i want to make something that goes well with mashed potatoes. i'm cooking dinner tonight, and the only request was that my gf wanted mashed potatoes. ideas on what to go with?

Wow, almost anything I think.

How 'bout this, its a takeoff on what I'm cooking tonight (although I'm doing venison chops rather than burgers and oven fries rather than mashed potatos but it would be good with mashed potatos as well.):

Burgers:

Cut some thin slices of cheese. Put a bit of oil in a frying pan and sautee a bit of onion until glassy and lightly toast two wheat buns cut side down over medium heat.

Using 1/2 - 3/4 lbs of ground beast, mix meat with crushed and chopped garlic, a bit of finely chopped hot pepper, and some ground rosemary, marjoram, oregano, and black pepper. Remove onions and buns from pan and put burgers in. Cook until half done. Flip, put onion on top and cheese on top of that. Cook till done.

Veggies:

In a sauce/sautee pan. Sautee some onions and garlic and a bit of chili paste in coconut oil until onions are glassy, pull them out of the pan and set aside. Don't clean the pan. Put some coarsely chopped kale in the pan over medium low heat, cover and let cook until kale gets to be about half volume, mix in onion/garlic/chili as well as a bit of soy sauce or stir fry sauce and maybe a sprinkling of sesame seeds and a bit of sesame oil. Cook about two minutes stirring constantly. Serve.

A little late but... meatloaf.

Portabella mushroom steaks mmmm...

went with the burgers. easy, and delic. thanks for the recommendation on such a simple thing. sometimes I forget these things come from places other than BK.

Sounds awesome. What time should I be there?

Tonight's dinner:


1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup fresh-grated Parmesan
16 fresh sage leaves, sliced into thin strips
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Combine the cream, pumpkin puree, Parmesan, sage, salt, and pepper in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer the mixture until slightly thickened -- 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Toss with cooked pasta and serve immediately.

This recipe makes enough sauce to dress 1/2# or so of pasta.

So good, but a bit rich for me these days. Pretty sure I negated all of the calories I burned on my ride today!

Gonzalez Family Enchildadas Suizas... (muy muy deliciosos!!)

Steps:
1) Salsa Verde
2) Filling (anything you want really, but I'll do chicken or cheese)
3) Assembly

Salsa:
(umm. I don't use measurements... because my family doesn't so here goes.. sorry!)

Tomatillos (1-2 lbs)
Cilantro
1 Avacado
Jalapeños (as many as you want but at least 3)
1 large Onion
Garlic (3-6 cloves)
salt/pepper to taste
tsp of ground cumin
Water or vegetable stock
a little bit of vegetable oil/olive oil
Mexican Grade A table cream (crema), sour cream may be substituted.
lime (or lemon)

Clean the tomtatillos by peeling off the husks and washing the tomatillos in cold water to get the sticky off. Scrub them well.
Put them in a small pot and cover them with water, bring to a boil. Boil them long enough for them to puff up. when they do, take them off the burner and put them to the side to cool.

**In the same water you boiled the tomatillos in, boil the jalapeños. until they also puff up. Save this water... because you'll use it later.

chop onion and garlic and sautee until translucent, add the cumin and sautee until golden.

chop the jalapenos (de-seed and de-vein them if you want to make it less spicy) and sautee them with the onion/garlic/cumin mixture for a minute or two.

Take the cooled tomatillos and de stem them. peel off the clear membrane that should be loose now that you've boiled them. put them in a blender and puree, add the onion/jalapeno/garlic/cumin mixture as well.

Heat a tblspoon of oil, and saute the mixture again for about 3-5 minutes. turning it so as not to burn it.

Put the mixture back into the blender and slowly add the jalapeno/tomatillo water until you get the conistancy you desire. (Don't make it too watery because you'll be adding cream to it later)

put the cream, avacado and cilantro aside for later.

Fowl Filling:
ingredients
Shredded cooked chicken, or turkey (these are great after thanksgiving)
1 minced onion, 2-3 cloves of garlic.
Mexican Table Cream (substitute sour cream if you want)
Shredded white melting cheese (Chihuaha, Oaxaca, or Mozzerella)
Cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix shredded fowl with minced onion, add cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper to taste, add enough cream to make the mixture moist. Then add a couple handfuls of shredded cheese.

No meat filling:
Everything from above, but the fowl. You might want to add more onion, I like to add sautee'd mushrooms and rice, or beans or whatever's your pleasure!

Assembly:

incredients:
Tortillas
Vegetable oil
Casserole dish
lot's of Shredded white melting cheese (Chihuaha, Oaxaca, or Mozzerella)

heat an inch or two of oil in the shallow pan, when it sizzles (or a drop of water dances across the top of it) Lightly fry the tortillas, one at a time, until they start to bubble but DON'T LET THEM CRISP!.. Make sure to drain off and pat off excess oil.
This allows them to be more malleable for when you roll the enchiladas.
you can do all of your tortillas, and stack them up.
When they've cooled enough to handle, enfold the filling in them and line them seam side down in a shallow baking dish.

Preheat your oven to 375

When all of your enchiladas are assembled, finish your salsa by adding the avacado, a handful of cilantro and a couple of tablespoons of cream to the salsa in the blender and puree. Should be a light creamy green by now. (add the cream slowly so you don't add too much). Also, squeeze half the lemon/lime in there, This adds to the flavor and prevents the avacado from turning brown.

Smear the salsa over the enchiladas, and cover them with cheese. Save extra salsa to be served with the enchiladas at the table in case people want extra with their meal.

Bake for 15 min or until the cheese melts and the edges of the tortillas start to crisp.

Serve HOT with rice and beans..

I've always wondered how they came to be enchiladas suizas - suiza = Swiss, doesn't it?

Regardless, thanks for the recipe - this is a favorite when we eat at La Cucaracha.

Stuffed French Toast

I decided to cook breakfast for the house today and tried this recipe out. I doubled it and got 6 of these (one is plenty for one person). Took me bout an hour all together, but, I was taking my time, drinking coffee, listening to npr, so it could have been done faster.



Ingredients

Batter:
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Filling:
1 1/2 cups cream cheese
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup medium-diced banana
1/8 cup orange juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Syrup:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 cinnamon sticks

Butter, as needed
4 (2-inch thick) pieces challah bread
Fresh berries, for serving, optional

Cooking

Batter:
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mixing well until incorporated. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Filling:
Fold all ingredients together in a bowl until well incorporated but not completely smooth. Make sure to start with room temperature cream cheese, otherwise this will be near impossible.

Syrup:
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and let reduce by 1/3.

French Toast:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat a large saute pan and then add butter. Dredge the bread in the batter and place in the pan. Cook until golden brown on both sides, approximately 2 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool. Divide filling between 2 pieces of the bread top with the remaining 2 pieces of bread. Transfer French toast to oven and bake for 8 minutes.

Put these bad boys on a plate, add syrup and fresh berries (I went with raspberries), sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy.

It's because of the cream sauce... and Suiza=Swiss

*bump*

I thought this needed a little bump considering that this weekend is supposed to suck. Anyone cooking anything?

I got soup and lasagna on the mind...

Already been through 2 soups this fall/winter (beef stew, turkey dumpling), plus chili. Now working on some bean soup I froze last winter. Lasagna won't come out until the end of january when the fiance's brother has their baby (hopefully they wait until after our honeymoon!).

Should fire something up this weekend though. I need some more lunch meat, so maybe a turkey or a ginormous roast beast.

I'll be cooking tomorrow night @ Stub and Herb's.

I'll probably spend Sunday cleaning, baking, and cooking.

I'm in the process of copying down tons of my mom's recipes. will post the goodies later.