What's For Dinner - Part Deux

[Marilyn. 340]

I made these for dinner tonight.. they were so yummy!

Calabacitas Tacos

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium white onion, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 large beefsteak tomato, cored and chopped

2 medium summer squash, chopped

2 cups fresh corn kernels

Kosher salt

1 tablespoon dried oregano

Juice of 1/2 lime

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

For serving:

12 warmed tortillas (corn or flour, though I think flour tortillas hold up better to juicy fillings like this)

Grated Mexican cheese (I used a mixture of mozzarella-like Oaxaca and salty aged Cotija)

Additional chopped fresh cilantro

Mexican crema, crème fraiche or thinned sour cream

Heat the oil in a shallow pan over medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and cook until softened. Add the garlic and tomato, an additional pinch of salt and the oregano. Stir and cover, cooking until the tomato is very soft, about 5 minutes. Add the squash and corn and another pinch of salt, stir well and cook for another 3-5 minutes, uncovered, until the squash is tender and most of the liquid has reduced. Off the heat, add lime juice and cilantro, and spoon the mixture into warmed tortillas, topping with grated cheese, crema and additional cilantro.

* I added a couple of potatoes that I diced up.. I just fried them a bit before adding the onion

[usmcwife 3]

Yay! recipes! Thanks Marilyn for pointing me towards this thread.

I think i should share the best brownie recipe i've ever found. It's not what i had for dinner but i think chocolate is very beneficial for anyone waiting for their visa to be approved and missing their SO's. It is from williams-sonoma Baking book.

The BEST brownie

6 oz semisweet chocolate

3/4 c butter cut into chunks

3 large eggs

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup + 1 tbsp all purpose flour

Heat oven to 350. Butter an 8" square baking dish. Place chocolate and butter in top of double boiler over barely simmering water. Heat, stirring often, until melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla. add chocolate until well blended. Slowly whisk in flour until well blended. Pour batter into pan, spreading evenly with spatula.

Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out mostly clean. 35-40 min. Do not overbake. Cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy with a big glass of milk. hehe.

[FireKari 4]

kraft.com and campbells.com both have good recipes on them.

Family recipe from my Grandma of one of my fav dishes:

Hashbrown Casserole:

Cooking time: 1-2 hours

Oven Temp: 350F

Serves: about 4-6 depending on serving size

- 1 large bag hasbrowns [frozen]

- 2 cans cream mushroom soup [alternate is cream chicken, or cream celery, or a combo of any two]

- 1 cup shredded cheese

- 1 cup milk

- 1/2 to 1 cup sour cream

- onion to taste

- garlic to taste

- salt and pepper to taste

- can also throw in mushrooms or anything else you think you would like in this

- 1 cup regular cornflakes semi crushed

Mix all ingredients [except cornflakes] together in a very large mixing bowl.

Spray a glass baking pan, and spread in pan and press firmly until it's flat ontop.

Sprinkle the cornflakes ontop of the casserole.

Test after 1 hour to see if potatoes are cooked [soft], if not continue cooking.

Enjoy!

Edited September 2, 2010 by FireKari

[Krikit 1,164]

Well, after living in hotels for the past 7 months I finally located and unpacked my pots and pans this week!!! I cannot tell you how ecstatic I was to go to the grocery store and buy real groceries!!! My first night (Tuesday) I made salmon with grilled vegetables and parmesan rice. Last night we had butter chicken. yum. Tonight I am making #######-a-leekie.... aka homemade chicken soup. Except I can't locate my bowls yet. Guess I'd better get back to unpacking.

[Marilyn. 340]

We are going to grill some chicken, onions and bell peppers and going to serve it with some tortillas and homemade pico de gallo and then I am going to make some Mexican/Spanish rice to go with it...

this is the recipe I am using for the rice.. I have never tried it before..

Spanish Rice

1/4 cup olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup long-grain white rice

One 8-ounce can tomato sauce

2 cups water or chicken broth

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cumin (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, then add the onions and rice,sauté until soft and the rice is browned, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute while stirring. Add the tomato sauce and the water carefully. Season with the salt and pepper, and add the cumin, if using. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until the rice is done, stirring once or twice.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spanish-Rice-109084#ixzz0yQE6GKIr

[The_Dude 1,142]

I made carnitas tacos tonight. I was able to score some marinated pulled pork yesterday for a good price, so today, I went to the farmers market and got some onions and cilantro. I wasn't all good, as I did stop by a restaurant and got some spanish rice and some french fries to accompany my tacos.

[Marilyn. 340]

my attempt at Spanish rice did not work out today... my SIL and her mom make pretty good rice and I thought I did what they did but I must have done something wrong or used a different ingredient or soemthing.. the hubster still ate the rice though...

the pico de gallo I made was awesome though... this is going to be a keeper recipe...

Pico de Gallo

4 ripe plum tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped

1 small white onions, finely chopped (I used red onion)

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped or more to taste

1 -3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

salt

1. Combine all ingredients; cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

2. This tastes best the same day that it's made, but is okay the next day.

http://www.food.com/recipe/pico-de-gallo-83371

[Krikit 1,164]

Holy smokes. 3 jalapenos? That's very pico!

We are having spaghetti and meat sauce this evening. Speaking of jalapenos, I am going to make jalapeno poppers sometime this weekend. I haven't made those in a good long while and we love them. You slice them in half, remove the seeds, fill them with cream cheese, and then wrap or top them with semi-cooked bacon. Then you bake or grill them in the oven or on the BBQ. Yum.

Oh. Speaking of BBQ's I would like to BBQ a steak this weekend except I gave our BBQ to the movers in Florida.

[Marilyn. 340]

I didn't use 3

I actually only out one small jalapeno in half of the pico de gallo because I don't like any jalapeno..

[usmcwife 3]

Yum BEER BREAD!!!

My mother in law gave me the recipe for beer bread a while back and i just found it again in my recipe book. She says he always asked her to make it whenever he was home on leave. haha. Super easy and very yummy if you like beer and bread. I tried it twice now using different types of beer. We've tried using an apricot ale which was yummy and sweet, and a guinness type stout which made a richer and darker loaf I just put one in the oven using a wheat ale and it smells pretty good. I love a recipe where just a different type of ingredient gives a completely different flavour!

2 1/4 c flour

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

12 oz (1 bottle) beer

-Mix dry ingredients together

-Add beer and mix well. It will be pretty foamy but that's ok, leaving a few lumps are ok too.

-spread in greased 8x4" loaf pan

-bake for 35-45 min @ 400 degrees

-turn out onto rack to cool

Edited September 7, 2010 by usmcwife

[Marilyn. 340]

yesterday I marinated some pork ribs in applesauce and barbecue sauce for a few hours and then cooked them in the oven for about an hour and half at about 300 degrees and then we finished them off on the barbecue.. mmmmm they were good

[Krikit 1,164]

We had potato soup last night. There's a lot left over so we are having it tonight, too.

[Marilyn. 340]

i am making portabella mushroom pizzas for dinner tonight.. going to make a mixture of tomato, squash, red onion, bell pepper, olive oil and salt and put that on the mushrooms with some cheese and then grill them up..

will serve them with some grilled corn on the cob and barbecued potato slices...

[warlord 73]

Tonight I'm doing my Habanero Cajun Atomic Chicken and Brocolli.

Basicaly I take my raw boneless chicken blobs and plob them into a frying pan with extra virgin olive oil. Through in some Atomic sauce, a few dabs of Sudden Death Sauce, Cajun powder, Crushed chilie peppers. Boil the brocoli while cooking the chicken. Usally neither takes a long time. When the brocoli is almost done, I turn the burner on the stove up from Med high to High to get that extra almost burt type coating on the chicken. Take out the Brocoli when it's nice and bright green and not too hard or soft. Then sprinkle the habaneros on the chicken and cook for a little bit more. Then put the chicken on the plate and the excess sauce that's been created with the spices and oil, I then cover the brocoli and chicken with and that's it.

Very quick, very yummy and very tastey. Oh and Chocolate soy milk helps for those that aren't used to habeneros (300,000-500,000 Scoville units) and 150,000+ Scoville unit sauces. (For reference a Jalapeneo pepper is only about 5,000 units). But once you get accostomed to eating very hot peppers for awhile, you become immune to the burn and you can really taste the sweetness of the peppers etc...

[usmcwife 3]

Tonight we had a pretty delicious chicken pot pie from the cooking light chicken cookbook that my mom in law gave me for christmas. Then my husband asked if I could bake my famous chocolate chip cookies. When they were out of the oven he had the brilliant idea of putting some chocolate icing on top. Very delicious.

These are my cookies. I've made them so many times the recipe is ingrained in my brain.

2 1/4 c flour, sifted.

1 c brown sugar

1 c butter or margarine, softened.

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt.

1 pkg Chocolate chips. (semi sweet are best but milk chocolate is ok if you prefer)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Add slightly beaten egg and vanilla until well mixed. Mix together dry ingredients (except chips) and add to wet. Once it's completely mixed, add in chocolate chips.

Drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto cookie sheet, slightly flatten, and bake for 8 min or until lightly golden brown.