Chicken Enchiladas

Hey kids! Have you just made the below recipe for slow cooker tacos and realized it was crazy delicious but you made far too much? Not to worry, dear friends! Take that leftover shredded chicken and turn it into some delectable and easy enchiladas! And no canned sauce either - you're going to make that yourself and you're going to like it.

So! The sauce. I found this recipe on about.com and it's really quite simple but develops a great flavor. Heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium heat with two tablespoons of flour and two tablespoons of chili powder. Whisk together for a couple of minutes, then add 3/4 teaspoon of cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, one teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, one fifteen ounce can of tomato sauce, and one cup of water. Mix well, then simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. You want the sauce to be pretty thin in consistency, so if it looks thick (like marinara) add more water. Taste for seasonings and adjust accordingly - if you want it spicy, add more cayenne. Turn off heat and set aside.

Now for that leftover shredded chicken from the slow cooker tacos. You should have around two cups of meat, place that in a mixing bowl and add 1 cup of thinly shredded cheese (mexican blend!), 1/2 cup of sour cream, 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, and two tablespoons minced chives. Blend together with a spatula, and add a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce if you fancy.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and heat 1/2 cup of vegetable oil in a frying pan. You're going to lightly fry your twelve 6 inch corn tortillas to make them nice and pliable. Cook each tortilla for 20 seconds per side (you don't want them to brown) and drain on paper towels. Time for assembly!

Spread 1/3 to 1/2 cup of your fantastic enchilada sauce in the bottom of a glass baking dish (13x9x2 inch pan), then spoon 1/4 cup of your meat mixture into each tortilla one at a time, roll up, and place seam side down in the pan. Spoon the rest of your sauce over the tortillas, then top with 1/2 cup or so of shredded cheese.

Bake that sucker for thirty minutes, keep a weather eye out and don't burn that cheese! Let cool as long as you can stand to wait and serve those enchiladas up with some sour cream and more freshly chopped  cilantro. Boom. Double duty dinner.

xo,
d

Sunday Pizza Pie!

What up peeps? I know I know - I've done pizza before. But this one is different! We're making the dough from scratch (a new, fantastic recipe), the sauce from scratch, and....the sausage! That's right homemade sausage! It actually quite easy and really really delicious.

First things first: you need to start with the dough because it has to proof (rise) for two hours. This dough recipe is really delicious and simple. It's from the same fantastic old school book that the recent meatball recipe is from. Begin with 1/2 an envelope of yeast and mix with 1/3 cup of lukewarm water and set aside. Next you should sift 1 1/2 cups of water with one teaspoon of salt. Cut 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter into cubes and mix it into the flour with your fingers. Mix one egg with the yeast and water, then stir into the flour mixture until a ball dough is formed. If the dough is feeling a little stiff, add a smidge of water. Now comes the fun part: kneading! Sprinkle some flour on your kneading surface and turn your dough ball out onto it. Don't know how to knead? It's easy! Use the palm of your to push the dough into the surface, turn a quarter turn, and repeat. I'm sure if you Google it you'll find a video demonstrating. Knead that dough until it's smooth and elastic, form into a ball, an then place into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with a towel and let rise in a warm place for two hours.

Whilst your dough is rising, make the snausage! Now, don't be intimidated, it's really quite easy. If you have a stand mixer with a meat grinding attachment, fantastic! If not, don't worry! That's what your food processor is for! This recipe is a modified Mark Bittman. Begin with one pound of boneless pork shoulder and 1/4 to 1/2 pound fresh pork fatback.

..Uh, Dana? Where the hell do I get fresh pork fat back?

Yeahhhh. I'm going to guess Whole Foods or a specialty butcher. If you don't feel like searching fatback out (which we didn't because we're lazy) you can go with pancetta or bacon. You can buy the pancetta nice and cubed up right at Trader Joes, but I'll warn you - as delicious as our sausage was, I think it was a tad dry. The fatback (I think) would have been perfect.

Okay so cube up the pork and fatback (or pancetta/bacon). Place around one cup of the mixture into a food processor and mince in one second pulses until well chopped. If you have a meat grinding attachment for your stand mixer, use the medium-small grinder plate, and you don't have to do grind in batches. Add some fresh parsley (a small handful) to your food processor or meat grinder to incorporate with the meats. If food processing, take your time and be careful not to pulverize the meat. Place the ground meats/parsley into a bowl.

Time for spices! If you have a mortar and pestle, this is a great time to use it! If not, do you have a coffee grinder for spices only? If you don't have any of that, I would use ground fennel, not fennel seeds. I have a mortar and pestle (a great investment - you may not use it often, but when you do it's incredibly handy; when you don't they are beautiful to look at), so I went with the fennel seeds - one teaspoon. Crush the fennel a little, then add one teaspoon of minced fresh garlic, 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and a few grinds of black pepper. Crush with the pestle until well mixed, then gently incorporate your spices with the ground meat with your hands. Wrap the sausage mixture in parchment paper and then place into the fridge for 1-2 hours. Let those delicious spices do their work! If you don't use all of this sausage on your pizza (and you probably won't) the sausage can be in the fridge for three days or frozen for up to three months.

Okay, next! I made some tomato sauce by mincing one small yellow onion with two cloves of garlic, and sweating that out in a three count of olive oil in a small saucepan. After 5-7 minutes over medium heat, add one 14 ounce can of pureed tomatoes. Turn the heat to medium low and season with salt/pepper to taste. If you have some red wine it would be lovely to add a few glugs of that. Some fresh basil and or parsley would be fantastic as well. Partially cover and let this bubble away as you prepare the rest of your toppings.

We made one pizza pie with sausage and fresh mozzarella (grated parm on top) and the other with minced sauteed mushrooms and artichokes (not minced). For the mushrooms, put a three count of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. While that is heating up, finely mince one basket of brown mushrooms and add to the pan. I know you're tempted to salt now, but don't do that until the end! Saute the mushrooms until they've browned, then add a pinch of dried thyme and salt/pepper to taste. Set aside. Next grab a bag of frozen artichoke hearts (defrosted - you can find these at Trader Joe's) and saute in the same pan as the mushrooms with some red pepper flakes (to taste, I used a large pinch), S/P and fresh parsley. Once you get some color on the artichoke hearts, deglaze the pan with a few glugs of marsala wine. Cook the wine out and they're done! Set aside. Now it's time to brown that gorgeous homemade sausage! Take a large pinch of the raw sausage, flatten in the palm of your hand, then brown in the olive oil in batches. Drain on paper towels, and now you're FINALLY ready to build those pizzas! Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Grease two 8 inch pie pans. Divide your dough ball into two, then roll out on a floured surface to fit the pie pans - it's okay if it falls over the top of the pan because you're going to roll it down. Spoon some of your delectable red sauce on top of the dough and spread around. There's no rule here, if you like a ton of sauce put it down! For the sausage pizza, place a good amount of your brown sausage around the pie plate. Dot with torn pieces of fresh mozzarella, sprinkle with grated parmesan, drizzle with a touch of olive oil and that's ready for the oven! Same for the veggie pizza - spread the sauce, dole out the mushrooms, divide up the artichoke hearts, tear the mozzarella, sprinkle the grated parmesan and olive oil! There are before and after pictures above for reference. Once all of your toppings are in, roll down the excess dough (see above photos!).

Bake for twenty minutes or so, but keep a weather eye on those 'zas in the last five minutes - no burning! Let them rest out of the oven for at least five minutes so those guys can set up and so you don't burn your poor mouth!

Use any toppings that you love, but do try the homemade sausage. It's mush easier than you think and one million times more delicious!

Xo,

D

Meatball Sauce

Well hello again! How's this for progress, two posts in one night! Now we're going to talk about meatball sauce. The hubby was just given an amazing Italian cookbook from 1962 and we've been wanting to try one of these recipes for a while. I'm telling you, this will blow any meatball recipe you have out of the water! Honestly, I wasn't sure about soaking the bread in water (not milk??) and no egg in the meatball (whaa?) but the meatballs were amazing, tender, and juicy. Be patient and check it out:

Start with two slices of white bread - soak them in one cup of water for a few minutes then mash them up with a fork. Get the bread nice and smooth, then press as much of the water out with the fork. You can also pat it with a paper towel to get the water out. Put the bread in a mixing bowl with 1/2 pound of ground beef, 1/2 pound of ground pork, two cloves of minced garlic (I microplaned it, if you don't have a microplane get one right now), 2 teaspoons of fresh basil, one teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, and a 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese. Use your hands and mix everything together - be sure to take the time and really incorporate all of the ingredients. Roll the mixture into walnut sized balls, and preheat a large saute pan with three tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Brown the meatballs lightly, then add 1/2 cup of minced onions, 2 cloves of garlic (again microplaned), one 28 ounce can of pureed tomatoes (you can used diced, I prefer pureed for the texture), one cup of water, one teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flake, and a few grinds of black pepper. Stir well (but carefully, don't rip the precious precious meatballs), then bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low, then simmer this pot of delicious for 90 minutes. Yeah, I said it: 90 minutes. It's. So. Worth. It.

I served this amazing sauce with a pappardelle (long flat noodle that is wider than fettuccine), but you can use any pasta that you like. After the sauce cooks for 90 minutes, add a few tablespoons of chopped parsley. Serve over your pasta with the parsley and some grated parm.

In my humble opinion these may be the best meatballs I've ever made (sorry Tyler!). Honestly, the sauce was just delicious, and the meatballs plain old rad. Do try this, you won't be sorry!

BFF,

d

Party.... Pizza Party!

Oh hi friends! The Golden Globes were last weekend, and nothing says Golden Globe fanciness like a pizza party! Johnny found a great recipe in a magazine for home made dough (recipe courtesy of Pizza A Casa), so I went for it, even though baking freaks me out. I hate measuring! Stop telling me what to do, recipe! Oh wait, that's kind of what I'm trying to do here. Ah hypocrisy.

Four delectable pizzas were made: Spicy turkey sausage and provolone, pepperoni and fresh mozzarella, pancetta with shredded jack/cheddar, and black olive, asparagus, and carmelized onions. Yup. Delicious-town. All pizzas pictured here - not sure why I didn't take a picture of the veggie pizza after it was baked, but oh wells. You get the idea, right?

Start with the dough first, because you need to give it time to rise. In a large bowl mix 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (don't sift), 1 1/2 cups water, 1 packet active dry yeast, 1 tablespoon EVOO, and one teaspoon sea salt. Combine with a wooden spoon or flour covered hands. Once the dough comes together, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead into

a ball. Place the ball into a clean bowl, cover with saran wrap, and let rise for at least an hour in a warm corner of your kitchen. Plenty of time to prepare your toppings!

Since we are going all homemade - all the way here, you gots to make your own sauce! Or at least fancy up some tomato sauce that you may already have in your pantry. I used a 15 ounce can of tomato puree, so go with that or whatever you have on hand. Add a little red wine, onion and garlic powder, red pepper flakes (a pinch!), dried oregano (couple pinches), and S & P. Simmer the sauce over low heat whilst you prepare your other ingredients and be sure to keep tasting for seasonings.

For the spicy turkey sausage and provolone: Cook three spicy italian turkey sausages in a pan over medium heat. I find that the outside cooks faster (and burns) than the inside, so after the sausages begin to brown, add a few tablespoons of water to the pan. This will steam your snausages to help cook the insides. The water will evaporate and then they will continue to brown. Remove from the pan, let cool a bit, then slice into bite sized slices. I used sandwich slices of provolone and just ripped them up, but if you find shredded provolone, use that. Set aside until you're ready to assemble.

For the veggie pizza: slice one yellow or red onion. Drop a few tablespoons of butter and a one count of EVOO into a frying pan and caramelize those onions over low heat. Add some wine after they begin to color, the sugars in the wine will help your caramelization and add deliciousness. Set onions aside in a bowl to cool. Chop your bunch of asparagus into bite sized pieces (I used the tips only), then add a touch more EVOO to your onion pan, some red pepper flake, and the asparagus pieces. S&P those suckers and cook for 2-3 minutes ONLY. They will get bright green, then immediately remove them from the heat. You want them to still have bite, even after you've baked the pizza. No one likes mushy asparagus. NO ONE. For the olives I used canned (drained) black olives, but you could slice up kalamata olives if you prefer. Set these ingredients aside until you're ready to assemble.

Which is now! Everything else goes on to the pizzas in raw/uncooked form. Go get your dough and rolling pin! Flour the rolling pin and board/counter top well. Turn the dough out onto the surface and divide it into four even pieces using a knife....or the OXO pastry scraper, pictured below! OXO doesn't pay me, but they should ;) Seriously, go buy one right now, they are fantastic for cutting dough/pastry evenly, and I use mine nightly to transfer chopped vegetables from the board to the pan. Do it! Oh and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Roll each piece of dough out to circle size, approximately 12-14 inches. As you can see, mine are more oval-ish. As long as you get them into pizza shape you're good. Place your rolled out dough on a pizza baking sheet or a cookie sheet (I had to bake these two at a time). Okay time to assemble!

For the spicy turkey sausage and provolone: drop a few spoonfuls of your sauce onto the dough and spread evenly. Spread the provolone around the sauce, then top with your spicy turkey sausage. Sprinkle a small handful of grated parmesan and that guy is ready for the oven!

Veggie pizza: ladle out some sauce onto your rolled out dough and spread evenly. Evenly place some of your black olives and asparagus, then top everything with the caramelized onions. I made this pizza mostly cheese free at the request of the mister (he does not tolerate lactose), so the crust and the top of the pizza was lightly dusted with grated parmesan. Drizzle the top with EVOO and you're ready to go!

Pepperoni and fresh mozz: I got thinly sliced Boar's Head pepperoni from the deli counter and I think you should too. The mozzarella comes in water, so drain it and tear or slice the cheese up. After you've sauced your dough, place the pepperoni slices on the sauce and dot the mozzarella pieces all around. The mozz will melt really well, so don't put too much on or your pizza will be mushy and wet. Hit the crust with some parm and boosh. Ready.

Pancetta and cheddar/jack: I also got the pancetta at the deli counter, thinly sliced. For those of you who live under a culinary rock, pancetta is "Italian bacon": it is pork belly that is cured (not smoked like American bacon), usually with peppercorns. So again, start with your sauce, then evenly distribute your shredded cheese on top of the sauce. Lay your slices of pancetta around on top of the cheese: you want the pancetta to crisp up, so it's super important that it's on top of the cheese. Sprinkle the parm around the crust and your final 'za is ready for baking!

Like I said, I could only bake two pizzas at a time, and I switched them around on the racks halfway through to cook evenly. They took around ten minutes each, so set your timer for eight minutes and keep a weather eye out for burnage. When the pizzas are done, let them rest and cool down a bit before cutting. Tear some fresh basil and add to the sausage pizza and the pancetta pizza (or any of them really). Serve with a lovely salad and some wine and you're golden! Let me know how the dough works for you and if you have any other topping ideas.

Smoochies,

D

Baked Pasta Emmy Night Sunday Night Dinner

Hi Everyone! Welcome to Sunday Night, a very special Sunday Night. In honor of Hollywood on Emmy Night and an its strict diet restrictions, I made a carb and cheese filled Sunday Night Dinner. Suck it, Hollywood.

Okay! Here's the menu:

Sausage and Zucchini Baked Rigatoni

NO. SALAD.

What.

This recipe is a Tyler Florence Ultimate Dinner. Seriously, go get his cookbook. Its one of my favorites ever. The major difference between Tyler's recipe and what I made is that he uses eggplant and I use zucchini. I'm not a giant fan of eggplant, I find it gets super mushy super fast. I'm big on food texture.

Begin by browning some SPICY Italian sausage. If you want to use links, go ahead, if you want to use bulk, super. Just make sure it is around one pound of hot sausage. Heh. You are just searing the outside, don't worry if it doesn't cook through, it will continue to cook in the oven. If it is bulk sausage, leave it in bite sized chunks. If it is links, sear the outside of the links and then after you take then out of the pan, chop them into bite sized chunks. Either way, get a good sear on it, and then pop it out of the pan and into a large casserole or baking dish. In the same pan, pour a two count of olive oil and then throw in two large zucchinis that you have roughly chopped. You want the sausage pieces and the zucchini to be about the same (bite) size. Season with salt/pepper. Again, you just want to get some color here, do not over cook or the zucchini will mush out too, ewww. One they've got some color but are still firm, toss the zucchinis into the casserole with sausage.

Meanwhilst, simultaneously in a separate, large skillet, heat a four count of olive oil, then throw in one chopped onion. Let that soften for a few minutes, then smash three to four cloves of garlic and chop. Toss that in and let it cook for about a minute. Deglaze the pan with a few glugs of your favorite red or white wine. Remember, if you won't drink it, don't cook with it. It concentrates the flavor, for reals. Let the wine cook down for a few moments, then put in one 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes. I like to use the kind that has italian seasonings in it because it saves some chopping and sometimes I'm super lazy. True story. Turn the heat down to medium-medium low and simmer the sauce for at least 1/2 hour. Add some chopped Italian parsley. Be sure to salt and pepper and taste often for seasoning.

Again, meanwhilst (lots of multitasking here, people!), pre-heat a large pot of water. Once boiling, salt generously and toss in 1 pound of rigatoni. Cook the rigatoni to just baaaaaarely al dente. It will continue to cook in the oven. Before you drain the pasta, fill half a coffee mug with the starch pasta water and set aside.

Okay, while all this was going on, pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Add your pasta and red sauce to the casserole along with the sausage, zucchini, and 4 ounces of FRESH mozzarella (the kind that comes packed in delicious mozzarella water) that you've chopped in large pieces. Buy the eight ounce container, use half to mix into the pasta, and half you will sprinkle on top. Mix the pasta, sauce, sausage, zucchini, half a cup of pasta water, and half of your mozzarella in the casserole. Once well mixed, spread the rest of the mozzarella with some grated parmesean on top of the mix. You want to make a nice crust, so be sure to get some good cheese coverage. Pop that delectable mix into the oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. Keep a weather eye on it, once it looks browned an bubbly, take it out.

Let the pasta sit for at least ten minutes (this will be hard). Trust me, though, kids. You will sear the roof of your mouth otherwise, and no one wants that.

Your pasta bake should be cheesy, spicy, saucy, and delicious. Give it a try, especially on a night when you want to give a big, fat, carb filled middle finger to all those couture wearing biatches.

I'm not bitter.

XO,

D