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They carry those sauces here as well. I purchased the green chile enchilada sauce once....... It literally says makes "4" enchiladas on the back in small print!

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Back to Smiths to grab a big 28oz can of Las Palmas green chile sauce and mixed them both together.


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Who makes only 4 enchiladas for dinner! Thats like dinner for one! LOL

I can't imagine an 8oz packet of sauce doing much more than that for enchiladas. I will say that taco sauce is quite good - I use it with a medium onion and 1-1.25lbs of ground beef.
 
Hey @sour_grapes ,

care to share your stroganoff recipe. it looks amazing!

I am flattered, John, and will comply. But, Ohmigod, I wish you hadn't asked for this particular dish. This was what Mike (@ibglowin ) calls a "once in a lifetime" meal, and Mrs. Sour_Grapes and I call a recipe from "The Journal of Irreproducible Results." I had not gone shopping in forever, so was trying to eke out one more meal and use up what we had.

As you know, Beef Stroganoff in the US typically is made using strips or cubes of a nice cut of beef, along with a mushroom, onion, and sour cream sauce. I didn't have a lot of those things.

I sauteed an onion, then I used ~1/4 lb of ground beef that I had to use up. I added minced garlic, and some thyme. I thought I still had some fresh mushrooms to use up, but I didn't; I got lucky and found I had a frozen bag of "Mushroom Medley in Garlic and Parsley" from Trader Joe's, so I used about a cup (1/2 bag) of those. I threw a small handful of flour in, then added some very gelatinous, defatted drippings from the chicken I roasted for T-day. Also some sherry, some soy sauce, and a bit of Worcestershire sauce. (Not much Worcestershire sauce, because I don't like it that much, but many recipes call for it.) Then, as a substitute for sour cream, I used some heavy cream, and a few large tablespoons of plain yogurt. I served it over the last bit of egg noodles that I had in the pantry, and garnished with the last of the parsley (chopped).

I told my wife that I was just going to keep throwing things in until I ruined it. :) However, in the end, it was pretty delicious.
 
This past summer a dead tree on our property fruited the most amazing Laetiporus sulphureus - also known as Chicken of the Woods. It freezes beautifully for enjoying all year long. One of the appetizers I made for Thanksgiving was a Korean style fried chicken of the woods. The crust was super crispy with corn starch in the mix. And the spicy Korean chili sauce to top it was great.

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I've been on a Mexican kick lately. I think I've mentioned before that I grow my own corn to make tortillas - a yellow, a green and a blue corn.

Here is some of the blue corn harvested this year.

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In order to make the masa dough for tortillas, the corn must first be processed with lime (calcium hydroxide) to remove the pericarp (outer hull). The process is called nixtamalization. It also causes some chemical reactions in the corn that enhance their B-vitamins and make it more digestible. The process starts by simmering the corn with lime water for 30-60 minutes and then letting it soak at room temperature for about 12 hours. The corn is then washed very well to clean and remove the skin residue. After that it is ground, traditionally on a stone metate, but all I have is a hand grinder. It works pretty well. Water is added to make the dough the right consistency for tortillas. This is the masa. It is divided into dough balls and pressed with a tortilla press. The tortillas are cooked on a hot griddle (comal).

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I made a lot of tortillas for multiple meals (see next posts). For this night, they were the perfect vehicle to spoon up a wonderful batch of Mexican frijoles.

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On the second day of tortilla heaven, I had a hankering for green enchiladas. The enchilada sauce started with tomatillos from the garden. I was glad to have thrown a bunch into the freezer this summer so I could make green sauce all winter. Some other green chilies (pasilla, Anaheim and jalapeño) were also added along with some onion and garlic.

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The filing was made with a soy-based product from Butler Foods they call soy curls. These were hydrated and cooked with spices and some of the green sauce. The tortillas were softened with a quick heat up on a comal, dipped in the green sauce, and then rolled up with the filling. More sauce topped the dish along with some vegan cheese. To finish the dish, a cashew crema and cilantro adorned the enchiladas.

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I have been growing the Hopi blue corn for the last few years. I just grind it once for grits. I also like it fresh if you pick it the second it is ready.
Actually, i get some water boiling with a little salt, pick a few ripe ears...then run to the kitchen and pitch it in the pot. I think its important to keep traditional heirlooms in production, so many have already been lost.
 
On the third night it was all about leftovers - leftover frijoles and tortillas from the first night and leftover cream from the second night. What a perfect combination to repurpose them into a tortilla soup! This soup started with a sauté of onions and carrots with some garlic, cumin and coriander. The soup base was made with some tomato water and hydrated ancho and California red chilis. During the summer tomato canning season, I drain off the water that runs off the just cooked tomatoes and save that for soups, stews and chilis. Leftover frijoles were stirred into the soup to help thicken it up. The tortillas were prepared simply by slicing in thin strips and tossing them in a frying pan with a few drops of oil to crisp them up. This was delicious!

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I have been growing the Hopi blue corn for the last few years. I just grind it once for grits. I also like it fresh if you pick it the second it is ready.
Actually, i get some water boiling with a little salt, pick a few ripe ears...then run to the kitchen and pitch it in the pot. I think its important to keep traditional heirlooms in production, so many have already been lost.

Wonderful! I'm really getting into corn growing now. This is the Jerry Peterson organic blue corn. I will try planting some of my own saved seeds this year and see how it goes. The green variety I grow is the Oaxacan green corn. I don't remember the yellow dent corn variety. I would love to get my hands on some of the white corn they grow widely in Mexico. They have a large wide flat kernel and is used for most of their tortillas and for posole (hominy). Both are nixtamalized. I do also grind some of this into corn meal for making grits or polenta. But I do like unlocking the flavor and vitamins that nixtamalization provides. The process also destroys any toxins from mold in case your corn was not dried properly.

The other thing on my wish list is a proper metate. I simply cannot find one in the US to order. A metal hand grinder can only get the masa so fine but it really needs to be ground finer for a real proper tortilla.

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I am flattered, John, and will comply. But, Ohmigod, I wish you hadn't asked for this particular dish. This was what Mike (@ibglowin ) calls a "once in a lifetime" meal, and Mrs. Sour_Grapes and I call a recipe from "The Journal of Irreproducible Results." I had not gone shopping in forever, so was trying to eke out one more meal and use up what we had.

As you know, Beef Stroganoff in the US typically is made using strips or cubes of a nice cut of beef, along with a mushroom, onion, and sour cream sauce. I didn't have a lot of those things.

I sauteed an onion, then I used ~1/4 lb of ground beef that I had to use up. I added minced garlic, and some thyme. I thought I still had some fresh mushrooms to use up, but I didn't; I got lucky and found I had a frozen bag of "Mushroom Medley in Garlic and Parsley" from Trader Joe's, so I used about a cup (1/2 bag) of those. I threw a small handful of flour in, then added some very gelatinous, defatted drippings from the chicken I roasted for T-day. Also some sherry, some soy sauce, and a bit of Worcestershire sauce. (Not much Worcestershire sauce, because I don't like it that much, but many recipes call for it.) Then, as a substitute for sour cream, I used some heavy cream, and a few large tablespoons of plain yogurt. I served it over the last bit of egg noodles that I had in the pantry, and garnished with the last of the parsley (chopped).

I told my wife that I was just going to keep throwing things in until I ruined it. :) However, in the end, it was pretty delicious.

Ha! While having this as leftovers for lunch, I saw and recalled that I also diced up and sauteed a yellow crookneck (summer) squash that was a little long in the tooth, too. I had forgotten about that!
 
Wonderful! I'm really getting into corn growing now. This is the Jerry Peterson organic blue corn. I will try planting some of my own saved seeds this year and see how it goes. The green variety I grow is the Oaxacan green corn. I don't remember the yellow dent corn variety. I would love to get my hands on some of the white corn they grow widely in Mexico. They have a large wide flat kernel and is used for most of their tortillas and for posole (hominy). Both are nixtamalized. I do also grind some of this into corn meal for making grits or polenta. But I do like unlocking the flavor and vitamins that nixtamalization provides. The process also destroys any toxins from mold in case your corn was not dried properly.

The other thing on my wish list is a proper metate. I simply cannot find one in the US to order. A metal hand grinder can only get the masa so fine but it really needs to be ground finer for a real proper tortilla.

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I enjoy the corn too. I have grown many varieties of dent corn, pipe corn and grain corns. Look on baker creek heirloom seeds for many very old varieties.
I use the little womans "comercial" kitchen aid mixer with grinder.... like i said, I only mill it to grits. I don't want to wear that thing out.
 
Slow-braised collard greens (onions, crushed red pepper); baked 'taters; a casserole of mushrooms, onions, garlic, eggplant, ground lamb, and some leftover ho-made tomato sauce, topped with sharp Italian provolone. Washed down with a 2017 HHH Syrah from grapes.62873611602__96559523-50FD-4767-8A4A-08C1684EF618.JPG
 
Friday night..........

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Pizza night! Ho-made crust using sourdough pizza crust recipe. Rolled out nice! No pull back since this was made a few weeks ago and then frozen and thawed. Our new LG oven still SUCKS but had to use it instead of the WOLF counter oven due to size. Crust was excellent as far as taste but can't get a decent brown on the bottom to save my soul.....

Mrs IB's favorite of pepperoni, Italian sausage and green olive.
 
French (green) lentils with cilantro and garlic; Brussels sprouts (browned then braised in ho-made chicken stock with marjoram seasoning); leftover collard greens from upthread; pastured pork chops (dredged, browned, then braised in tomatoes, sherry, and Syrah), with sauteed 'shrooms and garlic.
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