Month: September 2022

Cooking With Christie!

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This Week’s Recipe: Best-of-Both-Worlds Enchiladas

Inspiration: Okay, So last week’s recipe of red enchilada sauce directly ties to this week’s. Due to stupid, stupid allergies, I can’t have the majority of canned red enchilada sauce. Hence I made my own!

Again, leery of allergic reactions due to cross-contamination, as deli counters often use peanut oil in their fryers or have other items containing nuts. I roasted my own chicken.

Then I consulted the recipe in the book (below) to make enchiladas.

However, because I’m not feeding a small army, I needed to pare down the Pioneer Woman’s recipe. So rather than making both green and red enchiladas, I stuck exclusively to the latter. I then added diced Fresno peppers, black beans, shredded Mexican cheese, and a bit of hot sauce to a bowl of diced chicken. Finally, after rolling the filling into blackened tortillas, I smothered them in yet more cheese and peppery enchilada sauce and baked!

Perhaps a bit more toasting to the flour tortillas would’ve helped them from becoming a bit soft….but overall, I’m pleased with this first try!

Christie: Again, I can see Colonel Race enjoying this dish on his travels. Or Mr. Harley Quin partaking of a plate on one errand or another should he find himself in a restaurant serving a dish similar to mine. (Though executed with a far defter hand.)

Cooking With Christie!

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This Week’s Recipe: Red Enchilada Sauce

Inspiration: Once again, in the midst of a craving sparked by the Pioneer Woman’s: Super Easy cookbook, I decided to whip up my own red enchilada sauce. After perusing the internet, I found this recipe that I thought looked delicious and for once in a row I followed the recipe to the letter!

Can you believe it?

Spicey, without being overwhelmingly hot, with a hint of chocolate (that added some deep rich notes) the sauce turned out great! Especially when mixed up with shredded chicken, bell peppers, guacamole…..but that’s next week’s recipe!

Christie: I think Colonel Race, being a very opened minded detective and having traveled the world rather extensively, would enjoy anything smothered in this deep rich red sauce!

Cooking With Christie!

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This Week’s Recipe: Arty Bread

Inspiration: Sticking with The Pioneer Woman’s: Super Easy! cookbook….I made Arty Bread….which my household renamed Faux-caccia (again, because I was describing the recipe and utterly bricked the real name).

In any case….

Here’s the thing: I can’t eat frozen bread dough called for in the recipe — due to stupid, stupid allergies. So I thought, why not make the bread dough I normally make, which generates two loaves, and bake one as usual whilst transforming the other into Mrs. Drummond’s Arty Bread.

I mean, the worse that could happen is it catches on fire….And if we’re being totally honest here, it wouldn’t be the first bake of mine to end up in cinders.

So my trusty mixer and I whip up a standard white loaf dough.

And, BTW, if you’re looking for a great bread recipe, the one I swear by was published in the book Hot Bread Kitchen:

Now back to the Pioneer Woman.

With a little trepidation, I started slicing, pressing, brushing, and shredding various toppings into the flattened dough….and it turned out absolutely fantastic! Perhaps, it could’ve used a few more tomatoes and olives (as I used a restrained hand when applying moist-ish ingredients, something I learned from the Great British Bake Off), but otherwise, it was outstanding! Especially when dipped in my roasted veggie red sauce!

Christie: I think Tuppence would be all over kitchen hacks and I believe Miss Marple would enjoy this bread since you can make it look lovely by artfully arranging the toppings! It’s even more satisfying when you can use produce plucked from your own garden, which I think Miss Marple would also appreciate.

Cooking With Christie!

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This Week’s Recipe: The English Breakfast Situation

Surprise, surprise, surprise! I got a new cookbook called The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Super Easy! and of course, I needed to share a few of my faves from inside with you guys! 

The first of which, renamed in our household to the English Incident (because I was trying to recall Mrs. Drummond’s title and nearly nailed it), this recipe is indeed super easy and very tasty! It’s also one you should only indulge in when you know lunchtime is going to be late or when you’re going on a hike and need a lot of fuel to sustain you — because while it’s super easy, it makes A LOT of food, even when pared down a bit.

(This is not a complaint, just an observation — FYI.)

Now, because I made this for dinner (the best time for breakfast dishes, IMHO), I tweaked the recipe just a bit: omitting the bacon entirely, used smoked apple & chicken sausages, and as my pantry was bereft of fresh parsley, I used a couple of handfuls of peas (we’d just picked from the garden) instead. 

I also used one less egg, one less sausage, and slightly increased the amount of mushrooms. (Because we love them so.)

And it turned out beautifully! A great one-pan wonder that takes less than twenty-five minutes to whip up.

(Hopefully, the Pioneer Woman won’t mind the rejiggering of her recipe!)

Christie: Honestly, I can see any of Agatha Christie’s detectives loving this breakfast as it’s just a slight twist on a Full English!