Cafe Rio Burritos

Wow, three posts in a row, I am on a roll!!

So, I have never been to Cafe Rio. Heard lots of good things about their food, though, so when I ran across this recipe I decided to try it. I am impressed! In talking to a few people who have been there, I think this is not exactly like a said burrito, but they are tasty, and worth the shot! Here goes:

Cafe Rio Burritos
1 1/2 lbs boneless pork loin
salt, pepper, garlic salt, to season
1 pkg burrito size tortillas
1 15 oz can (or 1 28 oz can) mild green chili enchilada sauce
1/2 c brown sugar
1 15 oz can black beans, drained
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 lb Monterrey jack cheese, grated
chicken broth or bouillon cubes
about 2 c prepared rice

*Cut pork into large cubes and place in slow cooker with 1/3 c water (you can use cola also, to add flavor). Season with salt, pepper and garlic salt. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8. Remove from cooker and drain. Shred mean and place in a bowl. In another bowl mix together 1/2-3/4 c green chili sauce and 1/2 c brown sugar. Pour over pork and mix well.
*Prepare rice per directions. Add chicken bouillon cubes to water or use chicken broth instead of water to add flavor.
*Drain beans and warm up in microwave or on stove.
*Brown tortillas on a skillet or over flame (be careful!!)
*Assembly- Heat oven to 350. Spray 9x13 pan (If you have a larger one, use it!) with cooking spray. Pour 1/2 c enchilada sauce into pan. Sprinkle each tortilla with cheese, rice, 1-2 T cilantro, black beans and 1/3 c pork. Roll up burrito style, folding in all sides, and place in baking dish seam side down. After all burritos are made up, pour remaining sauce over burritos and sprinkle with cheese. Bake in oven until burritos are heated through and cheese is melted, about 20 minutes. Garnish with tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce, or nothing at all!! Makes a LOT. We used the whole pack of tortillas, there was a ton. Fed us for a week!!

This is one of Chris' favorites!

Captian Jack's Corn Chowder

The original title of this recipe is 'Chef Jack's Corn Chowder' by Paula Dean. I read it wrong and titled it Captain Jack's Corn chowder, and since I made a few changes, that's what I call it. Here goes!
· 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
· 1 small onion, diced
· 1 small carrot, finely diced (or more!)
· 2 small celery stalks, diced
· 2 small or 1 large potato, cubed
· 2 clove garlic, minced
· 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
· 3 cups white corn kernels, fresh or frozen
· 4 cups chicken stock (2 cans broth)
· 4-5 slices crisp bacon
· 2 cups half-and-half
· 1 cup milk or more to thin a bit
· Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
· Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine the corn, potato and chicken stock in saucepan, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, Melt 1 stick of butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic, and saute for 2 minutes. Add the flour and stir to make a roux. Cook until the roux is lightly browned; set aside to cool to room temperature.
Pour the boiling stock with the corn (a little at a time) into the saucepan with the roux, whisking briskly so it doesn't lump. Return the skillet to the heat and bring to a boil. Add bacon The mixture should become very thick.
In a small saucepan, gently heat the half-and-half; stir it into the thick corn mixture. If needed add milk to thin. Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper, to taste.

**This is SO SO SO good! The original recipe says it serves 8-10. I made a double batch and had 8 adults over and there were hardly any left overs. Served it with bread bowls, and it was fabulous!!

Super Easy French Bread

A few weeks ago we decided to try out making bread bowls for soup. The Missionaries were coming over for dinner, and I thought it was the perfect time for experimenting! I found a great recipe for french bread and used that. The bread is so good and easy I make it a few times a month, at least, and since its just Chris and I, it lasts a while. The recipe rely on a bread machine to do most of the work, sweet, huh!! Here goes:

Place the following ingredients in order into your bread machine pan:

1 C warm water
2 1/2 C bread flour
1 TBSP sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp quick rise yeast (also known as bread machine yeast. Regular yeast is fine, it will just rise slower!)

Turn your bread machine on to the dough cycle and press start. My machine takes 1 hour 20 min to go through this cycle.

After it is done, remove the dough from machine and place in an oiled bowl, turning over so all sides are coated. Let rise until doubled, which is at least 1 hour sometimes more. If I start this early, I just let it rise until I get the chance to do the next step. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched

Once doubled, place dough on a well floured surface. Roll out to a 12x16 rectangle. cut in half, making 2 12x8 rectangles. Roll each piece up, on the long side, like you were making cinnamon rolls. Place seam on the bottom, and pinch ends together. Place on a baking sheet and let rise again for another hour or so, or until they are nice and puffy. The longer they rise the more tender and light the bread will be.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Mix egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water; brush over tops of loaves. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. For a crispy crust, place a pan of ice water on the bottom rack of your oven as the bread bakes. Or if you have a food-safe spray bottle, every 5 minutes or so open your oven and spray water inside. This creates steam, which creates a nice crisp crust!

***Bread bowls*****
Instead of rolling the dough into loaves, I just made balls. I got 3 out of each recipe, they weighed 7 oz each (I like to weigh everything to make sure its even. Call me a dork. . . )Let them rise the second time, and bake for about the same amount of time, I think. Just keep checking. I let them cool, cut the tops off, dug a lot of the dough out, and pressed the insides so that it made the crust thicker. Filled with thicker soups and enjoy!!

New Quilt Idea

I really need to blog more. I have 2 issues- I am a Farmtown on Facebook addict, and I have 2 little boys. I have been searching to a solution to my issues. The second can't be resolved, and I wouldn't WANT it resolved- I adore my children and want more! The first? I am going to replace my FB time with quilting. I love the entire process of quilting (as long as the quilt isn't so big) and think it will be my new substitute. These feelings escilated when I saw this quilt top/tutorial. The fact that this quilter is a Dad makes it even cooler in my book!! I LOVE the fabrics in this block, and would have never chosen them to go together. I have lots of fun fabric that I am going to go cut up! So, keep bugging me (if you want) for progress on this project. If I have someone expecting something I am much more likely to stay on track. Happy September!

Recipe

So. I was a bit of a rock star in the kitchen yesterday. Since it was a little cooler and I had a bit more energy, and we HAD to eat, I decided to try a new recipe for dinner. I am so glad I did, because this is one tasty dish!! Much like me. . . ha ha. So kidding. Anyway, its from the red and white checker Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Its low fat (kind of) and vegetarian. Not that we are by any means vegetarians. Chris's system gets a little out of wack if we eat too much meat. Plus, its healthy to eat more veggies and beans than fatty meat. Anyway, here is the recipe. Its called:

Black Bean Tortialla Casserole.
2 C chopped onion (2 large)
1 1/2 C chopped bell pepper (2 med)
1 14.5 oz can tomatoes, undrained and cut up (I use the petite diced tomatoes)
3/4 C bottled picante sauce or green salsa (I used salsa)
2 tsp ground cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 15 oz cans black beans and or red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
12 6 in corn tortillas (Mine were a little bigger and I only needed 10)
8 oz reduced fat jack cheese (2 cups. i had some already shredded cheddar and used that with the jack. If you only had cheddar it would br fine! And my cheese was NOT reduced fat! hence the above coment about sort of low fat)
Sour cream, chopped up lettuce and tomatos, green onions, and chopped olives for garnish

1. In a large skillet combine onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, picante sauce (or salsa), cumin, and garlic. Bring to boiling; reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Stir in beans.
2 Spread 1/3 of the bean mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 (3 quart) baking dish. Top with apx 6 tortillas, overlapping if necessary. Top tortillas with 1 cup cheese. and another 1/3 of the bean mixture, then more torillas, then the rest of the bean mixture.
3. Bake, covered, in a 350 oven for 30-35 minutes. Sprinkle with remaning cheese, recover, and let sit for 10 minutes so the cheese will melt. Serve with desired garnishes. we just used sour cream, and it was perfect. Maybe tonight we will have salad too.

Nutritional info- 295 calories, 8 g total fat per serving. These figures are with reduced fat cheese, and probably very little if any sour cream. Still not bad. The recipe lists 8 servings, which allows for good size pieces! Told you it was pretty healthy! Enjoy!

Kade is HERE!!

Kade Michael was born at 12:36 PM on July 17th! I will post about the story soon, for now here is a picture!

Kade Michael

Our new baby boy arrived!! Its been 2 weeks, and a great two weeks at that. I didn't go to Church today, needed one more week home, but have had a great day with my two boys. Chris has been gone since 10:30 at before Church meetings, and its nice to know I will be able to handle it tomorrow when he goes back to work. I am totally rambling right now, aren't I? So, here is Kade's story.

Friday, the 17th, I woke up around 2:15 in the morning to go to the bathroom. I had been having contractions since, well, really since the end of April, but they hadn't gotten 'bad'. You know what I am talking about when I say bad, the horrible gut wrenching ones that make you think you are going crazy. Actually, most of my contractions had been very mild, I could barely feel them except for in my back. Anyway, as I am lying there trying to go back to sleep, I have a few mild contractions, really close apart. I realize after the third one that I should pay attention to the clock. After about an hour of contractions at 5 minutes apart, I wake Chris up. By now a million thoughts are running thorugh my head, mostly consisting of, "Oh my, its really happening!" and "holy crap, I have to give birth today,". When I woke Chris up he was in a really good mood. We both layed in bed and got really giddy at the thought of another baby being born in our family, TODAY!! I went and took a shower, he turned the tv on to wake up a bit. We got dressed, got our stuff together and I called my mom at 4:45 and told her to meet us at the hospital. As I was hanging up the phone, I heard her squeal with delight! She is so cute about things like that!

So, by the time we get to the hospital, the contractions are like, 2-3 minutes apart and hurting kind of bad. At the time I thought they were terrible, the worst. Now, looking back at rememering the rest of labor, I realize how very mild they were. I remember thinking that this was just what I pictured having a baby would entail-waking up in the middle of the night, waking a sleepy hubby up, driving (too slow!!) to the hospital all the while starting the breathing patterns to get through the contractions without snapping your husbands head off!! It was perfect!

My mom got to the hospital, took Zander home, and we went in at 5:30. The nurses checked me out and determined I really was in labor, so they called the dr and put me in a room. I told them right away I wanted an epidural. I learned my lesson last time. What lesson was that, you ask?? Labor is hard enough without all the pain, and a little relief is OK!! I wasn't going to get a medal of courage for doing it the old fashioned, no relief way.
**I started this right after Kade was born, and never finished it. Here is a tie- up to the story!**
I had the epidural, was able to rest for a few hours, then my nurse came in to check me out. I was at a 10 and ready, although I was so out of it, just tired. She had me push a few times but the Kade's head was still pretty high up, and he was faced the wrong way. And each time I push, his heart rate dipped. I don't know what it went down to, though. Another nurse came in checked me, and said, "We gotta get this baby out of there, you are having a c-section." WHAT!?!! I go from nice and resting to a c-section in like, 10 minutes. She gave me a shot to stop the contractions, went and called the dr, and they rushed in and had me sign all this paper work. I got pretty emotional because i didn't want anything to happen to the baby. She made it sound horrible, and looking back, i don't know if it was really that bad. They took me back to the OR about 30 minutes later and got me ready. Dr. Arora came in, did his thing and Kade was born at 12:36 pm. I felt NOTHING at all. . . until a few hours later. Thank goodness for Darvocet, let me tell you! My Dr. came in the next day to see how things were going, and admitted that if he would have been there things might have gone a little different. But hey, it was a Friday, one of his busiest office days, there was no way he could be there until he absolutly had to be, which I understand. As it was I caused a 4 hour delay that day for his other patience with aptointments. yikes!

So, recovery has been. . . long, to say the least. He is 7 weeks and 2 hours old, as of right now, and I have felt normal for less than a week. Every few days a new pain would emerge, and I know its because different nerves woke up at differnt times, and in phases. I have experienced a bit of the grieving process as well, which might sound dumb, but its very real. Things didn't go as I planned, and my plans were quite flexible, mind you, with the result of giving birth naturally, coming home, and enjoying my babies. Instead I was down for 2 weeks, unable to do anything, much less give Zander the attention he needed. I couldn't play with him, or even put him down for bed, which was/is one of my very favorite things to do. Knowing I forever have to deliver via c-section, and go through this long recovery process every time i have a baby makes me cringe. However- I am looking at the positives (I get to choose my babies birthdays, NO labor contractions, and much more planning) and am ok with more c-sections. My doctor said I can have 3 more easily, so I am ok. Lets just hope we get twins next time, and I can be done!!

Thats Kade's story, he is fussing now so i am going to post and be done. I appologize for the typo's!