Cinco de Mayo fun!

I never need an excuse to cook, but sometimes I like one!  So when Cinco de Mayo rolled around a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to whip up something more authentic to Mexican cuisine than a taco.  After doing a little research, I decided to go with some chicken enchiladas (a recipe adapted from one I found on allrecipes.com), rice and refried beans for sides, and churros for dessert (the churros mainly as a nod to the yummy churros and great memories of visiting the Mexican pavilion at Epcot at Walt Disney World).

Here is the recipe for the Chicken Enchiladas:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 1/4 C sour cream

1/4 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 T butter

1 bunch scallions, chopped and divided

1 (4 oz) can chopped green chilies, drained

1 (1.25 oz) pkg. medium taco seasoning mix

1 C water

1 tsp. lime juice

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

5 flour tortillas

2 C shredded mild cheddar cheese

2 C shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 (10 oz) can enchilada sauce

1) Place the chicken in a stock pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and cover; simmer until chicken is no longer pink (about 15 minutes).  Remove chicken from pot and shred; set aside.

2) Preheat the oven to 350.  Combine the soup, sour cream, chili powder and cumin in a small saucepan.  Over low heat, bring mix to a simmer, stirring occasionally.  Once simmering, turn off heat, cover, and set aside.

3) Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the chicken, green chilies, taco seasoning, water, and about half the chopped scallions (the rest will be for garnish on top).  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir in the lime juice and onion and garlic powders; simmer for another 10 minutes, then remove from heat.

4) Stir one cup of the soup mix into the chicken mix in the skillet.  Spread the remaining soup mixture across the bottom of a 9x13" baking or casserole dish.

5) Fill a tortilla with the chicken mix and sprinkle with a mix of both mild and sharp cheddar cheese.

Fold the edges of the tortillas over the mixture in the middle, and then place seam-side down in the prepared pan, on top of the soup mix.  Repeat with remaining tortillas to make five total.

6) Pour enchilada sauce over the enchiladas.  Cover with the remaining cheddar cheeses (should have about 1.5-2 remaining cups).  Sprinkle with remaining scallions and bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbling, about 25-30 minutes.

I apologize for the messy, half-eaten finished product picture, but that just proves how good they were!  I didn't even have time to take a picture before they were snapped up.

As I said, I served the enchiladas with Mexican rice and refried beans on the side.  It was a very filling and very tasty meal!

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And they're off! Derby party snacks.

I recently attended my first Kentucky Derby party, and it was a great experience.  Every detail had been thought of to make this party great: TVs to watch the races, race sheets to read up on the horses, Derby hat contests, race tickets, door prizes, Derby decorations and lots of food and drink!  Everyone also was asked to bring an appetizer or dessert to share and we were asked to bring an appetizer.  It took me awhile to decide on something, but I finally settled on these Tomato Bacon Cups.

Here's the recipe:

8 slices bacon

1 tomato, diced

1 sm. bunch scallions, finely chopped

3 oz. shredded Swiss cheese

1/2 C mayo

1 tsp. dried basil

1 (16 oz.) can refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough

1) Preheat oven to 375.  Lightly grease a mini muffin pan (two if you have them, it'll go faster).  I hit each cup with a very quick shot of cooking spray.

2) Cook bacon until crispy over medium heat in a skillet; you'll need to crumble it, and it will be easier than if it's chewy.  Add the bacon to a bowl; mix in the tomato, onion, cheese, mayo and basil.

3) Separate each biscuit into it's natural halves; cut each half into quarters.  Roll each quarter into a ball and then use a rolling pin to flatten into a little disc.  Place the disc into one of the muffin tin cups; press into the bottom and up the sides of the cups, making a little mold.  Fill each of the biscuit cups with some of the mixture (for me, it was a couple of teaspoons each).  You could conceivably roll out all the discs, then go back and fill at the end; when I tried that, though, I found the biscuit was loosing it's shape and I had to re-form/re-roll again, anyway.  So I found it easiest to go one by one.  Whatever works for you!

4) Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cups are golden brown.

The first few I made, I feel like I used too much biscuit dough (you can sort of tell in the picture above).  Originally I had been cutting each biscuit half into thirds; that's when I switched to quarters, and it worked much better.  Unfortunately, I guess my battery was low, because the pictures of those batches didn't end up on my camera.

These went over really well; so well, there weren't any left over to bring home from the party!  But I did snag one to test before taking (what if they were horrible?!) and I thought they were really good.  Just for something different, I might try cheddar cheese in a future attempt, or even some of those flavored mayos to give it a little something different.  Either way, I'd definitely take them to another get together, for sure.

Let me know if you try this, and how it turns out for you!

(If you need a mini muffin tin, check this one out - the one I used for this was a Wilton one)

It's been awhile...

Okay, so it's been awhile forever since I last posted, and I'm sorry!  It's been a little busy around here, and I haven't had as much time for blogging as I would have liked.  But I'm recommitting myself to finding the time to do so.  I've been very busy in the kitchen and I want to share some of the really great things I've found and tried recently.  I'm going to back up a little bit so that I can share a few things with you that I've cooked over the past couple of weeks, and then we'll be current going forward.

Thanks for those who are still hanging in there with me and checking in now and again!