Mexican Sausage Wontons

These little bites of heaven are in high demand. This recipe was given to me by Brian's sister and I've passed it on to many more people as someone is always asking me for this recipe. Watch out though, they are very filling. When I made them for SSCC, we were literally in a food coma by the end of the night because we ate so many of them.

Ingredients:

1 package of regular Jimmy Dean Sausage

1 8oz bottle of Hidden Valley Light Ranch

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1/4 cup of pickled jalenpenos, diced

1 package of wonton wrappers (usually found in the produce section near the tofu and packaged veggies)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray non stick cooking spray in a muffin pan. Insert wrappen into muffin pan so they form cups. Bake for 5-6 minutes and then remove the wrappers from the pan onto a baking tray. Continue until all wrappers are cooked.

Fry the sausage in a frying pan, breaking it apart with a spatula. Cook until no longer pink. Drain sausage (I usually let it sit on a paper towel for a good 10 minutes to adsorb more of the grease).

Combine cooked sausage, ranch and cheese in a bowl. Fill the wrappers with the mixture and place a small piece of jalepeno on top. I don't put jalenpenos on a couple for those who don't like them. Cook them for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is bubbling. If you are brining to a party, just prepare the filled wontons and cook them before you are going to serve them as they are best right out of the oven.

Mexican Rice

TGIF! I'm so psyched the weekend is finally here. No big plans, just doing some errands, dinner with friends, watch the Pats on Sunday, which is my kind of weekend. This week I went to see Spamalot for the second time and I'll also be going next week. I know, a little obsessive, but the show is THAT good. Even if you don't love Broadway, this is a show you just have to see, which is why I'm dragging Brian to see it with me next week. I've been listening to the soundtrack all week. Brian pleads with me to turn it off because he wants the show to be a surprise. I just think he's sick of me singing every single words to every song. If they ever need an understudy for Lady of the Lake, I think I might just be that person they are looking for.

Now onto the food....this is a recipe I made up and it's so easy. Instead of using boxed rice try making your own. There's no need for all of those preservatives and sodium. I usually serve this when I make Mexican but really you can have it with just about anything. I find the key to great rice is using chicken broth instead of water.

Ingredients:
2 cups of chicken broth or water
1 cup of white rice
1 tbs of olive oil
1 can of dice tomatoes (regular or Rotel)
1/2 cup of tomatoe sauce
1/4 cup of fresh cilantro
Lime (optional)

In a saucepan saute the rice with the olive oil over medium high heat. Stir rice so that it's evenly coated with the oil and does not burn. Once rice is golden brown, about 5 minutes, pour in water, tomatoes, tomatoe sauce. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and cover. Cook rice for 20-25 minutes. Sprinkle cilantro and maybe about a tbs of lime into the cooked rice and stir.

Enchiladas Verdes

If you know me, you know that I love Mexican food. I think my first words were "green limes and no beans extra rice." I could eat it morning, noon and night, and I'm pretty sure most Texans feel the same way. I'm convinced that I was a Juanita in my former life. We eat Mexican food so much Brian's dad thinks that our kids are going to be born with a sombrero and a mustache.

But it's hard to find good Mexican, or shall I say, Tex-Mex, in Boston. Nearly impossible. We live up the street from what I thought was fairly decent Mexican restaurant, Mexico Lindo, but when we took my dad there during his visit to Boston, he snubbed his nose at it. I've searched high and low and it's the best I can come up with. So I'm trying to recreate my favorites at home. It's not the same but it'll have to do until my next trip to H-town.

Here's an enchiladas verdes recipe that's become a favorite in our household. When I want to go all out, I make the verdes sauce from scratch. If you don't have the time, you can buy green sauce in the supermarket (La Victoria is my favorite brand). If you forgo the homemade sauce, this is a relatively quick and easy recipe, not to mention good for crowds.

The homemade verdes sauce calls for tomatillos and serrano chiles. I've included a picture for those who don't eat, sleep and dream Mexican food.

Ingredients:

1 pound of chicken breast
1.5 cups of light sour cream
½ cup of thinly sliced scallions
¼ cup of minced fresh cilantro
½ of a white onion
3 cups of chicken broth
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon of salt

½ teaspoon of garlic powder
2 garlic gloves minced
8 flour tortillas
1 cup of cheddar cheese

Verdes Sauce

2-4 serrano chiles (depending on how hot you want it)
1 pound of tomatillos, husks removed
¼ cup of minced cilantro
¼ cup of chopped white onions
1 tablespoon of cooking oil
½ teaspoon salt or to taste

To make the enchiladas:
Sprinkle chicken with salt. Place chicken in a skillet with the garlic and half of a sliced white onion. Pour in 3 cups of chicken broth or enough to cover the chicken. Simmer until chicken is no longer pink inside. Let chicken cool a little and shred with your hands. Put shredded chicken in a bowl with the sour cream, scallions, cilantro, ½ cup of shredded cheese, ½ teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder. Mix. Spray a baking pan with non stick cooking spray. Put two-three spoon fulls of chicken mix in a tortilla. Roll and place in the pan seam side down. I spread a little extra sour cream on each enchilada. Top with verdes sauce and cheese. Bake covered in a 350 degrees pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes. Last 5 minutes remove foil and back uncovered. I used another recipe to base this from but really I made this up so you can add anything you want to it.

Verdes Sauce:
Place chiles in a sauce pan with three cups of water, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tomatillos, cover, and continue to simmer for an additional 8 minutes. The tomatillos should be cooked through but not falling apart. Remove chiles and tomatillos from pot and reserve the cooking liquid. Allow chiles and tomatillos to cool then move the stems and seeds from the chiles and cut into small pieces. Place chiles, tomatillos, cilantro, and the onions in the bowl of a blender and blend for about 30 seconds. The sauce should be well blended but still retain some texture. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat, add the content of the blender and ½ cup of the reserved tomatillo cooking liquid and simmer for about 10 minutes. The sauce should firmly coat a spoon. Add the salt and cook for another minute. Remove from the heat and reserve. This makes about 2 cups.

Arriba arriba!