Hot Tamale!

I finally have internet working at home again, so I can finally post about my enchiladas. They were phenomenal. I think New Mexican style are my new favorite. I made my own sauce which was much simpler than I thought it would be, but made far less than I thought it would. Nevertheless, they were divine.











First, the sauce...








You boil chiles. Pretty simple.









Then I roasted the chile seeds with whole cloves of garlic.












Combined them in the blender.












Go blender...go!








Strain it.







Voila! Enchilada sauce. At this point I refrigerated it to use the following day. When I reheated it I added cumin, oregano & some salt.






Then I just boiled some chicken & combined it with some of the sauce (chicken cooking isn't very photogenic). I dipped a corn tortilla in the enchilada sauce & placed it in the pan. Layered the saucy chicken with Monterey Jack cheese. Repeated 2 more times for a total of 3 layers.







After it baked in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, it was ready to eat. And oh so delicious!

The Beginning of New Things

My family decided to begin its own cooking club. This month we were just given the ingredient of pineapple. We could choose anything we wanted to make. I decided to try Pineapple Ginger Rice. Here's how it turned out:








First...the ingredients.













You rinse the rice & then cook it. The pictures of cooking rice where not very entralling, so you can use your imagination.









The cutting of the pineapple.










Quartered.











Diced.







The rice cools & then is refrigerated overnight.









The ginger, scallions & salt are sauted until fragrant.










Then you add the rice.









After 15 minutes or so you remove from heat & add the pineapple, the green part of the scallions & a little sesame oil.








Then it was plated & served. Everyone enjoyed it immensely. It is a fantastic summer dish & really easy to make.

Let Them Eat Cake

I really enjoyed this month's challenge. Cake is just so fun & I love lemon & raspberry. A perfect ushering in of spring. The only modification I made was with the raspberry filling. I did not use a jam, but made my own raspberry sauce that was a little juicier than a jam would have been. I like the filling to be absorbed by the cake & if worked out well. The only problem I ran into was running out of the buttercream icing to fully frost the exterior. I tried to be frugal on the use of the buttercream in between the layers, but it was difficult since my raspberry filling was juicy. It still turned out very well & was quite delicious. Thanks for a great recipe!












The cake ingredients









Creaming the sugar & lemon rind.









Baking.









Cooling briefly in the pans...









Cooling time.









My raspberry sauce.












The beginning of the buttercream.









Keep whipping...












And whipping...












And it's done.









Mmmm...raspberries. The beginning of the assembly.









That looks good enough to eat by itself.









Layer...












After layer...









After layer...








After layer...











After layer...









After gooey layer.












Final layer before final icing.











Running out of icing...so sad.









Not too shabby, but definitely could have used more icing.













Success! And so tasty!

French Bread Photos

I thought I better get these photos up before I attempt this month's challenge tonight. I finally downloaded the pictures onto my computer.








First...the ingredients.








A little bit of mixing...and kneading...























Let it rise...





















Shape it.












Bake it.









Bake it some more.









Let it rest.










Enjoy!