Ranch Chicken Enchiladas

This recipe and the above photo taken from http://thesistersdish.blogspot.com/

Steve is unknowingly going to help me describe this recipe. He's sitting at my feet right now and in his words, these enchiladas are "mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!" Of course the ranch dressing included in the recipe doesn't hurt- he LOVES ranch. I was fantastically impressed as well. This recipe is pretty easy, the crock pot does most of the work. The chicken alone does need to cook for about 3 hours, so it's probably best to start before 5:30 PM if you want to eat before 9 PM :P These are awesome, enjoy!

Creamy Ranch Chicken Enchiladas
1-2 chicken breasts
1 4 oz. can green chilies
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 T. Ranch dressing mix, separated
1/4 t. ground cumin
2 oz. cream cheese
½ can cream of mushroom plus 1/2 cup milk
1 can cream of chicken
1/4 c. milk
1 1/2 cups cheese, separated
1/4 t. oregano
7 small flour tortillas

Cook chicken, green chilies, chicken broth, and 1 T. ranch dressing mix in crock pot on low for ~3 hours. Shred chicken and return to the cock pot. Add cumin, cream cheese and cream of mushroom soup. Cook until crock pot until the cream cheese is melted. In a separate bowl mix the cream of chicken soup, milk, 1 T. ranch dressing mix, 1 cup of cheese and oregano. Spread chicken mixture in the middle of the tortillas. Roll and place in a greased 9x13 baking dish. Any of the chicken mixture left add to the soup/cheese mixture. Spread the soup/cheese mixture over the enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until cheese just starts to bubble and brown. Serve with sour cream and lots of salsa.

Homemade Tortillas

Photo from http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2005/12/flourtortillas

Costco has some cook and serve tortillas that we get every now and then to serve with our Cafe Rio pork. They are a bit expensive for a one meal purchase- even though they are delicious! One evening we needed some tortillas- and my options were to thaw some I had in the freezer or try to make them. I decided to do the later- and these turned out wonderfully! The trickiest part is getting them rolled out as super thin as you can. And when they are done cooking, placing them between a folded towel. This keeps them from drying out and staying pliable and soft. Again I only made a 1/2 recipe and it was plenty- made probably 8 big tortillas or 10-12 smaller ones.

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons lard (I used shortening)
1 1/2 cups very warm water

Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Mix in the lard with your fingers until the flour resembles cornmeal. Add the water and mix until the dough comes together; place on a lightly floured surface and knead a few minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.
Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Use a well-floured rolling pin to roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla. Place into the hot skillet, and cook until bubbly and golden; flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side. Place the cooked tortilla in a tortilla warmer; continue rolling and cooking the remaining dough.

Nummy breadsticks

I made these breadsticks to serve with soup- they were fantastic. They are (as carbs) a little high on the calorie count and I had to drag myself away from eating these all up. I made half the recipe and it made 8 good sized breadsticks. I'm sure you could make this dough the old fashioned way, but I used a breadmaker and it was super easy to just let it do the work while i worked on everything else for dinner.

1 1/3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 tablespoons butter, softened
4 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional- I left these out)
2 tablespoons dry milk powder (I didn't have any so I just substituted 1/2 cup of milk and subtracted that much of the water)
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer (mine is wet ingredients, dry ingredients, then yeast). Select Dough cycle; press Start. Spray two baking sheets with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). When dough cycle is complete, remove dough to a lightly oiled surface. Divide dough up into 18 pieces. Roll each piece on an oiled board, from center of piece to the outside edges to form bread sticks. Place bread sticks at least 1 inch apart on the prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Brush breadsticks with butter and dash with garlic salt. Serve warm and enjoy!

Zuppa Toscana

Photo courtesy of http://joelens.blogspot.com/2007/10/zuppa-toscana-ala-joelen.html


This is a very good imitation of the famous Olive Garden soup! This makes a lot of soup- I think I made only 2/3 of the recipe for three of us and there were leftovers. I also made some breadsticks with the soup and it was awesome :)

1 pound bulk mild Italian sausage
1 1/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
5 (13.75 ounce) cans chicken broth
6 potato, thinly sliced
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 bunch Kale, tough stems removed and cut into pieces

Cook the Italian sausage and red pepper flakes in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crumbly, browned, and no longer pink, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Cook the bacon in the same Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Drain, leaving a few tablespoons of drippings with the bacon in the bottom of the Dutch oven. Stir in the onions and garlic; cook until onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
Pour the chicken broth into the Dutch oven with the bacon and onion mixture; bring to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes, and boil until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the heavy cream and the cooked sausage; heat through. Mix the spinach into the soup just before serving.

Caramel Apple Dip

This is an awesome recipe for Fall!

16 individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
1/4 cup water
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar

In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, or in the microwave, melt caramels with water, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. In a medium bowl, cream together cream cheese and sugar. Fold in caramel mixture. Serve immediately.