Gringo Chile Rellenos and more uses for roasted green chiles...

I didn't know roasted green chiles were a popular item until I moved to Western Colorado.  Here we all await late July because we know that the Hatch green chiles will soon be roasting at all the farm stands in the area.  There is nothing like pulling up to your favorite produce stand and seeing a giant roasting drum outside.  You just know it's green chile season!  Bags and bags of warm, freshly roasted peppers lined the table at my favorite stand just yesterday.  An old farmer stood there labeling, bagging and sealing quarts of deliciousness.  Before November I'll have the freezer stocked with several bags of these awesome delicacies.

     Roasted green chiles have a very distinct flavor, I think.  There's a hint of smokiness along with a peppery bite.  They are soft and silky.  Some are hotter than others, but there's nothing that can replace the taste of a fresh green chile in a burrito, in scrambled eggs, or even in an eggroll wrapper.  What's that you say?  An eggroll wrapper?  Oh yes.

This is a bag of green chiles before I peeled and de-seeded them.

A lovely roasted green chile - peeled but with seeds still inside.  These come out very easily.  We usually split our chiles down the middle and rinse the seeds out.

    

These are Voodoo Biker's "Gringo Chile Rellenos" before they are cooked.  They are eggroll wrappers filled with a green chile and a nice slice of pepperjack cheese.  You just roll them up and brown them in about 1 tbsp oil.

Nicely browned Gringo Rellenos!

How awesome does that look?  Gooey cheese, a beautiful green chile...mmmm!

     Even though I could eat these for days on end, we do find plenty of other uses for green chiles.


Green chile creamed corn:  This is best with Olathe sweet corn :)  I cut the corn off the cob, then use the back of a spoon to get all the "milk" out of each ear of corn.  Then I saute onions and garlic in 2 tbsp butter, add in the corn, and a splash of chicken broth.  I let all that cook for a few minutes, until the broth is absorbed.  Then I add in about 1/2 cup of chopped green chiles and a lot of salt and black pepper.

Corn cut from the cob is on the right.  "Milk" from the cob is on the left.

Mexican flatbread (aka pizza).  For this I use the Santa Fe blend of Philly Cooking Creme as the sauce.  Then I top the pizza with red onions, red bell pepper, green chiles and cojita cheese (and of course a little mozarella).

 
You can also add them to scrambled eggs with cheese, turkey sandwiches, burgers...the list goes on!  I think my favorite ways to eat them are the simplest - wrapped in an eggroll wrapper, sprinkled in a quesadilla... But however you enjoy them, make sure you do it before the season is over!

Bunk? Bun? BUNDTTTTTTTT

    Everytime I use a bundt pan, I do two things:  1. Tell myself to wait until the cake is completely cooled before I invert the cake pan.  2. Giggle over my favorite scene in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."  You can watch that scene here. 
     Impatient people should not use bundt pans.  Seriously, if you're like me and you cannot wait until the darn cake is completely 100% cooled before you try to flip it out of the bundt pan, do not use one.  The cake will still taste great if you use a 9x13 pan. 

     I made this Chocolate Pistachio cake again from a recipe I found on the Pioneer Woman's website.  Here's a link to it.  You can see from the picture that Ree (the Pioneer Woman) must be a patient person.  Then again, she's posting her pictures for millions to see and therefore wants her cake to look perfect.  I was bringing mine to work where I have lots of friends - they don't care how it looks as long as it's tasty :) 

Creamed Spinach and the Farm Stand...

This is not my creamed spinach.  This is Emeril Lagasse's creamed spinach from the Food Network.  I didn't take a picture of mine and there was none left!  Voodoo Biker had creamed spinach last week at a BBQ place in Denver last week and it put me in the mood for some...Yesterday I knew I had spinach in the fridge so I thought, "well, why not?"  We were having leftover pintos and cornbread, a grilled steak, that we split, and sliced tomatoes...creamed spinach seemed like a good addition.

I've made it once before and stuck with my original recipe though I did glance at some others (Emeril's included).  First I washed all the spinach I had left.  That amounted to a salad spinner full.  That's about enough for 2 people ;)  Spinach wilts and turns into about a quarter of what you started with before you cooked it - so keep that in mind. 

I chopped up some (about 1/4 cup) onion and 2 cloves of garlic.  I got out 1 small sauce pot and 1 skillet.  In the sauce pot I started 1 tbsp of butter melting (real butter - not margarine).  When that began to melt I added in the garlic.  In the skillet I heated 1 tbsp olive oil and threw in the onions.
Once the butter was melted I added in a couple of spoonfuls of flour and whisked that around.  I let it cook for just a minute or two.  Then I added about 3/4 of a cup of skim milk because that's what I had...obviously 2% or even cream would be better ;)  I whisked all that around, added salt, pepper, and nutmeg (maybe 1/4 tsp of this).  I turned the heat up slightly so it would bubble.

In the mean time, I sauteed the onions until they were softening and then I threw in all the spinach.  I started stirring it around so it would start to wilt.  The sauce should be ready at this point - a little thicker, but not super thick.  Just enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Take the spinach off the heat as soon as it begins to wilt and add in enough of the sauce to coat your spinach.  Add more pepper or nutmeg if needed.  Trust me, the nutmeg makes a difference!

That's it!  So simple and, if you use skim milk, not at all bad for you.  Spinach is a great source of all sorts of things - fiber, Vitamins A, C, Iron and Calcium!

In other news, I've visited the Taylor's Farm Stand in front of K-Mart twice in 3 days.  We were almost out of tomatoes this morning and, now that I've gotten a taste of the "home grown" ones again, I can't stand the grocery store ones.  I spent $17.50 today on tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and garlic.  YAY summer!

The Pioneer Woman's Spicy Beans

So, I made these spicy beans today.  Why?  Well why not?  I had a day where I was going to be home (that's right, I didn't go biking or hiking or to the gym today) and after reading about them on her website I was craving them!  Have I ever made beans from scratch before?  No.  Have I ever eaten them before?  I am sure I have at authentic Mexican restaurants where they cook black beans all day long...or at some soul food restaurant...but I have never had them from someone's home kitchen before that I can remember.  Still, I read the recipe and I had. to. make. them.  So here they are, simmering away...they're close to done, which is why the lid is off...

What's going with them you ask?  Fresh cooked Olathe sweet corn, tomatoes and cucumbers from the farm stand down in front of K-Mart and southern cornbread!  I am really, really, really excited about this meal.  Cooking beans from scratch does take more time and effort, but just to do once in a while when you have the time...especially in winter when you just want something warm and comforting...I say, why not?

Pizza for Thought...

     Did you know that you can go to our local "Homestyle Bakery" and get pizza dough balls for a 12" pizza for only .99 cents?  I did not know this.  I knew they had pizza dough...or I had heard they did.  So today, since I'm cooking for 1 tonight, I stopped by to get some dough.  They had the cutest little balls of pizza dough!  Apparently they also have larger ones so you can make full-sized pizzas, but for 1, or for a "make-your-own-pizza" night with the the family and kids?  You can't beat .99 cents! So, here's the pizza I plan on making tonight...

     I haven't decided on a sauce yet.  It will either be a garlic olive oil sauce or tomato sauce.  Then I plan to top it with grilled artichokes (from a jar...I'm not that fancy with my pizza!), fresh spinach, mushrooms, and probably some onion.  Of course that will be topped off with mozzarella cheese.  I think that sounds pretty spectacular myself!

     What's your favorite pizza creation?

Blueberry Coffee Cake - my redemption

     After the huge FAIL of my fresh blueberry muffins the other night, I was more determined than ever to make an awesome recipe with blueberries in it.  I found Ellie Krieger's Blueberry Coffee Cake recipe on the Food Network website.  I made it today and I must say, it is awesome!

My (very few) modifications are in ().  You will need:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour or regular whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted because we were out.)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp room temperature butter
2 tbsp oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt (I used lowfat)
1 cup fresh blueberries or frozen ones that have been thawed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray an 8-inch square cake pan with cooking spray (I used a round springform pan.).

Whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, the baking sode and salt.  In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar, cinnamon and walnuts. In a large bowl, beat the brown sugar, butter and oil until fluffy.  If necessary, use a spoon to press out any lumps in the brown sugar.  Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time., beating until fully combined.  Beat in the vanilla and yogurt.

Add the flour in two batches, stirring until just combined.

Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan.  (I sprayed my spatula with cooking spray to make it easier to spread the thick batter.)  Sprinkle half of the nut mixture over the batter and top with the blueberries, gently pressing them into the batter.  Spoon the rest of the batter into the pan, smoothng the top.  Sprinkle the remaining nut mixture over the cake, pressing gently.  Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes.  Let cook slightly and then invert and unmold to allow complete cooling on a cooling rack (this is optional, but I did do that with the springform pan). Makes approximately 12 servings.

1 ingredient - 3 recipes

     Have you guys tried this yet?  I bought some last week on a whim and used one container for 3 different recipes.  It's really good!  I try not to buy a lot of processed items, but hey, when can you ever go wrong with cream cheese?  Here's how I used it:

Rigatoni with sausage and creamy tomato sauce:  I added a large spoonful of the cooking creme to my tomato sauce to give it a creamier consistency and to change the taste up a little.

Pizza with turkey kielbasa and grilled artichokes:  For this one, I spread the cooking creme directly onto the pizza crust before I added any other sauce or ingredients.  I just used a little, but it definitely added flavor!

Pasta Primavera with roasted garlic and cream sauce:  Tonight I was looking for something to make that had very little acid...I wanted something comforting and not very spicy.  SO I cooked a box of penne pasta, sauteed some broccoli, the rest of the jar of grilled artichokes and the oil they were in, red pepper, onion, and roasted garlic.  I then added about 1/2 cup of the cooking creme and topped it all with toasted panko bread crumbs.  It was super!

I'm definitely a fan of the Philly Cooking creme - the Italian herb flavor at least.