Wednesday Edition - What's for dinner?

[Lucinda]

Bill makes something called King Ranch - and did a big pan of it today. Economical and yummy. Definitely more comfort food than gourmet.

King Ranch:

Chicken - precooked - quantity can vary depending on what you have available
Cream of Chicken soup - 1 extra large can (or two normal)
Rotel -1 can
Grated Cheese (todays was cheddar) - 1 regular size package shredded - more or less to taste
Corn tortillas - Varies depending on size of casserole pan or skillet used - 1 package is plenty though

Preheat oven: 350 degrees
1. Shred cooked chicken
2. Season chicken - we use salt, pepper & garlic powder (you can omit this step if its really flavorful already)
3. Mix Cream of Chicken soup with Rotel in a large bowl, then add chicken and mix well.
4. Cut tortillas into strips (you can also leave them whole...strips make it easier to serve)
5. Place a layer of tortilla strips on the bottom of a baking dish or oven proof skillet
6. Add half the Chicken - Soup Rotel Mixture
7. Add a layer of tortilla strips over chicken mixture
8. Add remaining Chicken Mixture
9. Another layer of tortilla strips ( I do this step..Bill doesn't always - but I like the extra corn flavor)
10.Cover top with shredded cheese
11. Bake until top is golden and yummy and mixture is heated through. (Time depends on your baking dish, oven, and how brown you like the cheese)
12. Let cool and serve in wedges.

If you cut it immediately its still runny. Better to let it firm 15 minutes or so

The whole thing goes together fast...is very rich and reheats beautifully.

You can tweak it tons, sauteed mushrooms or onions, vary the types of cheeses used etc.
It's really fast, easy, economical and good yummy comfort food. Serving sizes vary depending on how large a slice you serve, of course. It works well with bread and side veggies.

You can also pre-heat the chicken mixture by mixing it all up in a large saucepan instead of a bowl - works well if you need dinner in a hurry...then you can bake the assembled dish at a higher oven temp - just to melt and brown the cheese.

Not my shot...but this is how it looks basically - Our filling is less dry looking - creamier and it looks like they just did theirs in one layer:


Luc

[Inchworm]

1. Pork tenderloin, peas, and sourdough bread

My loin is marinading in teriaki sauce, canola, and balsemic.

Peas from a can.

I made the bread last night. Not impressed with the rise, but the taste is there ;)

:9

[Lucinda]

2. Sounds yummy! I baked my Ain5 a little too soon so my bread is blah today

I really like it MUCH beetter when it sits for a few days before baking. If I bake it too soon its just "eh" :P

Bill is a pork fiend. I've never done pork with balsamic...sounds intriguing! Might have to give that a try soon...

[yellerpup]

3. Snowstorm improv.

The last time we went to the grocery store we went on foot with backpacks and only picked up what we could comfortably carry (Christmas Eve) so last night I was down to two potatoes and whatever was in the freezer and pantry. I baked 4 chicken thighs, chopped up a leftover 1/2 onion + 1 stalk of celery + 5 cremini mushrooms + 1/2C. toasted pecans and mixed them in with half a gallon bag of leftover cornbread crumbs to make stuffing. I found organic chicken broth and whole cranberry sauce in the pantry, mixed the cranberries with some tangerine marmalade and set it in the freezer to chill. The only other veggie was 1/2 carton of Brussels sprouts, so I steam sauteed them. Still can't get out, so tonight it's leftovers! I love the looks of that King Ranch casserole, Luc. It has all my favorite flavors, too! :hi:

[Lucinda]

7. Dinner sounds delicious! We did the cupboard scramble the other day

Bill didn't shop before work Christmas eve, and the grocery was packed so he just came home. Then we got hit with all that snow and couldn't drive, so we played mix and match for several meals before he could get out again. All worked out well. I sort of like doing that. Makes me more creative :P

Cranberries and tangerine marmalade sounds really gooood btw. Yum. And King ranch is infinitely tweakable. Depending on what you add to the filling and what cheese you use, it could have almost any ethnic twist. I like the spicy and creamy combo with the rotel and condensed soup as written, a lot. The heat cuts through all the creamy and cheesy stuff nicely.

[yellerpup]

10. Only goat cheese for me, but I might add in some beans...

goes with all the other flavors. :hug: I find it fun, too, to 'make do' with what you have on hand. Reminds me of my mom, actually, and the days when my dad would be paid once a month (if he was lucky!) and she had to plan meals around one major shopping trip and whatever she could scrounge. Depending on the season and where we were living (we moved to a new town at least once a year) we could pick from grandpa's garden or hit grandma up for some canned goods from her cellar. They always had two chest-type freezers, too, so there was always plenty of meat or game if we could get there. Bad roads would keep us home though, and we'd have one of mom's end-of-the-month specials, like boiled potatoes in their jackets with bacon grease poured over, or beans and cornbread with fried potatoes. We always bought 100# of potatoes each month and that always worked fine until one winter when we left for grandma's house and had to leave my dog, Bozo, behind. When we returned to our rental house, Bozo had broken into the spuds, scattered them all around the house, and taken a bite from each one!

[Denninmi]

4. Marinated sirloin tips and mushrooms over noodles, and homemade bean soup.

I prepped it all last night. The beef and mushrooms are in the fridge waiting for me to get home from work and cook them. Soup is in the crockpot. I cut up the ham and vegetables last night, and opened and rinsed the beans, and it went in this morning.

[grasswire]

6. that sounds delicious

I love beefy mushroom things.

Do you have much snow?

[Denninmi]

11. Snow???

Not really. We had one semi-significant storm almost 3 weeks ago, about 6 inches of heavy wet snow. And, a few light dustings on and off. It's going to get up to 50 with rain on Friday, will melt it all except for the artificially deep piles from plowing.

I'm in the Detroit suburbs. We don't get the heavy lake effect snows here like many parts of Michigan and other Great Lakes regions can.

[grasswire]

16. well, that's interesting to know

My grandmother was born in Owen Sound Ontario. I always pictured it as heavy snow. Don't know if the lake effect affects Owen Sound or not. I've never been there.

[Denninmi]

18. Oh, yeah, that's BIG SNOW country.

It all depends on if you're upwind or downwind of one of the great lakes. My area is upwind most days, only once in a while does the wind blow properly so that we get lake effect, and when it does, we are far enough inland that it mostly snows itself out before it gets here, so at most we get an inch or so, instead of the foot or more they get closer to the lake.

Owen Sound is on the downwind side of Lake Huron. They can get tremendous snows. Parts of Ontario on the south end of Lake Huron got something like 4 feet of snow a week or so back, and a couple of hundred people were stranded in their cars on the highway for a day or two, but everyone got rescued. This wasn't on Georgian Bay where Owen Sound is located, but at the south end of the main part of Lake Huron, but it has the same basic weather patterns.

[grasswire]

19. I have to get back there someday.

My grandfather's ancestors were the first white settlers on Long Point, and the history is quite colorful. Gotta see the land eventually.

[Lucinda]

8. I love that type of soup. I used to by the 15 bean (?) dried bean mix a lot

Great with chunks of ham and a good stock base.

[grasswire]

5. yeah, king ranch is good hearty stuff!

Tonight is sloppy joes. Trying to empty out the freezer, and have some hamburger to use. So it's sloppy joes and baked potato wedges and carrot-raisin salad. And there are entirely too many cookies in the house to avoid. I've been reallly good and only done a *taste* of each batch but yesterday I ate four russian teacakes. Bad, bad, bad. Shame, shame, shame. I made those with toasted filberts this year and they turned out really good.

Tomorrow will be another meal from the turkey, and I'm leaning toward chow mein to use up celery and other veggies. That will be the last of the turkey except for soup. I always hate to see the turkey go. Might pick up another one for January use.

If I don't have to go out tomorrow I might try to make the Saveur rolls. I've been trying to stay off my injured knee when I can.

[Lucinda]

9. I love sloppy joes a lot. Quick and easy. I like it sweet and spicy. Sweet heat rules!

I'm heading to more of a veggie based diet, but things like sloppy joes are good when I need a meat fix. :)

I was amazingly good about sweets over the holidays. I did have a little donut stick binge a few days before Christmas :eyes: but after that, I just tasted a brownie from each of two batches I made. I find i'm just not as much into sweets these days.

I am drinking a small amount of unsweetened pineapple with each meal and I think it prevents any sweet craving, and is good for my digestion too. :)

[pengillian101]

12. I ate four russian teacakes

You only ate four of them? Good grief, I bet I could eat a dozen! :silly: I have not had them in years and years, but I love them.

I don't Christmas bake anymore - my pals share - but nobody makes those Russian teacakes.

Yummy :-) Glad you enjoyed.

[grasswire]

15. sure, I could eat a dozen

...but my blood sugar would really go over the moon. They are a childhood memory -- my aunt used to bake dozens of dozens of cookies and fill a tin with these just for me. Although she called them "kiflings" and made them with blanched ground almonds. Mmmm mmm.

[Lugnut]

13. Ham and bean soup.

I had a ham hock and ham steak in the freezer that needed to be used. The only good thing about winter is it's soup time.

[Lucinda]

14. That is always a good combo!

:)

[pengillian101]

22. Split pea and ham soup!

Wow, it don't get better than that! My neighbor gal is also serving.

And she's done good! Made it home safe and sound.

[flying rabbit]

17. That's some good looking comfort food there

bookmarked. Thanks

[pengillian101]

20. Sounds yummy to me!

Recently, my put-together dish like that wowed my Tex-Mex relatives. I just used all the leftovers that they brought the evening before --- and cooked for a morning brunch.

Just layered salsa, the tortillas, leftover meat, cheese, peppers, sour cream, olives and just layered together like lasagna. Baked for awhile.

One of my Texan cousin just raved. And that's her way of cooking.

Creative cooking is my thing ;-)

I could never duplicate that meal we all 20+ shared because I didn't write it down. What a shame on my part.

[Duer 157099]

21. Almost like chicken enchiladas suiza

I can imagine this being a decent quick fix without all the rolling time for enchiladas :thumbsup:

[KC]

23. Oh yummy

This is one I'm going to try soon !