Marissa made this for dinner the other night and I love it! She made the recipe her own and found the original on a site called Gimme Some Oven. Marissa left out the corn, but when I make it, I plan to add it, so I’ve included it here. One point of contention between the two of us was the salsa I purchased when I did the shopping at Trader Joe’s. She requested salsa verde. She didn’t know that Trader Joe’s has two styles of salsa verde, the original and Hatch Valley Salsa, which is my favorite. I knew full well that when she asked for the salsa verde, she meant the original, but I bought my favorite. She was not pleased. Too bad, it was delicious!

Zucchini Enchilada Casserole

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, peeled and diced
• 1 large red bell pepper, cored and diced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, cored and diced
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 3 cups cooked rice
• 2 cups shredded or diced cooked chicken
• 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup whole-kernel corn
• 1 1/2 to 2 jars salsa verde, divided
• 2 large zucchini
• 3 cups (12 ounces) shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
• Possible Toppings: chopped fresh cilantro, diced red onion, sliced jalapeño peppers, sliced green onions, sour cream, and/or sliced avocado

Have you heard of Half Baked Harvest? I first discovered Tieghan Gerard on Instagram. I quickly purchased the “Every Day” cookbook, one for me and another for Marissa. I cooked out of it extensively when I was in Chicago that first month after Max was born. “Every Day” is Tieghan’s third cookbook. I have not cooked from “My Barn in the Mountains” or “Super Simple.” But I have tried out several recipes from her blog, including the recipe below.

I made a few adjustments, omissions, and additions to meet my likes and cooking style. You can see the original recipe here to compare.

The first issue for me was the instruction to keep the chicken the in skillet when adding the onion and peppers. Although I was using Marissa’s largest Le Creuset skillet, it just didn’t work. Everything didn’t truly fit into the skillet until the onions and peppers were cooked down, so I instruct to remove the chicken to a bowl. I understand why she wrote it that way, it is called a “one skillet meal” but it isn’t practical. And since there is already a bowl used to make the corn mixture, if you use the same bowl for the chicken to rest in and then to mix the corn in, it is the same number of items to use and clean.

Let’s see, what else… I added garlic, because, it’s garlic! I prefer a mix of Aleppo and Chipotle chili powders to basic chili powder. Oh, and Tieghan calls for mayonnaise as the garnish to be drizzled over the finished dish. That is not appealing to me. Once again, I see where she came up with that. True Mexican Street Corn has mayo, but I prefer sour cream to mayo for the drizzling. If I was to add mayo, I would sub out the yogurt in the corn mixture with mayo for a more authentic taste.

One last thing; although we all thought it was delicious as written, Marissa and I believe it would be even better to lift the chicken along with about half of the pepper/onion mixture, out of the sauce mixture once it is finished cooking, and palce in a separate bowl. Then double the number of tortillas, spread about half as much corn mixture on each, and fill the enchiladas with the chicken/pepper mixture too. (You may need to chop up the chicken strips to make them fit better.) Then place the enchiladas atop the salsa cooking liquid in the skillet, top with cheese, and follow the recipe from that point. Just another option to think about.

Read through my version and hers. Then feel free to mix it up with your preferred variations to make it your own. Enjoy!

A couple of months ago I bought a 3-pound bag of refrigerated shredded beef at Costco. It had a long-away expiration date (March 2018!) and the photo of the beef on the front of the bag looked so good!

It sat in my refrigerator for a few weeks, then I took it on our trip to Carlsbad in the beginning of August, just in case we decided to make tacos or something. We never opened it, so it came back to Arizona. I finally opened it last week.

Not at all as pictured on the package. What a disappointment! Costco is known for its thorough vetting process before selecting and selling products. I’m not sure how this product slipped through. It didn’t taste all that bad, as I did end up using it for tacos one night, but then decided I’d rather use the rest in some sort of casserole. It tasted much better mixed in with other ingredients. The next time I make this dish, I’ll be using leftover beef from a roast.

Note: In a photo of the ingredients below, you may notice that the can of green chiles is missing. That is because I decided to add them as I was assembling the dish.

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Getting back into the swing of it, blogging-wise, has been harder than I ever imagined it would be. Since I missed it so much, I thought I’d fall right back into the rhythm. Um, not so much!

I want to blame it on the holidays. Thanksgiving, out-of-town family, Christmas, even more family from out-of-town, New Year’s, and more family have made it hard to want to sit down at the computer and “work.” But that’s really not it. I blogged religiously for more than 5 years, through every major holiday and life event, so I can not claim that the season is the issue.

I’m just out of the habit, and until I get back on track, posts will be spotty. I’m now prepared for that reality and I hope that you’ll stick with me through this transition.

Marissa & Jeff drove back to Austin on Saturday. They had flown in two weeks ago but drove back so they could take all their wedding and wedding shower gifts. They made it back in record time, arriving home, safe and sound, by mid-morning on Sunday.

On Friday night, for their last dinner at home, I made a pan of super-easy and super-yummy tamale enchiladas. So yummy, in fact, that I couldn’t get a photo of the pan before they were all but gone!

I bought the tamales from a young woman who was selling them at Connor’s apartment building. She had two adorable little ones in-tow, so how could I say no?  I bought a dozen green chile-chicken tamales and a dozen red chile-pork tamales. I should say, that’s what I thought I bought, she accidentally gave me only six green chile (1 bag) and a dozen and a half (3 bags) of red chile.

A few nights before, we enjoyed 6 of the green and 6 of the red, served in the traditional style. That was nice, but to my taste, tamales are a bit dry. So serving the remaining dozen red chile tamales enchilada-style was way more fun!

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No doubt you have noticed by now that I generally “start from scratch” with most of my cooking. I do so for many reasons:

#1 – I love to cook, and cooking is therapeutic for me.

#2 – I like to know exactly what I’m getting so I don’t like to get my stuff from cans with tons of preservatives.

#3 – It’s healthier.

#4 – It’s what I do, I’m a cooking teacher, after all! That is why this recipe goes against “how I cook”.

Let’s get my run down on this recipe:

#1 – purchased cooked chicken – check.

#2 – pre-shredded cheese blend – check.

#3 – processed garlic cubes – check.

#4 – canned creamed soup – check. 

#5 – canned and chopped green chilies – check.

OK, so two of those items I am an advocate for… the rotisserie chicken and the garlic cubes – love, love, love them both. But the canned soup!?! That is nearly forbidden in this house! And I don’t often pay more just to have my cheese already grated for me – wasteful and sometimes it seems a bit dried out to me. The canned green chilies – sometimes, but I prefer to roast and peel them myself – have superior flavor!  All that said, this is still a great recipe. It tastes good, looks good, and is quick and easy.

At last, the day has arrived – whatever leftovers haven’t been eaten, given away, or frozen; are going in the trash. Marissa and Connor head back to their respective universities this evening. Care packages are going with them and then I will have my refrigerator back!

This recipe is a perfect example of when to use light sour cream and cream cheese. There are so many other prominent flavors going on here, that you’ll never taste the difference. When the sour cream or cream cheese is the main flavor, then I prefer to use the real thing, because you can truly taste the difference. As for the fat-free versions – not a good choice – they don’t bake up as well. When a recipe calls for canned green chilies, always go for the whole chilies and dice them yourself. They are better quality than the “already diced”, and it takes only seconds to cut them up.  “Goodbye turkey, see you next November!”

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mise en place ingredients

Mise en place (pronounced miz ahn plas) literally “putting in place” is a French phrase defined as “everything in place.” As in, set up and ready to go. I can’t imagine relaxing and enjoying cooking without using this important technique, whether with entertaining or everyday meals. For instance, with this dish, I peeled, chopped, and measured everything in the morning, then later when it was time to make dinner, I pull it out of the refrigerator (on a plate covered with plastic wrap) and just “throw it together.”  For a large party or holiday, I prep everything and place the items in snack and sandwich-size zip-lock bags a day or two ahead. If there are several dishes with many different components, just clip them together with either office clips or bag clips and label what dish the ingredients are for.

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