Lou Anne's Tamale Pie

Yeild: 8 servings
Estimated Cost Per Serving: $0.53
2/9/2009

This is an easy casserole—and very good.  The topping is a little surprising.  We expected a more cornbread-like
topping but with the cheese and all the eggs, this is much richer.

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef

1 large onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 cup tomato juice
1 14-ounce can of corn, drained
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup cornmeal
2 large eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter melted
1 cup grated cheddar or Monterey jack cheese

Directions

1. Brown the ground beef.  Add the onion and garlic and continue cooking until almost done.
2. Add the tomatoes, tomato juice, corn, chili powder, salt, and pepper.  Mix and simmer for ten
minutes.  Pour into an 8 1/2 x 13-inch baking pan. 
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. Make the cornmeal topping by mixing the cornmeal, eggs, evaporated milk, and melted butter
together in a bowl.  Spread the topping over the hot filling.  Sprinkle with the grated cheese.  Bake
for 30 to 35 minutes. 

Fish Tacos with Adobo Chipotle Sauce

Lou Anne was in Boise and stopped for lunch.  She ordered fish tacos and loved them.  So when she got home, she
tried to make her own.  From those efforts, this recipe evolved.  We loved it.

For the adobo chipotle sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons sauce from a can of adobo sauce (without seeds or pieces)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.  Cover and let rest in the refrigerator for at least one-half hour.

For the filling and tortillas

2 cups shredded cabbage

1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 large carrot, grated
3 green onions, finely sliced

1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons flour

1 pound tilapia
12 corn tortillas

limes, sliced for garnish

Directions

1. Mix the cabbage, cilantro, grated carrot, and green onions together in a medium bowl.  Set aside.
2. In a shallow dish, mix the cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, and flour together.  Dredge the fish in
the flour mixture.  Fry in a small amount of oil until golden brown. 
3. While the fish is frying, heat the tortillas, six at a time, wrapped in paper towels in the microwave.  
Heat for one to two minutes at high.

To assemble:

Put two tortillas on each plate.  Crumble the fish and divide it between the tortillas.  Top with the cabbage salad
mixture and then the adobo chipotle sauce.  Garnish with limes.  Serve immediately. 

Chicken Taco Salad Recipe

We love taco salads served in either a flour or corn tortilla shell.  As with most other salads, you can change the
ingredients for endless variations.  This one is made with chicken and homemade taco sauce—but add what you will.

This salad serves six as a side salad or two as a main dish salad.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked shredded chicken or chicken breast cut up into small cubes
3/4 cup homemade taco sauce
1/2 head of iceberg lettuce, shredded
6 small tortillas or two large tortillas
1 14-ounce can of cooked black beans, well drained
1/2 cup diced red onions
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey jack cheese
12 pitted black olives
1 cup homemade salsa

Directions

1. Bake the tortillas in tortilla bakers, the shape of bowls, according to the manufacturer’s
instructions.  Let them cool.

Lay a bed of lettuce in the bottom of each tortilla bowl.  Starting with the chicken, layer chicken, beans, red onions,
and tomatoes on the lettuce.  Top with a dollop of sour cream.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Slice the olives and scatter
them on the salad.  Top with homemade salsa.
 

Fresh Homemade Taco Sauce

This is a great taco sauce.  It works not only on tacos but as a dip and general condiment—everything from
scrambled eggs in the morning to that burger you’re working on.

We liked this sauce a little thicker so thickened it with a slurry made with one tablespoon of cornstarch.  Simply mix
the cornstarch with a bit of water to make a paste, thin it down till it is the consistency of a thick slurry, and add it to
the sauce for the last few minutes of cooking.  Be sure to stir the sauce well as you add your slurry.

Ingredients

1 small onion, finely diced

1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup tomato puree
1 1/3 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Sauté the onion.  Add the garlic and continue to cook for a few minutes.
2. Add the puree and spices and cook, simmering, for 8 to 10 minutes or until reduced.  Add the
chicken stock and cook for another ten minutes.  Salt and pepper as needed.

Fresh Homemade Salsa

This is another Lou Anne creation.  You can tell she loves Mexican food.  This was good enough that we took a big
bowl of it home to serve with dips in front of the TV.  We had salsa from the store but no one reached for it.

Ingredients

6 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 small onion, finely diced
1/2 serranos pepper for mild or 1 for hot, seeded and finely diced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
salt to taste

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients and salt to taste.  Refrigerate leftovers.  Makes about two cups.
2. Rather than chopping and seeding, this salsa can be made with a victorio strainer. 

How to Make Fajitas

Fajitas are typically made with chicken, beef, or shrimp
along with peppers and onions.  They are served with flour
tortillas accompanied by guacamole, sour cream, and
salsa.  You can be creative with the seasoning using a choice of spices or table sauces on the meat along with a
drizzle of lime juice. 

So your grocery list looks like this:

 beef (we use sirloin but skirt steak or even round will do), chicken breasts, or shrimp
 flour tortillas
 sweet onions
 green peppers
 southwest seasoning or your favorite table sauce
 limes
 avocados
 sour cream

Step 1: Prepare the vegetables.  Cut the peppers into thin strips and onions into thin slices.  You can add a poblano
or anaheim pepper if you like; they’ll add a little more heat.  Set aside. 

Step 2: Prepare the meat.  Fajita lovers argue about whether the meat should be cut before or after cooking.  We cut
the meat across the grain into strips before cooking so that we can cook the meat with the vegetables.   

You can season the meat with salt and pepper, southwest seasoning, or table sauce.  You can cook the meat in a
simmer sauce.  Seasoning is a matter of preference. 

Step 3: Make the guacamole.  Making guacamole can be as simple as mashing ripe avocado and mixing it with sour
cream.  To the mixture, you can add garlic, chilies, lime juice, and/or cilantro.  We’ve included a recipe.

Step 4: Cook the meat and vegetables.  Stir fry the meat and vegetables together until done.  Squeeze a lime or two
over the meat and vegetables for added flavor. 

Step 5: Heat the tortillas.  Place the tortillas on paper towels and warm them in the microwave.  Warming makes the
tortillas more flexible and easier to wrap.

Step 6:  Serve the fajitas.  Let your guests or family members build their own fajitas.  Serve the tortillas in a tortilla
keeper and the meat and vegetables on a hot platter.  As condiments, serve guacamole, sour cream, and salsa. 
Your guests will place meat and vegetables on the tortillas and top the filling with condiments and then wrap the
tortillas around the fillings. 

Microwave Chicken Fajitas

This recipe is very easy and very good.  Season them as you wish. 
Cooking times will vary with the dish you use and your microwave. 

For seasoning, you can use a spice blend such as Old Yellowstone
Seasonings or South of the Border Mexican and Taco Seasoning.  You
can also use table or simmer sauces. 

Ingredients

1 boneless chicken breast, cut into strips, approximately 3 inches long

and 1/2 inch wide
1 green bell pepper, cut in thin slices
1 sweet onion, cut in thin slices
salt and pepper
1 lime
seasoning of your choice
Directions

1. Place chicken strips, bell pepper, and onion slices into a shallow microwave-safe baking dish. Toss to
combine.
2. Add fajita seasoning of your choice and salt and pepper to taste. Stir the chicken mixture to distribute the
seasoning evenly.
3. Place the dish in the microwave oven. Cover with a lid or waxed paper and cook the chicken on high for two
minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven and stir to redistribute the chicken so it will be evenly cooked;
then place the dish in the microwave again for another two minutes. (Chicken should reach a temperature of
170 degrees to be safely cooked.)
4. Cover 2 flour tortillas with a paper towel and heat them for 30 seconds on high in the microwave.
5. Place the chicken in the center of the tortilla. Before rolling the tortilla, top with guacamole, salsa, and sour
cream or other condiments.

Beef or Chicken Fajitas

This is a basic recipe that works well.  You can vary the amounts of steak
or chicken and the vegetables.  You’ll find a choice of seasonings

Ingredients

12 ounces of beef sirloin steak or one large boneless, skinless chicken

breast
1 green or red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 lime
vegetable oil for frying
seasoning (see notes)
salt and pepper as needed

4 to 6 eight-inch flour tortillas

salsa
sour cream
guacamole (See recipe below.)

Directions

1. Thinly slice the beef or

chicken breast across the grain into strips. Place the strips in a
bowl and toss them with the seasoning of your choice.  Salt and
pepper if needed.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy 10-inch skillet at medium-high.  Add the
onions, bell pepper, and meat strips and stir until the vegetables are
tender and meat is cooked.
3. While the meat is cooking, cover the tortillas with a paper
towel and place them in the microwave.  Heat them on high for 30
seconds or until just warm.
4. Remove the meat and vegetables from the heat. Drizzle the juice
from the lime over the meat and stir to distribute.
5. Fill the warm tortillas with the meat and vegetable mixture. Top with the salsa, sour cream, or guacamole, if
you desire. Roll up the tortillas and serve.  

Notes

About the seasoning:  You can use dry seasonings or a sauce.  Taco seasoning works well.  Our South of the
Border Mexican and Taco Seasoning is a great choice.  We like a lot of seasoning on our meat for fajitas and use
about a tablespoon.    You can also use the fajita seasoning recipe below.
  Our Old Yellowstone Seasonings are great for fajitas. 

You can also make great fajitas with a table or pan sauce.  We’ve been making fajitas with our new simmer pan
sauces and loving them.  We’ve cooked the chicken or beef in the sauce but mostly, haven’t bothered.  We’ve just
used the sauce as table sauce, pouring some on the filling before wrapping the tortilla.

These sauces are excellent with fajitas:

 Jalapeno Lime Chimichurri Sauce

 Cuban Mojito Sauce
 Rojo Loco Mexican Sauce

Both the Mojito sauce and chimi sauce have lime juice and really flavor the meat.  Mexican sauce is a red sauce
more like a taco sauce and is medium-mild in heat. 

About the meat:  Instead of cooking the meat in strips, you can cook the steak or chicken breast in one piece and
cut the meat into strips after cooking.  This is preferable if you are coking the meat on the grill. 

This recipe calls for cooking the vegetables and the meat together.  The result is steak that is well done depending on
how thickly you slice the meat.  If you prefer your meat less cooked than this, either cut the strips thicker or partially
cook the vegetables before adding the steak.  Chicken should always be well cooked. 

Fajita Seasoning

1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Stir to evenly distribute ingredients.

Guacamole

2 medium avocados, well-mashed with a fork

1/3 cup sour cream
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients. Place the guacamole in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until you are ready to serve.

Quick Lime Twist Fajitas

We’ll show you how to make Quick Lime Twist Fajitas. You can alter the
ingredients to fit your tastes or substitute chicken strips for the steak.

Deluxe Tortilla Italian Double-Bladed

Ingredients Keeper Mezzaluna

3/4 pound top sirloin steak strips

1 small green bell pepper, diced or sliced
1 small red bell pepper, diced or sliced
1 small onion, diced
1/4 cup Italian dressing
2 tablespoons lime juice
4 to 6 medium flour tortillas, warmed
1/2 cup prepared salsa (optional)
sour cream (optional)
guacamole (optional)

Directions

1. Brown the sirloin strips in a heavy frying pan. Add the peppers and onions. Stir fry for a couple minutes. Add the
dressing and lime juice and simmer until the meat is cooked and the liquid is reduced.
2. Spoon the filling into the warm tortillas. Add the optional salsa, sour cream, and guacamole. Serve hot.

Baker’s note: The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of lime juice. We doubled that and it was just right for us.

How to Make Spanish Rice

You can make this Spanish rice in a heavy frying pan so it’s a one pan
dish.
South of the Border The No-Contact
Ingredients Taco Seasoning Garlic Shredder

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 large onion, diced
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 cup white rice
2 cups chicken broth
2 cans diced tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon taco seasoning

Directions

1. In a heavy frying pan, heat the oil and sauté the onion and garlic. Brown the rice by stirring it in the hot pan until it
just starts to brown.
2. Immediately add the chicken broth, tomatoes, and taco seasoning. Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat and
simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the rice is cooked. Serve hot.

Old-Fashioned Limeade

There is not much that is more refreshing than fresh limeade.  It’s a
simple mixture of limes, sugar, and water.
Ingredients

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup hot water
1 1/2 cups lime juice, with or without pulp according to taste (10 to 12 limes)
Zest from one lime
4 to 5 cups of cold water, to taste

Directions

In a large pitcher, dissolve the sugar in the hot water. Add the lime juice and zest. Stir in the cold water. Add ice to
chill before serving.

Note:  Kay in our test kitchen had some leftover blueberry juice.  She added it to some limeade for a blueberry
limeade.  It was outstanding

Apple Walnut Empanadas

An empanada is simply a flour tortilla wrapped around a filling and then
deep fried. This filling is easy since you can use a can of apple pie filling.
The empanada is wonderful.
Cinnamon Vanilla Premium walnut
Sugar pieces
Ingredients

1 can apple pie filling

1/2 cup walnut pieces
cinnamon vanilla sugar or a cinnamon sugar mixture
eight flour tortillas

Directions

1. Mix the apple pie filling and nuts together. Pile several spoons full of filling on to the center of a tortilla. Fold the
sides over, then the bottom up and tuck it under the filling. Turn the tortilla over from top to bottom so that the bottom
is now on the side. Brush a little water on the top flap to hold it in place and fold it down.
2. Heat the oil to about 375 degrees. Deep fry the empanadas until just browned. Drain on paper towels and then roll
in the cinnamon mix. Serve hot.