Chicken Enchiladas

This is a great dinner for any night - easy to make, quick to cook.  Make enough for 2 nights, and freeze half.  If you are doing weekend prep, cook up the chicken breast and save the broth.  Then keep it in the fridge or freeze the meat for a fast dinner later on.  I wouldn't necessarily bother freezing the broth, especially if you don't have a big freezer.

Ingredients:
10 - 8 inch flour tortillas
1 small onion, chopped
2 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbl olive oil
1 pound cooked chicken, shredded (see note on broth below)
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack or Colby Jack cheese
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 Tbl Adobo
15 ounce can chicken broth, or 2 cups water with 2 chicken bouillon cubes or if you are cooking your chicken breast, save 2 cups of the water, and cook some herbs and veggies in to make it tastier.
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 can diced green chiles, or 4 ounces chopped pepper, or 1/2 cup chopped pickled banana peppers

Insrructions:

Cook chicken in a pan with oil, onion and garlic.  Shred chicken.  Mix chicken with 1 cup shredded cheese. Fill 10 flour tortillas with chicken mix.  Line 2 8x8 pans with aluminum foil, and put 5 tortillas in each.
In a sauce pan, melt butter, add flour and Adobo and cook 3-4 minutes.  Slowly add chicken broth and cook over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.  Remove from heat.  Add sour cream or yogurt, and chiles or peppers.
Pour sauce over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.
Preheat oven to 350.
Bake 25 minutes, until golden brown.
Eat one pan and freeze the other, once it is cooled.  Once it is frozen, take it out of the pan and put it in a ziplock bag along with the aluminum foil. To eat, take it out of the ziplock and put it back in a pan.  Heat it at 350 until hot.

Canned Pickled Banana Peppers

We love these, and put them on our homemade pizza, in quiche, in chili and spaghetti, etc.  We also put aluminum foil on a baking sheet, sprinkle tortilla chips on top, cover with grated Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack cheese, and banana pepper rings and broil (watch this carefully!!).I even grow the banana peppers in my garden so we can make this.

#BananaPeppers

2 pounds Banana Peppers

6 cloves garlic, slice in half lengthwise

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups white vinegar

4 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Wash the peppers, cut off the tops and remove as many of the seeds as you can.

2. Cut the peppers into rings of whatever thickness you prefer.

3. Put the pepper rings and garlic pieces into a glass jar that has an air tight seal when closed.  

4. In a medium size saucepan add the water, vinegar and salt  Bring to a boil over medium high heat.  

5. Remove from heat and pour over the top of the peppers and garlic.

6. Use a knife to move peppers around to remove air bubbles and get the peppers and garlic submerged in the liquid. 

7.  Seal the jar and set aside overnight. 

8. Refrigerate for up to 6 months. 

#canning #homemade #recipe

Apple Spice Slow Cooker Cake

This is a recipe I found online.  I want to try cutting it in half, and bring it with us to Fran and Henry's one night this week.  We are going to watch some old Carol Burnett DVD shows with them.

1 box Spice Cake Mix
2 - 20 ounce cans Apple Pie Filling
8 ounces butter

Put pie filling into slow cooker and top with spice cake mix and butter.  Cook on high 2 to 2 1/2 hours.  Serve with vanilla ice cream.

In this photo the recipe was made using 1 can of peach pie filling and one pint jar of home canned peaches. R were

Herb Bread

Herb Bread
This is based on another recipe, but it had herbs I don't like, so I redid it.  This can be used for sandwiches, because when you slice it, it stays together well, even in the toaster. 
1 cup lukewarm milk
2 Tbl sugar
1 Tbl yeast
1 egg
2 Tbl Crisco


Combine milk, sugar and yeast.  Let rest 3-5 minutes, until yeast is active.  add egg and Crisco and mix to combine. 

3 - 3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbl mixed herbs.   
         I used 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe's.  You can use more or less to taste.  This wasn't too overpowering, so when I served it with a spicy meal, you couldn't tell the herbs were in there.  But when toasted and buttered on its own, you could taste the spice. 

Add 1 cup flour, salt and herbs to wet ingredients.  Mix well.  Add remaining flour until consistency is good for kneading. 
Knead about 5 minutes.
Place in a clean bowl, oil surface of dough, cover bowl with a cloth, and let rest until doubled, about 1 hour.
Punch down dough, but not too much.  You don't want all the air to go out.  Shape and place in greased (Crisco) loaf pan.  Cover with cloth and let raise again, about 45 minutes, until well risen.  Don't let it go too long at this stage or it will sink back down. 
Heat oven to 375 and bake about 45 minutes, or until golden brown and sounding hollow when tapped with knuckles.