Week 9 Layered Tortillas, Mushroom Rice, and Buttered Plantains

We cooked for Linda and Kelly tonight.

Home-made chips. Just cut up corn tortillas and salt them and bake them for 30 min.



Layered Tortillas with chicken on top




Carl's Mushroom Rice Dish

Here is the plate with everything.

Buttered Plantains

Carl

this week was Delicious and there was no huge problem! We had tortilla layers that were awesome we had a tomato chili sauce with chicken on top. We also made chips and guacamole. I made my own rice poblano and wild mushroom it was great! can't wait till next week!

David

This meal tasted very traditional. To make the tomato sauce that went on the tortillas, I cut up 5 tomato's and added garlic, onions and jalapeno pepper to a puree. Then I cooked it for 5 minutes. We put this sauce on the deep fried tortilla pieces. It was good.

Carl and I are learning a lot. We talked about it tonight. We are doing things with a lot more efficiency. We are working with each other very well too.

To make the chips, all we did was cut white corn tortillas into fourths. Then salt them. Then put them into the oven for 30 minutes. You might have to turn them. This is an easy way to get low fat chips that also don't cost too much.

We made Rick Bayless's Guacamole as well. MMMMMMM.

Week 8 Ribs, Beans, and a Salad

Carl

This week was "GOOD" not great but "good". We messed up on a few but for the most part it was good. The salad was to red because of the beets so I wished we had chose a better veggie. The beans turned into "bean soup". Jamie of course said it needed more bacon (she a bacon worshiper). The beef was meaty dad wasn't so sure about not having a sauce on them (I did to, a little). Well can't wait for next week!

Dave

This week we had some guests. We had Daniel Rische and the Ganansia's over. We had a fun dinner. We really scrambled to get things finished. Here is what we did.

We boiled the pork ribs until the meat came off the bones. Carl wanted to cook it the way that Rick Bayless suggested. That is fry it in Lard. My health consious body said no to that. We also soaked the beans for 8 hours and then cooked them. I ended up burning them a little. I wasn't so sure about this recipe because it really didn't talk about the liquid too much. I think I need more specific instructions for this poor brain. Carl did a good job of steaming up the vegtables and making the salad.


Our guests said that they liked the meal. However, I was not so sure about this one. I don't think I will write out any of the recipes this week.


I did eat a piece of poblano pepper raw this week. It was hot. I think I have aquired a taste bud for it.

Week 7 Beef Tips, Potatoes and Corn Chowder

Carl:
Well this week was kinda spicy for the week mouths. The beef tips were ok the tomatoes were canned and not the same fresh feel because are grill is broken and we have no broil to roast them. The potaoes got a little dried out because of the delay on the other recipes. THE CORN CHOWDER WAS AMAZING! Creamy a little kick and the delicous corn flavor YUMM! This week wasn't so great but the recipes would have been amazing (if not for the couple problems). Can't wait for next week!

David

HOT. Jamie about screamed when she put the soup in her mouth complaining that it burned her throat. Jamie thought the meal was a little too spicy. I thought it was medium. The soup turned out really well. It was creamy and had poblano peppers in it. I think I could have put less poblano pepper in it to help out the spicyness. The beef tips were good. I don't think I would make them again. The potatoes were average. They had some charizo sausage in them. I will give you the ingredients to the corn chowder. You might want to make this on your own sometime.

Corn Chowder:

Brown 1/2 onion and 2 teaspoons of garlic in 2 tblspoons of butter.

Puree the onion mix with 1/4 cup of water and 1.5 tablspoons of corn starch and 3 cups of defrosted frozen corn.

Add 2 cups of milk and 1 teaspoon of salt

Simmer for 15 minutes.

Add 1 cup of cream and 1 diced poblano. (make sure you burn the skin off the poblano)

Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Enjoy

Week 6 Rick Bayless and Enchiladas

Carl

Well this week was amazing and very green. We had green enchiladas, green rice, and gucamole. Everything was good except the almond rice cooler was OK but we didn't have cheesecloth so we had some chunks in the drink the flavor was great but the sparse cinnon and rice bit didn't go over to well. On the other hand everthing else was amazing, it had a kick but not to strong (for me) jamie (my sister) had some trouble. Can't wait for next week!(kelly, my oldest sister is coming home for winter break!)

David

Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless



Chicken Enchiladas

Tomatillo Sauce

Chicken

Cream

Onion

Salt

Corn Tortillas

Oil

Mexican cheese

garnish



Herb-Green Rice with Peas

Onion

Celery

Cilantro

Parsley

Poblanos roasted

Garlic

Broth

Salt

Peas

Oil

Rice



I liked the rice the best. It was had a little kick to it. It was easy to make as well. All you had to do is mix the greens stuff together, and get it boiling, then saute the rice, then bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 15 minutes. Then you will add the peas and you are done.



Our family really enjoyed the tomatillo enchilada's. Carl did a great job of making this dish. He had it for left overs the next day and said he thought this was a keeper.



The rice almond drink did not go over well. It tasted great at first, but ended up tasting a little like indigestion medicine.

Week 5 Rick Bayless Time

Carl
Introducing are chief Rick Bayless is an honor. He's has won numerous awards for his cuisine like top chief masters winner on Bravo TV also Rick has his own TV show (Mexico One Plate at a Time). Amazingly enough I had an oral procedure and the dentist that did it was Rick Bayless dentist! Anyway his food is definitely matches up with his profile EXCELLENT. WE made crispy fried tacos, guacamole, tomato stained rice, and flan. Starting out my favorite was the taco there crispy outsides and fresh delicious insides are the perfect match. All with the tacos the guacamole was outstanding it watched well with the tacos. The rice was OK not great but, the flan and caramel was amazing soft and delicate the smooth custard was definitely worth the effort.

David

Wow, this was fun to cook MEXICAN today. Carl and I have been looking forward to cooking with Rick Bayless's recipes for a long time. We really admire him as a cook. We watch many of his shows.

We had two guest cooks with us today. Jamie Sladkey and Daniel Rische. Both did a terrific job. We couldn't have done it without them. Jamie made the guacamole and Daniel cut put some tomato and also did a lot of dishes. Thanks Jamie and Dan.

First of all, Carl did a great job of cooking the flan. I really thought he burned the caramel, but it was very good. Needless to say, I'm proud of him.

I was very excited about the rice dish. It was a vegetable rice dish with peas and carrots. The family thought it didn't have enough taste. I think the problem was that I didn't cook it very well.

The Taco's were out of this world. It was very interesting to me to soften the tortillas up before we put the meat mixture into them. Rick Bayless suggests a little oil in the pan and then searing them for just a few second on each side. It was really a nice way to make them not crack. Then we put some oil in the bottom of the pan and fried them for a few minutes. They came out a little like taquitos. Of course we bought the Frontera Grill "Rick Bayless" chips.
Wow was I full after that meal.