Tex-Mex Chicken Enchiladas

We cooked a turkey we have had sitting in the freezer since last Thanksgiving. It made lots of nice turkey leftovers, which I find handy to use for quick dinners. This was the first use of the frozen turkey. The recipe is actually from the Make Ahead Meals Master Recipes set where you make a large batch of something (in this case chicken) and it gives you recipes to use up whatever you made.

Tex-Mex Chicken Enchiladas

1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped
1 (10 1/2 oz) jar salsa
3 cups Roast Chicken Master Mix (I used turkey)
2 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
8 large flour tortillas

In a mixing bowl, combine black beans, master mix (chicken), cilantro, 1 c cheese and 1/2 jar salsa. Fill each tortilla with 1/2 coup chicken mixture. Roll and palce seam side down in baking pan. Sprinkle cheese over enchiladas. Cover pan loosely with foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake 15 minutes more. Spoon remaining salsa over top of enchiladas.

Nutritional analysis: 334 calories, 22 g protein, 16 g fat, 25 g carbohydrate, 57 mg cholesterol, 1023 mg sodium

They weren't the best enchiladas I've ever had, but they were good enough and pretty quick, and they didn't call for any green chilies, which I didn't have. I used corn tortillas, which were good. I flip back and forth on which kind of tortilla I prefer, and I guess now I'm in a corn tortilla phase. It made enough to fill a 9x13 pan. C and I had the leftovers for lunch, and I think they were better the next day.

Meat Saver

Sorry it's been so long since a post from me.  While it was the me and the kid at home we ate pancakes, eggs, easy things that we love but daddy doesn't.  We had this the night he came home .  I started throwing up the next morning and Monday the rest of the family followed suit.  Meat saver didn't make us sick, but it was the last food we ate before dooms-day, so I'm not the biggest fan anymore.

After that happy introduction, here's the recipe:

Meat Saver
recipe from the Fargo Ward Cookbook

Yield: 4 servings
1.5 cups ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 c water or potato water
salt and pepper to taste
2 c favorite vegetable
1 can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup
toast, rolls, or potatoes

Crumble meat and brown with diced onion.  Ad  1/2 c water or potato water.  When done, salt and pepper to taste and add vegetable.  Add soup and simmer 15 minutes.  Serve over toast, hot rolls, or potatoes.

To begin with, I never found these types of recipes very meat saving.  Just a few people down a whole pound of meat in one sitting, whereas I could add it to a casserole with other cheap ingredients and make it last much longer.  That being said, it wasn't near as bad as I was expecting it to be.  It wasn't great, but if you're in a pinch it would do just fine as a quick meal.  I'll probably remember it for a last minute meal.

Pumpkin Cornbread

I know Joanna just posted a good-looking recipe, so don't forget to look at that, but I wanted to get this one posted before chili cook-offs. If you are supposed to make cornbread for your chili cookoff, here's a good recipe.

Pumpkin Cornbread

1 c flour
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c cornmeal
2 eggs
1 c pumpkin
1/4 c oil
1 T honey/molasses

Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

I cheated a little and substituted the flour/baking powder/salt with food storage pancake mix that expired. I also decreased the sugar a little since the pancake mix has some. It was good! I usually prefer sweet cornbreads, and this falls in the category. I made it to go with a pumpkin chili. I couldn't taste the pumpkin in the chili, but the cornbread had the perfect amount.

Pumpkin Caramel Pound Cake

I really shouldn't be sitting here putting this recipe up on the blog. I have a bunch of other things to do and have been falling asleep since about the time Big Chubb got home from school. Tomorrow is our ward's Trunk-or-Treat/Chili Cook-off/YW Bake Sale Fundraiser thingy. I still have windows to paint on Little Chubb's costume, stems/leaves to iron on Baby Chubb's costume, do something if I am going to have a costume. Plus, the house is a total wreck. Dinner happened later than usual (I blame it on the fact that Big Chubb made it). Baths happened earlier because two kids were very cranky. Dishes need to be washed. Toys need to be picked up or else I might kill myself when I get up with Baby Chubb in the middle of the night. Big Chubb is away working on installing windows in the house.

But, this recipe  is worth the break from getting things orderly and finished and settled for the night.

•  Pillsbury® Baking Spray with Flour
• 2/3 cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
• OR 2/3 stick Crisco® Baking Sticks All-Vegetable Shortening
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup Smucker's® Hot Caramel Flavored Topping
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 5 large eggs
• 3 cups Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• GLAZE
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons Smucker's® Hot Caramel Flavored Topping
• 4 teaspoons water
• 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
•  Whipped cream (optional)

1. 1.
   HEAT oven to 350°F. Coat 10-inch tube pan or 12-cup fluted tube pan generously with flour no-stick cooking spray.


2. 2.
   BEAT shortening, butter and granulated sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Beat in 3/4 cup caramel topping and pumpkin. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.


3. 3.
   COMBINE flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice in medium bowl. Add to pumpkin mixture; beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pan; smooth top (pan will be full).


4. 4.
   BAKE 70 to 80 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Remove and cool completely.


5. 5.
   WHISK together powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons caramel topping and water in medium bowl. Add more water if needed to make thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle over top of cooled cake. Sprinkle with walnuts. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.
6. This recipe is delicious!! I became a lover of pound cake on my mission, and this is an awesome addition to good pound cake recipes I have found over time. This is actually the second time I have made it. The first time it disappeared so fast I couldn't get a picture of it. Little Chubb kept helping himself to it. And, I didn't even put the glaze on then. This time I made it to donate to the YW bake sale and included the glaze. Boy oh boy is it good!!!
7. My bundt pan is currently living in our garage 13 miles away from here, so I used two loaf pans. They worked great, and made it so that we can have half the recipe while someone else enjoys the other half. I didn't include the nutrition facts. Don't even bother with them, but DO bother with a big fat slice of this cake with a tall cold glass of milk.

Cheesy Tortellini Crockpot Soup

This recipe is in Joanna's writing.  I have been looking forward to making this for a long time, and found tortellini on sale at Aldi last week, so I made it!  Yay!  The only problem was that I didn't notice all the other expensive ingredients involved in making this.  Eek!  Expensive!  Ah well.  I lasted for three meals, so it wasn't that bad after all.

Cheesy Tortellini Crockpot Soup

Ingredients:
16 oz frozen tortellini
1 lb. sausage
1 small bag fresh spinach
2 cans (15 oz) Italian style diced tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1 block (8oz) cream cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Put all ingredients in the crockpot, chunking up the cream cheese.  Cook on low for 4-6 hours, until tortellini is done.

We loved this.  It was creamy and very filling.  I served it with breadsticks and we were very happy.  If I can find cheap sausage and cream cheese sometime, I will definitely make it again.

Chocolate Peanutters

Whenever I saw this recipes, I kept thinking that they would be a chocolate cookie with peanuts in them. After looking at the recipe more closely, I realized that it is a basic chocolate chip cookie with peanuts added.

It is from the old recipe collection Mom had,
written in her handwriting.

Sift together:
     1 1/2 cups sifted flour
     3/4 tsp. baking soda
     1/2 tsp. baking powder
     1/2 tsp. salt

Combine in bowl:
     1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
     1/2 cup shortening
     1 tsp. vanilla
Add: one egg
     beat flour mixture and necessary milk (1/4 cup)

Stir in:
     one pkg. chocolate chips
     one cup salted peanuts

Drop on cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes

Yield 3 1/2 dozen

I made these for Big Chubb to take to combined YM/YW this week. He came home with some of them (though I think there were quite a few people who brought treats). He liked them, as did Little Chubb who kept helping himself to them once he realized there were cookies on the counter. I thought they were fine. I am not a really big fan of chocolate chip cookies, but that didn't stop me from eating plenty. I also ate lots of the cookie dough which I prefer over the baked cookies.

While I was making the recipe I thought that a whole package of chocolate chips would be way too much for the amount of dough there was. They were pretty chocolatey, but it ended up being a good ratio. After baking the first batch, I decreased the oven temperature down to 350 degrees and cooked the cookies for the same amount of time. The cookies turned out not as crispy, which was much better than the original batch that was a little too over crispy.

Salmon Mountain Strata

The last time we were in Wisconsin, I, too, bought a 50-lb bag of potatoes. Who wouldn't buy 50 lbs for $7? Big time budget saver. We have worked our way to the end, and I wish we would be going to Wisconsin before Thanksgiving so we could get another 50 lbs, but it won't be happening :( In an attempt to actually make a one of my recipes to put on here, I came across this one, which worked out perfectly because we had everything (minus 6 ounces of salmon) on hand that needed to be used.

1 can (1-lb) salmon
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped celery
4 eggs
2 c. milk
1 1/2 tsp. salt, divided
1/4 tsp. dried dill weed
1/8 tsp. pepper
4 medium Idaho potatoes (6 cups sliced)

In large bowl combine salmon, onion, celery, eggs, milk, 1/2 tsp. salt, dill and pepper; mix well. Pare potatoes and cut into thin slices. Place half of potatoes in greased 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/4 tsp. salt and spread half of salmon mixture over potatoes. Repeat with remaining potatoes, salt and salmon. Bake uncovered in 350 degree oven 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Yield: 8 servings


Well, I told Big Chubb that I would never make this again. He and Little Chubb gobbled it right up. I ate it because I was desperately hungry.

After cooking it for the time intended, the potatoes were still raw, the onions and celery were still crunchy, and it had a very fishy taste to it even without the entire pound of fish. At least it got rid of some of the ingredients from our house.

Oven Baked Potato Wedges

We got a 50 lb bag of potatoes and have been barreling through it. I try to find new uses for them, mostly for Jacob's sake.  I thought these would be a step up from our normal baked french fries.

Oven-baked Potato Wedges

Ingredients:
2 T canola oil
1 c flour
1 t garlic powder
1 t salt
1 t black pepper
1/2 t celery salt
1/2 t seasoning salt
2 large eggs, beaten
4 medium potatoes, scrubbed and rinsed, but not peeled
canola cooking spray

Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 450 degrees.  Coat a baking sheet with a tablespoon of canola oil.
2. With a fork or whisk, mix the flour, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, celery salt and seasoning salt in a shallow dish and set aside.  Add the beaten eggs in a small bowl.
3. Cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch thick wedges.  Dip each wedge into the beaten eggs, then the flour mixture, making sure it is well coated.  Place the coated wedges on the prepared baking sheet and let them sit 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Coat the tops of the potato wedges generously with canola cooking spray.  Bale in the center of the oven until golden brown (15 to 18 minutes), flipping after ten minutes.  Serves 5.


These were not the best.  We thought the flour mixture put too much flour taste on the wedges.  The egg didn't do that great of a job mixing with the flour for a pleasurable result.  We won't eat these again.

Billy's Vanilla Buttercream

This was the frosting to go with the cake for Brooke's birthday.

Billy's Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients:
1 c unsalted butter, room temperature
6-8 c confectioners' sugar
1/2 c milk
1 t pure vanilla extract

1.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes.  With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy.  If necessary, gradually add remaining 2 cups sugar to reach....(The recipe cuts off, but I add)... desired consistency.  

This was bad, very, very, bad.  I added all eight cups of sugar and it was still very runny. Then I added the rest of the sugar in the bag and it was still too runny.  I, however, had no more powdered sugar, so runny frosting it was.  The cake ended up looking very odd, with weird spiky dots (I tried to fix it with kitchen staples and went too far) and frosting.   If you do make it, DO NOT add even near 1/2 c of milk.  DO NOT!

Golden Yellow Cake

We don't eat cake very much, because we aren't huge cake fans, so I jumped at the chance to make one of these recipes for the Little Turkey's birthday.  This recipe comes from the Wilton website.

Golden Yellow Cake

Ingredients:
3 c cake flour sifted (I used white flour, but did sift it)
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2/3 c butter or margarine
1 3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/4 milk

Makes: Approximately 7 c batter

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray bottom of 2 nine-inch rounds with vegetable pan spray.  Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside. Cream butter and sugar together until light.  Add eggs and vanilla to creamed mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed.  Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition.  Continue beating one minute.  Pour into prepared pans.  Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Cool on grid ten minutes.  Gently run a thin spatula around edge of cake.  Turn out onto cooking grids.  Cool completely before icing.

This cake was very good.  Dad said it was very, very good multiple times, and Jacob told me it is a keeper.  I agree.  It has a firmer texture than boxed cake mix.  This recipe will definitely be our go-to for when we need a cake.

Ellie's Pumpkin Delight

"To Margaret...Happy Thanksgiving. Ellie Wood 96-97"

1 yellow cake mix
1/2 c melted margarine
1 beaten egg

Mix and place in 9x13''

1 29 oz can of pumpkin
3 eggs
1/4 c white sugar
1/2  light brown sugar
2/3 c canned milk
1 t cinnamon
1 t pumpkin pie spice mix

Pour over bottom layer

Topping:
1 c reserved cake mix
1/2 c pecans...be generous
1/2 c white sugar
1/4 c margarine...not melted

Blend together and sprinkle over all. Bake at 350 for 60 minutes or until knife comes clean. Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or Cool Whip. YUM!

I've made something very similar and really, really liked it. This was almost just as good. The one difference that made me like this version a little less is the egg in the bottom layer. It made the cake rise too much. We had it warm from the oven the first night and cold the other nights, and I enjoyed it more cold. YUM!

Buttery Light Dinner Rolls

Mom obviously was on the lookout for a good roll recipe as evidenced by the  many roll recipes I have in my cupboard project stack. She told me once that I don't have to make any of them because she liked the recipe I made. I like to try out new recipes though, because what if there is a better one? This one looks like it was from some sort of country magazine/newspaper.

Buttery Light Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk, scalded

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 package active dry yeast

1/3 cup warm water

1 egg, beaten

4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons melted butter
Instructions

Stir sugar, salt, and butter into milk; cool to lukewarm. Place warm water in a large mixing bowl.
Sprinkle with yeast and stir to dissolve. Add warm milk mixture and egg; blend well. Stir in 2 to 3 cups flour and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Mix in additional flour about 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough forms. The dough should be soft and sticky but not stick to the sides of the bowl. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. Place dough in a large greased bowl, turning to cover dough with grease. Cover with damp towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free area until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes to one hour. Punch down dough. Shape into rolls (1 1/2-inch balls) and place in two greased 8- or 9-inch cake pans or on a large baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart. Cover with damp towel. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush rolls with melted butter and bake 15 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Serve hot.

Recipe by Mindy Merrell.

It's been awhile since I've made totally white bread, so these were almost like a special treat. They were good and definitely light. If you need a good roll recipe, give this one a try. I'll probably stick to my go-to recipe (Lion House rolls), but I may make these again if I need a recipe that's a little faster. 

It says it makes 24, but I got 16 large size rolls.They did not fit in two cake pans. 

Barley Pilaf with Mushrooms

Barley Pilaf with Mushrooms

1 T plus 1 t olive oil

2 c onion, chopped

1/2 lb mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 bay leaf

1 c pearl barley

2 c water

3 T fresh parsley, minced

Heat oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion, mushrooms and bay leaf for 5 minutes, stirring, until onion is softened. Stir in barley, water and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil. Reuce heat to low, cover pan and simmer 30-35 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed and barley is tender. Discard bay leaf and stir in parsley. Fluff with a fork before serving.

This was yummy. The barley is a little bit nutty and chewy, which I liked. I didn't have a bay leaf, and I forgot about the parsley until we were eating, but it was still good. I liked it better than rice pilaf. I'll definitely make this again.