Sommer's Enchiladas

Being from the Southwest, I REALLY miss NEW MEXICAN food. Yeah, New Mexican food is different from regular Mexican food. It's a perfect mixture of Mexican and Native American cooking together with Hatch Green Chili's to top it all off.....it doesn't get any better than that.

As you can imagine, it's hard to find good Mexican food on Oahu (although I've found a few jewels). So when I get a hankering for some Mexican that's not Taco Bell my best bet is to make it myself. Unfortunately I never learned to make much New Mexican food (it's on my to do list), in the meantime here's my take on Enchiladas.

Ingredients: (Pretty much everything is to taste, I've guesstimated the amounts)
2-4 pieces Cooked Chicken (left overs from a Grocery Store Rotisserie Chicken) or 1 lb cooked beef (ground, shredded or cut up into bite-sized pieces)
2 tsp Cilanto
2 tsp Minced Garlic
1/4 c.  Water, Chicken Broth or water with Bouillon or prepared Chicken Base
1 TBS Taco Seasoning
2 tsp Chili Powder
2 tsp Cumin
 12 oz can Enchilada Sauce
16 Corn Tortillas
2-4 cups Shredded Cheese
1 TBS Olive Oil
1 small chopped onion


Sommer's Secret for Quick Cooked Chicken:For added flavor boil with 1 TBS of Salt, 1 roughly chopped carrot, small onion and 1 clove of garlic. Shred the cooked meat and omit the skin. Save the cooking liquid. Extra liquid can be strained or blended and frozen in ice cube trays to add quick flavor to any dish. 

1. Heat 1 TBS Olive Oil in skillet on medium high.

2. Add Chopped Onions to "Sweat". Cook until soft and translucent.

Sommer’s Secret: If the oil crackles and sizzles when stirring the onions your temperature is too high and you will be sautéing your onions. You don’t want them to caramelize/brown, just soften so you don’t have crunchy onions in your enchiladas as you won't be baking them for too long. 

3. Add 2 tsp Minced Garlic and cook for a minute to take away the "raw"taste of the garlic.

Sommer's Secret: I love the GIANT bottle of minced garlic since we put it in everything! Funny Story: When I got married to Scotty the only seasonings I was really used to regularly using was onions, salt, pepper, parsley and raw chilis- for flavor. Yep that's it. I remember not liking the smell of olive oil and the smell of roasting garlic in the oven made me sick. For some reason they just were too "bold" of flavors for me. Fast forward 10+ years later and EVERYTHING needs Garlic. It reminds me of the guy in Crocodile Dundee who is eating (I think) a bat and says "eh, needs garlic"....ha ha ha....

Anyway.....
 
4. Add cooked meat, Cilantro, Taco Seasoning, Chili Powder,  and Cumin.

Sommer's Secret: The Seasonings are really what make the enchiladas taste "authentic". And it's hard to tell someone how much to add since it really is "all to taste" of the person. Here's my take on seasonings:

Cilantro: Use Fresh Cilantro when ever you can. I'd love to grow my own but my black thumb keeps sabotaging my efforts. Since the fresh cut herbs usually go bad before I can use it all I like to purchase the refrigerated paste since it lasts a lot longer. We have Mexican Food night on "Taco" Tuesdays so the $4.00ish tube is a reasonable price for us.

Taco Seasoning: I use this because it is cheap, fast, and gives a quick "base" flavor to build upon. The guess-work is taken out of "how much" seasoning to add and contains all the seasonings to make your food "Mexican" or "Spanish" tasting. However the flavors are much more subtle and I find you must add other seasonings to really make your dish sing.

For blander palates taco seasoning or Paprika only may be the route to go. Generally Taco Seasoning includes seasonings in the roughly the same increments: Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Red Pepper Flakes, Oregano, Paprika, Ground Cumin, salt and pepper.

I also keep on hand use "Southwest Chipotle" Seasoning which is more course (has little dried bits in it) vs. powdery consistency of traditional Taco Seasoning. It also contains Chipotle which is a smoke dried jalapeno pepper. 

Chili Powder: Since the hubby and I like a little kick to our food, Chili Powder has a permanent home in our cupboard. The Taco and Chipotle Seasonings just don't cut it so adding more kick is a must.

You could also add chopped jalapenos, ghost peppers, or Tabasco Sauce to really bring up the heat. I also love to add canned fire roasted green chilis  for a little flavor without a lot of heat.

Cumin!!!!! It's crazy that I've only recently discovered the amazing-ness of Cumin. I used to see it in the seasoning isle all the time and would just pass by. As I was looking in my recipe folder, I saw a handwritten note that read "Cumin:Secret Ingredient". The mysterious note was scrawled on a scrap of paper and hanging on for dear life to the edge of my sugar cookie recipe of all things!

Anyway, I picked up a "smaller" bottle at the grocery store. (You probably already noticed that most my cooking ingredients come in a mega-bottle). Cumin is what makes my enchiladas ENCHILADAS. They are that unique flavor that makes your dish authentically Mexican, Spanish and New Mexican. I love it! And it is now another permanent fixture in the seasoning cabinet (bigger bottle guaranteed to come).

5. Add chicken broth or water and bouillon/chicken base according to the directions on the jar.  Add a little liquid at a time, enough to make a thin sauce that coats the meat and onion mixture.

Sommer's Secret: Canned Chicken Broth or the water you boiled your chicken in is great. For extra Chicken flavor ,the Bouillon or Chicken Base is great!  To save on time I use the "Better than Bouillon" Organic Chicken Base that I get at our local Sam's Club or CostCo (I can't remember).

 It's pretty much a concentrated chicken broth paste. I like the lower sodium one to limit salt. It's lots cheaper than buying chicken broth by the can, lasts a long time in the fridge and is easy to add to pretty much anything for extra flavor.

6. Add some of the enchilada Sauce to make the mixture more "sauce-y". 

Sommer's Secret: To save on time I've made these enchiladas as a "casserole" by just layering the ingredients. A few times I didn't have any Enchilada Sauce on hand and ended up using canned SALSA if you can believe it in lieu of Enchilada Sauce. I realized Enchilada Sauce is pretty much the same ingredients as Salsa only pureed and strained. I've also made my own sauce from tomato paste by adding all the seasonings I listed above with a little water and olive oil to thin it out. All the results are pretty much the same to me. Although I'm sure there are those purists out there who will simmer their secret sauce all day.....but who has time for that?!

Get ready to get messy!

7. Add a little enchilada sauce to the bottom of the baking dish.

8. Set up your Enchilada making Station In the order of preparation: skillet for "cooking" corn tortillas, meat mixture, enchilada sauce, cheese for rolling up inside, ending with your baking dish.

9. Assemble each enchilada one at a time.

a) Warm up/Cook 1 corn tortilla on a hot  dry skillet over medium high heat. I like to use locally made "Hawaiian" Mexican corn tortillas. They have a factory here in Honolulu that makes them fresh daily....

 

b) Place hot Tortilla in Enchilada sauce, flip to completely cover.

 

c) Place coated Tortilla in baking dish. 

 d) Add a little meat mixture (about 1 heaping Tablespoon full)

e) Top with Cheese .I'm using left over provolone here but any of your favorites will do.

f) Roll up leaving seam side down.

g) Repeat until baking dish is full and each roll is neatly lined up.

Sommer's Secret to pretty Enchiladas:
 I say "cook" the tortilla because you need to do more than just warm them up. They need to be nice and hot....almost too hot to handle in order to get perfect little tubes of goodness that are Enchiladas.

If you don't get the tortillas pliable enough you get something that looks like this:

Icky, crumbly, mess

so NOT pretty!

10. Pour remaining Enchilada Sauce over the top of the rows of Enchiladas.

Sommer's Secret: Keep additional Enchilada sauce and topping cheese in the center of each row of enchiladas so that when you bake them the ends of the tortillas get nice and crunchy while the center parts stay warm and gooey.  I like to bake them with out the cheese at first and get the whole top layer nice and crusty and then broil the cheese over the top.

Serve hot with Refried Beans, Sommer's Mexican Rice, thinly sliced lettuce, chopped raw onions, diced tomatoes and a hearty dollop of sour cream. Garnish with fresh cilantro. And your favorite condiments.

Melted Chocolate Chip Frosting

The other day I made a box chocolate cake and realized afterwards that I didn't have any frosting. I remember my mom using melted chocolate chips one time for a yummy frosting. I've tried making frosting with melted chocolate chips before and it never quite turns out right, but I think I found a keeper with this scrumptious frosting.

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk*
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

 Yield: Will frost a 9X13 cake

*Sommer's Secret: I used half and half since I had some on hand and I think it made this frosting way more rich but I'm sure milk will do the job just fine.

UPDATE: I've used 2 % milk several times now and it works just fine! 


Directions:

1. In a sauce pan, bring butter, milk and sugar to a boil.
2. Add vanilla and chocolate chips.
3. Beat until Cool.*

*Sommer's Secret: I only "stirred until smooth" and spread the gooey warm mixture over my cake.
I also doubled the recipe and had a lot left over so put the rest in a container in the fridge. I'm thinking if maybe I incorporated more air into the frosting by beating my refrigerated frosting wouldn't have ended up like this the next day:

I was kinda upset about it but broke off a few chunks and was surprised it actually tasted like fudge! hmmm maybe I'm on to something (I'll have to experiment with the idea of this being a quick fudge recipe later), anyway I decided to break off some pieces and throw it in the microwave for a few seconds.

I was encouraged by how it melted.

So I stirred a bit and my lovely yummyness came back to me...

Sommer's Suggestions:  I think the possiblities of this simple recipe are endless by using various extracts and chips. I'm sure you could even substitute the milk with evaporated milk or soy milk. Some of the great concoctions I thought of would be using white chocolate chips for a white frosting or using mint chips for mint brownies. I bet you could even add peanut butter for a yummy surprise.

Cheesy Pasta Bake

My friends Carole and Jason who live in our same building and attend our ward just had a new baby girl. I made the crochet edge baby blanket for their baby Tori Jane and on a whim decided to also make them dinner.

Since I hadn't planned to make them dinner, I ended up making one of my quick go-to dinners which is actually super yummy and super easy.


Ingredients:

1 lb Pasta
1 Can or Jar Spaghetti Sauce
1 small can Tomato Paste
1 Med Onion
1 lb Hamburger or shredded Chicken
2 cups Shredded Cheese

Seasonings (to taste):
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Italian Seasoning
Red Chili Pepper or Taco Seasoning
Sugar

Yield: 12 servings

Sommer's Secret: This recipe makes about 2  standard cake pan (9 1/2 X 11 X 2") casseroles. I usually make a full recipe and freeze one for another day or put it all in my big lasagna pan if I'm having company over. It's a big hit every time I make it.

Directions:

1. Set water to boil to cook pasta.
2. Brown Ground Beef and chopped onion in a skillet. (Salt and Pepper to taste).
3. Drain the oil from the meat.

4. Add Spaghetti Sauce and Tomato Paste.(one day I'll learn to make a good sauce from scratch!)

5. Stir in seasonings.

Sommer's Secret: I always jazz up cheap ready made spaghetti sauce with herbs and spices.It might be the Southwest in me, but  like my sauce to have just a tiny kick by adding a little cayenne pepper or in this case Taco Seasoning mix. My favorite to use is the Chipotle seasoning mix.  I also add about a teaspoon of sugar as it seems to really tone down the acid of the tomatoes and "marries" the seasonings.

6. Boil pasta until "al dente" - where the pasta is soft but firm. Drain.

7.  Pour sauce mixture over pasta and fold to combine.

8. Pour mixture into baking dish(es).

9. Sprinkle cheese on top.

11. Bake 15- 20 minutes until bubbly.

Sommer's Secret: Drizzle the top with olive oil and Broil 3-5 minutes until top is brown and crispy.

Sommer's Suggestions: Add veggies! Since I was using what we had at home, I didn't have any extras to add in...Bell peppers, black olives, mushrooms would  make this even more amazing. Add or substitute  Pepperoni or Italian sausage instead of beef or chicken....yum!

I served my pasta bake with a garden salad and homemade bread sticks.



1. Make 1 batch Pizza Dough Recipe.
2. Pat out onto a pizza dough pan.
3. Brush with butter and garlic mixture. (2 TBSbutter to 1 TBS garlic powder 1 tsp Parsley)
4. Sprinkle with with cheese (I used the Mozzarella, Provolone, Cheddar blend and Parmesan)
5. Bake 8-12 minutes until brown and bubbly.
6. Cut into strips with pizza cutter.

(As you can see my oven doesn't bake evenly and I ended up with one dark and one light cheesy bread sticks...but they were both just as delicious.)

Totes for the Tikes

Since being called to be the Primary Secretary in my ward, I have throughly enjoyed being with the little ones in our ward. Our ward primary is quite small with 3-Sunbeams 1-CTR 4 about 3-CTR 5&6 and the rest Valiants 8-11 with a grande total of 15 to 20 kids on our best Sundays.

We have mostly boys and just  a few girls in our combined Junior and Senior primary so our Sundays can be super fun. We have a great presidency and dedicated teachers who care about the children.

 For Christmas/New Year's we wanted to give each child a special gift and I volunteered to use up my left over fabric to make little scripture totes for the kiddos.

Inside the little bags the  presidency included the 13 articles of faith cards on a ring and a little Book of Mormon. My sister Crystal showed me the site and gave me the idea to have them printed on photo paper at our local Sam's club so they kids can have their own set. 

 It has given me much pleasure to see the kids tote their bags to church each Sunday. I've been amazed at how popular they are with the boys! They LOVE them-who whould've thought?

For the bags I used the tutorial at P.S I quilt . This is a great project for using up scraps of materials and I loved the way she shows you to sew once all the way around to secure the binding and then top stitch everything all down- super SIMPLE and cute!

Sommer's Secret: I ommitted the batting and excluded the quilting portion since the bags were so little and don't need much stability.

I love how each one came out unique with it's own personality. 

Sommer's Secret: I didn't really worry about the bag sizes so they came out all different depending on the piece of fabric I had to work with- they just needed to be big enough to fit the little book of mormon.



Sommer's Secret: I used coordinating ribbon, premade bias tape and strips of fabric for  the binding around and handles.  I liked using the ribbon the best since there was lots less prep work with no need to have to iron the raw edge before sewing.

It was also easy to use strips of fabric NOT cut on the bias since there really wasn't a need for the bias stretch. But the premade Bias binding was easy to use as it is pre-pressed.

Sommer's Secret: I had to sew together lots of small pieces for some of the bags which actually ended up being a little more sturdy than the others.



My all time favorite feature has got to be polka dots. They are just SO FUN! My favorite bags are the ones that have a handle made out of the same fabric as the bag, which definately took a little more time. If I had a little more time I think pockets on the fronts and cute button embelishments would have been AWESOME! 

Sommer's Secret: For the boy bags I picked up some woven nylon in black and white for a more plain handle. This also made it super easy.

      

I am so glad I've found a useful home for these left over scraps.....now they have THEIR time to shine!

First Crochet Edge blankie

My friend Carole recently gave birth to a brand new baby girl named Tori Jane. With the arrival of her precious little one I seized the opportunity to try my hand at a crochet edge blankie.

I began by purchasing 2 coordinated pieces of girly flannelet.

Sommer's Secret: So I have the least amount of waste, I usually purchase a square of fabric. Standard fabric widths are about 45" so I have the fabric store cut a 45"x45" square for my "receiving" blankets. (Generally Receiving blankets are about 36"X52'0.

When I get home I wash and dry the fabric so that there isn't any shrinkage on the finished blanket. When I'm feeling up for it I like to "block" the fabric to "reset" the grain by ironing the fabric while it's pinned flat. Otherwise ironing works just fine. While these steps take more time, The finished product definitely comes out SO much better.

I've dabbled in crochet on and off since my grandmother McCombs gave me my first crochet lesson and I've recently picked it up again which usually happens around General Conference time so I can have something to do while listening to all the speakers ;o)

While I've seen lots of ways that people make crochet edged blankets, I've never made one but here's what I did:

Step 1: Pin fabric squares on top of each other right sides together.

Step 2: Using a fabric (erasable) pen, I used a plate as a guide to mark and cut off the edges of the blankie to have a rounded edge. I figured a round edge would make for more "continuous" crochet edge.

Step 3: Sew the two fabric pieces together, leaving an opening for turning.

Step 4: Turn.

Step 5: Iron edges flat folding in the open area to create a finished edge.

At this point you can either top stitch around the edge or do what I did:

Step 6: Beginning at the opening where you "turned" or insided out your blanket. Begin your blanket stitch, sewing between both layers of fabric to close the opening.

Sommer's Secret: Since I was using heavier weight fabric and didnt' have a super sharp crochet hook, I used a sharp embroidery needle to create my blanket stitch. I understand some people prefer to use their crochet hook to puncture through the fabric, or top stitch to create the holes. There is also this nifty machine that you can buy that will actually make the holes around the edge for you and actually 'seals' the holes so they don't fray- cool huh?

Here is a good tutorial on how to do the blanket stitch.

Sommer's Secret:  Since I didn't top stitch the blanket I didn't really have a guide for spacing my blanket stitch, so I used my thumb nail as a guide. The stitches weren't perfect but I like that it has a little more "homemade" character with my uneven, imperfect stitches.

 After completing your blanket stitch around the entire edge of the blanket, you have your foundation to being crocheting.

Step 7: Insert crochet hook into the first blanket stitch and chain three to begin.

Step 8: Complete a single row of the shell stitch around the entire edge.

While there are MANY ways to make a crochet edge blanket, I enjoyed making this simple one for my friend. 

Here are a few awesome tutorials on other ways to make a crochet edge blanket:

Today's Top Twenty
Little Birdie Secrets
This and That Creative
Found*ling

Yummy Homemade Bread

This is another post I made to our Relief Society blog.  This is a great recipe for first time bread makers as you can learn the "feel" of the dough and how to incorporate all ingredients by hand. This recipe also works well if you're using a stand mixer. The result is a versatile  light, fluffy dough that can be used to make a variety of breads and rolls.

Katherine Book of the Auwaiolimu Ward taught us how to make homemade bread at our Weekday Relief Society Meeting on Wednesday, April 6, 2011. This hands on class was a great opportunity for us learn how to mix the ingredients and feel the texture of the dough to get the bread just right.

 

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients for Half Batch:

4 cups Bread Flour*

1 Tbs self acting fast rising Yeast

1 tsp Salt

1/4 cup Powdered Milk

1/4 cup Sugar

1/2 stick (1/4 c)Butter or Shortening

1 1/2 cup warm Water

1 tsp Vanilla Extract (optional)

yield: 1 1/2 doz rolls or 2 loaves

Baking time: 30 minutes Baking temp: 350 degrees

Ingredients for Full Batch:
 8 cups Bread Flour*
 2 Tbs self acting fast rising Yeast
2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Powdered Milk
3/4 cup Sugar
1 stick (1/2 c.) Butter or Shortening
3 cups warm Water
2 tsp Vanilla Extract (optional)
yield: 3 to 4 dozen rolls or  2 to 3 loaves.
 Baking time: 30 minutes
Baking temp: 350 degrees

 * Note: you may substitute all purpose flour instead of bread flour if desired. Resulting bread may have a different consistency. Bread flour has more protein which leads to more gluten allowing your bread to be more stretchy creating more of a "chewy" texture whereas all purpose has less protein and makes a less stretchy dough creating a more "crumbly" texture.  

Instructions:

1. Combine all dry ingredients (including dry yeast)  in a large mixing bowl. Mix well to incorporate all ingredients.

2. Add butter or shortening.

3. Using hands squish butter into small bits through out the dry mixture until the consistency is similar to coarse corn meal.

4. Create a "well" or indentation in the middle of butter/dry ingredient mixture.

5. Pour warm water into the well and begin slowly incorporating the flour into the water mixture.

Note: Make sure your water isn't too hot otherwise it will "kill" the yeast and the dough won't rise. Water should be like the comfortable warm temperature you would use to bathe.

6. Continue to stir and knead mixture  in until all the flour and water are incorporated and the dough forms a ball.

To test when you have kneaded the dough enough, slice an "X "mark on top of the ball of dough. If the dough begins to separate, it has been kneaded enough and you can set it aside for rising.

7. Place dough ball into an airtight container that has been pre-greased with oil or shortening or sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Kathy Book recommends using a gallon size ice cream container with a lid.  

8. Set aside dough and allow to rise until double in size.

Note: A full size batch of the bread recipe will rise to pop the lid off the container when it has risen to double in size.

Don't forget to spray the bottom of the lid so the dough doesn't stick when it rises.

Note: A half batch recipe will only rise half way in a gallon size ice cream container when double in size.

9. After dough has doubled in size. Punch it down to deflate the dough and let it rest 5 minutes. 10.  Then shape into desired loaves, rolls, hamburger buns, hot dog buns or cinnamon rolls (one dough can make all these kinds of breads!). 11. After shaping dough and placing in baking dishes, allow to rise until double in size and then bake.

To Shape rolls:  Pinch balls of dough out a little smaller than a golf ball.

Rolls into balls to smooth the surface and place on baking sheet, leaving enough room between each ball of dough  for expansion.

For Butter rolls: melt 1/2 to 1 stick of butter and pour on bottom of pan before adding formed rolls. Baking time for rolls is 20-30 minutes @ 350 degrees.

To Shape loaves:  Flatten out  dough on table with hands into shape of a rectangle. (doesn't need to be perfect Spray surface of table with non-stick spray or use flour to keep dough from sticking.

Then roll dough from one edge to the other. Pinch seam closed and place in loaf pan and press down.

Baking time for loaves is 20-30 minutes.

For hot dog buns: use same method as shaping for loaves only using less dough to make smaller "loaves" place evenly on baking sheet.

For Hamburger Buns: Pinch off dough the size of a tennis ball. Roll between hands to smooth surface. Place on baking sheet like you would for rolls then press down to flatten.

For Cinnamon Rolls: 1. Flour or spray table top to keep dough from sticking. 2. Use rolling pin to roll out dough into a rectangle. Be careful not to roll too think. Dough should be no thinner than 1/4 " thick.

3. Brush melted butter over the surface of the rolled out dough. 4. Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon and sugar, leaving about 1/4" border around the edge of the dough rectangle. . We used 1/2 cup cinnamon to 4 cups white sugar. (Brown sugar or combination of white and brown can also be used).

Pat down sugar cinnamon mixture.

5.  Roll up rectangle with cinnamon/sugar tugging on the dough a little as you go to keep the roll nice and tight -but not too tight. Until dough is formed into a long roll.

6. Pinch seam closed and cut into 1 1/2" to 2" sections.

7. Place evenly on baking dish.

8. Bake 20 - 30 minutes until golden brown @ 350 degrees.