SUNDAY: enchiladas

I’m a creative person by nature. I’m an artistic type in love with creating anything for my own or someone else happiness and enjoyment. Happiness is defined differently by each person and some may think my definition of the word is boring and lonely, but I don’t. I LOVE my life and I enjoy the way I live it. Yeah at times, being in our kitchen by myself for hours on end can be at times a little bit lonely…but I’ve never, ever, not even once, felt lonely out in the middle of a hayfield with just my camera or picking berries in the quiet of hot July day with just the birds to keep me company. What others think of me isn’t important, because “those who do not hear the music think the dancer is mad.”

I was quite the artist in grade school. I drew mainly birds and a bit of anything else that captured my attention (and that I had the confidence to try my hand at drawing).  I was really into pen art, which is such a fun easy medium for me. I created many pictures…for mainly personal enjoyment and some art contest. (which I was strongly encouraged to enter, by none other than my artistic mom) Then it happened. My dad bought the family a digital camera and my life was forever changed. I was completely  intrigued with it. I mean I could capture beautiful pictures in seconds…every beautiful flower, adorable animal and crystal stream was mine in a second to have for years. So in high school I traded the pencil and paper, for the little point and shoot family camera. And the rest of this story is still unfolding.

As an adult I’ve somewhat combined my love of creating photos and writing with my new found love for cooking.

I just enjoy every. single. aspect. of food preparation…

This was the first time I made tortillas (btw: the Chef in Training is my new favorite resource for recipes, whenever I need a new one…at the moment, I start here) Isaac used the left over tortillas for quesadillas…I taught him how to make them, on his own. He still puts WAY too much of everything inside his…making more of an “all American” male version of a quesadilla. Just imagine cheese and chicken squeezing out the sides=) hahaI used this recipe for the enchilada sauce…making this is actually quite a process, I had no idea it was this complicated to make. But it turned out perfect.You can never have too much cheese…’am I right?!?!?My mom took these…and I promise I don’t always wear camouflage=)The lovely finished product!!! and even though it wasn’t perfect (according to my perfectionism) my family finished off both pans in one day=) And I took that as a compliment!

It’s hard for me to describe or explain the feeling I get when I begin creating something in the form of food. I look forward to walking into our wonderful kitchen every weekend. Some of my best days, in any given week. are the days I can make bread at 4:30 in the morning…I’m serious=) I don’t get to cook as often, now that I have a second job…but I still try to make/find time for this one enjoyment I have in life.

I love having flour on my hands. I love the stove top lined with simmering pots. I love cutting up tons of colorful veggies. I love the sound and smell of sizzling meat. I love having sticky sweetener and butter coated measuring cups all over my countertop. I love looking in the light lite oven to see if whatever I’m making is “turning out.” I love the sound of the timer, letting me know my food is DONE. I love the smell when I open the oven. I love washing up all my measuring spoons, bowls and pans. I love watching my siblings and parents faces as they try my latest and greatest.

What else can I say….I LOVE cooking=)

What is something that you love doing?

Happy Friday!!!

 

SUNDAY: stuffed peppers for dinner…

So last Sunday I made stuffed peppers out of this Italian guy’s cook book. He plays racquetball with my dad and when he finished this huge book, he told my dad - who promptly bought a copy. (check out a picture of it here…very last photo of the week) I’ve been waiting to make something out of this book for a lonnnng time and finally just broke down and did it. As a true Italian all the recipes are full of garlic and wine…and a lot of red pepper, haha. I love the way he writes out his recipes, so easy to follow and understand=)

I also made these garlic biscuits to go with my peppers. But I made mine with ww flour…and they were still good. My dad I think liked these better than the “hot” stuffed peppers=) I substituted the veal in this recipe for just totally sausage and my family loved them=)  They were so lovely=) If I do say so myself. All the stores around me have hard parmesan cheese on recall, for some reason, so I got the “freshly” shredded parmesan to put in these, I know it wasn’t quite the same - but hey what do you do?!?!?For dessert I made these delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. They were a bit on the heavy side due to the honey I added instead of sugar…but they were good=) and I could have eased up a bit on the carob chips, I added way too many!

Every Sunday I’m trying to make something completely new and foreign to my families taste buds. Gives me a chance to experiment and my mom gets a break from the kitchen…I still need to post about my enchiladas, they were a huge success!

Happy Friday!!!!!

and I hope you’re weekend is as fun as mine is going to be…I leave this morning for Tennessee to celebrate my brother’s 20th birthday=)

Healthy Oven Roasted Turkey…

SOMETHING NEW!!!!!…yeah trying my hand at photographing food

This is really the only thing I can cook consistently well. Oven roasted turkey stuffed with veggies=) I took pictures this time just for the fun of it…I think I could really get into cooking if I would take pictures every time!

We make this when we want turkey meat for lunches, casual dinner etc. ready in the freezer. Having a big family it’s a great way to have it handy for whatever=) We do use the traditional stuffing when cooking a turkey for the holidays.

Here’s the recipe

(add more or less depending on your own personal opinion =)

One turkey, approx. 15 lb.

Juice of one lemon

Salt and pepper

Olive Oil or melted butter

One medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered

Tops and bottoms of a bunch of celery

Two carrots, washed and sliced

Four potatoes, washed and quartered

Parsley

Sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme.

I hand juiced this lemon to put over the veggies so that the vegetables will hold their taste…and color

All the ingredients washed and cut up in a bowl

Here he is! All thawed out, washed and ready to be stuffed.

You just can’t cook a turkey without these seasonings…and yes I’ve accidently tried=P

Parsley…I picked it fresh moments before out of my sisters herb garden

With the olive oil, seasonings and lemon juice added…

All stuffed in the roasting pan. I add some olive oil to the top of him and sprinkle with salt and black pepper.

(I add extra veggie because without a shadow of doubt this is my favorite way to eat veggies…they are so good, with that turkey flavor.)

I added a quart of water under him (to keep him moist) and covered him with foil. And that’s it!

I put him in the pre-heated oven to cook over night at a low heat (250 degrees) The house smelled wonderful the next morning. It should be done by the next morning.

The next evening, for dinner we will normally have turkey meat with these roasted veggies on the side. We’ll make gravy from the dripping  (the water I add help so we have a lot, my mom refrigerates the extra for gravy another day)

  Add some biscuits and to this and here you have it~an easy meal.

The rest of the turkey meat will be frozen and bagged for easy accessibility another day.

I would have taken some “after pictures” but mom had already cut into him for lunches.

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