Dutch Oven Enchilada Casserole

We have made this Enchilada Casserole two times while vacationing, and both times I forgot to take pictures. So, I took this after it was half gone. The picture isn't very good, but trust me the enchilada casserole was super!! 

Enchilada Casserole

2 pounds hamburger browned with

1/2 Cup dried onion

1 can tomato soup (10 oz.)

2 cans enchilada sauce (10 oz.)

3/4 pound shredded cheese (I used cheddar jack)

6 large four tortillas

Sour Cream

In a 12 inch Dutch oven, cook ground beef and onion. Remove from oven and place in a large bowl. Stir in the soup and sauce. In the oven place a 1/4 inch of sauce. Cover this mixture with a layer of flour tortillas, tearing to cover. Cover tortillas with cheese.

Place another layer of sauce, tortillas and cheese, repeating until all the mixture is used. Top with cheese. Place lid on Dutch oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until mixture is bubbling and heated through.

Serve with sour cream.

Awesome Chuck Roast!

Since we got our current stake president, we have had many stake dinners that featured wonderful beef and pork roast as the main dish. Our stake president has his own ranch and he is an incredible cook.

I have taken his recipe and modified it to fit my own tastes. Don't tell him, but I think mine is as yummy as his!! ;) By the way, a stake is a unit within our church, and it includes 5-8 wards or branches. This keeps the church very organized.

Start with a chuck roast. In my case, not nearly as large as President Griffin's. Mine was about 3-4 pounds. I think he does about 8 pound roasts, and cooks them all day.

Season it very well with Redmond RealSalt All Natural Sea Salt and Redmond RealSalt Natural Season Salt. Rub in the seasoning. I have to tell you I LOVE all the RealSalt products!! Until I started using RealSalt, I didn't ever use salt I thought it tasted funny. Now I use salt all the time, much to my family's delight!!

Anyway, I digress. After you have seasoned the roast place it in a cast iron dutch oven. Add about 1 can of beef broth, and put the lid on it. With the oven at 275 degrees, cook for about 5-6 hours if it is a smaller roast. Cook longer if larger. Cook it until the meat falls apart and off the bone.

Now if I have to tell you what to do next you are in deep trouble.... Ours was so yummy that I totally forgot to take a picture of it. That's not necessarily a bad thing;)

Happy Christmas!!

Creamed New Peas and Potatoes -- Food Storage Style

Today we had Creamed New Peas and New Potatoes. This is the first time in many years we have had new potatoes in time to go with the new peas.
I tried a recipe that I have seen and heard very good things about, but have never tried. I used what is called "Magic Mix". It is a food storage recipe that was developed by the Utah State University Extension. Magic Mix:
2 1/3 C. Dry non-instant powdered milk
1 C. all purpose flour
1 C. butter, at room temperature
Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Using electric mixer, mix ingredients together slowly and gradually increase speed until incorporated. Keep mix tightly covered in refrigerator for up to three months. White Sauce:
2/3 C. Magic Mix
1 C. water
In saucepan combine ingredients. Stir rapidly using a whisk over medium heat until it starts to bubble, remove from heat.

I steamed my potatoes then added the peas for the last few minutes. Then I added them to the cooked magic mix. It was delicious!! For the amount I needed, I doubled the magic mix white sauce.

This made the smoothest white sauce I have ever made and definately the easiest!! Laurence and I are totally sold!

I did find this recipe from the Utah State University Extension service which is slightly different.
CREAMED POTATOES AND PEAS
3 medium potatoes

1 ½ cups Magic Mix
2 ½ cups water

1/8 teaspoon pepper
½ cup frozen peas

½ teaspoon seasoned salt
Peel and cube potatoes; boil in water until almost
tender. Add frozen peas; cook 2 minutes longer.
Add Magic Mix, pepper and salt; stir over medium
heat until thickened.

We've Got Salsa!!

Last year we made so much salsa. I was sure we would have a couple of years worth. SILLY ME!! Between giving it away, sending it with Aisling to school and our own use, we ran out about 2 months ago. So I've been anxiously watching our tomatoes. Unfortunately, the tomatoes haven't been cooperating and have been ripening really slow!! Finally last weekend by adding our tomatoes to our good friend Annette's tomatoes we had enough for 2 batches. We got 19 pints. YAHOO!!

SALSA (recipe from Cyndie M.)

1 gallon tomatoes peeled & coarsely chopped

4 large green bell peppers (seeded & chopped)

4 large white onions (chopped)

5-6 jalapeno peppers (seeded & chopped)

6 yellow banana peppers (seeded & chopped)

1 large molé pepper (this is Laurence's addition that we like, but they're hard to find)

1/4 C. salt

1/2 C. vinegar

1 T crushed ground red pepper

Place tomatoes in a large pot (I use a 12 quart stainless steel pot)

Cook. As water rises to the top, spoon it off.

Add peppers, onions, salt, vinegar, and crushed pepper. Cook until really thick.

Bottle as usual.

Process in a hot water bath for 7 minutes.

Makes about 8 pints.

You can alter the "spiciness" by adding more peppers as desired.

Although Laurence had his surgery he was able to take care of the peppers and onions. He is a great trooper!!

Grandma Baird's Pickled Beets

Grandpa and Grandma; Everett & Marie Baird When we planted beets this year, I made sure I didn't plant too many. I REALLY didn't want to HAVE to can them. So here I am, it's September and I'm pickling beets and wishing I had more beets to pickle. I LOVE pickled beets. Talk about reaping what you sow!! This recipe is a recipe I got fom my mom, who got it from her mom, Grandma Baird.

PICKLED BEETS

Wash and cook beets until done.
Peel and slice 1/2 inch thick (I prefer to leave them whole if they're small enough)
Place in jars.
Set aside.

Boil:
1/2 tsp. salt
2 C. water
2 T. caraway seeds
6 C. vinegar
3 C. white sugar
1 T. mixed pickling spice in a bag (I also put the caraway seeds in the bag as I don't care for them in the beets)

Pour boiling mixture over beets.
Seal jars
Hot water bath 5 minutes.

Apple Raspberry Cobbler

Erin asked for the recipe for this so I decided to post it for one and all: We used a 12" Dutch Oven.
1 21 oz. can pie filling (we used apple)
3-4 boxes of washed raspberries (because Aisling was kind enough to bring them from UT!)
7-up
2 boxes of the cheapest yellow cake mix on the shelf

Spray the Dutch Oven w/ Pam.
Dump in pie filling, and raspberries
Add 7-up until it just covers the fruit. So, how much you use will depend on the size of your oven.
Pour cake mixes on top.
Put on the lid.

You determine the number of briquettes by the size of the oven. Ours was a 12" oven. You subtract 3 from the bottom and add them to the top. So, that makes it 9 charcoal briquettes under the Dutch Oven and 15 charcoal briquettes on top. This cooks at about 350°.
It will need to cook for 20-30 minutes. Not to worry.... you'll be able to smell the delicious aroma!! Start checking it at about 20 minutes. If it isn't boiling you may want to add a briquette to the bottom. But be careful not to burn it. You want it to cook until it is brown on top.

You can delete the fresh fruit and just use 2 cans of pie filling.
Or you can use canned peaches and omit the 7up.
Regardless of how you do it, yummy is the result!!

Uncle Glenn, if I have made any mistakes in this, please post corrections:) Thanks!!

OK, So It's NOT the Iron Chef Competion

Being the partying kind of fools we are, we DIDN'T have an Iron Chef Competition, or light 89 candles on a beautiful cake only to blow them out. Although I wish we had been there for both events! Laurence and I spent Valentine's Day canning beef stew!! Bet you wish you'd been here:)
We are going to mom's this week. She told us on Thursday that they had made special arrangements with the butcher place that we could pick up our 1/2 beef while we are there. If you could see my freezer you would know why this sent me into panic mode! There was only one choice..... eat it and can it. I had 8 packages of stew meat that were taking up space. Laurence and I turned them into 8 quarts and 20 pints of beef stew. YUM!!! I am so tickled to be looking at this on our pantry shelf!! (I think my church calling is affecting my brain....)
AND..... after all the fun was over we cooked filet mignon and peach cobbler for dinner! It was a wonderful day!! Not to mention the beautiful rose Laurence gave me.
Happy Valentine's to All!!

A Honey of a Mustard

Well I tried something new. Making my own Hot Honey Mustard. Now those of you who know me will find that really odd since I don't like any kind of mustard. But, I am trying to finish up converting some recipes from sugar to honey. I had this recipe that I used to make for my mother-in-law and she loved it! It was called hot honey mustard and didn't have one bit of honey in it. It was all sugar!! So I decided to work on converting it over. Laurence says it is great!! Just not hot enough, (but nothing is). So now we have the perfected Hot Honey Mustard with honey! We went out tonight and ate Chinese. I took along my bottle of mustard for Laurence to try. Here it is with their mustard and cocktail sauce.

HOT HONEY MUSTARD

1/2 c. high quality dry mustard
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1/3 c. honey
2 beaten eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. miracle whip salad dressing

In a stainless steel pot mix together dry mustard and vinegar. Let stand overnight in pan.
In the morning cook mustard and vinegar mixture over low heat stirring constantly until it boils.
Cool.
Add salt and miracle whip mixing well. Can use immediately or store covered in refrigerator until ready for use.

It's a Great Way to Spend Boxing Day

Aisling and I spent part of the day today canning spaghetti sauce. Last summer my tomatoes couldn't really get with the program. I took the tomatoes as I got them; blanched and quartered them and put them in the freezer. This morning the job was half done!I must say it sure beats canning during the heat of the summer!! We did 17 1/2 pints, now she'll have even more food to take back to school with her.

The Big Measuring Spoon vs. the Little One

You already know of my trials with the bread. Viv was kind enough to point out that I was using 1Tablespoon of yeast vs.1 teaspoon of yeast. The crazy thing is that I had actually checked it and in my mind I was doing it right. So, here is the evidence. I did't put in too much yeast OR burn it. Yahoo!!

Not Even Breadmaking 101

A while ago my cousin Viv was telling me about the wonderful bread recipe she got from a friend. Bread that was just incredible!! Well of course, I HAD to have the recipe. It was for a 2 pound loaf, but she and I figured that if I just cut the recipe in half I'd be good to go. I made the bread and then there was this smell of burning bread....... ooops, not the smell I'd been after.

It turned out that the dough had risen out over the outside of the pan and then cooked (burned) onto the outside of the pan and the inside of the bread maker! RATS! I had to put a wet washcloth over it for most of the day to finally get all of the baked on bread off.

So, thinks I, I'll try this again. After all it's just a matter of ingredients and the bread maker does the rest. This was my second attempt. BUT dum da dum dum.... at least this time I was on the watch.

I checked the bread YES it was on the outside but I very cleverly took the pan out put the bread into the pan and let it bake. Well a picture is worth a thousand words.

It was NOT PRETTY!!

I WILL try this bread-- but Viv will have to make it for me. I am going back to my old recipe!!:) Hmmmmm does this mean I visit her or she visits me?

Back to the old stand by recipes for me:)