Pass The Sushi!

We’re snowed in again today as another bliz­zard is blan­ket­ing the area. I’m not exactly sure how much we’re sup­posed to get this time but I think peo­ple are pretty much over the ‘ohh and ahh pretty snow’ stage — mainly because I don’t have 38 face­book posts announc­ing the snow. Wal­mart was so picked over that they were even out of frozen spinach. Peo­ple had moved past milk and bread and the heavy cream and tor­tillas were gone as well.

I got what I needed as was able to get out in a rea­son­able time to come home and wait for the snow to start. My two new this week were accom­plished in very short time but I’m hop­ing to knock another out this week if I have a few extra bucks for the gro­cery store.

Chicken Enchi­ladas : from a friend of the BF.

• 3 /4 chicken breasts
• 8 tor­tillas
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 2 tbs tabasco sauce
• 2 cups shred­ded Mex­i­can blend cheese or cheddar
• 1 10oz can enchi­lada sauce

Throw 3 or 4 chicken breasts in the crock-pot with onion and other desired sea­son­ings until they are able to be shred­ded. Pull the chicken, add 4 oz. cream cheese, chopped onion (or the onion you cooked the chicken in) and a table­spoon of tabasco sauce. Fold tor­tillas together in a bak­ing dish and put a small amount of shred­ded cheese on the bot­tom. Spoon the chicken mix­ture evenly into the tor­tillas and wrap them up against one another. Top with enchi­lada sauce and cheese.

I would totally stuff these with refried beans or sea­soned black beans, pep­pers, onions, and rice if my boyfriend wasn’t so picky. Next time Im doing a few just for me with these addi­tions because they would really be awe­some then.

Apple­bees Blondies from Food Net­work Mag­a­zine (these looked too good not to try!)

For the Blondies:

• 10 table­spoons unsalted but­ter, at room temperature,
• plus more for the pan
• 1 cup wal­nut pieces
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tea­spoon bak­ing powder
• 1/2 tea­spoon bak­ing soda
• 1 tea­spoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 table­spoons vanilla extract
• 6 ounces white choco­late, cut into chunks

For the Topping:

• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 6 table­spoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• Vanilla ice cream, for serving
• 1/2 cup wal­nut pieces

Direc­tions

Make the blondies: Pre­heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9-by-13-inch bak­ing pan with foil, leav­ing an over­hang on two sides; but­ter the foil. Pulse 1/2 cup wal­nuts in a food proces­sor until almost fine (do not over­process). Whisk the ground nuts, flour, bak­ing pow­der, bak­ing soda and salt in a medium bowl.

Beat 10 table­spoons but­ter and the brown sugar with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 min­utes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scrap­ing down the bowl with a rub­ber spat­ula. Beat in the vanilla. Grad­u­ally beat in the dry ingre­di­ents until just com­bined. Fold in the white choco­late and the remain­ing 1/2 cup walnuts.

Spread the bat­ter in the pre­pared pan and bake until the blondies are light brown around the edges and spring back when pressed, about 30 min­utes. Cool slightly on a rack.

Mean­while, make the top­ping: Place the maple syrup and but­ter in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook until the mix­ture bub­bles and thick­ens, swirling the pan, about 6 min­utes. Add the cream and con­tinue to cook until the mix­ture is the con­sis­tency of caramel.

Use the foil to lift the blondies out of the pan, then cut into large bars. Serve warm topped with ice cream, the maple-butter sauce and the walnuts.

These were yummy — but not 100% Apple­bees. I think microwav­ing the blondie for a few sec­onds to reheat it and actu­ally hav­ing ice cream to kinda make it mushy would def­i­nitely improve it. Our oven is also still cook­ing a lit­tle hot so I pulled them out at 22 min­utes and they were done, but a lit­tle too dry.