Tamales

First day: make filling. I braised a beef roast in chicken stock that I had on hand. When falling-apart tender, pull apart. Added canned green chilies, green chili powder, cumin, oregano, seeded and chopped jalapeno, diced onion.

For a second filling, I took some of the beef, and added chopped dried apricots, raisins, and chopped almonds (blanched, matchsticks, toasted them in a pan and chopped).

Second day:
Masa: took the masa harina, added some dried onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, cumin. About 3 cups mix, 2+ cups warm water, 1 cup lard. yep.

Soak corn husks. When softened, lay flat, add some masa mixture, filling, roll it up (tuck in bottom), tie with a strip of husk.

I put them in a steamer set inside a canner, covered well with layers of foil (as the lid would not fit). Steamed for 90 minutes.

Sauce:
Chopped tomatillos, seeded diced jalapeno, canned green chilies, can of green enchilada sauce, cumin, onion, cilantro, oregano, and a couple of spoons of green mole that comes in a jar. I cooked it all with some of the leftover braising liquid from the beef. When vegetables were tender, I used my immersion blender to puree the mixture.

Served with flour tortilla chips; refried beans with cheddar; a mixture of cilantro, green onions, jalapeno; pepperjack cheese; and brown rice.

Corned Beef on St. Pat's

Pretty darn simple. Fat side up on a rack in a roasting pan, cut slits into the fat, rub in the seasoning in the packet that comes with the corned beef. Cover and cook on low (250F-300F) all day. In the afternoon, I tossed in a package of Irish O'Garlic sausages, covered and left in the oven until dinner. I removed the foil cover during the last bit of cooking to brown.
I served it with new potatoes and peas in heavy cream.

Mini Dessert Biscuits

I searched for a recipe for Irish Scones online, read several. It really does help to use Irish butter. I didn't, so no "Irish" in the name!
It's just basically a biscuit recipe, but I rolled them kinda thin to make miniature biscuits.
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
scant 1/2 cup sugar (yep, a dessert biscuit)
2 teaspoons baking powder
Put it all in the bowl of a food processor, pulse to evenly distribute.
Add 1/2 stick butter. Pulse some more.
Add one egg and about 1/3 cup milk.
Pulse a few times. Do not over mix the dough.
Turn out onto a floured counter, pat into shape. Either cut then, or roll out and cut with biscuit cutter. I used the smallest one in my set.
Put on a lightly buttered pan, brush tops with melted butter, sprinkle with sugar.
Baked at 420F convection, for about 7 minutes.

Turkey and Rice Chimichangas

These were made with leftovers from pulled turkey tacos we had a couple of nights ago. The turkey was roasted with spices, then meat was removed from the bone. Then it was in a slow cooker with more seasoning and a small can of diced green chilies.
The rice is a short-grain brown rice, Lundberg. I cooked it simply in the rice cooker, with some of the turkey cooking liquid added.
The shells were on sale, the raw kind that need to be cooked first. I went ahead and cooked the whole package when we had tacos earlier. So, had these on had to use.
The green chili was really plain and simple. It was just turkey broth (that I had reduced and had in the freezer from when I cooked the turkey last week) and a good amount (tablespoon, heaping?) of dried green chile powder, and the rest of an almost empty bottle of La Victoria green sauce.
Simply combined the turkey and rice, put some in a heated tortilla, rolled it up (bottom up, sides in, then roll), secured with wooden skewers, fried in canola oil until golden. Then put into the oven to heat through. They can be held quite a while at this point.
Served with green chile, cheese, sliced cabbage.

Breakfast Roll French Toast

Yes. Amazing. I sliced off the top of the rolls so that they would lie flat in the pan. Treat for the cook.
I soaked them for awhile, then cooked them on the griddle. I finished them in the oven to make sure the egg batter was cooked all the way through.

Shepherd's Pie

Mix together and put in bottom of casserole: leftover beef (braised with onion, water, bay leaf, caramelized onions, thyme), with gravy; leftover cream of chicken that was from some pork chops earlier in the week; leftover corn, can of carrots, fresh parsley, arugula (wanting to use it up, chiffonade).
Instant (egads!) potatoes, cheesy; with diced cooked bacon, spoonful of horseradish. Cook potatoes, stir in the other stuff.
I baked the meat/gravy first, then added the warm potatoes towards the end. Baked until browned.

Breakfast Citrus Yeast Rolls

A rich yeast dough made with white whole wheat flour, sugar, eggs, milk, butter, Meyer lemon olive oil. Made the dough last night, let it rise, punched it down and put it in the fridge. This morning I took it out, let it rise, then rolled it out.
Spread with butter, sprinkle with sugar, spices (cardamom, citrus zest, cinnamon, nutmeg), roll up, cut, put into pan. Let rise.
Bake.
Frost while warm. I took an individual roll out, put it on a plate and drizzled a powdered sugar/orange juice/lemon extract glaze over the top.
Yes.
Amazing.

Mango/Ginger Stilton Cheese Tarts

Grated a small block of mango ginger stilton, added a bit of sugar, eggs, milk. Cut some pastry to fit in the mini-muffin pan. Fill. Bake. Consume.....

Grilled Cheese

Great bread, butter, brie, arugula...

Brie with Olives

Brie with olives and artichoke hearts on multi-grain/seed bread.

Beef-n-Bleu

Beef, bleu cheese dressing, arugula.
Ta-da.

Did I mention that we love to make pizza?

Pesto, veggie/cheese, pepperoni/sausage...

Pear and Apple Pies

We had gone to a dinner party, and I brought pears, apples, and cheese for dessert. Well, I had some fruit leftover. It was sliced thin, and I had tossed it with a mixture of honey, madeira, and a citrus simple syrup. There was a sliced strawberry in the mix, too.
I just added some cornstarch and butter to the fruit, cut out pie crust that I got in a box and unrolled.... yep. Then added a crumbly topping of oats, butter, brown sugar, and whole wheat flour.
Baked until golden and the filling is bubbly.
Served with ice cream and home made caramel sauce (butter, brown sugar, karo syrup)