Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole

I cooked this enchilada casserole for my family last night and boy was it good.  Making enchiladas into a casserole is so much easier than rolling and stuffing each individual enchilada.  If you are craving an easy, saucy, cheesy, Mexican dish you should really give this one a try it will not disappoint, it will feed a crowd or you will have lots of yummy leftovers.  We served ours with sliced green onion and cilantro on top and salsa and guacamole on the side.  We also had tortilla chips and cooked up some rice and refried beans.

Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients
-3 Tbsp. butter
-3 Tbsp. flour
-2 cups chicken broth
-7 ounce can chopped green chiles
-1/2 tsp. cumin
-1 cup sour cream
-8 flour tortillas, halved
-1.5 lbs cooked, shredded chicken
-2 14 ounce cans white northern beans, rinsed and drained
-3 cups shredded pepper jack cheese
-1 packet taco seasoning
optional ingredients, sliced green onion, cilantro, salsa, guacamole, and additional sour cream.
Serves 8-10

Directions:
In a slow cooker, place 1.5 lbs frozen chicken breast on bottom and sprinkle taco seasoning over the chicken and cook on low for 6 hours or until chicken is all the way cooked.  When done take 2 forks and shred the chicken.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a large skillet melt butter on medium heat.  Whisk in your flour, continue to stir until lightly browned.  Add 1 cup of chicken broth and whisk until combined than add your other cup of chicken broth, green chiles, and cumin.  Continue to whisk and heat your mixture for about 2 minutes it should slightly thicken.  Stir in the sour cream and remove from heat once combined.

Grease a 9x13 baking pan and begin to layer your enchiladas.  Place 8 halves of tortillas so that they cover the bottom of the pan, spread 1/3 of the green chile sauce over the tortillas, evenly add half of the shredded chicken than 1 can of beans, and 1 cup of cheese.  Repeat this for a second layer.  For the final layer just pour remaining sauce over the casserole, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  After the 30 minutes remove from oven, remove foil, sprinkle on remaining cup of cheese and bake uncovered another 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Summer Blackberry Pie



My parents have blackberries growing out in their yard, I took it upon myself to pick a big bowl of them they are perfectly ripe at the moment.  When I finished picking them I knew I just had to make something out of them.  At first I was thinking a cobbler but I settled on making a blackberry pie, it just sounded like a perfect summer treat

I have to admit this is the first time I have ever baked a pie.  I love baking but have always been intimidated by making pie crust.  To be truthful I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out, I forgot to roll out the pie crust on wax paper at first and when I went to transfer to the pie dish it completely fell apart.  I really didn't want to fail at this, I had already told my family I was making a pie, they were expecting a pie.  After some effort I was able to get the pie crust in, it might not have been the most beautiful pie, but it was certainly delicious and worth every bit of frustration.  I received compliments from my whole family on this pie they loved it. This pie goes well with a side of good vanilla ice cream.

Summer Blackberry Pie

Pie Crust
-2 Cups Flour
-14 Tbsp. Shortening (Crisco)
-1 1/2 tsp. Sugar
-1 tsp. salt
-1 Egg
-1 1/2 tsp. Vinegar
-Ice water

Filling
-4 Cups Blackberries
-2/3 Cup Sugar
-Dash of salt
-1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
-2 Tbsp. Flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift in dry ingredients, into a large bowl.  Cut in the Crisco slowly.  In a clear measuring cup-beat egg, and add vinegar, than fill with ice water until reaches 1/4 cup.  Slowly mix liquid in with dry ingredients with a fork.
Dough will be very hard to work with, separate into 2 dough balls, roll out immediately onto floured wax paper, to make it easy to transfer to pie dish.  Place one rolled out pie crust into bottom of a 9 in. pie dish.  For the filling add blackberries, sugar, salt, lemon juice, and flour to a bowl and mix together.  Transfer filling to pie dish and cover with other pie crust.  Bake for 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees.