Monday, July 26, 2010

Black Bean Quesadillas

Adapted from Blog Chef . net

Measurements are not precise so if you want more of something, just throw it in there.
2 teaspoons olive oil
3 tablespoons onion (finely chopped)
1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 1/2 cups frozen corn (get the huge bag of organic frozen corn at Costco)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
¼ cup salsa
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Flour tortillas (I used the uncooked tortillas from Costco)
1 ½ cups shredded Monterey jack cheese (or more)

In a large saucepan heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened (about 2 minutes). Stir in beans and corn. Add sugar, salsa, and red pepper flakes. Mix well. Cook until heated through. Heat large skillet to medium heat. Place a cooked tortilla flat into the skillet. Spread cheese all over the top. Place some of the bean mixture over the cheese. Place another tortilla on top of the bean mixture. Cook until the bottom is golden brown. Flip and cook on the other side until golden brown.
Repeat until all tortillas and bean mixture are gone.

* This will probably fill about 3 of the Costco tortillas. So, if you're serving a big crowd, just double the recipe. It is just as delicious for leftovers, trust me...I just ate it for lunch! Enjoy.

Chicken Puffs

There are a million different ways for this recipe to be made. Some people make it with onions but I think the flavor of onions is WAY too overpowering.

Chicken Puffs
1 package of frozen rolls
4 chicken breasts
8 oz. cream cheese
salt and pepper
Ritz crackers
butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
milk
sour cream

I cook my frozen breasts of chicken in the crock pot with S&P and Ms.Dash. My mother-in-law boils it. I like it done in the crock pot b/c it's so tender when it comes apart that it just falls apart.

Shred it or if its too tough to shred use a food chopper and chop it up. Then you mix it with the cream cheese and S&P. Make a little mash. Then thaw the Rhodes rolls (some people use crescent rolls and that is much easier but I have tried both ways and Rhodes is the best-promise). I usually put them in the microwave for 30 seconds on regular microwave heat, turn them over and then do another 30 seconds. DO NOT OVER HEAT. Mold one roll at a time in to disc shape. Put a T. of mash onto the roll then fold and pinch dough around mash. I then dip it in melted butter (about a stick is what you'll need for the recipe) then roll it smashed Ritz crackers. Then I put it on a greased cookie sheet upside down so it doesn't come undone. Cook at 350 degrees for about 23 minutes.

Top with sauce. To make sauce combine one can of cream of chicken soup and one soup can of milk in sauce pan over med. heat. Keep a close eye on it, you don't want the sauce to burn. Once those two ingredients are combined mix in 1 c. of sour cream with whisk. Bring to a gentle boil then remove from heat.

Recipe from peach tree cooking

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Cinnamon Rolls

These cinnamon rolls are the best I have ever tasted!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Warm Milk (110 Degrees)
2 whole Eggs Room Temperature
⅓ cups Butter Or Margarine Melted
4-½ cups Bread Flour
1 teaspoon Salt

FOR THE FILLING:
1 cup Brown Sugar, Packed
2-½ Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
⅓ cups Butter, Softened

FOR THE FROSTING:
3 ounces, weight Cream Cheese
¼ cups Butter, Softened
1-½ cup Powdered Sugar
½ teaspoons Vanilla
⅛ teaspoons Salt

Place ingredients in the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer (if you don’t have a bread machine, scroll down to the instructions by hand). Select the dough cycle; press start.

Once finished, roll out the dough on a floured surface. Let it rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl combine the brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll the dough into a 16×21″ rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Roll up dough, and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 13×9″ baking dish or two 9″ pie plates. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake rolls in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together the cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Directions by hand:

Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Mix in sugar, eggs, salt and butter. Add flour; mix well. Knead dough into a large ball dusted lightly in flour. Place in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Roll out dough and proceed with directions above.

Note that unbaked rolls can be frozen. Just take them out of the freezer and put them in the refrigerator the night before, and in the morning they’ll be ready for the oven. You can also make these ahead of time (like the night before). Just put them unbaked, in the fridge. In the morning, set them out for about 30 minutes before baking.

If you love cream cheese frosting, I recommend doubling the frosting.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Iced Coffee

4 - 5 cups of strong coffee (not a big deal, I tend to use closer to 5 cups)

1-1/2 cups sugar
4 cups milk
2 cups Half and Half
2 tsp vanilla


Dissolve sugar in hot coffee. Put coffee/sugar mixture in refrigerator to cool. When cool, add other ingredients. Pour into a tupperware (or freezer) container. If possible, stir every hour for several hours. Once it gets hard, use a meat fork to chop/ stir the mixture. This will make it easier in the end as you don't have to chop a giant ice cube. Remove from freezer 1 hours prior to serving, chop again with meat fork at this time. Serve with spoon.


I often make a double recipe. If doing this, start in the morning. It will take 12 plus hours to freeze well so plan to use it on the following day.