Sour Cream Enchiladas = Scrumptious

Thanks to the Pioneer Woman, and her wonderful recipes, we had a positively wonderful dinner with her sour cream enchiladas, and some chipotle pasta! You can find her recipe here, on her website! These were a little more work, and very messy (at least for me, but then again when am I not messy) but completely worth the effort! Let's get started!

Ingredients

12 Corn tortillas

Canola oil, for frying

1 can (20 oz) Enchilada Sauce

2 c Sour cream

3 c Cheddar cheese

1 c Green onion

1/2 tsp. Ground cumin

1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. 

In a bowl, you're going to to want to mix together the green onion, sour cream, 1 1/2 c cheddar cheese (THIS IS ONLY HALF OF WHAT THE RECIPE CALLS FOR), cumin and cayenne pepper! 

Heat canola oil over medium heat in a small skillet until it's beginning to smoke! In a larger skillet, pour the enchilada into another pan and heat over low/medium heat. 

Using tongs, fry the tortillas one at a time for about 5-10 seconds per side! Remove the tortilla from the oil, and place in the enchilada sauce and coat each side!

Okay, here is where it can get a bit messy. So I'll give you my step by step, which seemed to bring down the mess from 10 to a 3! 

I removed the tortilla from the sauce with the tongs and placed it on a plate. Spoon the sour cream mixture into the middle of the tortilla and roll the tortilla and place it face down in a 9x13 baking pan. 

At this point, I stopped and rinsed my hands and the tongs and dried them off on a dish towel. The first couple of times I did not rinse, I found the enchilada sauce made the oil pop in the skillet, which caused a lot of dodging of the flying hot grease! If everything is rinsed, you don't have that problem! I know it seems like a lot of work for 12 tortillas, but trust me, it's worth it! 

Once you have all 12 tortillas rolled, and face down in the pan, add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese to the top of the enchiladas and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown! Remove from oven, top with salsa or whatever your heart desires and enjoy!! We absolutely loved this, and will for sure make it again! Plus with it just being the two of us, we had plenty of leftovers! 

Stay tuned for some great new recipes!

Until then...

Homemade Sloppy Joes

Well, we did it again! Watching the Pioneer Woman make some homemade sloppy joes for her family made us realize that it's just as easy to make it her way as it is to dump the can in the pot and add extra ingredients! The only thing I wasn't adding pretty much was the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce! So we made her homemade version, and it was just as easy and equally delicious!

Before we get started on this recipe though, I'll give you an update on reading The Alchemist! It's a wonderful book so far! My favorite quote from the book thus far is, "We do not realize that love is just a further impetus, not something that will will prevent us going forward. We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey" (Paulo Coelho).  What a beautiful truth! This makes me think of one of my best friend who is packing up her family to move 10 hours away to follow her husbands goals with his job! That's the kind of love that is real. No questions, no worries, you just go and be supportive and make the best of every opportunity because each new place and each new obstacle is a part of your life together and a new road on your journey! I love all the adventures I've had so far with DJ, and the future and all the adventures we have yet to have, and it could not be more exciting to think about.  I think you know it's real, when you can express to each other that the road, the journey and all the bumps and cracks on the way are YOURS to experience TOGETHER. I love that he reminds me of this in one way or another every single day! Just the short reading I've done so far, has made me very aware of this! Do I have your interest yet about the book?? Okay, good! Now let's get started on the sloppy joes!

Ingredients
We used less ingredients because we are only feeding two of us :)
1 lb ground beef (we used venison)
1 TB butter
Onion, chopped (she used half of an onion, I just eyeballed it until we had all we wanted)
That's the fun part of tweaking recipes to fit your family, you can add as many ingredients as you want, based on your own taste buds!
Green Pepper, chopped (small green pepper, we used the whole thing)
Garlic cloves, minced (we used about 2 1/2 larger cloves, she used 5)
1 1/2 cup of ketchup
A little less than a full cup of water
2 TB brown sugar
2 tsp chili powder (more if you want more of a kick)
1 tsp dry mustard
Red Pepper Flakes (add as few or as many as you want for a little spiciness)
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Salt and pepper

To start off, you're going to cook your beef (or venison) in the butter in a large skillet! Once it's browned drain of excess grease! While your meat is cooking, start chopping the onion, peppers, and garlic!

The garlic on the top and bottom on the right side were TINY, that's why it looks like there is so much garlic there! I wouldn't have cared if they were larger, I love garlic!

One small green pepper chopped

Once the meat is brown and drained, you're going to add ALL the ingredients (chopped onion, garlic, pepper, ketchup, Worcestershire, red pepper flakes, dry mustard, brown sugar, chili powder, water, salt and pepper). Turn your heat down to medium/high and simmer everything together. If it doesn't look right, you can add more of whatever you think you're missing. We ended up adding more ketchup to give it the typical "red sloppy joe sauce" look. 

Here it is before it was all mixed together, and then after it was all mixed and simmering

Once everything is warmed through, you can it scoop it on the bread of your choice (we just used regular hamburger buns) and enjoy!! It was really delicious and truly just as easy as using the pre-made store bought mix! I guess for us anyway, because I always add extra fresh ingredients to the can! 

Until next time...

~Happy Eating~

Watching TV results in cooking!

Over the New Year holiday weekend, we've been traveling, hunting (DJ got another doe--Woo Hoo), seeing old friends and trying to take it easy! When I get the chance to grab the remote (hunting shows are on most of the time), I turn on Food Network, and I've been having a mini Pioneer Woman marathon! It's fun to watch as she cooks meals for her family and all the cowboys, especially when I run across an episode where she cooks things I have pinned to my Pinterest boards! DJ was sitting here watching an episode with me, where she cooks her spicy soda pulled pork and immediately decided we had to make it for ourselves! Of course, we had make a much smaller portion, but luckily Wal-mart had a "picnic" sized pork butt roast (I know the name of the cut is just pure awesome)! With that being said, let's get started on her spicy Dr. Pepper shredded pork!

Ingredients
1 large whole onion (we used a small/medium onion)
1 whole Pork shoulder (Pork Butt) (we used the picnic size (much smaller))
Salt and Pepper
1 can (11 oz) Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (we used a little less than a 7 oz can)
2 cans of Dr. Pepper (we didn't have any Dr. Pepper so we used Cherry Pepsi)
2 TBS brown sugar

To start this out you're going to cut your onion into quarters (cut in half, then cut the halves in half).

Now you're going to peel apart the layers of the onion and place them in the bottom of the crock pot. (We used a crock pot instead of the oven because over the holidays, I went off and left my oven pots with lids at my parents house). Now, you're going to salt and pepper the pork and then place on top of the onions! Next you're going to add the chipotle peppers, 2 cans of soda and brown sugar! The peppers will make your pork very spicy! Use more or less, depending on how spicy you want it! We like spicy, and used a little more than half of our 7 oz can and it was perfect!! Once everything is in the pot, you can either place it in the oven at 300 degrees for 6 hours, or you can set your slow cooker to low and set a timer for 6 hours (we probably cooked it on high the last 2 hours, and kept ours cooking for almost 8 hours). Be sure to remember to flip the roast every so often, during the 6 hours so it will cook evenly. Once ours had cooked for 6 hours, I went ahead and took it out, shredded it and then placed it back in for another hour and half or so. You will be able to tell, when you try and pick it up and all just starts falling apart!

Here it is all ready for the lid and let the waiting begin!

Looks yummy!

We topped off our plates with Idahoan Southwest mashed potatoes!

They have a little bit of a kick to them, 

and we even put a little bit on our sandwiches! FANTASTIC

This recipe was easy and delicious, and the exact right amount of spicy and sweet! We made pulled pork sandwiches last night, and plan on having pulled pork with shredded cheese tacos this afternoon! It was a great way to finish off a wonderful day! I hope my next recipe of her's to try is one of her breakfast ideas! Check back soon to see what is cooking in our kitchen next! 

Until then...

~Happy Eating~

The Pioneer Woman's Prime Rib--Cope Style

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! I hope all of you are enjoying this time of year and not too stressed out or overwhelmed yet :) There are a lot of great memories attached to this time of year for many of us! Seeing friends we haven't seen in awhile, spending time with our families, and more often than not, gathering around in the kitchen sharing stories and laughs with those we love! The kitchen seems to be a gathering place for many households! I can remember many mornings spent in my Mema's kitchen watching her cook breakfast for the family, while the smell of bacon cooking, and biscuits in the oven would wake up and bring the rest of the household in to see what divine breakfast we were all about to eat! Over the holidays, as a little girl, my job was always to taste test her dressing! It was by far my favorite job I've ever had! She would get everything mixed together in a big bowl, add all the seasonings and then let me take a bite to see if I approved! I was always the one who could eat about 1/2 the pan of dressing, it was truly my favorite. With that being said, I guess she figured if I wasn't happy with the way it tasted, she would tweak it until she got it just perfect and then pop it in the oven and we would move on to fixing something else! Lot's of memories made it her kitchen for sure!

Some good friends of ours, The Copes, had a family get together at their house not too long ago! They worked hard to get their table ready and sit with their loved ones to talk and laugh and make a new memory for the holiday! Although we were not present, they sent me pictures of their time together and lots of delicious looking photos of how they prepared the Pioneer Woman's prime rib dinner! So let's get started on this dinner that I'm sure many of us will want to try after hearing about what a successful evening they had!

You can find the recipe on her website, or by clicking here. They told me they followed her directions, and it turned out great. So let's see what ingredients you're going to need:

Ingredients
1 whole rib-eye roast (should weigh in at about 14 pounds)
4 TB olive oil
1/2 c Kosher Salt
4 TB tri-colored peppercorns
3 sprigs of Rosemary
3 sprigs of Thyme
1/2 c minced garlic

Get your oven pre-heated to 500 degrees.

You will take your oil, and add to a pan and heat the oil on high heat! Cut the rib loin in half, then sear both sides of the loin until it has a golden brown color to it! You will want to make sure the heat is on high to make sure you get both sides seared!

Getting the Roast ready to go

Ladies....he's already a married man! Don't get jealous with a good looking man workin'

hard in the kitchen! (He makes some really EXCELLENT food too!)

The Roast...Looks fantastic!

Now take the peppercorns, and place them in a bag. Take a rolling pin and crush the peppercorns with the rolling pin! Take the leaves off the thyme and the rosemary and add  it with the salt and garlic to your crushed peppercorns! 

Then take your olive oil and pour over the roast and then pour on the rub mix! To get the mixture to stick to the roast you will lightly "pat" down on the roast! Sometimes if you try and "push" a rub onto meat you will find that it sticks more to your hands than what you want it to stick to!

Now with your oven set to 500 degrees, you set a timer for 20-30 minutes for the roast. Reduce your heat back down to 300 degrees and cook another 20-30 minutes or until the internal temperature of the meat is reading 125 degrees (this is medium/rare...but no worries...your roast will continue to cook once it's been removed from the oven!) Once you pull the roast from the oven, let it stand for 20 minutes to ensure that it continues cooking! If you like your roast a little more "cooked" then just leave it in for a little longer at first! But you don't want it to go over medium/rare for proper cooking!

In the oven it goes

Finally out of the oven...and looks DELICIOUS!

Now all that's left to do is sit down at this beautiful table and enjoy

the good food, great company, and good laughs!

From word-of-mouth, this roast looked delicious and I've been told tasted even better than it looked! I have yet to find something from the Pioneer Woman that I don't like! She not only has great recipes, but her blog over all is fantastic! We also love her blog, because my sister home-schools (as does she) and she always has great tips and funny quips about her life! 

The professional photos are courtesy of Full Feather Photography. Tara does excellent work, and specializes in children and family photography! You can also follow her blog here. Her business comes to you from Claremore, OK (she does travel to Tulsa frequently). Be sure and check out her work, or even find her on Facebook if that's easier! 

I hope everyone had a safe holiday season, and is gearing up for bringing in 2013! 2012 has been such a blessing for us! Our Christmas was one for the books!! My sister adopted 2 beautiful children from the Congo, and they made it home Sunday evening!! It has been truly amazing to get to know these two angels, and love on them and learn with them!! You'll have to stay tuned for this Aunt to go picture crazy!!! We already have SOOOO many, but they all need to be filtered through! Until the next happening from my kitchen to yours.....

~Happy Eating~

beef and bean burritos - in which, i call the pioneer woman lazy

Leah here. And kids, let's get real: sometimes we just need something easy for dinner. Not "drive thorugh sack" easy, but something that comes together quickly, is filling and the whole family will like it. I've got one for you to try on those days. Pioneer Woman's beef and bean burritos.

I printed this out from her blog months ago from this little series of sixteen-minute meals she did. Then, it showed up in her newest cookbook, "and if it's cookbook worthy," I thought, "cook this, I will." This was scheduled for a Tuesday dinner, a night I jet shortly after noshing to go to a night time fitness class. Boy, was I dissapointed to only have a small portion of this before my workout. TASTY. Simple. And, can I brag here---I did it in fourteen minutes. (booyah.)

As she mentions in her blog post on this burrito, it "isn’t going to win any culinary awards for innovation. But for a sixteen-minute meal, it was pretty darn delicious." Yes.

And, we're off-----

I whip in to the driveway at 5:47 p.m. My husband usually gets home with my daughter around 6 p.m. Whew. A few minutes to get started. I take a look again at the recipe. "Sixteen, minutes, P-Dub?" I shake my head. Remember all those Rachel Ray 30 minute meals? Bunk. Not a one was ever that easy for me. For fun I set my the stopwatch on my phone ready to disprove her.

I pull out super fancy ingredients. A can of this. A can of that. Oh, Best Choice? You haven't heard of this brand. It's.....the best. Obviously. Ok, not too much to work with at least. And only 60 seconds or so have passed.

Immediately (of course) I heard the beep beep of the door alarm and my kiddo and hubs are home. Early. Suddenly, this little face is now underfoot wanting to go "owside, momma. play owside." Sigh. It's hard to pass up this face. I stop the timer. 

But I'm trying to prove P-dub wrong here plus get dinner on the table plus get out the door to my fitness class. I give her a tortilla with butter and she is momentarily pacified. (I make one for myself, too. Mmm..) TIMER ON!

I finely chop the onion and throw it in the pan to brown with the ground turkey. Not sure if it was the pink slime talk or what but I've been choosing ground turkey or chicken a lot lately. I like the blank slate factor. Both can take any seasoning and fit in with any dish. Except hamburgers. I need actual beef for those. Nom. I open the can of refried beans. Plop into the pan. Add shredded cheese, stirring to combine and let it heat through. Open can of enchilada sauce. Pour half on the almost browned meat. Hey! This is coming along fast! Just eight minutes have elapsed. Tug on leg-- "mommy, owside!" I'm drug to the back porch. Timer off. I let things finish heating through.

Kiddo kicks feet at me wanting her shoes off. I find this:

Busy day in the sand pit, huh, kiddo? I give the look to her dad and he helps her with bubbles and chalk on the back porch so I can finish dinner.He's good like that. TIMER ON!

I heat up a few tortillas then layer the beans, meat, a drizzle of enchilada sauce and some shredded cheese on top. It's looking burrito-ish up in here!

I heat each in the microwave then top with salsa and cilantro. Place on table with knives and forks. Water glasses. Check timer:

Huzzah! I've bested P-dub's time. Spent little to no effort. Got to dump sand out of my kid's shoe. I feel like a winner.

The quick, familiar flavored comfort food you might have grabbed through a drive through window.

Except you've made this cheesy, hearty goodness from fresh (from the can) ingredients in just thirteen minutes and 49.1 seconds.


The enchilda sauce, something I don't cook with, was my favorite part. Spiked with a little jarred salsa--plate-licking good. I filled one of these a little sparsely and rolled it up tight so I could cut smaller bites for my toddler. She ate every bite (including the ground turkey--this never happens) and we had fun calling the "bites" baby burritos while her dad and I knifed and forked our larger ones. She asked for baby burritos the next two nights!

And if either my husband or child asks for seconds, it becomes a keeper recipe at my house. Keeper!




Sixteen  Fourteen Minute Beef and Bean Burritos
slightly adapted from Pioneer Woman

(I halved the recipe with no problem for my family of three)

 Ingredients

• 2 pounds Ground Beef (I used one pound ground turkey)
• 1/2 whole Medium Onion (I used about 1/4)
• 1 can (7 Ounce) Mexican Tomato Sauce Or Enchilada Sauce
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• Cumin, Oregano, Chili Powder, Garlic To Taste
• 1 can (28 Ounce) Refried Beans (I used fat free)
• 3/4 cups Grated Cheddar Cheese (I used reduced fat pre-shredded mexican cheese)
• 12 whole Burrito-sized Flour Tortillas (I used smaller, taco sized)
• Extra Grated Cheese, For Sprinkling
• Extra Sauce, For Drizzling
• Cilantro Leaves, Optional
• Optional Filling Ingredients: Mexican Rice, Sour Cream, Guacamole, Green Chilies, Pico De Gallo

Preparation InstructionsBrown meet with onion and season to taste. Pour in sauce (I used half can) and simmer over low heat. Add water if mixture gets too dry.

Heat refried beans in a saucepan. Add cheese and stir in till melted. Keep warm.

Heat tortillas in microwave for one minute.

Spread a small amount of beans on each tortilla. Add meat. Fold over ends, then roll up.

Place burritos on a microwave-safe plate. Drizzle red sauce over the top and sprinkle with more grated cheddar. Microwave for one minute, or until cheese is melted and burritos are very hot. Serve immediately.