Sunday Morning Doughnuts

Okay, Friends, this is an easy one, so easy I'm kinda hesitant on posting it as a recipe. But, if you read my blog, you are clearly a person who likes ease.

INGREDIENTS:
a can of cheap biscuits
oil
powdered sugar
milk

Heat oil in a frying pan. I like for it to be enough that it will consume about half the biscuits. As the oil heats, make holes inside each biscuits with your fingers. When the oil is heated to about 350 degrees, add biscuits. Now, these little babies are gonna fry up fast, so don't walk away. We like ours just a little doughy, but that's just our preference. When the biscuits are golden on one side, flip 'em. Fry other side and then remove from oil to plate with paper towel. Drizzle with powder sugar icing and then with powder sugar alone.

POWDERED SUGAR ICING:
This is a simple 2 ingredient icing. I start with 2 cups of powdered sugar and just slowing add milk as I whisk with a fork. You want a consistency similar to thin batter mix.

I have also added nuts or strawberries to the mix here. This is awesome because, truthfully, you are gonna have to work hard to make this not yummy.

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Ya'll know I love the Mexican food.

1 1/2-2 pound chicken breast
1/2 cup butter
fajita vegetables (onion, mushrooms, green pepper, red pepper)
tortillas (corn or flour. If use corn, must be softened)
10 ounce can of Old El Paso Green Chile Sauce
can of diced green chiles
10-12 ounce can of cream of chicken soup
16 ounce tub of sour cream
2 cups shredded monterrey jack cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat over to 350.

Cook chicken breast in a skillet. I prepare it as fajita meat. So I melt about 1/2 cup of butter, add sliced breast and then add garlic powder, celery salt, onion powder, white pepper along with sliced mushrooms, onions and green and red peppers. (Sometimes I don't use each of those veggies, just whatever I have on hand.) After chicken is done through, turn up the heat and burn sear some of the seasoning to the meat then removed from heat.

While the chicken meat is cooking, mix 1 can of El Paso Green Chile Enchiladas Sauce, 1 can of diced green chiles, one can of cream of chicken soup and sour cream.

If you are using corn tortillas, you must first softened them in a little oil.
Dip tortilla into sauce, then fill with chicken, sprinkle with both cheeses and then roll up. Place in casserole dish seam down. (I normally use 9 x 13, but close in size will work.)
Repeat this until pan is filled.
When pan is full, pour remaining sauce over them, sprinkles remaining cheese on top and put in the oven.
**Before you put the enchiladas in the oven, cover them with a cookie sheet. These keeps the cheese nice and gooey, but works much better than foil because you don't have to scrap half your cheese/sauce off the bottom of it. I use a cookie sheet instead of foil on anything that calls for it in the oven.

Ranch Chicken Recipe

This is the first recipe received by a guest author, Jennifer Lowrance York of Durham, Oklahoma. Since I already have these ingredients on hand, I will be cooking this for lunch tomorrow. I've never eaten this before, but because I really dig all these ingredients, especially Ranch (I'd drink that stuff), I know it will be hit.







Ingredients:

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (as many as you need for your family)

1 bottle of Ranch dressing

Croutons (your choice)

Pepper

Spray Pam or other non-stick spray



Utensils neeeded:

1 baking dish big enough to hold all the chicken (no overlapping) I usually use a 9X13 pan



Directions:

Spray pan with Pam or other non stick cooking spray, squirt some ranch dressing in bottom of pan. Just enough to basically set the chicken breasts on. Put thawed chicken breasts on top of dressing add some more dressing on top. As much or as little as you like. I just make some squiggly lines on top of the breast. Pepper, and then crush some croutons on top...more or less depending on your taste.Bake at 350 for an hour...serve...enjoy...Jennifer

lasagna

I meant to take a picture of the lasagna, I really did. I've been so busy that it just slipped my mind. Plus, as you probably read on the front page, my computer and I are engaged in a great cyber war. Anyways, I hadn't made this in a long time, but I changed things up a bit and it was for the better, or at least that's my opinion.

Of course you are going to start out preheating the oven and brown hamburger meat. I use 1 1/2 pound, but anything from 1-2 pounds will work. This should be determined either by how much meat you fancy or how much you can afford. For those you want a little cheaper fix, add 1/2 cup of rolled quick oatmeal as it is browning. Seriously, no one will ever know except you and me.

As the meal (and oats) are slowing cooking, add fresh mushrooms, diced onions and green peppers and maybe even a little spinach for good measure. Rowdy hates ALL the added vegetables. If I just do one or two, he seems to be happy as a lark, but when I throw in the whole garden, he acts like a first grader at a vegan restaurant.

Once the meat and "don't tell the men and kids" ingredients are all browned and softened, add one 28 ounce can of crushed organic tomatoes. Add 1 teaspoon each: oregano, basil, thyme, parsley. Then add one HALF can of the Heinz Four Cheese Spaghetti Sauce. Reserve the remaining. Let all this blend over a low heat.

Pour remaining spaghetti sauce in the bottom of large casserole dish. Line first layer of softened lasagna noodles, pour half meat sauce mixture. Top with mozzarella and sharp cheddar cheese and then another layer of noodles.

Beat two eggs. Fold eggs into 16-20 ounces 2% cottage cheese. Add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Mix together and pour over noodles. Top with more mozzarella and more cheddar.

Add last layer of noodles and then remaining meat sauce mixture. Add cheddar cheese and then mozzarella. With this layer, it is important that the white cheese is on top.

Now find a cookie sheet that is large enough to cover the casserole dish. Hopefully you have one with small sides so that when you place this upside down on top of the casserole dish it isn't touching the food. You can put the lasagna in the oven without this, but the top layer of cheese might get a little hardened. You can put foil on top of it, but often times your cheese will stick to it. This is this best option I've found so far.

Bake for 30 minutes and let settle for a bit. I put my in the frig if I have time to let cool and then reheat portions in the microwave. It may sound silly, but it lets the layers settle.

Mexican Casserole

There are many variations on Mexican Casserole and, after years of making my own tweaks, I think I finally have it just the way I want it.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

First, brown 1-1 1/2 pounds of ground beef and then drain off the grease. Put back in skillet. Inside the skillet while the heat is on low, mix in 16 oz. of sour cream, one can of cream of mushroom, a can of Ro-Tel tomatoes and one can of El Paso Green Chile Sauce. While the heat is on low, mix all these ingredients in with the ground beef.

Spray your average casserole dish with Pam. Now, I like to mix flour tortillas and corn chips. The make-up is basically a Mexican lasagna.

First shred about three tortillas and crush two or three handfuls of corn chips and spread evenly over the dish. Pour half the beef, sour cream, green chile mix and spread with two cups of shredded cheese. I like to use a blend of sharp cheddar cheese and Monterrey Jack. Repeat. Tortillas and corn chips, beef mixtures, cheese.

After you've put this together, bake in your preheated oven for 30 minutes or so. This is great with Spanish rice and chips.

Shonda Sushi

Awwww...with the miraculous genius of amazon.com, I can whip up hand-rolled sushi from the comfort of my own home, quite a feat in rural Oklahoma. Sure, I don't have access to a smorgasbord of sashimi-grade fish, but I can suffice. After I found a quality nori, which is a Japanese seaweed wrap of sorts, I modeled my homemade sushi roll after the California roll. However, through trial and error, I have learned awesome variations.
The first thing one must do is prepared the sushi rice. Although you don't have to Japanese ingredients necessarily, it is relatively important to stick to the recipe.

SUSHI RICE
2 cups cooked short or medium grain rice
***do NOT use minute rice

1/4 cup rice vinegar

3 tablespoons sugar

After the rice is cooked, quickly add the rice vinegar and sugar, stirring repeatedly. Let cool to room temperature.

Now you want to get out your bamboo rolling mat, although simple plastic wrap will do.
After the rice as cooled, spread it upon a sheet of nori. At the end closet to you, start adding your ingredients. In the roll I make at home most often because, well, I like it and the ingredients are not accessible, I put one layer of King crab legs, three strips of avocado and a sliver of cream cheese.

As soon as I've added my ingredients (feel free to improvise), I roll the nori once tightly over my chosen goods and then repeated until it's snug as your grandpa's cigar.
Next week I will share my recipe for unagi, or eel. It is a sweet, barbequed meat that doesn't really taste at all like fish.