Beef

This stir-fry dish was originally introduced to me and my wife Lauren about 10 years ago. Nagasaki beef uses miso which is a paste that is fermented from barley, rice and soy.

To make, I combined soy sauce, miso, sesame oil and sugar into a smooth sauce. It's very aromatic. I also found some black soy sauce which is made with molasses. Then blended it half and half with regular soy sauce to make a nice sweet and salty mix. The sirloin steak is cut into strips and marinated in the sauce. Sue showed me that cutting against the grain for the beef strips helped to keep the meat from becoming chewy. The cooked strips were tender and didn't require any gnawing. Next, after 20 min. it was time to sear them in the wok.

Since this is a meat heavy dish it needs a nice side of vegetables. I stir-fried some green beans with an orange pepper and threw in some garlic.

The only thing left is to serve, eat. Wow, tender and delicious.

French Onion Soup

Combining Julia Child and Cook's Illustrated recipes for French Onion Soup we come up with a version all our own.  Julia suggests 1 1/2 pounds of onions. Cooks' Illustrated, 4 pounds. We went with the 4 pounds. Julia suggests beef stock and white wine. Having been on a search for the best tasting French Onion Soup some years ago, we had decided those made with chicken broth more tasty. Thus, I went with chicken stock. It took longer than the 40 minutes to caramelize, but it was worth the wait. Once the onions caramelized, in went the stock and spices (thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper) to simmer for another hour. I had toasted some bread slices. After floating them on top and topping with shredded gruyère cheese I broiled the bowls. Gruyère cheese has a distinctive smell when broiled that the children thought repulsive. The next time, I think I will take the baking to melt the cheese option.

Pancakes

Another "test" of King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour. Here with a modified recipe for pancakes. In the past use of another all-purpose flour produced acceptable pancakes. The use of Bisquick also produced acceptable pancakes. Being dangerous, the substitution of King Arthur All-Purpose Unbleached flour produced stunningly light and fluffy pancakes.


Yum.

Pizza

Bill has been developing this pizza recipe for some time. I think we have reached perfection. Doesn't it look yummy!? In making the pizza with different flours, his has learned that the King Arthur flour makes the crust crispy and flavorful. Cooks' Illustrated states this about the gluten content of flours:


"High-protein flours are generally recommended for yeasted products and other baked goods that require a lot of structural support. The reason is that the higher the protein level in a flour, the greater the potential for the formation of gluten. "


For this pizza dough recipe, this statement holds true. Therefore, we use King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour.

If you'd like to make your own pizza, here's a good place start.


If you are a member of Cooks' Illustrated Online, you can read the test results: click here.

Off we go

On New Years Day 2010, under the influence of Julia Child and Julia Powell, Susan Bour and Bill Davenport decide to embark on the assembly of a TasteBook cookbook. In the ensuing discussion, we realized that we need to document the discussion and discovery that go into the recipes we create and/or modify. This blog is our discussion.