Sweet Corn Restaurant Side

This is a re-creation of that scoop of sweet corn stuff they put on the side of your plate in Mexican Restaurants.  Don't know what it is called...

Beat together:
2 sticks butter
2/3 c corn flour (masa harina)
1/2 c water

Separate bowl mix:
1/2 c corn meal
2/3 c granulated sugar
1/4 c cream (I think milk would work)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Merge the two along with a bag (approx 3 cups) of corn (frozen or fresh), lightly chopped.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes in a 13 x 9 floating in another pan of water.

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Brother Staples' Enchilada Sauce and Enchiladas

Sauce

1 lg. can Tomato Sauce​​​​​​½ the can full of water

¼ to ½ cup Chili Powder (or more)​​​​2/3 cup Corn Starch

¾ c. Sugar​​​​​​​¾ c. Vinegar

1 t. Oregano​​​​​​​1 t. cumin

1 t. Garlic Powder​​​​​​1 T. + ¾ t. Salt

¼ t. Pepper​​​​​​​2 -3 doz. Corn Tortillas

2 lbs. grated Cheese

Garnish:

1 medium Onion finely chopped

Shredded Lettuce

Sour Cream

Stir all dry ingredients together. Mix the tomato sauce and the water then add the dry ingredients.

Simmer on stove for several hours. While gravy is cooking get you tortillas ready and grate your cheese.

Finely chop 1 medium onion, shred lettuce and get out the sour cream.

Heat a flat skillet with oil and fry tortillas quickly on both sides (2 or 3 seconds is all).

Dip in the gravy on both sides, put on a plate and fill with cheese and onions if you want. Roll it up and put in a baking dish. Repeat until the pan is full and then spread some more gravy on top sprinkle with more grated cheese and onions and bake until the cheese melts.

Serve with whatever garnish you like and enjoy!

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Brother Staples' Chili Verde

Hatch's Green Chiles - 2 x 16oz cans
Diced Tomatoes - 1 x 12oz can
Onion - 1 - diced
Chili Powder - 4 T
Cumin - 1 t
Garlic - 4 cloves, minced
Chicken Stock - 1/2 qt
Pork Roast 1-1/2 to 2 lb cubed
Cayenne Pepper - to taste
Salt - to taste

Cube pork & brown. Dice chilies and onion. Throw everything in a pot & cook on low for 5-7 hours. Eat it. Be happy.

(Especially good the next morning on breakfast eggs...)

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Chicken and black beans

I was partially inspired for this by one of the posts here, and by some recipes on all recipes. It is a combination of several recipes, but it was a hit.

2-3 chicken breasts
1 jar salsa (we used homemade)

Dump in a crockpot together. You can put it on high if you want it done faster, or low if you want it done slower. I did it on low, and the chicken took 3-4 hours. When the chicken is done, shred it and stir.

Either in the crockpot or on the stovetop (depending on how soon you are serving it), mix in:

2 cans black beans, rinsed
1 can corn
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp garlic salt, or garlic and salt
chili powder to taste

Heat together. Then, just before serving, add half a brick of cream cheese. Stir to combine.

We served this on chips with lettuce, tomatos, olives, and other normal taco topping. I used the leftovers on tortillas with spinach.

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(Nearly) Vegan Mexican Goolash

Here it goes:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 jar salsa
1 can rotel
1 can shoestring corn
1 can yello corn
2 cans black beans
1 can olives

Spray your crockpot with PAM first, trust me. Then put the chicken breasts in and cover with the jar of salsa and can of Rotel (undrained). Cook for 2 hours on high if not frozen, 4 hours if they are still frozen. After they're done cooking, remove and shred. To the crockpot add the corn and beans (drained and rinsed) and the can of olives (drained). Add the chicken and stir. Cook on low for a little longer, until heated through.

If you want to, serve it with some cheese and sour cream. Its really not necessary though, and it adds extra fat and makes it non-nearly vegan. This is also really good cold as leftovers. Mmm...

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Walking Tacos

Several Small Bags of Nacho Cheese Doritos (1 for each person)
Shredded lettuce
taco meat
sour cream
salsa
shredded cheese

Crunch the doritos inside the bag and then open it. Add which ever of the other ingredients that suits your fancy. Eat with a fork (or spoon if you enjoy a challenge) straight out of the bag.

These are great for big groups because they don't make much mess- you don't have to worry about balancing a plate and the what not.

I hadn't ever tried these until this summer. Occasionally Valleyfair treats their staff to these and we visit Matt at the park and I eat all of his. We made them for dinner here, and the kids really enjoyed them. Just a piece of advice though- don't eat one of these and then go on the Octopus.

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Layers (two recipes)

Sorry, no pictures. I thought about it, but then these got gobbled up, so it didn't happen.

Layer Cake:

Very basic, but a fun spin on plain old cake.

Cake mix (plus whatever is needed to make said cake)
Chocolate pudding
Topping of choice

Make the cake and cool it completely. Frost the cake with pudding. Top with fruit, chopped up candy bars, nuts, cool whip, etc. Last time, we did yellow cake, chocolate pudding, and strawberries. Pat Horton is the one who introduced me to frosting a cake with pudding, and it is very good, and easy.

Layer Taco Dip:

sour cream
taco seasoning
onions
lettuce
tomato
olives
cheese
whatever other taco toppings you want
chips

Mix sour cream and taco seasoning. Finely chop onions and mix those in. Spread mixture on pizza pan, cookie sheet, or serving tray. Top with layers of other taco toppings. Serve with chips. I did serve this for dinner the other day, and put seasoned hamburger meat on the side.

Yeah, I know, I'm not that fancy. But, hey, these are good, easy, not too hot food.

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Comfort food: Fajitas

Tom won an award for this recipe. Okay, not really. We had fajitas out at the farm, and, for some reason, the meat ended up in two pans. Amy (Tom's sister) and Tom decided to have a cook-off, with each of them seasoning one pan of meat. Without knowing whose was whose, everyone tasted, and voted, and Tom's won. They are a staple in our house now.

Meat (I prefer chicken, Tom likes steak.)
onions
peppers (red, yellow, and orange all make it pretty and add a slightly sweeter flavor that I like. But, they are pricier, so we use green mostly.)

Cut it all in strips. Heat oil in a pan, and add the meat. After it cooks a little, add onions. Then, you start seasoning, and this is where the secret comes in- ranch powder. Dump a bunch of ranch dressing powder in. (We buy it in bulk at Sams just for this.) Yep, that's it. Yummy. We use chili powder (some hot and some mild to make it medium, but do it how you want) and ranch powder. After the meat is all cooked and tender, throw in strips of pepper. You want the peppers to go in last so there is a little crunch to them, but not much crunch.

Place in a tortilla. Top with the typical toppings- lettuce, tomato, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, olives, cheese. Sometimes, we put the meat and cheese on the tortilla and nuke it for a few seconds, or throw it in the hot oven for a few minutes, until the cheese is all melty and yummy.

So, not really a recipe, but the beauty of comfort food is that it can be made for how you are feeling in that moment.

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Tamales

That's right, suddenly I can make tamales. Here's the story first.

My co-worker was laid off, and I am stuck running the classroom by myself. We had planned to make tamales for a parent participation day, and I was scrambling to put together the project. I found a recipe online, I asked my boss to pick up the ingredients, and she told me that she already knew how to make them, so she would pick up the ingredients and show me. Then she brought me the ingredients for her tamales (different ingredients than for the recipe I found) and told me that she wished she could come to our fun activity, but she was at a conference for the rest of the week. Thanks alot. So I frantically searched online for a recipe that seemed to use her ingredients, but to no avail. The morning of the Tamale Day came, and I drove to work in a snowstorm, still wondering how to face the great tamale dilemma.

Here are the ingredients I had:
Corn Oil
Chicken Broth
Olives
One whole Chicken (plucked, not cut or de-boned. Emma HELP!!!!)
Masa
Corn Shucks
Chili powder
Can of fajita sauce
assorted spices from the kitchen
Shortening

Here is what I did:
Boiled the chicken in a pot of Fajita sauce and water.
Made the class of four-year olds wash their hands and "pull the yummy bits of chicken off and put them in the blue bowl. Put the yucky pieces in the Black bowl."
Voila. One shredded chicken. And 16 traumatized children.
Save the fajita sauce/boiled chicken juice. Pour it into the bowl of masa.
add some spices, some shortening, some corn oil, and some chicken broth, until it is about the consistency of cookie dough. All things can be likened unto cookie dough.
Soak the corn shucks in water this entire time (about 2 hours), and hand corn shucks out to the kids. Let them smear the masa dough onto the top half of the corn shuck, stick a handful of traumatically shredded chicken in the middle with an olive.
Fold it like a tamale.
Put it in a pan with a steamer in the bottom.
Once the pan is all full, fill the bottom of it with the rest of the broth and some water.
Steam them until they are done. We made about 30, and it took an hour to steam them. One parent said that 5 take abot 20 minutes. If they are taking a long time, you have to make sure that the pan doesn't steam itself dry. Just keep adding water/broth.

Here's the kicker people. They were a hit. The kids LOVED making them (talk about a sensory experience) and they were really good. I ate two. They were tasty. Parents took them home for dinner.

All I'm sayin is, if you ever need a fun (messy) FHE activity, this is it. You can simplify it in obvious places. No need to force your children to de-bone a chicken, just buy boneless skinless chicken. Or ground beef, or pork. Whatever meat works. I probably won't make them on my own, not without small children to enslave. Plus, it makes a lot of food.

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Layered Enchillada Bake

From kraftfoods.com. This one is good. Obviously, you don't have to follow their name-brand suggestions.


1 lb. lean ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained, rinsed
1/4 cup KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing
2 Tbsp. TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Taco Seasoning Mix
6 flour tortillas (8 inch)
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
1 pkg. (8 oz.) KRAFT Mexican Style Shredded Four Cheese
Make It
PREHEAT oven to 400ºF. Brown meat with onions in large skillet on medium-high heat; drain. Add salsa, beans, dressing and seasoning mix; mix well.
ARRANGE 3 of the tortillas in single layer on bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish; cover with layers of half each of the meat mixture, sour cream and cheese. Repeat all layers. Cover with foil.
BAKE, covered, 30 min. Remove foil. Bake an additional 10 min. or until casserole is heated through and cheese is melted. Let stand 5 min. before cutting to serve.

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October 2008 Kitchen Challenge - LotsofKids Entry

To read about the Kitchen Challenge, click here or here.I did this challenge on my personal blog, but did it again as the official LOK entry (yeah, I just wanted an excuse to do it again). We were cooking for a family of 11--3 adults, 4 older children, and 4 smaller children. Note, as always, I'm fudging the numbers on some of the ingredients on the upside (usually rounding up), because I want

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Baked Chimichangas

This is one of my all time favorite meals! It is from Taste of Home magazine. I like to serve it with spanish rice, refried beans, and a strawberry milkshake. Not that I always serve it that way but when I do, it makes us feel like we are eating in a restaurant. And all the kid love it!

2 1/2 cups shredded chicken breast
1 cup salsa
1 small onion, chopped
3/4 ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
6 large tortillas or 12 small tortillas
shredded cheese
1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
2 tsp chicken bouillon granules
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup fat-free half and half cream
1 can (4ounces) chopped green chilies

Simmer first 5 ingredients in a nonstick skillet until heated though and most of the liquid evaporates. Place chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla, top with shredded cheese. Fold into classic chimichanga shape, place seam side down in a 13x9 glass pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes at 425. (My oven takes longer). You will know they are down when they are slightly browned and the tortilla is crispy.

Now for the sauce (which is the best part!). Heat broth, bouillon and pepper until bouillon is dissolved. Combine flour and cream until smooth; stir into the broth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in chilies; heat through. To serve, cut chimichangas in half: spoon sauce over top.

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Mexican Casserole

I tried this at an Enrichment meeting, but never have made it. I really liked it. You could probably add some corn to it, as well.

1 1/2 cup cracked wheat or pearled barley (if the latter, reduce water by half)
2 tsp. salt
6 c. water

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 onion, chopped, or 1/2 c. dry onions (throw the dry ones it in the above water)

2 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
1/2 c. sliced black olives
8 oz. can tomatoes (do not drain)
3/4 tsp. garlic powder or 1 clove fresh, chopped garlic

1/4 c. water
1/4 c. ketchup

Bring wheat, salt and water to a boil and simmer for 1 hour (barley option - 25 minutes).
Brown beef and onions
Add meat mixture to the cooked wheat, then add worcestershire sauce, olives, tomatoes and garlic.
Place mixture in a 9x13 pan.
Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.
During last 15 min., mix water and ketchup and drizzle over casserole.

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