Deconstructed Fajita Casserole

I love Mexican food just as much as the next person.  I especially love it from certain restaurants.  One of my favorites that is close enough to home to get it at least twice a year is Chuy's in Houston, TX.  By far, the best authentic Mexican food I have ever had was at Mi Tierra's in San Antonio, TX right off of the Riverwalk.  A little farther in distance, so I'll stick to Chuy's.

Chuy's has a famous house dip known as the Creamy Jalapeno Rancj dip.  I found a copycat recipe online, and I must say, it is pretty close to the real McCoy.  I make it for him every now and then, which gives me an excuse to make fajitas or enchiladas to accompany this yummy dip/sauce.

After a recent trip to HEB in Beaumont, I grilled a wonderful skirt steak for fajitas.  Though I enjoy them, I'm not big on them once they've been reheated.  I didn't want to waste the meat since a pound of beef is more than a gallon of gas these days.  So, I dreamt up this casserole idea.  It is pretty much a fajita deconstructed, if there is even such as thing.  Here's the low down on the dish:

Base Sauce:
1-can tomato sauce
1-medium tomato, diced
1/4 sweet onion, diced
1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning

Sauté the onion until clear.  Add in diced tomato and tomato sauce.  Mix in taco seasoning, simmer over low heat for fifteen minutes, or until diced tomato is cooked through.  Set aside.

For the casserole you will need:
Enchilada rice, recipe follows
1/2 can refried beans
grilled fajita skirt steak (I ran it through the food processor until it was the consistency of ground meat)
12 tortillas (I used butter tortillas, do I need to explain why?)
Cheese for topping (I alternated pepper jack and cheddar slices, it's what was in the fridge)
Chuy's Creamy Jalapeno dip, recipe follows

This casserole is a layered casserole much like a lasagna.  Begin by oiling a  casserole dish that is      9 x 11.  Spoon the base sauce into the bottom of the pan.  Add four tortillas on top of the base sauce to create the second layer.  You may wish to overlap two tortillas and cut the other two to fill the gaps along the top and sides to ensure the bottom layer completely covers the pan. 

Next, spoon the base sauce over the tortillas.  Add 1/2 of a can of refried beans to the top of the base sauce and spread evenly.  Add 1/2 of the meat mixture and spread.  Next, layer one half of the rice mixture.  Cover the rice with four tortillas.  Spread the base sauce, top with meat, then rice.  Cover this layer with the last four tortillas.  Spread the remainder of the meat mixture on top and cover with the remainder of the base sauce. 

Cover dish with aluminum foil and place in oven for 45 minutes.  Remove from the oven, uncover and add cheese to the top of the casserole.  Place back into the oven for 15 minutes uncovered. 

Serve with Chuy's Creamy Jalapeno Ranch sauce and fresh guacamole.  Also couldn't hurt to enjoy with a whole fruit Margarita!

Enchilada Rice:
3 cups cooked rice
1 can red enchilada sauce
1/2 onion diced and cooked until translucent
1 can Rotel

Mix rice, enchilada sauce, onion, and rotel in large mixing bowl.  Set aside.


Chuy's Creamy Jalapeno Ranch Dip

1 cup mayonnaise
2 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup jalapenos from a jar (I use Trappey's Hot Jalapenos)
1 cup green tomatillo sauce (Herdez's Salsa Verde is an excellent choice)
1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 packets dry ranch dressing mix

Place all ingredients except for cilantro into a blender and blend on high until peppers are completely chopped and dressing mix is fully incorporated.  Stop the blender, add in cilantro.  Process for ten seconds on medium to high speed.  (I don't like putting in the cilantro until the end.  I find processing it for too long gives the dip an off-flavor)

 

Enjoy!

Three Cheese Broccoli Soup

I am in ❤️❤️❤️ with my Vitamix!  Being able to give my family healthy and whole food is paramount. This tool allows me to do so. Best of all, it cleans itself!  Yep, you read that correctly. It. Cleans. Itself.

Chase loves broccoli cheese soup. So I figured today was a perfect day to make a healthy lunch for him. The recipe is simple. 

2 heads broccoli steamed with stems

2 cups skim milk

1/4 cup silken tofu

2 carrots diced, unpeeled

1/4 onion diced

2 ribs celery diced

1 clove garlic minced

Tony Chachere's to taste

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup withheld for garnish

1/4 cup Parmesean cheese

1/8 cup smoked Gouda

Sauté onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. Place ingredients in Vitamix beginning with milk, tofu, and all others.  Place lid on top of container and switch machine on, beginning with setting one then quickly to ten. Increase speed to high. Run for six minutes, or until steam escapes vented lid. 

Pour into bowl. Top with shredded cheese and serve with sourdough bread slices. Enjoy!

Crawfish and Tasso Pastalaya

Last weekend, my in-laws came a callin' with crawfish in hand.  Since paw-in-law is a crawfish farmer, we occasionally get to enjoy mud bugs without the pesky price issue.  In that case, you take what you can get.  Small or large, they're crawfish!

After eating our share of our crawfish, there were still tails to be had.  My hubby de-headed them, put them in plastic bags, and shoved them into the freezer.  I decided to conquer the task of peeling them and creating something yummy with them.  Of course, my mad addiction to carbs reared its ugly head and convinced me that pasta was the way to go.  But, not just any pasta.  Something sassy, something out of my usual realm of indulgence, something with tasso!  Oh yeah!  Tasso.  If you've never had it, it is a wonderfully smoked morsel of pork heaven. 

Because Cajuns take our food as seriously as our religion and politics, I am a tasso and sausage snob.  I cannot, will not, do not, eat the "sausage" from around these parts.  (I put sausage in quotes here because what they market as sausage is not what I consider to be GOOD sausage.)  Following dictionary definition, yes I suppose you could say that the links stuffed with pork and encased in some synthetic product is sausage.  But, you just can't beat LEJEUNE's SAUSAGE from EUNICE.  (No, I'm related and collect no money for endorsement.)  I don't know what I'll do if they ever close.  Every time I go in, I beg them to establish an on-line market to ship.  Not that a one hour drive is too far.  The problem is that they aren't open on Saturday's anymore.  There's the problem.

I digress....back to the point of this post.  So, I cleaned the tails which yielded about two pounds.  I pan fried the tasso first, adding onions, bell peppers, and celery to the mix.  Once the mixture had cooked  down fairly well, I added the crawfish tails and about 1/2 cup chicken stock.  I wanted to let the flavors meld a little before adding the cream and half and half.  (Note:  I learned the hard way a long time ago that adding any cream-based product to heat for too long will cause it to separate.  Not a pretty site.  So, any cream product goes in the last few minutes over a very low heat.)

The crawfish and tasso mixture simmered for about ten minutes.  I then added in the chopped green onions and garlic.  Again, I find adding these things too early on in the cooking process makes them taste bitter.  The last five to seven minutes of cooking, I added in the half and half and whipping cream mixture, and lowered the heat to a low simmer.  Once the cream tempered, I removed some and added it to a bowl with Wondra gravy thickener.  I like to use this method so as to not have lumps in the sauce, and to help thicken it a little.  I then returned the mixture back to the pot, turned off the heat, removed it to a cool burner, sprinkled it with parmesan cheese, and covered the pot.






















Once the noodles were cooked al dente, I strained them and tossed them into the sauce.  YUMM-O!

Recipe:
1 pound cleaned crawfish tails (previously boiled),
1 pound cubed tasso
Cajun trinity to taste (onions, bell peppers, celery; I use the seasoning blend in the frozen section)
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 cups half and half
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 garlic cloves minced
1 green onion diced
1 handful parsley for garnish
1 pound whole wheat penne pasta
1 1/2 Tablespoons Wondra gravy thickener
Shredded parmesan cheese to taste

In a large pasta pot, bring well-salted water to a boil.  Midway through cooking process of tasso and crawfish, begin boiling noodles until al dente. 

Begin sautéing tasso in heavy bottom pan.  Depending on the quality of meat, it may render some fat.  If so, drain before adding vegetables.  Add trinity.  Cook until onion is clear.  Add crawfish tails and 1/2 cup stock.  Simmer for approximately ten minutes. Add in green onions and garlic. Add half and half and cream stir to incorporate, reduce heat to very low simmer.  After five minutes or so remove 1/4 cup liquid and mix  approximately one and a half tablespoons Wondra thickener in a separate bowl.  Add back to pot, stir.  Remove from heat, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, and cover. 

Remove noodles from water, strain.  Add directly to sauce.  Toss. Garnish with parsley and serve.

I forgot to mention, stay tuned for the Crawfish Bread I will make with the rest of the tails!
 

Home on the Range With Wild Buffalo Chicken

When it comes to chicken, I'm picky.  My chicken has to be colorful.  Period.  No ifs, ands, or buts, it has to have color.  In the cooked sense, that is.  It all started when I worked as a line girl in a restaurant.  Seeing the colorless fowl corpses coming out of the kitchen when there was a perfectly good grill nearby capable of making cross-hatch tattoos on the bird made my stomach quiver. 

I've indulged you in that tidbit to say this:  My husband really enjoys a good buffalo wing.  He especially likes the ones at a certain establishment where women hardly wear clothes and the owls sprawled across their shirts look just as shocked as I do when I walk in.  There's also the chain restaurant that is a sports bar of sorts where you can get the bone-in, or extra fried with lots of sodium nugget "spun" in your favorite buffalo sauce.  In either case, I'm not wild about either.  Oh sure, I enjoy my share of hot, vinegar-laden wings.  But, I'd rather make them at home.  Even venture out, shake things up a bit.  Hence, the reason for this dish!  It's the pulled buffalo chicken sandwich.  And, it's hatched in a slow cooker; even better.

Here's how this is going to go down in your kitchen.  See this stuff, gather it. 

 

 

I used four boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  Half of the onion you see above and 3/4 of a packet of the ranch mix.  The two bottles will make an appearance below.  I'd love to tell you that this is an exact science.  Actually, nothing that I do is scientific.  I don't bake very often because I feel that's a little too scientific.  Anyhoot....

 

Place the chicken breasts in a single layer in your slow cooker.  Sprinkle 3/4 of a ranch seasoning packet over the top of the breasts. 

 

 

 

 

Next, pour enough buffalo wing sauce of your choice over the breasts.  The sauce should cover the breasts, but not completely submerge them.  This equated to about half of a bottle.  

 

 

Using the whipped version of the sauce, add two rounded spoonfuls.  Cover the pot, set on low, and cook for approximately four hours.  The trick here is to cook it until just fork tender.  If you forget about it, like I've done, you end up with mushy chicken (which is not some sort of new cool ethnic dish.)  It is a real life, full on, cooking flub that you don't want to make.  Your chicken should flake like so....

 

 

Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and place it in a large bowl.  Using two forks, pull the chicken much like you would when making pulled pork.  (Great, now I'm craving BBQ!)  



 









 

 

Pour wing sauce from the bottle over the shredded chicken to your desired taste.  Add a spoonful of the whipped variety, and a sprinkle of the ranch mix to taste, mix well. 



Voila!  Shredded Buffalo Chicken at home, no crowds, no big screen TVs inundating you with Sports Center chatter, no half-dressed women reminding you that you should be bellying up to the squat machine at the gym rather than the table.  Plus, you can make enough of this dish to bring to work and enjoy with your friends.  Go wild with the theme!  Dress up as your favorite cowboy/cowgirl, decorate the space with tumbleweeds and bring in real live horses, or NOT.  Totally your call.  In either case, this stuff is delish.  Coleslaw makes a great side along with the traditional celery and carrot sticks.  And who could forget a nice, tall, ice cold root beer!  Enjoy Partner!

 

 



 

*Confession, I totally forgot to add the onion.  You'd clearly make that happen after pouring in the sauce.

 

Recipe:

 

5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 packet ranch dressing mix

1 bottle hot wing sauce of your choice

1 jar whipped wing sauce

1/2 medium to large onion, sliced in half, then slivered

Carrots, celery, ranch or blue cheese to garnish,

Fresh Kaiser roll or other bun of your choice

 

Wash chicken thoroughly.  Add to crock in a single layer.  Sprinkle 3/4 of ranch seasoning over chicken.  Cover with wing sauce and two spoonfuls of whipped sauce.  Add onion.  Cover and cook on low for approximately four hours.  Chicken should flake when done.  Remove from crock.  In a large bowl, shred chicken using forks or hands.  Add sauce and whipped sauce along with a dash or so of ranch seasoning to taste.  Mix well.  Serve on a bun with condiments.

 

This recipe fed six adults with large helpings for each sandwich. 



 

Pão de Queijo

Yum, Yum, Yum!  I LOVE these little morsels of bready goodness.  (O.K. I know bready isn't a word, but for the sake of this post, let's just say that it is.)  I am addicted to these.  When we go to Fogo de Chao, I could literally eat my weight's worth in these and the smoked salmon on the maginificent salad bar. 

Here is the super quick and easy recipe.  Be sure to make them in the miniature muffin pan.  It's hard to believe that something made in a blender can be soooo good!

Amazing Cranberry, Orange, White Chocolate, Oatmeal Cookies

Yes, those are a lot of flavors packed into one small cookie.  But, oh are they worth it!  These cookies are simple to make and just as easy to eat!  I'm not a huge cookie fanatic, nor do I care for oatmeal cookies especially.  But these little gems are different.  They pack a serious punch of ooey-gooey goodness.

Recipe:
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon orange extract (more if you like the stronger orange flavor)
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup Craisins
1 cup white chocolate chips


Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Optional:  Drizzle cookies with white chocolate flavored with orange.  Yummo!

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time Time: 10-12 min




.

Strawberry Cake

Cake:
1 box white cake mix
1 small box strawberry gelatin
1 1/2 cups mashed fresh strawberries with juice
1 C oil
1/2 C fat free half and half
4 eggs or 6 egg whites
1/2 cup pecans
Makes 3 - 8 inch cakes

Place oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees
Grease and flour cake pans

Icing/filling:
8 oz softened cream cheese
8 T softened butter
6 C sifted powdered sugar (depending on the weather, you may need extra to thicken the icing)
1/2 C mashed (not pureed) strawberries
1/2 C pecans
1/2 tsp butter extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract

Mix all cake ingredients for 1 minue on medium speed. Next, equally seperate the cake batter into three 8 in cake pans. Bake for 30 - 35 mnutes then completely cool before icing.

Icing/filling:
Combine cream cheese, butter, and strawberries on low until well mixed. Next, add nuts followed by powdered sugar one cup at a time on low to medium speed. Cake must be refrigerated.