Breakfast Burritos!

Sun's up!  Time to get busy in the kitchen making Breakfast Burritos, a recipe I got from my Facebook friend, Mary Jane.  


She saw that I had posted about eggs being on sale at Kroger 10/$10 and she told me it was a good time to try this recipe.  She was right!  Howdy down there in Texas, Mary Jane!  Thanks for sharing the recipe with us!

Tie on a cheerful apron, gather up your goodies, and let's get to it!


Make a single batch for breakfast for your family, or make many batches for the freezer, for an easy, healthy convenience food you can use on busy days for breakfast, or for after school snacks.  

I got the sausage and the hash browns on sale, too.  It took me  a whole morning to get it done--I made four batches...  

I did a dozen eggs at a time, a dozen eggs per tube of sausage and a half-bag of hash browns per batch. You can adjust yours to your taste.

I shredded my own cheese, but you can use whatever you've got.  I used a cheddar blend, Mary Jane recommends sharp cheddar.

I cracked and scrambled a dozen eggs at a time.

Here's the recipe as I received it from my friend, Mary Jane.  I just love how she wrote it so I'm going to leave as is.

Okay...brown a pound of sausage...I use Owen's, Jimmy Dean, whatever good sausage is on sale...the loose kind, not links...and drain on paper towels. 

Add chopped onion and bell pepper to the skillet (use a BIG one!), along with cubed frozen hashbrowns. 

If the sausage is very lean, you might have to add a little olive oil. 

Cook till tender, and add the sausage back in, a small can of chopped green chilis, a good sprinkle of oregano (the secret ingredient!), a small sprinkle of garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste, and a dozen or so beaten eggs. 

Cook slowly, scrambling the eggs, until done. Add a good handful of grated cheddar (I use sharp). 

I wrap 4 to 6 flour tortillas (I usually use the fajita size) in wet paper towels and warm in the microwave, then on each, place some of the filling down the center of a tortilla, fold up the bottom, and fold in the sides. Serve with salsa, if desired.

After we finish eating, I take the left-overs and roll in tortillas that I don't even heat. 

Wrap each in waxed paper and drop into a gallon freezer bag and freeze. Then, you can just take out whatever you need, frozen, remove the waxed paper, wrap loosely in a paper towel, and heat two at a time for about 2 minutes, ten seconds. 

This makes about twenty or more, depending on how "fat" you make each burrito. I don't over-stuff them, because if I do, it is harder to completely heat them through without toughening the tortillas. The tortilla salesman told my son to take the tortillas home, put in the fridge or freezer, and they will keep much longer. 

I use the same bag over and over...just store it in the freezer when it is empty!

I hope you and your family enjoy these as much as we do; it is one of our favorite breakfasts.

Love,
Mary Jane

Brown that sausage...

Drain on paper towel.

Throw in hash browns, using olive oil if necessary, with your onions and green peppers, if you please.

Add the sausage back to the pot to keep it all hot.

Scramble your eggs either with the potatoes and sausage or separately, like I did.

Gently scramble those eggs, then add them to the pot.

And then the cheese...

Season it all....don't underestimate the importance of the seasonings!

It is at this point that you add the green chiles, if you prefer them.

Roll the fajitas while they filling is hot.  Heat tortillas first ONLY if you are going to eat them for a meal, if you are making these for the freezer, do NOT heat them first.  

Down the middle goes the filling, up goes the bottom fold, and over on each side, then lay the open side down on a cookie sheet to allow the hot fillings and cheese to "seal" your burrito.

Next, wrap each individually in waxed paper.

Line them up in gallon Zip-Locs for the freezer.

All ready to label.  I wrote the heating time for the microwave, as Mary Jane had suggested for us in her recipe.  

All done!  Depending on the size of your shell, you can get one dozen to one and a half dozen out of your dozen eggs, tube of sausage, and half-bag of hash browns.

Time to crush these and take them out to the garden, they're good for the soil! 

ENJOY!  

UNStuffed Cabbage

Who doesn't need time-savers at Christmastime?


One pan dinners are the best this time of year, for their warmth, their filling satisfaction, and for the ease of preparation and cleanup!




We've got better things to do like string lights and decorate the house, wrap gifts, and make sugar cookies, right?

So....cold outside.  Warm yourself up!

My husband loves this.  My boys?  Not so much, just because they don't care for cabbage.  I have to admit that when I was young, cabbage cooking always smelled like old people to me.  I guess we are officially old now.  Heh.  I guess a time or two a year won't hurt to be old.

**Please note:  Although the recipe says to assemble it all and bake it in the oven for almost an hour, instead to speed it up, I mix mine on the stove and cook it most of the way and then add the cheese and only bake until the cheese is browned.

UNSTUFFED CABBAGE


6 c. chopped cabbage  
1/2 lb. ground beef (or venison)
1 small onion
1 c. uncooked instant rice
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
2 can tomato soup, undiluted
1 c. water
1/3 c. shredded cheddar cheese


**Instead of canned tomato soup, I use my home-canned tomatoes and leave out the water or just add a little.


Place the cabbage in a greased 2.5 quart baking dish.  In a skillet cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink, drain.  Stir in the rice, salt if desired, and spoon over cabbage.  Combine soup and water, pour over  beef mixture.


Cover and bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes until rice and cabbage and tender.  Uncover, sprinkle with cheese, bake and 5-10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.


**PLEASE NOTE:  A reader said that UNStuffed peppers are achieved in the same way, just substitute green peppers diced.

Easy, peasy!  Serve with a salad or a nice bread and enjoy the taste of cabbage rolls without taking all the time to roll them!


Leftovers are awesome to send the next day for lunch, it actually improves the flavors!


Hope all is well with you and your Christmas preparations!


(And don't tell anyone I'm old, okay?!)

CHILI! (Wendy's Style, Without the *BURPS*)

Please pass the milk!  

Put on your apron, get out your soup pot.

It's time to make some soul-warmin' chili!

One time, I decided to go to Wendy's and analyze why I sometimes craved their chili.  I always regretted actually eating it because it is GREASY!  I can't stand greasy chili. I don't want to see grease floating on the top, and I don't want to see grease on the bowl when I'm done!  YUCK!  Makes me feel a little queasy.

Well, anyway, I went and looked into my tiny yellow bowl of chili with the grinning

 pig-tailed girl on it--and said, "OH!  I get it!  It's CHUNKY!"

It had onions, celery, little bits of chili peppers, and it was SPICY!  I could see the black pepper, taste the chili powder...so I came home and got online and hunted up the recipe that seemed like it would most closely resemble Wendy's...and I knew I could make it MINUS those burps, but retain the zing and the warmth.

I hope this works for you, too.  Not to take away from Wendy's but it really is BETTER.

Perfectly chunky!

WENDY-ISH Chili

(minus the burps)

2 lb. ground beef, or ground venison, 

or a combination of both, browned, drained, rinsed if you prefer

1-29 oz. can tomato sauce

1-29 oz. can kidney beans with liquid

1-29 oz. can pinto beans 

1 c. diced onion

1/4 c. diced celery

1/2 c. diced green chilis

3 medium tomatoes chopped, if you have them 

**If you don't have fresh, don't worry about it, it's just nice if you do have a little fresh, but this is where I use a jar of home-canned, a pint will work.

2-3 t. cumin

3 T. chili powder

1-1/2 t. black pepper, I use coarsely ground

2 t. salt

2 c. water 

Simmer to heat through, stirring occasionally.  

Serve with some oyster crackers and enjoy!

Oh, and I really do need milk with my chili.  

YOU?  

What do you drink with your chili?

Apple Pie Filling

2010 Apple pie filling day.

This Saturday is my day reserved for a whole long day of making canned apple pie filling for gift-giving this Christmas.


I have a bushel of Cortland apples.  I have the jars, and I have the red gingham lids. 


I will make one huge mess for one whole day, and then later on closer to Christmas, will assemble the toppings for each jar of pie filling and bag them up in brown craft bags, and add a twine bow to each.


Here is a photo essay of last year's apple pie filling day and the later photos from when I assembled the gift bags.

A delicious caramel sauce, without using one bit of butter!  Amazing!

**Please note:  after using the apples done with the apple peeler/corer/slicer, I decided I like the hand peeled, hand cut, chunkier--I guess what you would call more primitive looking apples in my pie filling.  


I do NOT like the uniformity of the apples sliced this way, so I no longer use the peeler/corer/slicer for this job.  I would only use the peeler/corer, and leave off the slicer, and then chunk my apples up in a more homey way than the slicer does it for me.  The end product is also MUCH better.

Little E patiently watches the whole process!

Me & my sis!  

Here's the recipe:

APPLE PIE FILLING 

(To can)

20 Apples washed, peeled, cored, and sliced

(let slices rest in a bowl with water and 1 T. lemon juice to prevent fruit from browning)

In a large saucepan bring the following to a boil and stir until thick and pours like a thick sauce from your spoon, approximately ten-twelve minutes.

10 c. water

5 c. sugar

1 c. cornstarch

2-1/2 t. cinnamon

1 t. nutmeg

1 t. salt

Once the sauce is done, remove the pan from heat and add to it

3 T. lemon juice

Pack apple slices into jars until almost to the top of the jar.

Ladle hot sauce over apples within 1/2" of jar top.

Seal with lids and rings and process jars for about 20 minutes.

Remove from canner and cool completely and make sure jars are sealed before storing.

(This was done using a regular canner, not a pressure cooker.)

Yeild: 6 BEAUTIFUL Quarts!

If a jar does not seal, keep it in fridge and use it sooner rather than later!

AUTUMN APPLE CRISP RECIPE 
(This recipe for a delicious topping on one pan of apple crisp (using a glass 8 x 8 or a pie plate) using one jar of my canned apple pie filling, recipe above.)



3/4 c + 1/2 T all purpose flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. old-fashioned oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 stick cold butter, in chunks
1/2 c. chopped pecans, chopped
2-1/2 lb. apples, peeled and 
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1/4 maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1. For the topping, put 3/4 c. flour, sugar, oats, cinnamon and butter in a food processor and pulse to form moist clusters. Mix in pecans.

2. Cut the apples into 1/2" chunks and put them into a buttered 9-1/2", 2 qt. pie pan (or use an 8 x 8" pan, I used glass). Add cranberries, maple syrup, and 1/2 T. flour; mix. Scatter on the topping.

3. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until bubbly and top is crisp along the edges. Serve warm, at room temp, or chilled. Can be reheated in the microwave and served with a petite scoop of vanilla ice cream, as shown. 

Serves 10

This apple crisp is delicious and I think it's important to use the old-fashioned oats, and the chopped pecans are PERFECT in a crisp topping, making it more crisp than usual! I ripped the recipe from a recent copy of the PARADE magazine that comes in Sunday's newspaper.

Since I have canned my own apple pie filling, I am able to skip the peeling and chopping of apples in this recipe, and just mix the topping, and I did not use the maple syrup.

I had a card made that I used photos of the filling and the finished product, with the recipe for using the topping on my canned apple pie filling.  As shown in the photos above, I individually assembled the recipe for the topping in a bag with instructions to add the butter and baking instructions.  I kept the dried cherries or cranberries separate in case the recipient didn't care for them.

If you have any questions, please say so in the comments and if your email is not enabled on your account, watch back in the comments section for your answer to your question, I will do my best to answer!

(I frequently hear from those I give this delicious filling and crisp topping to as a gift that they absolutely loved it and look forward to getting this as a gift.  The older I get, the better I like giving consumables as gifts, if it's not salsa or homemade jam, it's this pie filling and the topping.  And it's always a hit!) 

It won't be long now!