Month: May 2015

Tasty Tuesday May 26

Chilaquiles, a fancy name for “let’s use up that leftover whatever.” This one, we’ll use chicken or turkey. And a few shortcuts. 
4-5 corn tortillas, cut in half and sliced into half inch strips.

Tomatillo verde sauce, Herdez sauce is a good brand.

Shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken or leftover turkey

Sour cream or Mexican crema

Shredded Mexican blend cheese. 
Preheat oven to 375 degrees, put the tortilla strips in the oven on a cookie sheet to crisp. Watch them and take them out and stir to crisp evenly. Don’t let them turn brown and burn. 
To assemble, put a layer of crisped tortillas, a layer of shredded meat, a layer of cheese and some of the tomatillo sauce, just enough to moisten. Build about two layers of everything and top off with a layer of crema. Bake about 20 minutes until heated through. Serve hot. 

 You could probably also use leftover shredded pork or beef. 

Image

Weekly Photo Challenge: Forces of Nature

Water. Interesting that something so yielding, that can be displaced so easily, can have such force. 

Standing at the top of the falls of Yellowstone River where the water pours off the cliff, you can feel the ground shake and the air is thick with noise from the force of the water moving and pounding on the rocks below. And to think that this freezes in the winter, hard to imagine. 

  

Tasty Tuesday May 12


It’s just about berry season and what’s better for dessert than fresh berries, simply treated. 
I found one of Jacques Pepin’s old cookbooks for two bucks at Half Price Books, this one is called Cooking with Claudine, a season where he did cooking shows with his daughter. I love his simple, elegant recipes. This one is one of them. 

Blueberries au Citron

1 lemon
1/4 cup maple syrup (the Great Value syrup at Walmart is made by Vermont Farms and just as good) 
12-18 oz fresh blueberries

Using a zester, take short strips of peel off the lemon all the way around. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze to get about 2 tablespoons of juice. 
Mix the lemon zest, lemon juice and maple syrup in a bowl big enough to hold the berries. 
Rinse the blueberries, removing and discarding any damaged or unripe berries, drain well and add to the syrup mixture. Mix well and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving. 
If there’s any leftovers, they add even more taste to anything you would add blueberries to…I used them in some oatmeal and they brought it to a gourmet level.