Sweet Corn and Bacon Empanadas

These are great for two reasons: they are yummy, and you can make them up ahead of time and freeze till ready to bake. Love them for brunch, lunch or dinner parties. They also make great midnight treats!


You Will Need:
- 2 anaheim chile peppers
- 3 strips bacon
- 2 cups fresh or frozen sweet corn kernels
- 1 1/2 cups shredded white cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup diced scallions

-your favorite pie dough, either homemade or store bought

Directions:
Have your pie dough made up and ready to go.
Roast chile peppers over a gas burner or in a hot oven until they're blackened and blistered. Wrap chilies in damp paper-towels for about 10 minutes, until cooled off and skin peals off easily. Peel chilies; discard skin. Slit chilies lengthwise, scrape out and discard seeds, remove stem, and dice chilies. Should yield about 1/2 cup diced chilies.
Fry bacon in a saute pan over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove to a paper-towel-lined plate.
Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from pan; add corn; saute over medium-high heat until edges of corn begin to brown, about 8 minutes. Stir in bacon, chilies, cheddar, and scallions. Chill filling thoroughly.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll out pie dough on a work surface, lightly floured if necessary. Using a 3 1/2 " biscuit cutter, cut circles from dough; repeat with remaining dough, rerolling scraps once. Arrange dough rounds on prepared baking sheet.
Place 1 T filling in the center of each round. Fold rounds in half, pinch to seal, then crimp edges with a fork. (Freeze if desired.)
Blend one egg yolk with 1 T water; brush over empanadas. Sprinkle empanadas with smoked paprika; then bake until golden, 15-18 minutes.

Black Bean Soup

Nothing really to say that I didn't already say about navy beans. Beans are good.

So says Zonya.
So say I.

Recipe by: Me (and my neighbor Tessa)
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

- 5 pieces of bacon, large chopped
- 1 onion, diced
- fresh ground pepper (to taste, about 1/8 tsp)
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1/8 tsp Cayenne pepper
- 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 tomato, diced, and sour cream to serve

Directions:

In a large soup pot or dutch oven cook bacon until done and almost crispy. Add onion. Cook until onion begins to turn translucent.

Add seasoning, beans and broth. Cook over medium heat for about 45 minutes, or until beans become tender and broth begins to thicken. Serve with fresh diced tomatoes and sour cream.

Chewy Flour Tortillas

Until my friend Melissa sends me her mother's recipe for tortillas I will have to make due. (If you are eating tortillas not made by Aralie Warren then you, know it or not, are making due as well.)

I tried out this recipe (found HERE) because it seemed simple. The recipe only has a few ingredients and it comes together pretty quickly. This recipe gives you thick, chewy tortillas.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup luke warm milk

Directions:

Stir together the flour and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and vegetable oil to the lukewarm milk and whisk briefly to incorporate. Gradually add the milk to the flour, and work the mixture into a dough. It will be sticky.
Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with flour and knead vigorously for about 2 minutes (fold and press, fold and press). The kneading will take care of the stickiness. Return the dough to the bowl, cover it with a damp cloth, and let it rest for 15 minutes. (This dough will not rise, but it needs a rest.)
Divide your dough into 8 balls of equal size, cover them, and let them rest again for about 20 minutes. Avoid letting them touch, if you don't want them to stick together.
Dust your work surface with flour. Working one at a time, remove each piece of dough and pat it into a 5-inch circle. With a rolling pin, roll out the tortilla, working from the center out, until you have a 7- or 8-inch tortilla a little less than 1/4 inch thick. Transfer the tortilla to a hot, dry skillet or griddle. It will begin to blister. Let it cook for 30 seconds, turn it, and let the other side cook for 30 seconds. Remove the tortilla, place it in a napkin-lined basket and cover with aluminum foil. Repeat for the remaining tortillas.
Although flour tortillas, like corn tortillas, are best if eaten right after they are made, these tortillas will freeze well. Wrap them tightly in plastic, and they will keep, frozen, for several weeks. To serve tortillas that have been frozen, let them thaw and come to room temperature, then wrap them in aluminum foil and heat them in a warm oven. Microwaving tends to toughen them.

(Jacob and Finnley enjoying the fruits of my labor)

Salsa! (By Jason and Kelly) and Loaded Sour Cream, trust me, it's good

I'd like to start out by saying American Idol sucks. I will never watch again. I love you Casey James! Muah! (Kissing noise)

Dinner party tomorrow! We're having our favorite neighbors over and I will attempt for the first time ever a whole roasted chicken along with artichoke risotto. And guys, my risotto always seems to stay a little crunchy. This is even after adding all the called for liquid plus some and cooking it for the time called for in the recipe. Is this normal?

Anyway, moving on...

So a lot of my friends have been super fun and supportive of my blogging efforts. My friend Jason sends me pictures via cell phone of all the delicious things he makes. The cool thing about Jason is that he doesn't work from a recipe, he just works with what he's got or can get for cheap. That's just how this gangsta rolls. A few days ago he sent me a picture of this:

"Grilled Chicken and Mango Salsa"

"I had mangoes I got for super cheap, and chicken that was gonna go bad so I went to the store and got cilantro and lime. Grilled some red onions and sliced mango and bam." -Jason P.

Well, bam Jason! You're a rock star. I wish I lived back in San Diego so bad it makes my stomach hurt! I MISS MY FRIENDS! Thank goodness for technology. Keep sending me pictures of your food so I know you guys miss me too.

This next salsa recipe is so delicious and simple! Kelly (of According to Kelly) made it for a dinner this last Easter holiday. It goes fast at parties, it's a great thing to keep in your fridge for snacking (Finn loves it), and it's made from things that are easy to get any time of year and that most of us have on hand most of the time anyway.

Ingredients:

- 1 red bell pepper (small diced)

- 1 green bell pepper (small diced)

- 1 cucumber (small diced)

- 1 can corn, drained

- 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

- cilantro (to taste, but about 2 tablespoons chopped)
- Zesty Italian Dressing (about 3/4 bottle)

Combine and toss. Eat with chips or add to a salad. Yummmmm!

Ok. Are you ready for loaded sour cream? Jacob and I stopped at this restaurant called Cafe Diablo ( http://www.cafediablo.net/) in Torry, Utah on our way home from Escalante this last trip. We had never heard anything about it, and were really surprised when we discovered it to be an upscale restaurant with all plates hovering around the $22 mark. In Torry? Seriously? It's claim to fame is being featured in the 1,000 Places to see in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die. Our food was so good, but I think our favorite thing was the quesadilla we ordered for Finn. Homemade tortillas, gooey cheese, and it was served with this crazy good sour cream. I've spent a couple days on it and I think I have it figured out.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup sour cream

- 2 tbsp small diced green bell pepper

- 1 tbsp small diced onion

- 2 tbsp small diced cucumber

- 1 tomato diced

- Lawry's seasoned salt (to taste)

- 1/8 teaspoon dried rosemary, finely ground

Mix all ingredients together, but reserve half the chopped tomato to sprinkle on top. Eat with quesadillas, enchiladas, or whatever. I crave this stuff.

Mormon Mom Enchiladas. (10/5/2009)

My sister-in-law Ashley and her fiancée are in town apartment hunting, visiting friends ect. Lucky for Jacob and I they made some time for us and came over for dinner along with our brother Grayson. Grayson is a mad dater and left around nine to go hook up with a hottie but Ashley, Jake, Jacob and I curled up on our bed and gossiped for a couple wonderful hours.

I love my family! I am so excited for Jake and Ashley, who have been dating since Ash was 15, to get married. Jake likes my food and my crazy kid, so I love him! If you know me well, then you know there is nothing I love more than spooning on the bed and hearing a good story. Tonight was heaven! And the enchiladas were good too.
My mother-in-law Larene gave me the recipe, but it’s just your basic ‘mormon-mom’ enchilada. The most Mexican thing about this recipe is the canned green chilies. This is real, heavy, cheesy, delicious comfort food.

For the enchiladas you will need:

- 4 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
- 16 oz. sour cream
- 2 cans cream of chicken soup
- 2, 4 oz cans green chilies
- 10-12 small flour tortillas
- about 3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
-salt and pepper to taste

Mix together sour cream, cream of chicken soup and green chilies along with a little salt and pepper to taste. Layer a little of mixture on bottom of 9x13 baking dish. Roll cheese and chicken into tortillas and place in baking dish. Pour remaining sour cream mixture on top of tortillas. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 min, add cheese to top and bake another 5-10 min until cheese melts.