Lazy persons chicken enchiladas

Have husband cook black beans at work.
Buy rotisserie chicken.
Buy organic green chile sauce. 3 cups or make your own (a lot of work but much better)
1 small diced onion
1 large can whole green chiles
2 cups shredded cheese
12-14 corn tortillas
1 can diced tomatoes 14 oz

Pick meat off chicken and add to saucepan with onion, green chile sauce, diced tomatoes and 1 cup of water bring to boil and simmer approximately 15 minutes. In a baking dish place 1/3 of the sauce, then 4 corn tortillas, layer of whole green chilis, 1/3 of the cheese repeat until all your ingredients are gone.
Bake at 400F until hot and bubbly.
Serve with black beans. You can top with sour cream, black olives and green onions.

Cooking In January

When I set out with this personal challenge I was very apprehensive about finding the time to cook. I now know the time is there but I need to organize my days better. I still have not taken Sunday for a planning day which I think is necessary to make this a successful cooking year. Things I learned so far.

1. Making dinner 5 days a week is not fun.
2. Planning in advance is the key.
3. Making dinner for a friend makes cooking more fun.
4. I have a lot more respect for my mom who made it look so easy.
5. When I am in the middle of cooking I still enjoy it.

Chicken Curry

Although I love Indian food, I usually don't cook it. There are too many good Indian restaurants around and my kitchen is not equipped with all the spices, etc. that make Indian food so good. One exception is this chicken curry I make. It is very Americanized but tastes good. Based on the Silver Palate's recipe for chicken curry soup I slowly cook onions and diced chicken breasts in butter and mild Madras curry spice until chicken is firm. Then I add flour to the curried butter to make a roux. This is cooked for five minutes to bring out more of the curry spice and to cook the flour taste out of the roux. I then add chicken stock. When soup/stew is thickened to your preference finish with cream and fresh vegetables such as thinly sliced zucchini, shredded carrots and peas. A few more minutes to cook the zucchini and carrots and its done. Served with brown rice it makes a very complete meal.It could also be made hotter with the addition of dried hot peppers. I think this could be made very successfully as a vegetarian entree. I might add apples to the onions and curry and definately eggplant for the texture. Great meal for yet another cold Colorado January day.

Gelato

we just stopped by at a neighborhood coffee house we've been hearing a lot about to discover they also make amazing gelato...oh no...it's really good, so good that I'm nervous about how close they are to the house. The owner was nice enough to let us sample many flavors...In Italy my rule was to not let a day end without eating gelato...my favorite flavors pistachio and cherry.

A Thank You Dinner For A Friend

Lower in fat AND very good

Ground Turkey Lasagna with Wild Mushrooms
Mesclun Greens with Cassis Vinaigrette, goat cheese and sweet and spicy pecans
Toasted Garlic Baguette with fresh basil and olive oil


I should have taken a picture of this because it was really good and looked good too.
Next time.

Tonight I felt like experimenting and it was a challenge to make this lasagna taste really good with very little fat. I based this on Cook's Country magazines recipe for turkey lasagna. Basically its lean ground turkey slow cooked with lots of diced mushrooms, 2% milk to tenderize the meat, tomatoes, tomato paste, carrots, onions and garlic slow cooked for about an hour, and then layered with whole wheat no boil pasta sheets and topped with a white sauce/no butter and thickened with Parmesan cheese. I think this could easily be made vegetarian subbing the turkey with eggplant. I added lots more herbs, oregano, fresh basil and spiced it up. Also wild mushrooms gave it a lot of depth.

I will definately make this again...experimenting with the veggie version.

managing dinner

Due to family obligations, I still have not had the Sunday planning day to make dinners easy. So Monday it was again a mad dash to the supermarket after the gym to find something somewhat healthy, cheap and fast.

Ground Lamb (on sale) Burgers with feta, grilled onions and sauteed mushrooms
served on Toasted Baguette with horseradish, dijon mustard spread

Mixed green salad

After eating in Iowa for a week I find that I am craving lots of fresh vegetables so salads will definately play a part in this weeks meals

Spice Rubs

Even though I accomplished my goal last week of making dinner 5 days, I am finding it difficult to blog while adding shopping, planning and cooking to my day. I'm hoping in the next few weeks to find a format I can stick to. Some highlights of the week were finding these rubs that I used for a quick dinner on Wednesday of Steak and Eggplant Kabobs, the Bengal Masala rub is especially good.

Broiled Salmon with Mustard Glaze

Day 2 Dinner

Menu: Broiled Salmon with Mustard Glaze
Baked Sweet Potato
Mixed Green Salad with chevre, toasted pine nuts and raspberry vinaigrette

It's only day 2 and I notice I start thinking about dinner in the morning instead of at 7:00 p.m. when I'm leaving the gym. This menu was based on a catering recipe for a many mustards chicken. I believe that recipe was 4 different mustards, whole mustard seeds and some apple cider. I just mixed whole grain mustard with dijon mustard, added some dried herbs, lemon juice,olive oil, salt and pepper. From start to finish the whole dinner took about 25 minutes. Other than the baking time of the potato. I broiled the salmon for 5 minutes with a little olive oil, salt and pepper then topped it with mustard sauce and broiled for about 7 minutes more. I served the salmon over the salad.The contrast of color, flavors and textures was REALLY FANTASTIC. and Heart healthy. I like adding a little bit of fat with chevre and pine nuts, just enough for flavor but not too much to take away the health benefits of the greens, sweet potato and the salmon.

January 1-Dinner

After recovering from my great New Year's I was not anticipating making dinner even though it's my first day of my personal challenge. It was a really simple dinner but tasted great after the New Year's Eve indulgences.

Menu:Grilled cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Bisque.

The Roasted Red Pepper Bisque was definitely one of the best soups I had ever made. It's really pretty simple too. Not too many ingredients just a lot of cooking time. I simmered shredded carrots, an onion and garlic in a little bit of butter with one large can of drained roasted peppers. I let that cook on low for about 40 minutes and then added vegetable stock, herbs De Provence, thyme and salt and pepper.Let that simmer until reduced in half.On low it took about 1 1/2 hours. Pureed and then finished with 1/2 cup of half and half and some bourbon. This really is a versatile soup it would also be good with pasta as a sauce.

Facing Down Rejection

because I spent so much time entering my work this year in the form of poetry, short stories, article queries I got a lot more REJECTIONS and although it hurts (this week I got 4), it also means I'm participating in the process and not just sitting on the sidelines. So thanks to my critique group and my writing buddies for putting on the pressure to make my goals. I think next year at the same time I will say I received a lot more ACCEPTANCES! Have a Happy New Year!

Collage Exchange

O.k. I'm probably not ready to participate in this art exchange but it sure is fun to dream. The Collage Museum has a Baker's Dozen Art Exchange with a deadline of March 21, 2007.Click on the link for International Collage Exchanges from the home page.

another creativity site worth exploring

Another writing website that explores creativity and writing that I found on Writer's Digest website. Tera Leigh has found her calling.

Altered Art and Writing

After doing my Artella art piece I was very inspired to continue exploring the altered art medium, I hope to find an online class or one locally that will give me the basics to explore the medium. I just found another website that combines writing and art. This looks like another site that will take up many hours of exploration.Soul Food Cafe.

Baked Brie and a New Year's Eve Menu

After working at a catering company for more than 10 years, I swore I would never serve a baked brie for a dinner party...but tomorrow being New Year's Eve...and not really having a menu pulled together I heard myself saying "how about a baked Brie?" for an appetizer. Although you can buy them premade they really are much better made yourself. all you need is puff pastry, egg wash,something pretty to put on top of the brie i.e. caramelized nuts or apples or pears or even my favorite a cranberry-pear chutney. Top the brie with something encase it in puff pastry, use a paring knife or small cookie cutters to cut out a decoration on the top; showcasing your nuts,pears, apples or chutney, brush with egg yolk beaten with a tiny bit of cream and bake in a HOT oven until puff is brown and cheese is oozy. Let cool slightly and serve with baguette and grapes... I never met a guest who didn't like the soft cheese with the rich puff pastry. You can also get really artistic with the top of the brie making tiny apples of puff pastry with whole cloves for stems or tiny bunches of puff pastry grapes. Stay tuned for the New Year's Eve menu.

16 Sparrows

When I saw this companies tagline, I knew they would have products I love. "Where sarcasm is folded in half". I was raised to embrace sarcasm.
Warning some cards are PG 13 rated.But I'm still laughing at their simple graphics and their honest messages.

Mon keys

This Christmas my sister got a festive sack of monkeys. Sock monkey, plastic hopping monkey, and a bouncing half-ball, half- monkey. Had I seen these they probably would have been her favorite Christmas gift.

Blizzard is Here

A couple of pictures of the garden in the middle of the December 28th Blizzard in Colorado Springs.

Cookbook Critic's New Recipes

Thanks to Jene, for sending me this link. Maybe she sent it to inspire me and it did.
An article on NPR by cookbook critic T. Susan Chang also has some great recipes.

I love hearing that people who get paid to write and critique cookbooks can fall into the pattern of the same old dinners too.

Getting Organized

I love New Year's Day. A new year always means another chance to get it right. I'm always positive the new year will be better than the last. I've been spending about 1 hour a day trying to get my office more organized. Great office supplies help. My sister's present of these amazing Cavallini & Co. file folders inspires me to get my filing under control. But then again I am an office supply junkie. I covet office supplies like most women covet shoes.

Another Blizzard in Colorado?

I know I used to enjoy the snow a lot more when my business didn't depend on good weather. Missing out on walk by traffic is not favorable for a restaurant or for most retail stores.I was hopeful when the weather report said snow would start at 6 p.m. Unfortunately it started earlier, much earlier and we will probably end up closing early. Hopefully no one will get caught unaware as many did last week.