Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Andrea is here visiting for the holidays and we were looking for a way to use the left over turkey from Christmas dinner. This is a recipe from Christin. It was easy to prepare without using a lot of ingredients and we loved the creamy texture without the use of Cream of Chicken soup. It might seem odd when you pour the thin cream mixture over top of the enchiladas but it all absorbs and thickens after they are baked and cooled slightly. The enchiladas were mild and delicious, everyone ate them up and it was a great way to use the left over turkey. (Dark meat wouldn't work well in this recipe though so if you are using left over turkey be sure to use only white meat.)

3 C. Cooked and shredded chicken or turkey

2 T. Olive Oil

1 Onion, chopped

1 can Chopped Green Chilies

1 C. Sour Cream

3 C. Shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided

Salt and Pepper to taste

12 Corn Tortillas

1 Qt. Half and Half

4 tsp. Chicken Boullion (or 4 cubes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a frying pan, heat half and half with chicken boullion until boullion is completely dissolved. Set aside to cool. Saute onion in olive oil until tender then add green chilies, salt, pepper, and meat. Heat until warmed through then transfer to a large bowl. Stir in sour cream and 2 cups of cheese. Set aside. Pat each of the tortillas with a little bit of water and put them in a resealable bag. Heat for 1 minute in the microwave to soften tortillas. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and then pour a small amount of the half and half mixture into the pan to coat the bottom. Dip each tortilla in the half and half mixture and then put it on a plate. Place a heaping spoonful or two in the tortilla and roll up. Place enchilada in the pan and continue until you've used all 12 tortillas. Pour half and half mixture over top of enchiladas. It will look like way too much liquid but don't worry! Sprinkle the remaining cheese over top of enchiladas and bake for 30 mintues or until browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 10 mintues before serving to allow the liquid to absorb into tortillas.

EBO Barbie's Pretty Pink Cake

This is Beth's daughter. I am making a guest appearance on here to tell you about the cake I made today with my Easy Bake Oven.

5 T flour

1/4 t Baking Powder

1/8 t salt

5 t Pink Sugar Crystals

1/4 t vanilla

4 t Vegetable Oil

8 t milk

Preheat oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 oz. cream cheese

1/2 T butter

1/2 t. milk

1/8 t. vanilla

1/2 c. powdered sugar

Add sprinkles to the top of the cake, of course! :0)

Blueberry Sour Cream Pancakes

Today is a special day.  My daughter is performing in the Nutcracker at her school.  In our house you cannot have a special day without having something special for breakfast!  No, sir.  So, this morning we made one of my favorite, favorite breakfasts- Blueberry Pancakes.  Remember what I said a couple of posts ago about sour cream making cakes taste awesome?  Well it works with pancakes too!  These are the most melt in your mouth pancakes I have ever tried.  The only tricky part with these is that they have to be well cooked on both sides or you will have excess batter around the blueberries so I cook them on a slightly lower heat so they won't burn and it works perfectly.

2 C. Flour
1/4 C. Sugar
4 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Eggs
5 T. Butter, melted
1 1/2 C. Milk
1 C. Sour Cream
1 C. Blueberries

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  In a separate bowl mix together the eggs, butter, milk and sour cream then add to the dry ingredients and whisk or mix with an electric mixer until batter is completely smooth.  Fold in blueberries without overworking or you will have purple pancakes.  Use a 1/2 C. measuring cup to measure onto a preheated griddle and cook well on each side.  Serve with regular maple syrup. 

Peasant Pork Chops and Applebees Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Last night for dinner I tried two new recipes and I was impressed on both accounts.  I had some sour cream in my refrigerator that needed to be used before we leave for Christmas so I tried this pork chop recipe.  It was darn good!  The meat was so tender we hardly needed a knife.  I have never had Applebees mashed potatoes before but a friend of mine is in love with them.  They have oven roasted garlic in them and I have always wanted to try roasting garlic.  They were so good.  The roasted garlic might seem like a time consuming step but trust me, it's not.  It only takes a minute to get it ready to throw into the oven and then you can forget about it until the timer goes off. 

6-8 pork chops (I used boneless sirloin chops)
2 T. Butter
1 Onion, chopped coarsely
2 Cloves Garlic, pressed
Seasoning Salt
3/4 C. Chicken Broth
1 bay leaf
1 C. Sour Cream

Melt butter in a frying pan and saute onion and garlic for a few minutes.  Add pork chops and sprinkle in some seasoning salt (don't go way overboard on this step or your gravy will be too salty just sprinkle a little bit on each pork chop).  Brown each piece of meat on each side.  Add the chicken broth and the bay leaf then cover and turn heat down to low.  Cook on low for 1 hour.  Remove pork chops to a serving plate and cover with tin foil to keep the meat warm while you make the gravy.  Turn the heat up to hi and boil juices until they reduce to half, it will only take 3-4 minutes at a hard boil for this to happen.  Take the pan off the burner and add the sour cream, whisking it in to create a gravy without lumps.  Pour gravy over pork chops.  If you feel like you have too much to pour it all over the meat you can pour the rest in a bowl to use as a gravy for the potatoes.

Applebees Mashed Potatoes
3-4 lbs. Red Potatoes
3 T. Butter
1/4 C. Heavy Whipping Cream or Half and Half
1/2-3/4 C. Milk
1 head roasted garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste

To roast garlic, heat your oven to 400.  Cut the top off the head of garlic and put it on a piece of tin foil.  Drizzle some olive oil on top of garlic head and wrap in up tightly in tin foil.  Put the garlic on a cookie sheet in the oven for 30 minutes.  After it is done cooking unwrap the tin foil and let the garlic cool for at least 15 minutes before handling. This is what your finished product will look like. 

Wash potatoes then peel them just removing the eyes and undesirable parts of potatoes, leaving about 1/2 the skin on the potatoes.  Cut into cubes.  Boil in a large pot until tender, about 20-25 minutes.  Drain, then add the butter, heavy cream, 1/2 C. milk and salt and pepper.  Mash with a potato masher or a mixer until creamy.  Add more milk if necessary.  Remove garlic cloves from skins with a small fork or just by pushing on the skins to make the cloves slide out.  You'll want to do this into a separate bowl so you don't inadvertently get a piece of the skin in your potatoes.  Add garlic to potatoes and mash until combined.  Enjoy with your delicious pork chops!

Buttery Garlic Chicken and Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

This is one of my favorite dinners.  It is just so, so yummy.  I love crispy potatoes and pared with this chicken they are even more delicious.  Another bonus to these recipes is how quick they are.  It will probably take you about 40 minutes from start to finish to fix this meal.  And you are going to love the smell of your house!

First the potatoes.
6 medium russet potatoes (actually you can use whatever kind you want)
1 T. Olive Oil
3 T. Grated Parmesan Cheese (I have used the bottled kind too in a pinch)
2 tsp. Dried Parsley
1 tsp. Paprika
1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Salt (I use seasoning salt for extra flavor)
1/8 tsp. Cayenne Pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Wash the potatoes very well then cut potatoes into 1/2" cubes.  Put potatoes in a microwave safe bowl and microwave them for 7-8 minutes.  Stir the potatoes well then pour the oil in and stir them again until they are well coated.  Mix all spices together in a small bowl.  Dump spices into potatoes and mix well to coat all potatoes.  Put potatoes on a cookie sheet and spread evenly.  Bake for 25 minutes or until they are crispy.

Buttery Garlic Chicken
 A whole 3 lb. Chicken, cut up or 3-4 large chicken breasts, cut in half
1/2 C. Butter, softened
3 Cloves of Garlic, pressed
1 tsp. Dried Parsley
1/4 tsp. Dried Rosemary
1/4 tsp. Dried Thyme

Combine butter, garlic, parsley, rosemary, and thyme.  Mix well.  For this recipe you can use either a frying pan on your stove top or a broiler pan in your oven.
For the broiler: Preheat your broiler.  Cover your broiler pan with tin foil and place chicken (thawed completely) on prepared pan.  Spread each piece of chicken with a small amount of butter mixture.  Broil chicken, turning and coating frequently with remaining butter-herb mixture, until juices run clear when thickest portion of meat is pierced with a knife, about 30 minutes.
For the frying pan: Melt butter in frying pan and add spices.  Place chicken in pan and fry in butter, turning frequently until chicken is cooked through.

Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Have you ever tried using sour cream in a cake recipe?  They always turn out so moist, they just melt in your mouth.  This cake is a favorite of our family.  It has a little bit of crunch with the nuts and it is pretty sweet, as are most coffee cakes.  Yesterday we took this cake to dinner at a friends house.  It got rave reviews.  You can make this in any pan you want but I always think a bundt pan makes a regular cake seem extra special. 

1 C. Butter, softened
2 C. Sugar
2 Eggs
1 C. Sour Cream
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 2/3 C. Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 C. Blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Topping:
1/3 C. Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 C. Chopped Pecans

Powdered Sugar for dusting (optional)

Heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour your pan if you are using a bundt pan.  If you are using a 9x13 pan you can just spray it with cooking spray.  Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy then add eggs one at a time.  Stir in sour cream and vanilla.  In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Add to batter until just combined.  Don't over mix or your cake will fall in the center while baking.  Fold in blueberries carefully.  Pour 1/2 of your batter into your prepared pan.  Sprinkle topping over batter then pour in the rest of the cake batter.  Use a knife to swirl topping through cake.  Bake for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.  I used frozen berries in mine and increased the baking time 12 minutes to compensate.  When cake is done let it cool in the bundt pan for about 5 minutes before inverting it onto your serving dish.  Dust with powdered sugar.  Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Gingersnaps

This is the last cookie I am making for my friend/neighbor gifts.  About a month ago I tried to make gingersnaps without using shortening.  I substituted butter but they spread like crazy and turned out like flat disks.  A total flop.  I really try to avoid using shortening in recipes because of the trans fat issue.  But, if you want to make gingersnaps your going to have to bite the bullet like I did and use it anyway.  These cookies just don't turn out without it.  They are super good cookies, crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.  I added white chocolate chips to mine.  

Today I also baked my favorite, favorite cookie ever, Carmel Cookies.  They have a rolo baked into the center.  I posted about it the day we started this blog so, in case you missed it, here is a link.

2 C. Flour
1 T. Ginger
2 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Salt
3/4 C. Shortening
1 C. White sugar
1 Egg
1/4 C. Molasses
1/3 C. Cinnamon Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  In a separate mixing bowl, whip shortening until smooth then add sugar, egg, and molasses and whip until fluffy.  Add dry ingredients and mix until a soft dough forms.  Roll into 1-1 1/2" balls.  Roll each ball in cinnamon and sugar then place on greased cookie sheet.  Bake 9-10 minutes. 

Andes Mint Cookies

This is the next installment in my Christmas cookie posts.  I am behind but I am determined to get all my gifts out by the end of the week and I still have three more kinds of cookies to bake!  That means you can expect a few more cookie recipes.  Including this one which is one of my favorites.  It is perfect for Christmas.  I tried these cookies last year and was very impressed.  The presentation is awesome with the swirly brown and green mint on top.  They are chewy and really, really chocolaty.

3/4 C. Butter
1 1/2 C. Brown Sugar
2 T. Water
2 C. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 Eggs
2 1/2 C. Flour
1 1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 pkg. Andes Mints

Heat butter, sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat until melted and then add the chocolate chips. Stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Cool for 10 minutes. Pour into a mixing bowl and beat in the 2 eggs. Next add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix together and chill for about 45 minutes. Roll into balls (like 1 - 1 1/2 inches big), flatten slightly, and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes.  When cookies come out of the oven, place an Andes mint on top of each cookie and allow to melt for a few minutes. Swirl the melted chocolate like icing with the back of a spoon. Allow to cool until chocolate on top hardens. Yields 3 dozen beautiful, chocolaty, delicious cookies!

Derrick's Favorite Cookies

We only have 1 brother, Derrick.  He has been adored and loved and smothered with affection since his first days in our family.  My mom tells stories of him waking up from naps and all three of us girls running to him excitedly as if it had been weeks or months since we had last seen him.  That's how it has always been.  Ask any of us girls and we'll be happy to tell you how brilliant, sensitive, and pretty darn close to perfect he is.  Only a person who is truly loved could have a cookie named after him.  This cookie is simply the best chocolate chip cookie ever.  Moist, chewy, ultra chocolaty, the perfect balance of sweetness in my opinion.  

1 lb. Butter
1 1/2 C. Sugar
2 C. Brown Sugar
3 Eggs
2 T. Vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 tsp. Soda
6 C. Flour
4 C. Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all wet ingredients together until well blended.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Drop tablespoon sized amounts of dough onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.  The secret to these cookies (and every other cookie that I know of) is not to bake it too long.  My mom always bakes these for 8 minutes.  When you take them out they do not look done but after they cool....heaven.   This recipe makes 6-7 dozen cookies depending on size.  I usually freeze several dozen in freezer bags.

Bisquick Cobbler

This has to be the easiest, quickest cobbler you can make and it tastes great!  We had this a lot when we were growing up as a family home evening treat or sometimes just on Sunday nights.  With only 5 ingredients I almost always have everything I need to make this.  It is great with all kinds of pie filling.  I used apple pie filling this time but I think all of us would say that blueberry is our very favorite for this recipe.  Serve it warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

1 C. Bisquick
1 C. Milk
1 C. Sugar
1/4 C. Butter
1 Can Pie Filling (like I said, blueberry is our favorite)

Melt butter in a 9x13 pan in a 350 degree oven.  While butter is melting mix the bisquick, milk, and sugar together.  When butter is completely melted dump batter into pan.  Do Not Mix.  The butter will run to the edges and that is exactly what you want.  Drop spoonfuls of pie filling into the batter all over until you have used the entire can.  Place pan back in the oven and cook for 40 minutes.  Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.