Recently in What's That Smell? Category

(Taste of Home April & May 2008 - submitted by Pat Coffee of Kingston Washington)

Prep Time: 30min ... Bake Time: 35min

Ingredients:

1 package (8oz) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
5 cups diced cooked chicken
20 flour tortillas (6 inches), room temperature
2 cans (10-3/4oz each) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2 cups (16oz) sour cream
1 cup milk
2 cans (4oz each) chopped green chilies
2 cups (8oz) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, water, onion powder, cumin, salt and pepper until smooth.  Stir in chicken.  Place 1/4 cup of mixture down the center of each tortilla.  Roll up and place seam side down in two greased 13in x 9in x 2in baking dishes.  In a bowl, combine the soup, sour cream, milk and chilies; pour over enchiladas.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until heated through.  Sprinkle with cheddar cheese; bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Yield: 10 servings

NOTE: Not knowing how the kids would react to this new dish, I only made a "half recipe".  The whole family loved it.  Myra had seconds and Noah had THIRDS and then leftovers later!  I'll probably continue to do half recipes unless we have guests to help eat it.

It's time to bring everyone's favorite category back!  The family has been trying to eat better lately and, as a result, has tried many new recipes*.  The ones we end up liking, we'll happily share with you.  Now don't you feel special?  Hopefully, you'll try them and like them as much as we did.

*No, not all the recipes will be "healthy" but they won't be that bad for you either.  You can always make your own adjustments like we do ... sometimes.  Low fat whatever here ... low sodium whatever there.

We took some suggestions from my sister Angie and our friend Anna and made some AMAZING homemade pizza tonight. Thanks to the suggestion from Angie, we skipped the hand mixing and kneading and went with a lazier method. We made the crust in the bread machine using this recipe which is one we modified from recipezaar. Here is our version:

1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup bread flour
1 3/8 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of oregano

Place ingredients, in order listed, in bread pan fitted with kneading paddle. Select Dough/Pizza Dough cycle. When completed, deflate dough and use to make your favorite pizza.

Then we took Anna's advice and made it a stuffed crust by rolling pieces of string cheese up in the crust. It turned out GREAT. Next time, I'm putting mushrooms on it!

Once upon a time, there was a little boy. He was very big for his age and seemed to like it that way. How was he to stay a head above the rest? By eating his vegetables of course!

Myra has never been a big veggie girl ... "Mashed potatoes and corn are the ONLY vegetables I like." Imagine our surprise when Noah started munching on Papa's salad not so way back when. Since then, Noah's enjoyed corn, green beans, broccoli and, his most recent discovery, asparagus! Josh and I are floored by this. It's GREAT!

I guess Noah just wants to make sure he reaches that estimated full grown height of 6 foot 3-4 inches tall. The way he's going, he'll get there by age 6. ;)

I've decided that I would post the secret recipe for the asparagus that Noah likes. It's SUPER simple ...

Ingredients: Fresh Asparagus and Lemon Pepper Seasoning

Directions: Snap ends of asparagus by holding each end and bending. Steam asparagus (we use a steaming basket - all of about $5 - inserted into a regular pot with about a half inch of water) until just tender. Season to taste.

Told you it was SUPER simple.

This is one of our low carb recipes. I was going to make this dish as my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner. However, as Josh has already mentioned, things changed.

Ingredients:
1 small onion, sliced very thin (2.5 oz)
1/4 cup celery, finely diced
2 tablespoons butter
2-14 oz cans French-cut green beans, drained well
4 oz can mushrooms, drained well
12 oz ham, diced
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
8 oz pepper-jack, cheddar or Swiss cheese, shredded (I use the pepper-jack for some spice)

Directions:
Saute onion and celery in butter until very tender and a little browned. In 2-qt greased casserole dish, mix green beans, mushrooms, ham, mayonnaise and seasonings. Stir in onion mixture, then cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until browned and bubbly.

You can assemble and chill ahead of time. If you do so, add an additional 10-15 minutes to baking time.

Makes 6-8 servings.

;) WHAT'S THAT SMELL IS BACK! ;)

Shawn has been working on a family recipe book. One of the moms in one of my SAHMs group mentioned doing a recipe swap. It's all got me thinking that I need to bring back everyone's favorite category ...

WHAT'S THAT SMELL?

Be looking for new recipes in the near future.

(I'm also hoping that this will get me cooking more ... and healthier meals so I can get my new fancy Food Network cookware for Christmas.)

I got this recipe out of the Variety Pack Favorite Recipes cookbook put together by members of St Louis Catholic Church in Stroud, OK. This particular recipe was submitted by Sherry Hayes (Thank you). This beer bread is very quick and extremely easy to prepare. It takes about 5-10 minutes to put everything together and it comes out fluffy. There's no waiting for the dough to rise or kneeding involved. Anybody can make it and I highly recomend that you try. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
3 C Self-Rising Flour
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 (12 oz) can warm beer
1/2 C Melted Butter

Directions:
Mix first three ingredients well. Place in greased loaf pan and top with melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

Personal Touch:
I used beer from a bottle instead of a can. I'm not sure what kind of a differnce it makes. It was good bread! Also, try the bread warm with some honey (Ricky's great idea). Yum!

I have always known this dish as Mexican Corn, but that's just not a good description for this yummy stuff. It's not very spicy, doesn't really have much corn in it, and it definitely doesn't make me think of Mexican food when I eat it. Don't let that fool you, though, this stuff is GREAT! Here's the details.

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped onion (1 medium onion)
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 lb of hamburger
16 oz of tomato sauce
1 can of corn (drained)
1 tblspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of garlic salt
1 tblspoon chili powder
1 dash of pepper
1 cup of regular sized corn chips (Fritos or tortilla-style)
1 cup of grated cheddar

Brown hamburger and drain.
Add green onion and pepper, cook until tender.
Add next 6 ingredients and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Put into a casserole dish, top with chips and cheese
Bake for 15-20 in a 375 degree oven.

For a printer-friendly version, click here.

This old-world German staple has never tasted so good. Use my simple recipe to impress your guests with down-home cooking with an international flair. Perfect for football Sundays or just any old cookout that involves men and beer.

I love this recipe! It's one I found in the Oklahoma FCE Cookbook 2000 given to us as a wedding gift by Big Granny. (At the time, she had been a member of FCE for 60+ years.) It's fast to prepare and tastes great. Serve them with a salad, some mashed potatoes, corn, and dinner roles and you have a "fancy" dinner that doesn't require a lot of time in the kitchen.