Chicken Tortilla Soup #1

Once upon a time there was a soup. A Chicken Tortilla Soup. And it lived at a semi fast-food restaurant called Baja Fresh. The soup was not your ordinary semi fast-food fare. It was rich and dark, full of mysterious flavors and not too many chunks of vegetables. It was topped with cilantro and avocado and a wedge of lime, which as everyone knows, is The Trifecta of Mexican Cuisine. The soup was cryptic, inscrutable, an enigma.

This, friends, is not that soup.

When searching for recipes that would compare I tried to identify just what the ingredients are that make the soup so outrageously good. It's really dark, practically black. Could special something be that chipotle, the smoky little devil? This recipe calls for some basic ingredients that sounded good, in theory, and some jalepenos. So I decided to substitute chipotles in the place of the jalepenos.

I've had better ideas.

Chipotle is NOT the mystery ingredient. And this recipe calls for far too many onions. It's basically a Mexican Onion Soup which is good and all, but not The Soup.

12 Days of "Cookies" and 1 Day of Ina

It's time, once again, for Food Network's annual "12 Days of Cookies" email/recipe series. Let's take a moment to reflect on a few of this year's offerings, shall we?

First up are Gingerbread Cookies by Chef Alex SomebodyorotherthatIdon'tknowandprobablyneitherdoyou.

Those are the saddest, flattest, driest little men I've seen in a long while. I think I've seen cardboard that looked more flavorful and moist. In fact, did they use Elmer's to decorate those little pieces of particle board?

Next up are The Neelys' Butter Cookies. I love this picture. Because, really, the first thing you want to be reminded of while eating cookies is... a pig.

Finally, Sunny's Crunchy Peanut Butter S'more Bites. You know what I usually do when I'm jonesing for some S'mores? I take a huge chunk of peanut butter, roll it around in some sawdust and fingernail clippings, and then make a sandwhich out of it with some Crisco. Mmm mmm good.

And I'm not even going to dignify Sandra Lee's Peppermint Dandruff Cookies with a response. You can't make me.

Did Food Network redeem themselves by including a 13th recipe for Rugelach? Hard to say. There are Hateful Raisins in them. But Ina always comes through for me in the end. At least someone at Food Network does.

I'm so over Turkey right now.

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving... our family came over and we cooked a big bird in the oven. Which yielded lots of leftovers. Even after one extra go-round of turkey, stuffing, potatoes and cranberries, I was pretty much over turkey today. But we still had two Gladwares' worth. What to do? I thought about making Turkey Tettrazini from Elise's recipes.... but the thought of more creaminess and thickness, I wasn't ready. So how about Meseidy again... I had seen her Chicken Chilaquiles recipe last week or so and thought that would be good to do with the leftover turkey. It's hard to find real, good Mexican food here and I haven't had good chilaquiles in a looong time, so here's how it all went down.


First, get some onion and garlic going. If your recipe starts this way, it's pretty much going to be a winner. Just saying. Then shred up your leftovers, so they are nice and stringy. Toss the skin. It's gross when it's cold, huh?
Add the turkey to the softened onions and add in your seasonings... I used cumin, cayenne and chili powder... a few shakes of each. Also salt and pepper. Heat the turkey through and start chopping some roma tomatoes. Add those in and let them get all melty and groovy. Then... add in a jar of tomato salsa. I'm partial to Whole Foods brand... but use whatever. And then add half a jar of green salsa. Then, add some hot sauce to your taste... We love Cholula and lots of it! Also, squeeze a lime in there and add a handful of chopped fresh cilantro.
I think at this point, you could cover all of it with turkey stock or chicken stock, heat through and call it a delicious soup. But no... keep going. Make sure to taste it right here... does it need more salt or spices or hot sauce? Good? Yes? Okay.


Then, in a small casserole, spray with with Pam and layer the bottom with tortilla chips. You could use taco shells, or tostada shells, or fry up your own chips if you want. I think this is the best way to use day old chips that you left open that have that stale chew to them. But whatever you think is best. They just have to be crunchy. On top of the layer, add half of the turkey mixture, then a layer of cheese I had half of one of those Mexican blend pre-shredded cheese bags on hand, so I used that and shredded up some aged Australian white cheddar too. Mmmm. You could use Queso Fresco or Cotija like Meseidy did, too, but you need something cheddary to glue everything together. Layer again with chips, turkey and cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or so until it's bubbly and melty and you can hear it making that bubble sound. Behold....

See look... some of the corners will be kind of burnt and good. So delicious. Cut yourself a piece and serve it with some beans or rice or both... I made seasoned black beans with mine. I served it with cilantro, sour cream and chopped avocado. (I'm a California girl, I could eat avocado on a shoe and call it good.)

This is a yummy, hearty meal... it will cure your turkey leftover blues in a hurry, and it will warm you up from the inside out. It also makes great leftovers... it's spicier the next day. Easily giving this 5 stars and a dannnnnng for good measure. Enjoy!

Don't be alarmed.

It's just salsa.

The easiest and best tasting salsa you've ever made. If, indeed, you've ever made salsa. Which I had not. Because it scared the chili peppers out of me. But my friend Angela makes it look so easy, and when she shared her recipe with me, I said "What the heck?!"

It's a large (28 oz.) can of diced tomatoes. 1 bunch of cilantro. 1 bunch of green onions. 2 cloves of garlic. 2 jalepenos (de-seeded and de-ribbed). 2 serrano chilies (also de-seeded and de-ribbed). Salt and pepper. That's it. Chop it up rough, and then give it a whirl.


It's not pretty, but DANG, is it good. Play with the proportions, make it your own. Give it a try!

Elvis would approve.

Legend has it that Elvis loved him some banana and peanut butter sandwiches. In honor of October being Midwestern Chic month here at Let's Get Together, I'm taking the banana and peanut butter combo and turning it upside down.

I like my banana cake like I like my men. Smooth and rich, with some naughty, naughty frosting on top.

Here's the Banana Cake recipe (I skipped the caramel sauce in favor of Nutella. I would probably skip most things in favor of Nutella). It's good. Really, really good.

Nutella Frosting
4 Tbs. butter, softened
2 Tbs. Nutella
3 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbs. milk

Blend the butter and Nutella together until creamy. Alternately add the powdered sugar and milk until well blended. If you like a stiffer frosting, decrease the amount of milk. If you like your frosting to be on the softer side (which I do), increase the amount of milk.

You've been Mattin-ed.

Tasty?

Followers of The Pioneer Woman (or, as she's known to some of us, PDub) know that she's launched a new recipe website called The Tasty Kitchen. It seems like a great idea - home cooks who are internet savvy sharing their recipes. So clearly this calls for an experiment.

I had half a loaf of french bread left over from dinner, and it got a bit stale. What better to do with stale bread than to make a bread pudding? Yum! Now when I was 15 the words "bread pudding" would have filled me with pure terror, but who knew?! My mom was right. Now that I'm OLD, I like all kinds of foods I never thought I would. Except for beets. Mom's still wrong about that.

I went to The Tasty Kitchen and searched for bread pudding recipes. There were a couple to choose from, but when it came down to it I went for the chocolate (surprise!) instead of the raisins (no surprise!). This recipe has a rating of 4.07 mitts. Notice, however, that the reviews that are posted are from people who haven't actually prepared the recipe. Honestly, that blows. How can a rating system work when people flaunt the commonly accepted guidelines in such a cavalier manner, I ask you?!

Anyway.


It turned out okay. Nothing crazy good, but not bad. Definitely 3 stars, not no 4.07 mitts. My kids liked it, but they'll eat just about anything with a chocolate chip in it.