Another Breakfast Burrito.

That's right, hubby wanted breakfast burritos one morning, but instead of making the one with bacon, he wanted the lunch style with Frito chips and smoked sausage.  Problem was, I didn't have any Frito chips or Mexican white cheese, so I did what I always do...used what was available!

Breakfast Burrito with Smoked Sausage

 



Ingredients:

1 - 10 inch tortilla
1/4 cup sharp Cheddar cheese
1 large egg, cooked scrambled style
1 smoked sausage, cut in half lengthwise (I prefer Johnsonville)
1 Tbsp. chunky salsa, medium heat
1 Tbsp. butter, margarine or butter substitute


Preparation:






Place tortilla on a large plate or flat, clean surface; spread the cheese in the middle.


















Spread the cooked scrambled egg over the cheese; place the split sausage on top.

Spread the salsa down the center of the split sausage,







Now here comes the fun part, sealing up the tortilla; and I'm proud to say I'm getting better at it each time.




Fold one long side over the ingredients sitting in the center of the tortilla; fold the second long side over.  If the fold won't stay, use a toothpick to hold it together; remove before frying.

Now it's time to fold over one short end; not too close up to the ingredients; you'll need room for the cheese to melt.  Second short end after that, flip the packet over to seam side down and you're ready for the fry pan.

Depending on how many I'm making, I'll use an 8 inch skillet for one; 10 inch skillet for two; you want room to be able to flip the burrito over to brown both sides.  Melt one tablespoon of butter in the pan, over medium-high heat, and place the packet seam side down to ensure a good seal.  Depending on your stove, type of skillet used, it could take one to two minutes; lift up one end to make sure it's nicely browned before flipping to the top side.  You shouldn't need to add anymore butter, but do if you feel the pan is too dry.  Again, brown for one to two minutes, check, and place on your plate (seam side down).  Be brave and take that first hot bite with your mouth, or cut it in half to allow some cooling.

This recipe makes one delicious breakfast burrito with smoked sausage; or use any meat you desire like ham, bacon, sliced steak, even a cooked hamburger.

Practice makes perfect, so enjoy making a breakfast burrito; especially enjoy eating it!

Mary Cokenour

Men At Work, Tools and the Breakfast Burrito.

My hubby, Roy, and his friend Sean have been doing a little updating on the home. Now being the nurturer that I am, I make sure they're well watered and well fed; that included a good start to the day. I've never made a breakfast burrito before and to my great delight, I now had two male guinea pigs at my disposal.

Wolfed down the burritos? No, they practically inhaled them without chewing. The greatest compliment I received from Sean was, "You could put that burrito truck guy down in Blanding out of business selling these!" Whereas Roy than added, "Man, you should try one of her Smoked Sausage Burritos!"  See, that's what I love about having these two men as my guinea pigs, they will tell you that way it is without the sugar coating. The first time I made them, I forgot the cheese and they pointed that out immediately at the first bite. The second time I added the cheese, and all was perfect in the world...food wise.

Enough talk, lets eat!  Oh, the list of ingredients; yes, that is for one burrito.  Who in the world would make a skinny burrito!?!

Breakfast Burrito

Ingredients:

1 - 10 inch flour tortilla

6 strips crispy bacon
2 Tbsp butter, divided
1 cup shredded potatoes
1/4 cup diced onion
2 Tbsp diced red bell pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 large eggs, beaten
1/4 shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

 
 

Preparation:

Lay the bacon across the center of the tortilla, but leave 2-3 inches open space from the edges of the tortilla.

 

Melt one tablespoon of butter, medium-high heat, in a 10 inch skillet.  Add the potatoes, onion, bell pepper, salt and ground black pepper; mix, press down to spread out evenly and cook one side for 2 minutes.  Flip the mixture over and cook other side for another minute. 













Add the beaten eggs and cheese; mix and cook until eggs become firmer and cheese is thoroughly melted. 













Spread the potato/egg mixture over the bacon and do not let it go to the edges. 















Fold up the long sides of the tortilla over the ingredients; fold up the ends and secure with toothpicks until ready for the skillet.

 

Add the remaining tablespoon of butter to the skillet, melt over medium-high heat.  Remove toothpicks and lay tortilla "packet" seam side down into the skillet; cook for 1-2 minutes, until browned and seams are sealed.  Flip burrito over and cook for 1-2 minutes, until browned.  Remove to plate, cut in half or eat two handed style.

Makes one burrito.

Mary Cokenour

An Experiment in Pizza Making.

Here's the basis of it; I wanted pizza, didn't want to wait to make dough; it was a Sunday, so the local stores in this town are all closed; and the two pizzerias in town suck big time anyway.  What's a pizza fanatic to do?  Well I could have driven all the way to Moab or Cortez to buy dough, or even get a pizza at one of their local shops.  Nope, I improvised and used this round, extremely flat bread I had in the fridge...a tortilla.  Nothing new you say;nope I've seen "Mexican pizza" advertised in many places, even tried one.  It's basically sauce and cheese baked between two tortillas; simple, fast and easy; I just decided to do my own take on it, as per usual.  Remember, I'm a Pizza Snob, so won't settle for just as is; I even went so far as to make a Mexican pizza into a casserole and folks loved it.

For this pizza, I used a finely shredded mozzarella; wanted it to melt quickly, but not be so gooey that it would act more like cement than a good cheese.  I like using Sargento brand cheeses; they taste so much fresher, and they've got a good variety of, not just mixtures, but the way the cheeses are sliced or shredded.  I used my homemade pasta sauce, since it already had a great infusion of garlic and Italian herbs in it; and the fresh tomatoes I used make it an out of this world sauce.  Sorry, not being humble when it comes to my sauce.  I only used one tortilla; I wanted a pizza, not a stuffed pizza (two layers of dough with toppings/sauce inside), nor a Mexican pizza which, to me, looks like a quesadilla.  I also used a nonstick pizza pan which I preheated in the oven; hot pan and oven ensures a crispy pizza.  The brushing of olive oil let the untopped edges crisp up golden brown; the hot pizza pan allowed the bottom of the tortilla to do the same.  It was a most enjoyable eating experience!!!

So here goes, and whether it is just for you or with another person; or even make it with your children; enjoy!

Tortilla Pizza

Tortilla Pizza

Ingredients:

1 (10 – 12 inch) flour tortilla

½ tsp olive oil
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided in half
½ cup pizza sauce

 

 

 

 

 

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 450F; place inside a 12 inch nonstick pizza pan to allow it to preheat with the oven.

 

Place tortilla on a plate or board from which it can be easily transferred.  Brush the tortilla with the olive oil; spread half the cheese to within one inch of the edge.  Pour the sauce, starting in the center and work outwards; spread remaining half of cheese over the tortilla.

 

Remove the preheated pizza pan from the oven and carefully transfer the prepped tortilla to its center. 

 

 

 

Place pan back into the oven and bake for seven (7) minutes.  Transfer baked pizza to plate or board to be cut into fourths.

 

Makes 1 pizza (serves 1-2 people)

Mary Cokenour

An Awesome Mexican Adventure.

Recently I purchased two cookbooks from the Monticello Welcome Center; "Authentic Southwestern Cooking" by Lynn Nusom and "Southwest Slow Cooking" by Tammy Biber and Theresa Howell.  Going through both, I found several recipes I wanted to try out, and enjoyed reading some of the stories and informational tidbits in both books.  I was watching Travel Channel's "Mexican Food Paradise"; then Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" had an episode which featured New Mexico places; so you can see a pattern was starting to develop in what I was to cook next. 

Speaking with my hubby, he suggested I make a Mexican style casserole, but put rotini pasta in it.  I thought about it, but didn't like the pasta idea; pasta is Italian, I already made two Italian pasta dishes last week.  So, do I use one of the recipes out of the cookbooks, or look up recipes from the shows I had watched?  I did better than either choice, I combined both ideas plus my recipes for Chicken Enchiladas and Fiesta Salsa. To say that I came up with something absolutely amazing is to say too little. The taste and texture blew my mind; I wanted to just lay down on the floor and experience what I had just eaten with orgasmic pleasure. It is not often that I feel this way about a particular meal; but this was certainly a most excellent adventure!

Once again I'll be posting a load of photos, so I hope you'll enjoy the visual show as well as trying out this recipe.

 

 

Fiesta Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

8 chicken tenderloins
¼ cup lime juice
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
½ tsp cumin
1 tsp New Mexico chile powder (medium)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained (medium)
8 (10 inch) flour tortillas
2 cups green chile sauce (medium)
8 Tbsp salted butter
8 Tbsp flour
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
½ tsp ground black pepper
1 (8 oz) package shredded Mexican cheese mix

Preparation:





Trim the chicken tenderloins of any fat or excess ligament; place in a sealable plastic bag with the lime juice, cilantro, cumin and chile powder. Move chicken around in bag to make sure all is coated with the marinade; place in refrigerator for one hour. In a large skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high heat; sear chicken two minutes on each side and drain on paper towels. Chicken will still be raw inside, but will finish cooking during the baking process.

To Make the Enchiladas

In a large bowl, mix together the black beans, corn and tomatoes with green chiles.

 Place 4 tablespoons in the center of a tortilla; spread out far enough to be a half inch around the chicken.

Place a chicken tenderloin in the center of the “salsa”; fold the tortilla over both ends of the chicken, but leave 3 inches apart.

Take one side of the tortilla and fold over to make an “envelope”; slowly roll towards the open side, tucking in sides if necessary, to seal the “packet”.

Don't worry if each "packet" is not perfectly symmetrical or look exactly like each other.  Once the layers of sauce are on, no one will see the imperfections. If someone does, then feel proud that these are homemade; not bought at the supermarket's frozen food section and machine made.

 

Preheat oven to 350F; spray a 4 quart baking dish with nonstick spray. Place each packet, seam side down, inside the dish. Spread the green chile sauce over the packets and bake for 20 minutes.

To Make the Cheese Sauce

Melt the butter, medium-high heat, in a medium sauce pan; whisk in the flour as soon as tiny bubbles begin to form in the melted butter. Continue to whisk as the mixture begins to turn a pale brownish color; add the heavy cream, milk and black pepper and let mixture come to a low boil. Whisk in half the shredded cheese until melted; do same for second half of cheese and continue to whisk until smooth.




After 20 minutes, take enchiladas out of oven and spread cheese sauce completely over all. Return dish to the oven and bake an additional 10 minutes.
 

Remove from oven and let it rest for 10 minutes to allow cheese sauce to firm up around the enchiladas.  Let me tell you that the cheese poofs up into this wonderful fluffy layer of cheesy cloud.  The texture is so soft and smooth, not the typical chewy layer when cheese is just dumped on an enchilada and allowed to melt.

Cutting open the enchilada, you see the vibrant colors of the beans, corn and tomatoes; the chicken is tender and juicy; the flavors of the lime and cilantro pop; and the cheese sauce layer...a celestial cloud.  Enjoy!

Makes 8 servings.

Mary Cokenour

Picture, Deconstruct, Construct, Eat.

A question I get asked sometimes is, "How do you come up with your recipes?" One of the ways is by working backwards; first I picture the completed dish in my mind's eye. Then I mentally deconstruct it via ingredients and cooking techniques. I write it all down, so as I now attempt to construct the recipe from scratch, I can make adjustments and notes. After the actual dish is completed, I eat it and see how I did. Nine times out of ten; it's a winner. Picture, deconstruct, construct and eat.

So it went with this latest recipe from my mind's eye, Ground Beef Enchiladas. I was originally going to be lazy and just make a simple meatloaf. No, I couldn't do that, as I knew I needed to keep trying out new recipes to keep this blog fresh. Next thing I thought about was having Mexican, but what to make? Then the picture in my mind came and a recipe was born.

For the enchilada sauce, I used the recipe from my Chicken Enchiladas, but I increased the tomato sauce to 30 ounces, the cream to 3/4 of a cup which made for a redder in color, not as creamy sauce.

Oh, little hint here; don't forget to spray both dishes with the nonstick cooking spray. In my haste, I forgot to do one of the dishes; happily only one of the enchiladas stuck badly. What a relief!

Ground Beef Enchiladas

Ingredients:

2 lb lean ground beef (90% or leaner)
1 cup diced onion
2 Tbsp crushed dried cilantro
1 tsp crushed dried Mexican oregano
1 Tbsp mild New Mexico chili powder
1 ½ cups canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1 ½ cups canned whole kernel corn, drained and rinsed
3 cups canned diced tomatoes; drained and divided in half
½ cup diced chile peppers (mild, medium or hot)
10 (10 inch) flour tortillas
4 cups enchilada sauce
1 (12 oz) bag shredded Mexican cheese mix

Preparation:

In a large skillet, medium-high heat, brown the ground beef and onion together until meat is no longer pink; drain any excess fat. Mix in cilantro, oregano, chili powder, beans, corn, half the tomatoes and chile peppers; let cook together for 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350F; spray a 4 quart and 3 quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Spread one cup of meat mixture in center of tortilla.

Fold up two sides until they meet and overlap ¼ of an inch.

Fold up top and bottom over seam to make an almost square packet, being careful not to split the tortilla; place in baking dish seam side down. Six will fit in the 4 quart; 4 in the 3 quart comfortably. (Not one of them complained of overcrowding)

Pour 3 cups enchilada sauce over all the packets; spread cheese over evenly; pour remaining sauce overall.

Sprinkle remaining half of tomatoes overall. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for one hour. They will puff up slightly from the steam generated in the covered dish; and it's a beautiful thing to behold.

Makes 10 servings.

Mary Cokenour