Roasted Veggie Enchilada Casserol (1 Star)

Holy enchiladas, Batman! This was one of the best dishes I have ever made, as pronounced by me while Brandon and I devoured. The roasted vegetables were savory and earthy, and with the cheese, tortillas, salsa, and meat (not in the recipe but I chose to add) was an amazing combination. I did not expect it to taste as good as it did. I also did not expect any of our boys to manage to take any more than the required taste, but my third-born devoured several helpings and kept exclaiming, "Mom! Please make this again!" I will.



I hope my photo doesn't detract from my written praise. I took it after it had been in the fridge for two days (it was still heavenly to the taste buds, though) and the tortillas had disintegrated a bit and everything had kind of mashed together. If you want to see gorgeous photos of this dish, go to Perry's Plate from whom I got the recipe.

Click here for the recipe.

What's More American Than... (1 Star)

...cherry pie!!



In my opinion, cherry pie (not from a can), ranks pretty high on "The Best Things in the World" list.



This may be the last pie that I ever make from cherries from our (tart) cherry tree. (Sniff.) It is dying and I am amazed that we got any cherries from it at all this year, but we got enough for about a half-pie's worth. So I made a little pie and (some of us) enjoyed it very much.



And I mean VERY much. Wow, just look at these pictures. I can hardly stand it because this pie is now gone and these pictures make me so hungry for it.



Cherry Pie Filling

2 pounds sour cherries, pitted
1 cup white sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a saucepan, combine cherries, sugar and cornstarch. Let sit for about 10 minutes. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until the juices thicken and become translucent. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and almond extract. Mix thoroughly and set aside while you make the crust.

For fruit pies, I think my mother-in-law's pie crust recipe is the greatest. It is so flaky and perfectly crispy yet tender. It's pretty easy, too.

Janie's Pie Crust
(Makes enough for the top and bottom crust for a nine inch pie.)

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup cold water

Stir to combine the flour and salt. Add the oil and cold water and stir with a fork until just combined. Roll out half the dough between two pieces of wax paper for the bottom crust. When it is about 13-14 inches diameter, peel off the top piece of wax paper and then lift up the piece of paper that still has the crust attached and flip it over onto the pie pan. Center it on the pan and then gently peel off the wax paper. Gently lift the sides of the crust until it lines the bottom of the pie pan snugly. With a small knife, trim the edges of the crust flush with the edge of the pan. Add any extra crust to the other half.

Fill with the cherry pie filling and then roll out the other half of dough between the wax paper and, using the same method described above, place the crust on top of the pie. Fold any excess top crust under the edge of the bottom crust to create a thicker edge crust. If there are any places where there is substantially more crust hanging over than others, trim the excess and add it to the thin spots. When all the crust has been folded over, using one finger from one hand (this finger presses from the top) and the thumb and forefinger from the other hand (these fingers press from the side of the crust with one on either side of the finger pressing from the top), press the crust together into flutes.

Brush the top of the crust with milk or cream and sprinkle with sugar. Cut several slits in the top of the crust for steam to vent.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Allow to cool for at least an hour before serving so the filling can set.

Kim bap (1 Star)

Kim bap is the Korean version of sushi rolls. Personally, I'm not too adventurous when it comes to sushi and I like to stay away from raw fish, but I do like Kim bap. It took some time for me to learn to like the seaweed but now I really enjoy these rolls. Amazingly, our first born can't get enough of this stuff. He could probably eat at least half of this batch of Kim bap by himself, given the chance. None of our other boys care for this, though some of them do like to eat the seaweed sheets plain, strangely enough.



Making Kim bap involves a lot of steps, so let's get started.

Kim bap

1. Rice

Cook 2 1/2 cups of sticky (Asian, or short grain) rice. Traditionally, white rice is used, but we use brown so that we have the nutritional benefits and we also enjoy the more nutty flavor (our kids favor white but we don't cater to them on this matter). This should yield about 5 cups cooked. Cook the rice far enough in advance so that it has time to cool enough to handle but is still warm and fresh. Do not use rice that is cold because it is then too hard and dry to shape into the rolls. We usually cook the rice and then cook the Pulgogi and the soup (coming up next!). By then the rice is usually done, and we let it cool while we prepare the other Kim bap ingredients. Then we mix up the rice and assemble the Kim bap.

To the warm rice add:

3-4 Tablespoons rice vinegar
2-3 Tablespoons sugar

Combine until thoroughly blended, tasting and adding vinegar and sugar as needed, to obtain a mildly sweet and sour taste. Set aside.

2. Pickled Vegetable

1/3 daikon radish (can be found at Asian markets, but I've also seen it in some grocery stores--other veggies could also work well such as cucumber, zuchinni, or carrots)
vinegar to cover vegetable
1 Tablespoon sugar

Peel the radish and slice into long, thin strips. If you use cucumber, be sure to remove the seeds and then slice into strips. Place in a small bowl and pour enough vinegar to submerge cucumber. Add sugar and stir to combine. Set aside. (This could be done a day ahead.)

3. Meat

We use the cooked Pulgogi. Cut it into long, thin strips and set aside.

4. Carrots

Peel and slice carrots into long, thin strips. Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat with a Tablespoon of olive oil. Stir-fry carrot strips until tender-crisp and remove from pan. Set aside.



5. Eggs

4 eggs
1-2 Tablespoons water
a few pinches of sea salt

Whisk above ingredients together and pour into a large, greased skillet (use the same one used for the carrots) that has been heated to medium heat. When eggs have set, flip entire circle to the other side (or flip a half at a time) and cook for another minute or two. Remove onto a cutting board and cut into strips. Set aside.



6. Spinach

10 oz fresh spinach

Boil a small pot of water. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, submerge spinach, a handful or two at a time, in boiling water for 10-30 seconds. Remove and drain on paper towels. Set aside.



7. Assembly

To make the rolls, a bamboo string roller makes things a lot easier. Place it on your work surface with the bamboo sticks running horizontal to you, and place all of the ingredients close by.



Place a sheet of roasted, dried seaweed onto the roller and sprinkle with sea salt.



Spread a layer of rice onto the side of the seaweed closest to you, covering slightly more than half of the sheet.



In the center of the rice layer, place strips of pickled vegetable, meat, carrot, egg, and spinach.



Pick up the edge of the roller that is closest to yourself and carefully fold over until the roller touches the other side of the seaweed. Press down firmly to compact the roll together. Do not allow the edge of the roller to fold under with the seaweed, but keep it on top. Dip your finger into the pickled vegetable juice and moisten the entire edge of the seaweed that is farthest away from yourself.



Continue to firmly roll until the seaweed is closed and the moistened seaweed edge is sticking to the side of the roll. The bamboo roller should make a U shape around the Kim bap and when finished rolling, just unfold the roller so it is flat again.



Remove the Kim bap log to a cutting board and, using a sharp serrated knife, cut into slices. Sample the unruly edge pieces and give the rest of them to the bottomless pit boy who wants nothing more than to eat Kim bap until he bursts asunder.



Place Kim bap slices onto a plate and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.



Then devour! If you don't have a bottomless pit boy who wants nothing more than to eat Kim bap until he bursts asunder, invite over the neighbors to help you out.

Makes around 3-4 dozen, but is quite variable depending on how much you stuff the rolls and how thick or thin that you slice them.

Roasted Chipotle Salsa (1 Star)

Bragging is not something that I typically do (I don't think) but I am going to brag about this salsa. It's so awesome!

I recently had a craving for salsa that I bought at Costco last year that I remember being called Santa Barbara Salsa Fresca, a slightly sweet and spicy salsa with roasted peppers. (Does anyone know what I'm talking about? If so, do you know where I can buy it?) I fell in love with it last year but hadn't bought it for a while. Unfortunately I discovered that our Costco isn't carrying it anymore and may or may not later. But I had to have it. Unable to find it on the Internet and unable to find a recipe, I began trying to figure out how to make it myself. I often tinker with recipes, making changes here and there, but I have never tried to figure out the recipe for an existing dish before. And actually, it may not be accurate to say that I figured this out myself because I did find a recipe (here) that was an excellent starting point on 101 Cookbooks, but I changed it to get what I was after. And I feel like I did a fairly good job because I did get what I was after! Woo hoo!

Roasted Chipotle Salsa

3 sweet peppers, 1 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow
2 pounds Roma tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
1 large yellow onion cut into six wedges
4 medium cloves garlic, peeled and halved
2-3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1-2 canned chipotle chilies with some of the sauce (these are fairly spicy, but one was not too spicy for our kids)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt (or to taste)
1-2 Tablespoons honey (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl, stir tomatoes, onions, and garlic, with olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Place the olive oil coated vegetables onto a foil-lined cookie sheet (tomatoes skin side down) along with the three sweet peppers. Roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes and then turn the peppers over and roast another 10-15 minutes. The peppers and onions should have black spots and the tomatoes should begin to collapse a little. Remove from the oven and place peppers into the large bowl used to stir vegetables and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to sit for 10 minutes or until cool enough to handle. Remove the peppers from the bowl and remove stems and seeds and peel the skins off of the pepper flesh.

Puree four or five of the tomato halves, the chipotles, and the roasted garlic in a food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until coarsely chopped. Taste and add more salt and honey if desired. Be sure to have plenty of chips on hand! This is also excellent used in soups and other recipes--coming up next!

Granola (1 Star)

This is my favorite granola recipe (though it is not enjoyed by our boys, Brandon and I like it so much that I almost always have some on hand) because it is so healthy and tasty. Most granola I have tried is so sweet it seems like dessert but this is lightly sweetened allowing the wholesome flavor of the other ingredients to come through. I like that it is sweetened with very little sugar/honey but mostly bananas and dates and a bit of grape juice concentrate. I also like that there is no added oil. I adapted this from a recipe found here on Allrecipes. The cool thing about this recipe is that you can easily adjust it according to your taste, trying different flavors and ingredients. Just be sure to keep the ratio of wet to dry ingredients the same. The bulk food section of our health food store is where I can easily stock up on many of these ingredients.

Ingredients

3 bananas, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups dates, pitted and chopped
1/4 cup honey or packed brown sugar
1/4 cup hot water or 1/4 cup hot 100% white grape juice concentrate
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
5 cups rolled six grain mix
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup oat bran
1/3 cup wheat bran
1/3 cup wheat germ
1 cup roughly chopped raw almonds
1 cup roughly chopped raw walnuts
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup dried raisins

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).
2.Puree the bananas and dates in a food processor. Add the honey or brown sugar, hot water or juice concentrate, vanilla and cinnamon; mix well.
3.In a separate large bowl combine the rest of the ingredients except the dried fruit.
4.Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and mix well.
5.Spread onto 2 large baking sheets and bake at 250 degrees F (120 degrees C) for 1 to 1 1/2 hours stirring frequently. Cook longer for crunchier if desired. Once cooled add the dried fruits, as little or as much as you want, and mix.
6.Store in an airtight container up to 3 weeks or in the freezer for several months. Storing in the freezer will also keep it crunchy if you live in a humid climate.