Fresh Caprese Salad

I love caprese salad.  For the longest time I have hated fresh tomatoes.  My taste buds have been changing as I age.  I still can't stand olives though.  That may never change.  My girlfriend Rebecca showed me how to make this caprese salad when my husband and I came over for dinner one night.  The nice thing about salads is that you can add whatever you want in the amount you want for the taste you want.  I am thinking of adding garlic to this salad sometime.  Just like butter, garlic is one of those things that make a lot of recipes taste better.  I like to have this salad not only for a side dish, but also for eating as a lunch.

CAPRESE SALAD


1 container of grape tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
1 ball of mozzarella, chopped
Fresh basli leaves, chiffonade/chopped
Splash of olive oil (enough to coat everything)
Salt and Pepper to taste


Mix everything together. Everything is to the taste in this dish. It is very refreshing and you can use whatever kind of tomatoes you like.

Chicken Enchiladas to Warm Up Your Day

One Day I was really wanting to find a good recipe on flour tortillas like what you can get from a restaurant.  I came across a good one on www.allrecipes.com.  I decided to give the recipe a try sinceiIt doesn't take a whole lot of ingredients to make the tortillas. I made one batch the way they told me to make it.  It was so hard to get the tortillas super thin with just a rolling pin so I just doubled the amount of dough for each tortilla.  The first batch I made didn't last long as I ate them all before my husband Dan got home!  Tortillas  take some effort but your time will be greatly rewarded.  


After finding the tortilla recipe, I had a hankering for chicken enchiladas.  I didn't want to do the ones with that red sauce.  I wanted to make the ones with the sour cream.  So, to my delight, I trolloped to www.allrecipes.com again and found this recipe.  I usually don't make a whole lot of spicy things due to my sensitive sense of taste.  But for this recipe, I felt I needed to kick it up a notch.  I later added cayenne pepper to the top.  You don't see that I added the cayenne here because I took this picture before I put the spice on.  I highly suggest you make this for dinner tonight.  This recipe is very easy and easy on the budget.  Oh and you don't have to make your own tortillas if you don't want to.  I'm sure it will be very good with store bought tortillas.  I just like to make mine special.  That and I can eat the tortillas that don't make it to the oven!


CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

TORTILLAS

4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup water to start (may need more based on humidity locations)

Mix all dry ingredients together. Cut in Shortening.  Add water. You want a nice round dough ball that's not real dry but not too wet that it really sticks to your fingers, so adjust water to where everything just mixes together. Cover with a damp cloth and let sit 15 minutes. Divide into 12 equal balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each ball into about 7" flat rounds. Cook each side on medium heat until brown spots start to appear. Keep covered until ready to serve.


ENCHILADAS

3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 cups sour cream
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
10 (8 inch) flour tortillas, warmed
Cayenne Pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, chicken, sour cream, soup, chilies, onion, pepper and salt. Spoon about 1/2 cup off center on each tortilla; roll up. Place seam side down in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with remaining cheddar cheese and dust with cayenne pepper. Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.


Original Recipes for:
Tortillas 2 from teresa on www.allrecipes.com 
Easy Chicken Enchiladas from Cheryl Pomrenke on www.allrecipes.com
I only changed the Enchilada recipe by adding cayenne pepper.

Sliders for the Win!

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• This weekend, my husband and I had my brother in law Andy and his fiancee Stefanie over to play with us.  We enjoyed a nice fancy dinner the first night they were here so I had a night off from cooking.  For a whole week around here, they had all sorts of fancy restaurants that prepared 3 course meals for a lot cheaper than they normally charge.  We played an xbox game all weekend called Dungeon Defenders.  It was really nice to have this sliders recipe on hand.  These are really easy to make and even easier to eat too much of!  I originally tried these sliders from a couple friends of ours, Ben and Amy.  We miss them so much as they moved away.  We don't often get to see those two.  For this recipe you really should use the King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls.  Those really make these sandwiches great!

2 pounds ground beef
1 (1.25 ounce) envelope onion soup mix
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
24 dinner rolls, split
1/2 cup sliced pickles (optional)

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
Mix together the ground beef and onion soup mix in a large skillet; cook and stir over medium-high heat until the beef is crumbly, evenly browned, and no longer pink. Drain and discard any excess grease. Remove from heat. Stir the mayonnaise and Cheddar cheese into the ground beef mixture.
Lay the bottoms of the dinner rolls on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the cheese and beef mixture on the bottom half of each roll. Replace the tops. Cover with another sheet of aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray.
Bake in the preheated oven until the burgers are heated through and cheese melts, about 30 minutes. Serve with sliced pickles.

Recipe taken from Minnesota_Girl on www.allrecipes.com