Category Archives: food

The Best Creamy Chicken Enchiladas Ever.

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Yep, I said ever. And I mean it.

You know what else? They’re easy to boot!

You know what else, what else? There’s pictures of my cute kid involved.

You’re welcome in advance.

Ingredients:

  • 1- pound Shredded Chicken
  • 2- 14.5 oz cans of Cream of Chicken Soup
  • 1- 16 oz tub of Sour Cream
  • 1- 4 oz can of Diced Green Chiles
  • 1/2- Cup Chopped Onions – Option {I say optional because I hate raw onions thrown in my food.  I only use the onions if I have to cook the chicken before hand. In which case, I sauté the onions with the chicken.}
  • 10-12- Flour Tortillas {Depends on the size of your tortillas here. We use the GIANT burrito size tortillas. Go big or go home folks. That’s our motto}
  • 2- Cups Shredded Cheese {Or more if you fancy. Cheese makes everything better.}
  • 1- 4 oz can Sliced Olives – Optional

{Ry showing off her Vanna skills, while pointing to what she feels is the most important ingredient. CHEESE.}
Step One: 
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix the chicken, cream of chicken soup, sour cream and diced chiles together in a bowl.
{Please disregard the dirty dishes in the background. They all got washed after the enchiladas went in the oven. Promise}
Step Two:
Spoon some mix into the center of a tortilla. Add cheese. Roll and place in a 13×9 baking dish. 
Continue until all the mix is used. Then top all the enchiladas with the remaining cheese and optional sliced olives.

{Rylee and Daddy admiring her cheese spreading skills}



Step Three:
Cover the enchiladas with tin foil. **Make sure you spray your foil with Pam or you’ll lose your cheese!** Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. I like to remove the foil after about 20 minutes of baking…it makes the edges enchiladas nice and crispy.

Step Four:
Serve with your favorite mexican side dishes and enjoy!!

Lemon Cello: In Photos

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While you’r reading this post, I will be flying across the United States on my way to Indianapolis, Indiana for the 2011 Archery Trade Show. Indianapolis in January. Fun Stuff.

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So, I had this grand idea to make lemon cello to bottle and use them as gifts for Christmas this year. I succeeded…partially. I made lemon cello. And it’s good. Oh, so good. However, it didn’t quite make it into any gift baskets. Weird how that happens, huh?

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to lay out just how easy it is to make your own infused vodka! I was really intimidated by this whole project, not able to really find any clear directions on the web. I finally found this recipe on the Pioneer Woman’s food site: Tasty Kitchen.

Ingredients:

  • 15 to 20 whole, organic lemons {I used 20}. Washed very well.
  • 2 whole bottles of 750 ml Everclear Vodka

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For the Simple Syrup:

  • 3 Cups Water
  • 4 Cups Sugar
Wash and dry your lemons.

Peel your lemons. Make sure you don’t get any of the white pithy part in your peels because it will make everything bitter. {You are only using the lemon peels for the lemon cello, so make a nice batch of lemonade or something with the rest of lemons.}
Put the peels in your jar and cover with the vodka. Cover the jar. {Since I couldn’t find a glass “iced tea” jar anywhere, I bought this glass cookie jar and just covered it with plastic wrap. It worked fine for steeping, but wasn’t the easiest when it came to pouring. Next time, I will find a different jar to use.}
Let your jar sit in a cool, dark place to steep for 4 to 6 weeks.

After the lemon peels and vodka have steeped for a good amount of time, make a simple syrup. Let the syrup cool, then pour into the jar with your lemon peels and vodka. Cover again and let it steep for another 4 to 6 weeks. {Your lemon peels will start to lose their color…this is supposed to happen.}

After your second round of steeping, you’re ready for bottling. I was able to repurpose glass bottles that I saved my sister had saved. All I had to do was wash off the labels and sterilize the bottles. Because I didn’t have the pour spout in my jar, I transferred the lemon cello into a pitcher for easy pouring. Before I did that, I used a slotted spoon to fish out the lemon peels onto a paper towel then squeezed the life out of the paper towel over the pouring pitcher to get all the lemon oils and leftover vodka.

Store your bottled lemon cello in the freezer. My favorite way to enjoy it is over ice using Squirt as a mixer. Yumm, yumm.

And, you know what’s steeping right now about ready for bottling?

Mint infused vodka.

MMMMmmm…

Respect the Turkey: The Menu

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This is all a little late, I know but Wow! The holiday Season is upon us! Hello even-busier-than-normal life! But, since I “Respect the Turkey” I must make my Thanksgiving posts. There will be a whole series in fact. So get ready and consider yourself warned.
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Our Thanksgiving was, well, pretty awesome. It had all the right stuff. Good Food. Family. Laughter. Wine.

I hosted my first ever Thanksgiving. Originally, I was expecting about 18 people so I made a menu plan, grocery list and to-do list for said 18 people. We ended up with 11 and I never adjusted down so we ended up with a LOT of food. But, I love me some Thanksgiving leftovers so I was not complaining!

My sister and I started cooking on Wednesday night and pretty much didn’t stop until we ate dinner at 4 the next day. After you see the menu, you’ll know why.

Disclaimer here: My mom brought the pies over. And, I know I’m missing something here, but I can’t remember what.

The menu:

Appetizers:
Venison Therringer
Cheese & Crackers
Roasted Garlic and baguette bread
7 layer dip
Mushroom Tart
Veggies & Dill dip
Bacon and Swiss Quiche (actually leftover from breakfast, but whatevs.)

Dinner:
22 lb Turkey {It was Crazy, I know!}
Gravy (duh)
Stuffing
Mac-n-Cheese
Mashed Potatoes
Rolls (sort of)
Cauliflower something yummy
Brussel Sprouts
Green Jello Salad
Green Bean Casserole

Dessert:
Bread Pudding
Lemon Meringue Pie
Chocoloate Pie
Blueberry Cheesecake
Apple Pie

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UPDATE: My lovely sister reminded me what I forgot, so please add the following to the list:
Pumpkin pie
Pumpkin/cranberry muffins
Homemade cranberry sauce
Canned cranberry jelly stuff
Olives
Yams
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The Goods.
Prepping the Appetizers.
The Table Setting.
The Master Chefs taking a quick break.
{I seriously don’t know what I would do without her.}
{And yes, we have matching/coordinating aprons.}
{We’re cool like that.}
I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Here’s to a wonderful holiday season!

Monster’s Monster Cookies

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So, every Thursday since Rylee was about 3 months old she has spent the day with my mom, AKA: Mammy (or Grammy). As Ry gets a little older, my mom and her do special projects. We all know what a big helper Rylee is…well she loves helping Mammy.

Now, if you didn’t catch all that: She’s making “Cookie Monster”. They’re putting in “potty treats” and “No” she’s not supposed to be licking Grammy’s peanut butter spoon. Ok, now watch it again and this time pay special attention to her tongue. Go ahead, I’ll wait…

…

Super cute, right?!

Post Summary: Since I can’t be a stay at home mom (and don’t want to be)It’s pretty awesome my mom is able to do this stuff with Rylee. She’s a pretty awesome Mammy, no?