Chicken Enchiladas

I really enjoy enchiladas; I am sure most of it is the covered in cheese part that I like, but I still like them. For a few years now I have been using an enchilada sauce recipe from "Cooking Light." Originally it was for vegetable enchiladas- squash, black beans and red onions. I found it quite delicious and we make the vegetable enchiladas fairly often. This was Chris' mom and sister's last night with us so I decided to go with chicken enchiladas. The main reasoning was I wanted to show Ashley (his sister) how to make guacamole again and so Mexican night it was.

The only disappointment in the enchiladas was I only made four, which was plenty for dinner but left none for my lunch the next day. Surprisingly enchiladas are pretty decent rewarmed in the microwave and they are one of my more favorite meals to be rewarmed at work for lunch. Oh well there's always next time.

Julia Child

We went to see the new Julie and Julia movie this afternoon. It was really cute. At the end I was sad because I guess Julie never got to meet Julia- I have not read the book but at least that is what the movie ended with. I know I should have put some kind of spoiler alert on this but tough. We went with Chris' mom and sister and then like the big dorks we are we came home and cooked a Julia Child meal.

In this month's "Bon Appetit," they have a section of 6 recipes from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." We only did one of the six but it was delicious. We did the Poulet Saute Aux Herbes De Provence. Any time you cook chicken in a whole stick of butter, well that obviously cannot be bad. We did not get a super awesome picture of the chicken but as you can see that stick of butter led to an awesome golden crust.

We also had scalloped potatoes- this recipe I believe originally came from"Bon Appetit" as well- it was a Gordon Ramsey deal. I think- I cut out the recipe a while back. I also cut up a patty pan squash and roasted it.

Grilling Time

So I swear I did not have shrimp two days in a row.... there was one day in between them... but only one. For lunch on Saturday I was starving and could not decide what I wanted for lunch. Chris in his typical brilliance concocted up something.

He put together some shrimp kabobs and diced up squash, mushrooms, onions, and purple potatoes covered everything in some grill rub and grilled it up. It was a little warm to be eating outside but we did it anyway. Chris took this shot and called it his William and Sonoma shot. Show off.

Also notice the grilled jalapeno on the plate. Obviously I was not eating that thing. Chris took a big bit and immediately required some lemonade.

Calzones

As the tomatoes start to come in from the CSA in large quantities and my romas keep right on producing, a good option is always sauce. At first I am always a little disappointed with making my own sauce but as with many things it takes patience. The longer you let it simmer the better it becomes. I don't really have a recipe so much as I throw in the tomatoes and garlic which are a necessity and then add what sounds good from there. I did a double batch to use up some tomatoes and decided calzones would be delicious and froze the other half.

I had some dough left in the freezer from the last batch of pizzas and made two of these beauties.
I know you are wondering... what is in this yummy looking pocket of dough. Well besides the obvious sauce and mozzarella, I put sauteed onions and mushroom and SHRIMP. I know I told you I love shrimp. I have been making these mini shrimp calzones for a while now. The original idea came from Giada De Laurentiis. The filling in the original is more shrimp and tomatoes and wine than shrimp and sauce but I enjoy a saucy calzone so it evolved. These are not really mini but that's what Giada calls them so I stick with it.
It's hard to see the shrimp but I promise they are in there. Yum

Oven Fried Chicken

Ok so I have been cooking, I just haven't made the time to sit down and post. I am going to start with one and see if I can get a few others done as well. I am in the process of making enchilada sauce so we will see how far I get with the actual posting. It's just simmering at the moment so it should be cool for one post.

These two recipes are both from a store here in Charlotte called Cooking Uptown. They are a little boutique cooking store that offers some fun classes. The oven fried chicken was delicious- Chris was stumped on the crust although I am not sure why. Maybe it was the soaking the chicken in buttermilk. The au gratin potatoes were ok. I probably would not do them again. Not the right amount of cheesy. I normally enjoy Gruyere which these called for but it just did not do it for me. Although as I was telling the girls at work the last time I think I had au gratin potatoes- they were out of a box. I know sacrilegious. In my defense that was quite a few years ago.

Corn Risotto

I adore cooking anything Italian. Italian food is just so delicious and for probably a little over a year I was obsessed with cooking anything and everything Italian. Finally the voice of reason, Chris, convinced me I should try to cook something besides Italian everyday. I did listen but I still love a good Italian meal.

One of my favorite Italian things to cook is risotto. It is so versatile and you can put so many things in it. But whether you keep it simple or add the kitchen sink it is always outstanding. I love to cook risotto and find it quite easy to cook. I think the main thing is you have to be willing to stand with what you are cooking for 30 minutes, but I find risotto worth the hovering required.

The August/ September 2009 "Fine Cooking" has a recipe for risotto with corn, spicy sausage and wilted arugula. This is not one of my favorite risottos (I mean its hard to beat mushroom risotto) but it was quite yummy. The corn was a new ingredient for me and risotto and I do love corn and corn in my risotto is even more delicious.

Fudge Brownies

A couple of weeks ago, I had to buy flour. I usually buy King Arthur, I switched to this brand after a bread class that I took a while back. I am not a die hard though and will buy something else if it is on sale. This particular day nothing was on sale so King Arthur it was. Once I emptied the flour into it's canister I noticed a recipe on the back for the best fudge brownies ever. Well with a claim like that I had to cut the recipe off the back and save it.

I bought the few ingredients that I needed at the store the next week and have been wanting to make those brownies ever since. The last week or so, maybe a little more, has been kind of blah on the cooking. Just blah I don't want to do anything and blah if I do something its just blah and I do not want to post about it- ie the lack of posting.

Finally on Sunday the chocolate craving became more than I could bare and I made the best fudge brownies ever. As in all things sweet, I contributed to the delinquency of the people at work and took a little over half to work with me. There the comment was made, "do these have fudge in them." I mean that says it all these were delicious, rich fudgey brownies.