From Herbivoracious. Basically spinach enchiladas with refried black bean sauce. Pretty tasty. It didn't come together as quickly as I thought, probably left too much water in the spinach. But it's a simple, hearty meal.
The tortillas were supposed to be dipped but they were falling apart. I might try it again will lightly fried tortillas.
I used a cornmeal crust which was pretty good:
Comfort food sourced from Elise. It's basically a thick chili under a cornbread crust. I made the cornbread from scratch though I didn't make enough to get good coverage and still rise well. All in all, pretty good, though it's really nothing like a real tamale.
I've been making an effort to eat fish at least once a week. Usually that means a can of tuna somewhere, but sometimes I remember to defrost a filet from the freezer. Most of the time, I just fry the fish in some way, but that gets old pretty quickly. Also, I don't think I like haddock even though I'm certain I've had it in a fish fry and I've never disliked a fish fry. Cod is superior, though not as much as catfish for fish fries.
Came across the idea a long time ago and just now got around to it. Essentially tacos stuffed into a pasta shell instead of a tortilla. Quick and pretty darn good.
Sourced from Smitten. Very simple, though I had to use dried basil instead fresh (or cilantro). It ended up with kind of a herbal but stale flavor and fresh would have been way better. It was an interesting taste experience with an herbed heat from the basil and chiles that give way to tartness from the lime which naturally eases into sweetness from the red onion and cantaloupe.
Maybe it's just been a while since I've had full-fat refried beans. But they were good. Kinda felt like I was eating poo.
Sourced from Elise. The outstanding addition in this is the mint mixed in with the meat, which was turkey. As always, I'm very hesitant with the salt so it ended up missing something. I also tried to reconstitute some tomato paste into tomato sauce but didn't use enough paste.
This is what happens when you have leftover green sauce. Yes, that's a fried egg.
Fast snack. Standard quesadilla made in the pan, with sliced apples. I remember seeing apples and cheese suggested on the back of a Ritz (best fucking crackers) box, thinking it was weird, and then trying it as a late evening snack once. It was awesome.
Man, I fucking love 7-layer bean dip. We had some at a reception recently so that got me in the mood to make some. The thing about it is 7 is a pretty arbitrary number and the number of "layers" varies. Of course, the name implies seven discrete layers, though the understanding is usually seven distinct ingredients. I generally opt for the seven ingredients rule and make as many layers as I have materiel. Warm refried beans, jalapenos, cheese, guacamole, sour creme, cheese again, olives, tomatoes.
Alternatively, a way to make a burrito much more complicated than it needs to be. Baked potato liner.
Keeps the fillings.
From making the tortilla soggy.
I froze one. We'll see how it goes.
Refried black beans are awesome. Or maybe it's just that I bought a can of black beans that weren't GV fat-free. In any case, variety is nice.
The great thing about buying large cuts of meat/whole animals is that there's always lots of extra stuff: leftovers from stripping a chicken. There's nothing particularly interesting about this except for the green which is a Florida avocado, not a Hass avocado. Since Hasses are 2/$4 these days and Floridas are half that, I finally gave it a try. Compared to a Hass, it doesn't have as strong of a taste and has a sweeter finish. They're also twice the size. Worth the money? Sure. But we'll see how a guacamole turns out.
Also, ice cream, vodka, and milk? Not exactly a White Russian. Maybe with some Kahlua and not-the-cheapest vodka.
I couldn't decide which picture sucked less. They both have their minute pros. This dough, courtesy of Elise, is crazy. 1:1:3 of creme cheese, butter, and flour. The pork was some leftover from some braising and marinated in some of leftover salsa I was trying to get rid of.
The egg wash just before baking helped give it that glossy, buttery finish, as if it needed to look more buttery. The pastry ended up varied, depending on the thickness of how I rolled the dough. But 18 minutes at 375 does it about right.
I also fiddled with the pork a bit. I rarely add salt to things, so I ended up adding a bit of salt and pepper to the marinated pork to end a bit more punch. That went into the second batch, blended with some cheese.
I was out of sour cream, so I used Greek yogurt and jalapeños instead; it worked quite well.
Addendum: These freeze well.
This is the true essence of casserole: leftovers. Refried beans, seasoned ground beef, enchilada sauce, black beans, and corn, all of it at least a week and up to two weeks old. I used corn tortillas to separate the layers and added some partially cooked instant rice.
Addendum: So I was rethinking my philosophy of casserole. Now, there's two paths a casserole can take. Both consume leftovers. One path culminates in something more than the sum of its parts. The other makes its parts palatable. This was the latter.
Also, there's a new Sun Chips flavor: Roasted Sweet Chili. It's bears a striking resemblance to Doritos's Spicy Sweet Chili flavor. Between the two, I think I prefer the Sun Chips. While the Doritos pack more punch, sometimes it's just too overpowering and you just keep eating them for the sake of salt. The Sun Chips, on the other hand, have that naturally sweet multi-grain taste with a much milder but longer taste residue. I like them.
I had some braised pork defrosting in the fridge for enchiladas this week, and I got a little hungry. Yet another win for corn tortillas over flour tortillas. These are the taco sized ones that you would get at a restaurant (basically normal-sized ones). I bought a big bag (96 count, I think) awhile ago because I like to buy in large sizes and bulk and I thought it would help in portion control better than the giant burrito sized flour tortillas (I used to use two of those compared to usually just three of the corn variety.). They also taste better and are sturdier.
As you can see, I also finally got around to cleaning and re-seasoning my cast iron since I had some carnitas when I first braised this pork. Interestingly, I think the last time I used the skillet was for carnitas as well. Those few months of burnt, greasy food must have helped the seasoning along since it's better than I remember.
A little bit of shredded cheese and shredded pork, done.
The quesadillas are out of focus in this, but it makes the jalapeños look delicious.
I'm not going to bother posting finished product shots. Because it's a burrito. This is about a pound of ground beef, 2 medium potatoes, 1 small onion, and a packet of taco seasoning. In the pan: beef, then potato and onion. Added some extra water to cook the potatoes through when seasoning. I think this will make at least three decent burritos, possibly four. Added sour cream, refried beans, cheese. The first one was with salsa verde (which was superior) and the second with japs inside. Maybe I'll make salsa for the next one. Eh.
