Chicken Enchiladas

These enchiladas are great to make if you have leftover chicken or turkey. Or you can just cook up some chicken for them, as I did tonight. For the chicken I trimmed three chicken breast halves and placed on parchment lined baking sheet. I rubbed them lightly with olive oil, then sprinkled with salt, pepper and chili powder, and baked in 350 oven for about 25 minutes, until no longer pink inside.

Chicken Enchiladas (adapted from a Canadian Living recipe)
- 3-4 cups cooked chicken, cut up
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4-6 mushrooms, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 cups each shredded cheddar and monterey jack cheese
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3 cups salsa (or one full jar)
- 8 large tortillas

In pan over medium heat, saute onion, garlic and mushrooms in one tbsp vegetable oil until no moisture remains, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in chicken, beans, 1 cup each of both cheeses and sour cream.

Lay one tortilla on work surface. Spoon about 3/4 cup of filling into center. Fold tortilla over filling, on each side and then roll up. Place seam side down in greased 13x9 inch glass pan.



Continue with remaining tortilla's. Pour salsa over entire dish. Cover tightly with tin foil and bake in 350 oven for 35 minutes or until piping hot. Uncover and sprinkle remaining cheeses on top, bake uncovered for an additional 10 minutes. Let cool for about 5 minutes before digging in.

Enjoy!

Scalloped Potatoes

I know everyone claims to have a recipe for the best scalloped potatoes ever. Believe me, I've made a lot of different recipes. One of my favourites includes a layer of sauteed cabbage and bacon. However, I truly believe the recipe I made for Easter this past weekend trumps them all. I should have made a double batch, they were that good. Oh, and I even got an email from a party guest the next day who wrote, and I quote "I am still dreaming about those potatoes". So although I don't have a photograph of the completed dish (it disappeared way too fast), here is the recipe for what I am calling The Absolute by Far Best Scalloped Potatoes EVAH.

The Absolute by Far Best Scalloped Potatoes EVAH
- 1 1/2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes
- 1 1/2 lbs yams or sweet potatoes
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp each, minced fresh parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (sing it like Simon and Garfunkel)
- 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 3/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
- 1 1/4 cups grated Gruyere cheese (I might have used more)

Fill large bowl with cold water. Peel potatoes, slice into 1/8 inch thick rounds and place in bowl with water. I've used a food processor in the past for this, which works, but this time I did it by hand.

Combine cream, butter, and garlic in medium saucepan; bring to simmer. Remove from heat. Mix all herbs in small bowl, and salt and pepper in separate small bowl.


Butter a large glass baking dish. Drain potatoes, then pat dry with kitchen towels. Transfer half of potatoes to baking dish, using hands to distribute evenly. Sprinkle with half of s&p mixture then half of herb mixture.

Sprinkle with half of cheese. Repeat with remaining potatoes, s&p, herbs and cheese. Pour cream mixture over gratin, pressing lightly to submerge potato mixture.


Cover tightly with foil. Bake in 400F oven 30 minutes. Uncover; bake until top is golden, and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes.

I baked mine the day before and then reheated in the oven while the ham was resting. Soooo good!!!!

Pasta with Sausage and Asparagus Sauce

I love cooking with sausage, and particularly because I have access to some of the best sausage around. Oyama Sausage make small batches of fresh sausages every week. Anytime that I am at Granville Island I make sure to pick up a few different ones for the freezer. Their lamb sausages are to die for!!! For this recipe I used a couple of spicy Italian sausages.

Pasta with Sausage and Asparagus
~ 1-2 tbsp olive oil
~ 2 medium sized shallots
~ 3-4 garlic cloves
~ 2 sausages
~ 5 tomatoes, chopped, or 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
~ 5 spears asparagus
~ pasta

Saute chopped shallots and minced garlic in olive oil 1-2 minutes. Remove sausage meat from casings. Add to pan, breaking up with spoon as it cooks, about 8-10 minutes.

Add tomatoes, salt & pepper and simmer for about 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil water and cook pasta according to directions. When pasta is almost done, add asparagus to sauce.

Toss pasta with sauce. Serve topped with parmesan cheese. Bon appetit!

Frozen Food

So I admit, I love having frozen food on hand for days when you want something and you don't want to make a mess or do a lot of dishes. Now that being said, I also like making my own frozen food, and once you start, it's addictive. I was over at a friends place a few weeks ago, and went to put some ice cream in the freezer and noticed she had a ton of homemade frozen dinners. When she told me that she tries to make a big batch of something every weekend, it got me to thinking and remembering how awesome it is to have stuff on hand, especially if you're working late, or you've got to get to dodgeball or something. Tonight I was making meatloaf with mashed potatoes (recipe to come) and decided to make hamburgers and freeze them with some of the beef. Now I have a few more meals ready to go!

So, in the spirit of frozen food, I present one of my favourite frozen foods...french fries! I wish I had a picture of the finished product, but you always end up eating them and forgetting to take the picture!

Frozen French Fries
These can also be prepared and cooked immediately, although I find they bake better from frozen. Make sure to keep your eye on them as they bake!

~ potatoes of any kind, scrubbed
~ olive oil
~ salt

Slice the potatoes lengthwise, and then slice again, making matchsticks. In a pot of boiling water, immerse potatoes, stirring until tender but not cooked through, about 2-3 minutes. With a slotted spoon, take potatoes out and lay in single layer on paper towels, pat to dry. [At this point you can move to the cooking stage if you are not freezing the fries.]


Freeze fries in a single layer on parchment lined cookie sheets. Once frozen store in freezer bags, cook within a month.


To Cook
Toss fries with a couple of tablespoons of oil, and some salt. Place in single layer on baking sheets. Bake in 450 oven for 35-40 minutes, flipping half way through. Make sure to watch them!!!

And she's back...

Hello everyone in the cyber world. First of all, my apologies for taking so long to get back to blogging. The story is two-fold. As you may have read, beer was spilled on the laptop which created quite a mess. When we did get a new computer however, I wasn't yet ready to dive back into blogging, and was kind of enjoying the hiatus. And then about a month ago I decided to get back into it, and got very excited.

This past Christmas I had made cookbooks for my 3 sisters and my parents, so I already had dozens of recipes typed up and ready to go... Alas, seems as though when the computer was dying, it ate all of my recipe files. So while I was ready to start blogging, I wasn't ready to start trying to remember all of my recipes and I feared that were I to try and remember without recreation, I might make a mistake and then fellow readers, the results for you would not be what I had envisioned. And no, I had not made myself a cookbook, as I figured I would eventually have all the recipes online on this blog. Never trust technology...

All of that to say, I'm back, and I think I may explore a bit of a different format for this blog. I'm going to experiment a bit, please send me your feedback. While I will continue posting recipes, I'm also going to branch out and do some restaurant reviews, recommend books on food, cookbooks and also different websites.

Don't worry, I've still been cooking up a storm and have plenty of great things to share, so keep checking back, and I promise, it won't be another 6 weeks!