Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

I thought this was a tasty way of serving baked beans. We had cole slaw on the side. Very yummy :)

Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

Ingredients

• 2 cups mixed dried beans
• 6 cups water (twice)
  

For the tomato sauce:

• 1 onion diced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 1 big can tomato paste
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• spices to taste: wine, oregano, pepper, salt, chili powder

• 6 large tortillas
• grated cheese, for example Monterey and Colby Jack
  
• Parmesan cheese

1. Soak beans in water over night or bring to a boil and let sit for an hour. Discard beans that are floating, drain water. Add another 6 cups of water, bring to a boil and let the beans simmer for 2-3 hour, until the beans are soft.

2. In the meantime (or even better, the day before), prepare the tomato sauce: Saute onion and garlic in a Dutch oven or skillet, add diced tomatoes and tomato puree, brown sugar and spices. Thin to taste and let simmer for a while. Tomato sauce gets better the longer it sits.

3. Mix the cooked beans and the tomato sauce and let simmer together for a while.

4. Grate cheese. Grease a large baking dish with shortening. Preheat the oven to 350F.

5. Fill a tortillas with bean sauce mix and cheese (don't use up all the sauce !), roll up leaving the ends open, and place rolls into the baking dish. Cover with remaining sauce, then with leftover cheese and Parmesan cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted and the tortillas soft.

Zucchini Bread

It's more a cake really, much like Pumpkin Bread, but this zucchini bread recipe is really quite tasty and ridiculously easy too. I baked the loaf (I only baked one) in a cast iron pan and it turned out just great. Try it :) Oh, one thing: I halved the recipe, and since it is difficult to half 3 eggs, I used 2. I think over all the bread had to bake a little longer, but it turned out nice and moist. Well, maybe it is also nice and moist because some of the flour-mix ended up on the floor when my little 2-year-old baking helper kneaded the flour instead of using the spoon ;)

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 3 eggs
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 2 1/4 cups white sugar
* 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups grated zucchini
* 1 cup chopped walnuts

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans.
• Mix flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
• In another bowl, beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together. Add the flour mix to the egg and sugar mix and stir. Then add zucchini (fresh or thawed) and walnuts.
• Pour the batter into prepared pans and bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until a stick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for about 20 minutes, then remove from the pan and let cool completely.

Very yummy with a smidge of butter or cream cheese :)

Potato Salad

Happy Feast of Tabernacles, everybody - or "Happy Nefee", as our little one would say ;) Halfway into the Feast, I thought I could share my favorite potato salad recipe, just in case you are running out of ideas about what to cook during this feast week. We will have it with fried fish on the side, or maybe the other way round ;)

Potato Salad

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 10 middle sized potatoes
• 2 red onions
• Italian Dressing
  
• 4 eggs
• 1 big red pepper, bell pepper or a spicy kind, to taste
  
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  
• 1 tbsp mustard
• salt, pepper

Boil potatoes and eggs for approximately 20 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Pour some Italian Dressing in a big bowl, cut potatoes into it as hot as you can handle them, and stir after every potato. If the potato skin is thick, peel it off, otherwise it might as well go into the salad. After half of the potatoes are cut, chop up onions and add to the potatoes, stir. Add remaining potatoes and let sit for a while.

Peel eggs and cut into small pieces. Add to the potatoes. Add pepper and salt before stirring the eggs under. Then clean the red bell pepper - you can use a spicy kind too if you like - and cut into small pieces. Add to the salad and stir again.

In a separate bowl, mix mayonnaise and mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. If the sauce appears to be too thick, add a little more Italian Dressing. Pour over potato salad, stir yet again. Let cool in the fridge before eating.

Enjoy :)

Pumpkin Bread in the Bread Machine

This pumpkin bread is really more a cake than a bread, and it tastes great with cream cheese or butter spread on it. I bake it in the bread machine on the "quick" cycle. The quick cycle runs for about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Pumpkin Bread in the Bread Machine

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3 cups all-purpose flour

I usually mix the ingredients in a separate bowl before I put them in the bread machine pan, just to make sure they are well mixed:
Mix the first 4 ingredients together, blend well. Stir in the baking powder, soda, salt, spices, and flour just until mixed. Pour batter into the bread machine pan and set on quick bread cycle.

When the bread is done, avoid dropping it onto its head when taking it out of the pan. Let cool on a rack or plate. This bread keeps well in the fridge and is nice and moist.

Pumpkin Pie From Scratch

So, after posting what we do with the pumpkin seeds, I thought I might as well post our favorite pumpkin pie recipe too. I just baked one today, it's just yummy !

The crust is for a 9'' pan, the filling is for two 9'' pies. I find it convenient to have one pie filling sitting in the fridge or freezer as making pie crust is really a matter of a few moments only, and so the second pie is always ready very quickly :)

Pumpkin Pie

For the crust: (for one 9'' pie pan)

• 1 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 4 tablespoons cold water

Mix ingredients, knead into a ball with cold hands, spread in the pie pan.

For the filling: (enough for 2 pies)

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch single crust pie
• 3 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 cups pumpkin puree

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Beat eggs in a large bowl, add both kinds of sugar, mix well. Add salt and spices. Instead of the individual spices you can add 2 1/4 tsp of pumpkin pie spice. Mix well. Add milk, cream and pumpkin puree, mix well. The mixture will be rather liquid. Pour into the pie pan.

Bake pie for 10 minutes at 425F, then reduce heat to 350F and bake for an additional 40-45 minutes, or until the filling is set.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

We had a voluntary pumpkin plant in our garden this year, to be precise, it was a pie pumpkin plant. It yielded 8 nice pumpkins, three of which I already processed. Of the first two, I kept the seeds for next year, since if you want to save seeds from pumpkins, you'd better take them from an early ripening fruit. Now, for the third one, I decided to roast the seeds and they turned out very yummy. Here is the recipe:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

You need:

• One medium sized pumpkin
• Salt
• Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Scoop seeds out of the pumpkin (I usually just use my fingers to do this). Rinse the seeds you want to roast.

In a small saucepan, add the seeds to water. You need about 2 cups of water for every half cup of seeds. Then add 1 tablespoon of salt for every 1 cup of water and bring the water to a boil, turn down heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.

Spread approximately 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the bottom of a cookie sheet. Spread the seeds out over the cookie sheet. Bake, preferably on the top rack, until the seeds begin to brown. Remove from the oven and let the pan cool. Let seeds cool completely before eating. If your seeds are not gigantic, you won't even have to shell them, but can just eat them shell and all.

Enjoy :)