Kitchen Adventures

A couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted to make a blueberry pie. The first and last time I'd ever made one was in a Home-Ec class in high school. I remember the crust was a pain to make, but it came out very tasty. Here's what I created:

I wanted to try and create a star pattern on top with the lattice work, but I'm really not good at free-handing stars, so it would work better if I had some cookie cutters. I used a store-bought crust for this, and took it to work. It was gone within a few hours! But I made sure to save a piece or two for myself and here's how I like to eat it:
I made another pie that I don't have a picture of. It was a pear pie made completely from scratch. I was so excited about my blueberry pie, but disappointed that I used a store bought crust that has all kinds of preservatives in it and no nutritional value at all (except fat). So I made my own crust for the pear pie. I used half regular (organic) white flour and half whole-wheat flour. And although I didn't want to, I somehow had some vegetable shortening in the pantry and used that- as gross as I think shortening is, it turned out very well. The crust was flaky and not to sweet, the pears were soft, even with the skins left on. I think it was even better than the blueberry pie! I spent about a week having that as an afternoon snack, and sometimes again for dinner.

For my coworker Tracy's birthday, we held a drawing for what 'feast' we would have for lunch. I was crossing my fingers for Chicken, Broccoli and Rice casserole or Tuna Casserole. And although she really did draw both of those first, she was not very interested. So we let her draw again and she came up with Enchilada Delight. I invented the recipe for it, since there wasn't one.

I sauteed some onion, and green, orange, and red peppers until they were just soft, then set them aside. In the same pan I browned some ground beef, then added taco seasoning to that. I mixed all of the peppers/onions/meat together in a big bowl for the filling. Then I cut corn tortillas into wedges, dipped them in enchilada sauce and layered them in the bottom of a baking pan. I added a layer of the meat mixture, then some shredded cheese, then another layer of tortillas. I repeated about 4 times until everything was used up. Then I topped it with the remaining enchilada sauce and some cheese and baked it for about 45 minutes at 350. It reheats really well and tastes great with guacamole (my coworkers also liked it with jalepenos).


This is us at Adobe Verde in Gruene, Tx on the second night of our river trip. This was before Bean lost his wedding ring and phone. It's also before we found out that the house we fell in love with and were prepared to buy has been snatched by someone else and is no longer available.
Bean is wearing a red twist-tie from a loaf of bread in place of his wedding band. We have an application on our house that's in process and we'll find out today if it's been approved. If it has, we get the opportunity to go look at houses again and try to find our third 'dream' house. And I'm going out of town today until Monday for my duties as Brides-matron for Rachel!