A success, a failure, and a new invention.

Success: Enchilada Casserole

This recipe came from the cookbook compiled after my bridal shower. 
It reads "From the kitchen of Amy (Hambrick) Pierce. My mom used to make this and we have always loved it! :)"
I was really excited to try a Hambrick family tradition! I vote it a success for being easy, inexpensive, and flavorful.


1 lb ground beef or 2 1/2 c. cooked and cut up chicken 
(I chose chicken, sauteed it with butter, salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder)
1 can enchilada sauce
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can corn, drained
1 small can chopped or sliced black olives, drained (I omitted this because neither of us really like olives)
Tortilla Chips
1 1/2- 2 c. grated cheddar cheese


Preheat oven to 350. Brown ground beef/cook chicken. Strain fat, add enchilada sauce and mushroom soup, corn and olives. Stir together and simmer. Crush tortilla chips in bottom of 9x13 pan. After mixture of beef has simmered for 15 min, pour over chips evenly. Sprinkle cheese and back for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve with salsa and sour cream.


To make this more "after work friendly" I cooked the chicken, sauce, soup mixture in the morning and stored it in the fridge. 
After work, I layered chips, fridge mixture, corn, and cheese while Adam threw together a salad.  I think I could have used more chips than just to cover the bottom of the pan to make more of a "crust." Adam opted to stuff this casserole in a tortilla even though I explained the enchiladas-with-a-fork kind of concept. I chose a handful of tortilla chips and a dollop of sour cream and "scooped" mine. 


Failure: Italian Paninis


Lucky for me and you blog readers that I tried this one out on Sunday night before I even decided to blog about this because tonight was a capital D disaster. We'll start with the recipe and then I'll explain in painful detail how I failed.

Courtesy of Mario Batali: Coppa, Hot Salami, Ham, Fontina and roasted garlic puree panini (serves 4)


8 slices of thick country bread (I used sourdough)
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
4 oz. coppa, sliced (I actually used capicola, because there wasn't any coppa at the deli)
4 oz. hot salami - such as pepperoni or picante, sliced (I used a hot peppered salami)
4 oz. Fontina cheese, sliced
4 oz. roasted garlic puree (I just used the jar-o-garlic with a little olive oil as a substitute)
My own special addition, Prosciutto, gotta love it & a handful of fresh basil leaves


Preheat grill pan  (the bottom right pan on the pic above) on medium. Brush both sides of the slices  of bread with EVOO.
Assemble the sandwiches as follows: bread, capicola, salami, fontina, basil, garlic mixture, prosciutto, bread.
Cook 2-3 min on each side between grill press.


Sunday night this worked like a dream and they were delicious.

Tonight was a different story. 
Sunday night I must have been energized by the freshly unpacked groceries or at least thinking clearly since I hadn't spent 10 hours at my desk immediately prior to this culinary adventure. Sunday night I prepped (layed out all my ingredients on a cutting board and gathered my tools). Then, I preheated with the timer on for 5 min while I assembled sammies. Then I put them on the press, was watchful and attentive, and voila! Italian delight. 


Thursday night I preheated, then prepped, then realized the pan was already too hot, tried to turn it down, assembled, threw them on the press, turned around to clean out the sink before my 3 minute flip only to smell burning and find the bread completely stuck to the top of the press. To make matters worse I tore the bread in my attempt to free it from the press. The middle of the panini fell out in my mad attempt to flip and during the time I'm doing battle with the top of the press the bottom has well surpassed seared, if ya know what I mean. My exasperated outbursts brought Adam to my aid. I was on my way to the garbage can with this dinner failure when he calmly suggested that all we had to do was abandon this bread, salvage the middles, and re-assemble. Ahhh.... a voice of reason. 


New Invention:


Two separate yet equal desires brought me to this "invention." 


First of all, let me tell you how much I LOVE to go to the grocery store. I blame Mema. She grocery shops more than any woman should, especially when you are the only one in your house and you pretty much eat oatmeal three times a day. But my Mema loves to go to the grocery store. She loves different stores, finding a deal, stocking up on essentials. Need a can of this? Short a frozen package of that? She's got 4 and she got a deal on them. I guarantee it. Well, the grocery store has become a favorite spot of mine too. When I've been too broke to buy clothes or shoes (many a month in my early twenties obviously) I can spend that grocery money with the same gusto. A little sale paper reading/couponing/mental calculating later and it's pretty darn fun for me. A few weeks back I scored a d-e-a-l on butter. Like, not just a buck off or something, it was $.50 a pound. That is nuts! And what? No limit? I started running back to Adam and the cart who were moving through the cheese aisle with armfuls sputtering "we can freeze this! this cartful of butter is the same amount it usually costs for on box! this is crazy! can you believe this?" Needless to say he did not share my enthusiasm for the butter or the deal. As soon as I got in the car I pulled out my phone and dialed that 727 number so close to my heart. You bet she did. She was as happy about my soon to be freezer full of  butter and my deal as I was. 


So I currently have a lot of butter.


It is equally fair to say that I have a Starbucks problem. I know this is not special or unique because they have done a good job of sucking in most of the country, but I do visit Starbucks once, twice or thrice on a given day. The perfect afternoon complement to my Doppio Espresso over ice is the shortbread cookies. Love those things.


So, I rifled through the recipe book and found a "Basic Shortbread Cookie" recipe I copied from my mom's archives. It was simple and I had all the ingredients in the pantry so I put a batch together in a jiffy.


Basic Shortbread


1 1/3 c. butter, room temp (YES! This used up almost three whole sticks!)
2/3 c. sugar
3/4 t salt
3/4 t vanilla 
3 1/3 c. flour


Heat oven to 275. Butter 9x13 pan, line bottom with parchment (I was out of parchment and it turned out fine). Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (2 minutes), add flour one cup at a time beating on low until just combined. Press into pan. Cut into squares. Bake until evenly golden now brown 70-85 minutes. Let cool out of pan. Slice of break bars.


So, you made shortbread cookies? Get over yourself. I know.


I did not let them cool. I pulled two perfect ones out of the middle while they were still soft and warm. 
I sliced a few strawberries very thin and added a dollop of freshly whipped cream. 
Strawberry short-cookies. 


Maybe this has been done many times. Probably should have googled it before I posted it, but I was proud and they were scrumptious. AND I'll be eating shortbread cookies with my espresso for days. I win.