Mother's Day Tea

(please excuse the lateness of this post. I wrote it in May, right after Mother's Day, completel with pictures, but never pubished it. that 14 month old is now 17 months old! at any rate, I wanted to share. Enjoy!)

Weekend Recap

So the weekend did not got at all as planned. Kenny got off work earlier than expected on Saturday so i quickly wrapped up what I was in the middle of doing, which was making Kenny some breakfast burritos for the freezer.  He made it home in time to sample the last one before it went in the freezer, and he raved over them! Woohoo, success! :) They were so simple and not at all time consuming!  I parboiled potatoes, and then sauted them with onions, peppers, and ham.  I scrambled a dozen eggs and then assembled the burritos adding a tablespoon of salsa and a bit of cheddar cheese to each one. Wrapped them each in foil and put them into a ziploc into the freezer.  He had one for breakfast/lunch today and said they were just as good as the fresh one was! I'm excited!

I finished cleaning up and we packed up and headed to Lancaster.

We went to BB's in Quarryville! Oh the bargains we got! Refried beans for $.30, taco sauce for $.40, salsa for $.75. Can you tell we LOVE mexican food?? :) We got other items too, and a TON of bargains. Then we went to Kenny's parents.  We went for a visit and to help can some tomatoes.  The plan was to do tomatoes with onions, peppers and jalapenos.  Essentially a REALLY good chili starter! SOOO good.  We did 23.5 quarts! YUM!  Then we did some beets.  Their beets didnt' really take this year, so they bought some at the produce auction to can, and so they said we could have what actually did come up in the garden. Now let me tell you, my mother in law makes the BEST beets ever!!! Even if you don't like beets, you'll LOVE these. I could seriously eat an entire quart in like 5 minutes! Oh, they are so delicious!!  So she taught me how to can those, which I have never ever had any experience with anything to do with beets before. But from other people I had heard how hard they are to work with. So not the case. They were easy, and sooo delicious! We had enough for 5 quarts of those!  They sent us home with 2 bags of corn on the cob from their garden as well. We'll be having that for dinner one night, and I'll probably blanch and freeze the rest of it.

So instead of Saturday being my "work in the kitchen day", yesterday was, and it was VERY productive!

• I finished canning the tomatoes I had here, which was 4 quarts.
• I roasted 2 whole chickens and picked the meat to use for various recipes, as well as chicken and tomato sandwiches. :) 
• I made Giant Breakfast Cookies from Heavently Homemakers, which we all love! They are a little dry, but with a cup of coffee or milk, they're delicious! Here's a picture of my helper tasting them!

• Kaitlyn helped me make Corndog Muffins, which did not turn out at all!!  It's another Heavenly Homemaker recipe, and she grinds her own wheat flour and cornmeal fresh.  I have a feeling that it makes a huge difference. We picked the hotdogs off and threw the muffins away. I will try this again with a different cornbread recipe though!  Here are a couple pictures of Kaitlyn helping me with cupcake papers and putting the hot dogs in the muffins.

 And now a picture of them before they went in the oven.  The batter didn't rise around them and was super hard and dense when they were done. Sad story! Next time we'll use a batter that isn't so thick and dense.

• I made Nana Bracelins Raisin Bran Muffins. They're bran muffins, but instead of my normal recipe that calls for a box of All Bran, this one called for a box of Raisin Bran. They turned out delicious!  It is a recipe I had copied from my mom's recipe box a long time ago and as I was making them I realized that it was very dear friend's Nana's recipe who is now with the Lord. So as I mixed I prayed for their family. She was such a wonderful woman, and amazingly godly example!
• I made chipped beef as well, whenever we have it we always say how much better it is the 2nd day. So we thought we'd make it the day before we planned to eat it so that it would taste even better! We're having it for dinner on Tuesday. :)
• Then I made enchilada sauce which was SOOOO good!  I got a cookbook as a shower gift and it is LOADED with recipes that make me drool.  I think this recipe is my favorite though. The flavors are so fresh!  The tomatoes, peppers and onions all came from my in-laws garden and I made the chicken stock earlier in the week from when we had chicken for dinner, so on top of it being easy and delicious, this time it was free! I've never tried freezing it before, but i made almost 4 quarts of it and am going to freeze all but a recipe's worth. I would love to can it, but I'm not experienced enough to know how to do it, and surprisingly I couldn't find an answer on google either. Maybe by next summer I'll figure it out!  I'm also going to try this as a salsa recipe and omit the chicken stock and put a splash of vinegar, or just increase the lime juice. 

Chicken and Chile Enchiladas

Place into a food processor :

3 fresh hot green chiles, such as jalapeno, seeded 

1 spanish onion

2 garlic cloves

2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

2 tbsp lime juice

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 beefsteak tomatoes

a pinch of sugar

Pulse in the food processor to a puree. Scrape into a pan and let simmer over medium heat for 10 mins, until thickened.

Mix:

2 fresh hot green chiles, such as jalepeno seeded and chopped

12 oz cooked chicken, shredded

1/2 cup grated cheese, cheddar, monterey jack, colby jack, queso anejo

2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped (or sub 3/4 tsp dried)

salt to taste

half of the above enchilada sauce

Warm the tortillas. Divide the chicken mixture among them, spooning it along the centers, then roll up and place, seam-side down, in a large oven proof dish that has been brushed with oil.  Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas and sprinkle with 1/4 cup of cheese. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes and serve hot. 

Enjoy! Please leave a comment if you try the recipe and let me know what you think! Have a fabulous Monday!

Kim

Today's To Do List:

Today I made a menu plan.  Kenny started a new job that he has to be in at 4 am for. So instead of packing a lunch, he's packing breakfast! For lunches, he would usually take whatever we had leftover from dinner, but breakfast is going to take a little more planning. He's been taking a bowl of cereal, but it is not very filling, so today I'm attempting to make:

• Freezable Breakfast Burritos
• Raisin Bran Muffins
• English Muffin bread 
• Cinnamon Raisin Bread (like pepperidge farms)

Then for our dinners for this week/next week I'll be making:

• Chipped beef
• Enchilada sauce
• curry
• soaking beans for chicken tortilla soup

And then our menu for the next two weeks will be:

• Nachos (with leftover taco fixings)
• Chipped beef and scrambled eggs
• Chicken Enchiladas
• Thai Red Curry over rice
• Chicken Tortilla Soup
• Buffalo Chicken Dip and Layered Taco Dip to take to a birthday party
• Free Wings from Kenny winning a years supply of wings at Buffalo Wild Wings
• BBQ chicken and corn bread in the crock pot
• Cheeseburger Macaroni (combination of Kevin and Amanda's Taco Cheeseburger Macaroni and Brenda's Cheeseburger Ring, if it turns out yummy, you can definitely look for a post about it!)

I'm not sure the order or which night we'll have what, but at least this way I have somewhat of a gameplan of what we need to make in the next two weeks.  Well I'm off to get started! Happy Saturday!