Salt

These are delicious and easy to make.  Just stick to a couple basic techniques and you will have fluffy biscuits each time!  Plus they make the whole house smell fantastic!

The most important thing about making biscuits, is to keep the ingredients as cold as possible before putting them in the oven.  The butter has to stay cold throughout or you wont get flaky biscuits!

Ingredients

• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 Tbs Sugar
• 3/4 cup Cheddar, grated
• 1/4 cup Parmigian, grated
• 1  stick butter, cubed and kept cold
• 3/4 cup Buttermilk, kept cold

Directions

Preheat oven to 450F and line a cookie sheet with some wax paper.

Sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl(Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Salt and Sugar).  If you have a Kitchen Aide mixer, that’s the best.    Add the cold cubed butter into the mixing bowl and mix with the Kitchen Aide wire mixer until the butter has been incorporated into the flour.   It is very important that the butter is added cold and kept cold.  After the butter has been cut into the flour, set aside in the fridge to keep it cool.  If you don’t have a Kitchen Aide mixer, you can cut the flour with a fork using some muscle.

Grate the cheddar and mix it with a little flour so that it wont stick together into a small bowl.  Add the grated Parmigian into the bowl.

Combine the dry ingredients with the cheese and mix briefly with a wooden spoon.   With the kitchen aide bread attachment mixer add the cold buttermilk to the dry ingredients until a bread ball forms.  Or mix them together with a wooden spoon and again some muscle.  You want to mix till it just until a bread ball forms.  Do NOT over work the dough as it will melt the cold butter.

Take the ball and knead on a floured surface for just a minute or two.  Roll the dough so the dough is evenly spread out about 1/2 an inch thick(no one is measuring).   Then either cut it into squares or take a glass cup and make circular biscuits.

Place biscuits on the cookie sheet with the wax paper.  Brush a little cold water on the top of each biscuit and sprinkle with a little bit of salt.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Take out and set aside for 10 minutes before serving.  You can keep it warm by placing it in a hand towel lined bowl, covered.

Delicious.

I originally got this recipe from Moogie to help feed a bunch of hungry fraternity guys.  Over time I have tweaked the recipe to make it more and more my own and also make it more and more delicious.  I’ve also had many people taste it and just love it.  The dish may not be perfectly presentable, but I can’t think of anything else that is such a comfort food.  I recommend that you take this recipe and use it as a guide to making it your own.

All the ingredients here are not exact.  It all depends on how big you want to make your enchiladas and how you want to stuff them.  The basic idea is to stuff tortillas with goodness and then bake them.  Simple.  Depending on your desired spice level, you can add more cayenne or take it out all together.  Chili powder is not spicy so you don’t want to skimp on that!

Ingredients

• 1 package of 10 tortillas
• 1 roasted chicken(from grocery store) shredded.  If I have the time I like to get fresh chicken thighs and grill it myself.  It adds a ton of flavor when their grilled.
• 1 large onion, Julienned
• 1 Bell Pepper(pick a color), Julienned
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
• Lots of shredded cheese.  I prefer sharp cheddar and monterey jack.
• 1 8oz Heavy or ligh whipping cream
• Homemade Enchilada sauce.  (It’s ok if you get a can)
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 1 Pyrex Dish, 9×12

Small Extras

• A little Olive Oil
• Salt
• 1/4 tsp Cracked Black Pepper
• 1/2 tsp Cumin
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
• 1 Tbs Chili Powder

 First Steps

• Start by shredding the chicken using a fork.  Set aside in a bowl, covered with tin foil.
• Sautee the Onion, Garlic and Bell Pepper in a cast iron skillet on high heat.  Let the skillet heat up so you hear it sizzle.  While you are constantly stiring so the veggies don’t burn, add the chili powder, cayenne and black pepper.  Don’t add salt at this point as it will draw the water out of the veggies and we don’t want that.   Then add some olive oil and stir.  Once veggies are crisply sauteed, set aside from the heat.
• Grate the cheese and set aside in a bowl, covered.
• Prepare you assembly line.  I like to have a plate where I roll the enchiladas in, placing them in the pyrex dish afterwards.  So have a plate and pyrex dish next to each other.  All the ingredients need to be in a semi circle around it for easy acces.
• Time to make enchiladas!  Follow assembly line below.  But first preheat oven to 350F.

ASSEMBLY LINE

1. Pour a dash of cream and enchilada sauce on plate, enough to coat one side of the enchilada
2. Add 1 tortilla to the plate and swirl around so the outside is covered with the liquids
3. Layer a small line of beans horizontally
4. Add a layer of shredded chicken
5. Add a layer of the sauteed veggies
6. Add a layer grated cheese
7. Spoon some enchilada sauce over all layers and sprinkle some salt over it all
8. Roll up the enchilada and place in pyrex dish
9. Repeat till pyrex dish is full
10. Pour more cream and enchilada sauce over the top of all of them in the pan so the liquid comes up 1/3 of the depth of the pyrex dish
11. Sprinkle some cheese on top for good looks
12. You are done with the assembly

Cook and Enjoy!

• After you have assembled your enchiladas in your dish you want to put them in the oven for 25-30 minutes.   Remember everything is already cooked, so you are just warming everything through and letting them “get to know” each other.
• Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes before serving. 
• Garnish with a dallop of Sour Cream, a dallop of Guacamole and a dash of tabasco.  Enjoy!!!

2 firm/ripe mangos, peeled and chopped

2 tomatoes, firm/ripe, chopped

1 firm/ripe avocado, peeled and chopped

1/2 vidalia (sweet) onion, chopped

1 plum firm/ripe, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1 stalk cerely, diced

1 bunch cilantro, washed, dried, chopped

fresh ground pepper – to taste

fresh ground salt – to taste

1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash original seasoning

2 limes, juiced

1 splash seasoned rice vinegar

Directions:

Prepare the fruit & vegetables.  Place in a bowl.  Sprinkle the salt, pepper & Mrs. Dash over the mixure.  Pour the lime juice & spash of seasonsed rice vinegar over all.  Mix everything together gently with a soft spatula to avoid bruising the fruit.

This has a lot of flavor but is not picante.  You could spice this up a bit by adding a diced jalapeno or adding a dash or so of hot sauce.

We ate this as a side dish with roasted pork tenderloin.

This is a great dessert dish!  Creme Brulee’s are so simple and easy to make that I’d do this whenever I have to make a a snazzy dessert without to much craziness.  You can make this the day before you need to it too, which makes it much easier when cooking a big dinner.

Ingredients

• 2  Tbls all-fruit raspberry jam
• 4 oz white chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream(or 3/4 cup cream and 1/4 cup milk)
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar & 6 tsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla
• Fresh raspberries
• 4 tall Ramekins

Directions

• Pre-heat the oven to 300F.  Put 1/2 tbs of the jam into the bottom-center of each ramekin and set aside.
• In a small saucepan melt the chopped white chocolate in the milk.  Once the chocolate has melted and has been incorporated into the milk, add the 1/4 cup of sugar.  Disolve the sugar and set aside away from the heat.
• In another small mixing bowl, mix the egg yolks, salt and vanilla for 1 minute.  Then slowly add the cream mixture whisking well after adding each bit.  This is to make sure the eggs don’t get heated to quickly.
• Fill each ramekin with the mixture and place in a hot water bath.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the center of the custard jiggles slightly when bumped.  Take the ramekins out and let cool to room temperature.  Then place in the fridge for 2 hours minimum or up to 2 days.
• When ready to serve, and ONLY when ready to serve, sprinkle about 1 1/2 tsp sugar on each creme brulee and torch to a nice crackle.  Place some raspberries on top and serve!