Okay, I'll admit it....I'm addicted to Pinterest. For those that are still clueless about this site, it allows people to post pictures, recipes and various other items for people like me to "pin" onto various boards of our choosing. For me, I'm living it up on dinner recipe ideas, as I've never been a Rachael Ray or Bobby Flay in the kitchen. Cookbooks and internet cookbooks are my means of making a decent meal. Ask Gary, he'll tell you of my many cooking disasters over the past 16 years. Below is one such story of my cooking disasters.....
The summer of 1997, I was the hall director at Roush Hall on the Arkansas Tech University campus. I had my own cute little dorm apartment and I was in charge of checking campers in and out of the hall. Gary worked nights, so I would be sweet and fix him lunch at times when he'd come over. Well I had this great meal of round steak, mashed potatoes and green beans for him one day planned out. The meat and green beans were easy to do, thanks to help from a Southern Living cookbook. Now mashed potatoes should have been the easiest thing ever. One simple peels and cooks the potatoes, uses butter, a bit of milk, salt/pepper and a masher to make them. However, that was not me! I used my hand blender, the one for making smoothies with and ended up creating potato flavored wallpaper paste! Oh, and I must not forget that I'm a pepper junkie, so it was heavily peppered potato flavored wall paper paste! (laughing) Gary, bless his heart, was a sweetie about it until he took a bite of the potatoes. He grabbed his tea glass and began to chug the tea down without ever taking a breath!
Yeah, I'm not a genius in the kitchen, but I can make one of my family's all time favorite dishes, CHEESE ENCHILADAS. Now this dish isn't your typical TexMex dish, as the ingredients leave many to scratch their heads thinking "You're putting WHAT in that??" I first tasted the recipe back in the mid-1980's after my great-grandmother passed away. In the South, food is a comfort thing when someone dies. It looked like an odd thing to try, but it tasted sooooo good! The recipe is rather simple and if there is another recipe like this, I know nothing about it.
1 (16 oz.) container of sour cream
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
Milk to dilute the first two ingredients down to a soupy mixture
1 lb. hamburger meat (optional)
1 pkg. taco seasoning (optional)
1 can chopped green chilies
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 pkg. burrito size flour tortillas
1 pkg. shredded Velveeta cheese
2 pkg. shredded Mexican cheese (or any other cheese you prefer)
PAM or other cooking spray
Rectangular cake pan
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
For the sauce:
Place the sour cream and cream soups in a sauce pan. Thin down the mixture with milk to make into a soupy consistency and heat to warm. Do NOT let it scorch!
Meat lovers:
In a skillet, brown the hamburger meat with the green onions. Drain grease and place back in skillet. Follow directions on the taco seasoning packet, for the meat. (have had both with and without meat, but I like the meat it in) Hold to the side. If going meatless, the green onion goes in raw with the cheese and chilies.
The assembly line:
1. Plate or space to roll tortillas.
2. Spray the cake pan with PAM to keep anything from possibly sticking.
3. Ladle about a cup of the sauce onto the bottom of the cake pan.
4. Take a tortilla, put about an 1/8 of a tsp. of green chilies on the tortilla.
5. Add the meat mixture and spread it around.
6. Put cheese to your liking on it.
7. Roll as tightly as you can.
8. Place in cake pan.
9. REPEAT until you run out of room in pan or out of ingredients
10. Ladle remaining sauce on top of enchiladas and place in oven. Bake until cheese melts.
*If you have any leftover meat or cheese from this dish, just place it on the enchiladas before putting the sauce on it.
My family goes for the salsa jar once it is ready and everyone is served. It's also good the next day. I do not recommend trying to make and freeze, as the sour cream/cream soup mixture will separate.
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