Tortilla and Black Bean Pie


I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend. Mine has been very busy so far, and I’m looking forward to relaxing tonight! In the meantime, here is a great recipe! This was really delicious! When I was flipping through my Great Food Fast by Martha Stewart Cookbook and I saw this brightly colored dish, I decided that I needed to try this out. Very tasty, and not too much work either. You can even assemble this ahead of time and then bake it before serving it. I love black beans, so this was definitely my kind of meal. Try it out for yourself!

***I forgot to add that I added about 2 cups of shredded chicken to this recipe.  I made it a while ago, and it slipped my mind.  But if you look very closely, you can see it!  Oops.  It made it more of a meal with the chicken.  I just added the chicken to the bean mixture on the stove top. I let it simmer with all of the other ingredients.
Tortilla and Black Bean Pie

4 flour tortillas (10 inch)
1 tablespoon oil
1 large onion, diced
1 jalapeno chili, minced (remove seeds and ribs for less heat)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Course salt and pepper
2 cans (15 ounce each) black beans, drained and rinsed
12 ounces beer, or 1 1/2 cups water
1 package (10 ounce) frozen corn
2 cups cooked shredded chicken

4 scallions, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
2 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese (8 ounces)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Using a paring knife, trim the toritillas to fit a 9 inch springform pan, using the bottom of the pan as a guide. Set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, jalapeno, garlic, and cumin; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally until the onion is softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Add the beans and beer to the skillet, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium; simmer until the liquid has almost evaporated, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the corn and scallions, and chicken and remove from the heat. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Fit a trimmed tortilla in the bottom of the springform pan; later with one quarter of the beans and 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat 3 times, using 1 cup cheese on the top layer. Bake until hot and the cheese is melted, 20-25 minutes. Unmold the pie; sprinkle with scallions. Slice into wedges, and serve immediately. Serve salsa and sour cream on the side.

Baked on May 31, 2008 | Recipe Card: main dishes | 9 Bites 

Sorry Daring Bakers….

So, today is posting day for the Daring Bakers Challenge, and as you can see, there are no photo’s of a magnificent opera cake awaiting you.  I feel bad about it, but honestly, I just didn’t have the time this month.  This recipe was very challenging to say the least, for me anyways.  I bought all the ingredients, and tried to set aside the time, but things just kept coming up.  I know, excuses excuses.  I will try this recipe soon, because I will feel like I accomplished something very much out of my comfort zone.  But this month, it just didn’t happen.  I will try to post when I finally complete the task.  If you are curious about what this months recipe was, you can go here.  Also, be sure to check out all of the other Daring Bakers Challenges! But, I will show you another fabulous recipe anyways!  I made these lovely White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondies from Paula Dean’s Chocolate Magazine and they were divine.  I’ve actually never been a fan of the macadamia nut or white chocolate for that matter, but these have changed my mind.  Very good.  These are blondies that are best the day they are made. But, you can always half the recipe so they go unwasted!  Very chewy, and tasty, and the chunks of white chocolate and macadamia nuts, make you coming back for more!!!

White Chocolate Chip Blondies
makes 60 blondies
1 cup butter
4 (1 ounce) squares white chocolate
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate morsels
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 60 cups of mini muffin pans with paper liners. (I skipped this step, they work much better when sprayed with nonstick spray and place dough directly into the muffin pans.)
2. In a large bowl, combine butter and white chocolate squares.  Microwave on high in 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until chocolate is smooth (about 1 1/2 minutes total). Add sugars, stirring to combine.  Stir in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually stir in flour.  Stir in vanilla, white chocolate morsels, and nuts.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.  Bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Let cool in pans for 5 minutes.  Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.

Baked on May 28, 2008 | Recipe Card: brownies, daring bakers challenge, desserts | 13 Bites 

Not your Grandmother’s Tuna Casserole!


So last week, like so many other nights soon before the husband gets home, I’m trying to come up with dinner. Now, I do plan ahead my meals for 2 weeks. I do all the shopping. I put the menu on the calender. And then night comes, and whatever I put up on that calender of course does not sound good to me… So I look at all the other nights, hoping to swap dishes. Nothing. Anyways, I decided to use some egg noodles and come up with a mock tuna casserole. Of course, without tuna, because we are not tuna lovers in our house. So I will call it a chicken noodle casserole. I usually use canned cream of chicken soup in my casseroles, but I decided to try and make my own. It was as easy as pie. Well easier, because pie isn’t that easy for me. But it was delicious! Very tasty and I will definitely make it again. It was very light and delicious!

Chicken Noodle Casserole

12 oz. wide egg noodles, cooked according to pkg directions.
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
2 breasts of chicken, chopped and cooked (I used half of a costco rotisserie chicken)
1/2 of a small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
fresh parsley, chopped

For the topping:
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/3 cup italian seasoned breadcrumbs

Cook pasta according to package directions, set aside. In a large skillet, melt butter and add onion and garlic. Cook until onions are soft, just a few minutes. Add flour and whisk together and let it brown a bit. Slowly add the milk and chicken broth. Cook on medium low until bubbling and the mixture starts to thicken. Add salt and pepper, chicken and noodles. Combine well.

Pour into a greased casserole dish. Mix the melted butter and breadcrumbs until well combined. Sprinkle on top of the noodles. Cook in a 375 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes or until breadcrumbs are nice and toasted. Top with fresh parsley.  Enjoy!

Baked on May 26, 2008 | Recipe Card: casserole, chicken, pasta | 12 Bites 

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

These cookies are the reason this cookbook jumped out at me and said “Buy Me!!”.  I couldn’t resist.  I was intrigued.  I have made many cookies out of Martha’s Cookie Book, and this one I couldn’t wait to try.  Unfortunately, I screwed up the recipe and added WAY to many chocolate chunks.  Okay double the chocolate chunks the recipe called for.  Not sure why, the bag just seemed to dump out all on it’s own.  I guess I was thinking how could too much chocolate hurt the recipe?  But I was wrong.  I could hardly even taste the gingerbread.  Now, if I had added just the right amount of chocolate, I know that this would be a cookie that you would never forget. They are chewy, sweet, and very distinct in flavor.  So different than what you expect.  I absolutely love gingerbread cookies, and I love chocolate, so I guess that is why this cookie intrigued me so much.  Why not put the two together? Very good, but don’t mess with the recipe!


Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies Cookbook
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I used ground nutmeg)
1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon freshly grated peeled ginger
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup unsulfered molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water
7 ounces best quality semi sweet chocolate, cut into 1/4 inch chunks 
1/4 cup sugar
1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and fresh ginger on medium speed until lightened, about minutes.  Add brown sugar, beat until combined.  Add molasses; beat until combined.
3. In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in boiling water.  Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture.  Beat in baking soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture.  Mix in chocolate; turn onto plastic wrap.  Pat out to a 1 inch thickness; seal with wrap.  Refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls; place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.  Chill 20 minutes.  Roll in granulated sugar.  Bake until surfaces just begin to crack, 10-12 minutes, rotating halfway through.  Let cool 5 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.  Cookies are best the day they are made, but can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 5 days.

Baked on May 21, 2008 | Recipe Card: cookies | 27 Bites 

A Simple Pasta Dish….


It is starting to get very warm here in Utah.  Today hit a whopping 90 degrees.  That’s hot in my opinion.  And with warm weather my menu turns simple.  I just do not like standing in the hot kitchen for very long periods of time.  I like to get in, get out, clean up and move on with my night.  Tonight brought a simple pasta dish consisting of linguine, zucchini, browned butter with garlic, and parmesan cheese.  Very simple, but very tasty.  Just my kind of dish for a hot day.  Try it.  Love it.  Enjoy!

Linguine with Zucchini, Browned Butter and Garlic
1/2 pound Linguine
1/2 cup reserved water from cooked pasta
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 small zucchini, chopped to your liking
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
Cook linguine in salted boiling water until al dente, reserving 1/2 cup of the water.  In a small saucepan melt butter and garlic together on medium low heat until bubbly and slightly browned.  Set aside.  In a large skillet on medium heat, add olive oil and zucchini and cook slightly, about 3-4 minutes.  Add cooked pasta, butter, reserved pasta water and parmesan cheese.  Stir together until well combined.  Salt and pepper to taste.  

Baked on May 19, 2008 | Recipe Card: pasta | 18 Bites 

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