Paul and Penny

Emily’s Chicken Enchilada recipe

Emily layers one layer of the frozen chicken breast in skillet and adds a little water to simmer until they are done and the water is gone and they kind of get a little brown. Add 1 can rotel and shred up chicken as they simmer in rotel.

she uses white corn tortillas and places the chicken mixture in each one and rolls it up and places it in a 9 x 13 pan. Spray with Pam
(if your tortillas are hard to roll without breaking, just dip them in some chicken broth (you will use some for your sauce later) and that will soften them to roll up.

For sauce to pour over:

saute til done:
4 cloves garlic, minced, 2 T margarine and 1/2 cup onion, diced

Then mix 8 oz sour cream with 3 T flour and add to onion mixture when it’s done. Stir in 1-16 oz can (or 2 cups) of chicken broth and 1/2 C Monterey Jack cheese. Mix and pour over rolled up tortillas. Cook covered with foil at 350 for about 30 minutes then add another 1/2 c cheese and continue to bake til cheese melts.

“Southern” Defined:

Per Wikipedia: The Southern United States-commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South-constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States.

As defined by the United States Census Bureau, the Southern region of the United States includes sixteen states and the District of Columbia (with a total 2006 estimated population of 109,083,752.) Thirty-six percent of all U.S. residents lived in the South, the nation’s most populous region. The Census Bureau defined three smaller units, or divisions:

-The West South Central States: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas .

-The South Atlantic States: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Delaware

-The East South Central States: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee

My sister, Emily, and I were both born in Oklahoma because our parents lived where dad’s job was at the moment and mom always went back “home” to Oklahoma to give birth.  After I was born, my parents were off to Muskogee, Oklahoma but, just for a few months, and then we were off to Comanche, Texas to live for the next three years. Emily was born about 3 years later and mom and daddy brought her back to Comanche but, not for long. In a few short weeks, dad’s job would take the family to Forrest City, Arkansas. Three years of life in three Southern states! We lived in Arkansas until I was 11 and Emily was 8, then unfortunately, mom and dad divorced and it was back to Oklahoma for mom and kids. I lived in the Norman area until I was 35 years old and then I went back to Texas and have planted some roots here and am probably here to stay. Emily remains in Oklahoma still and is not far from our old stomping grounds. All three states we have lived in are considered “the south”. Our parents were born and raised in Oklahoma (mom is Spiro and Daddy in Rushsprings) with the exception of mom living some of her younger years in Arkansas. We still have family in Arkansas and have lots of southern memories from there. Many are from our home town of course, but we have even better ”southern” ones from our Aunt Martha’s farm in Marvel, Arkansas. Now *that* place is Southern! We would go there and shuck corn, shell peas, snap beans or even dig potatoes, just depended on the season. Not only were we raised in Southern states, we were raised by a Southern mother. One who cooked almost everything in a cast iron skillet! Mom raised us on fried chicken, dumplings, fried potatoes, biscuits, creamed gravy, and corn bread served up with a pot of beans. It was good. It was real. Food never came from a box at our house. Never. Anyway, the whole point of all that information is to show how Emily and I became southern women, know how to cook southern food, have real southern manners and even have an eclectic southern accent! Lots of our family recipes are southern and our kitchen wouldn’t be complete without an old fashioned, well seasoned, iron skillet! I have one of mama’s that she gave me and I will never let go of it until it passes to one of my kids.

Following you will find a recipe for southern cornbread made by our mom. Enjoy!

Mom’s Southern Cornbread

1 3/4 cup yellow corn meal

1/4 cup all purpose flour (mom always uses Gold Medal)

6 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp salt

1 egg or 1 egg white

2 cup buttermilk

Some water (enough to thin the batter if it gets too thick)

Heat a couple tablespoons of oil in an iron skillet in the oven on 400 for about 10 minutes, remove using a heat pad and scrape the mixture into the pan; it should sizzle when it hits the hot oil. Spread evenly and bake at 400 for 20-30 minutes or until done and golden brown on top.

This is the one and only pie crust that mom, Penny and Emily have used since mom got it around

1980! In your pie plate put 1 cup of all purpose flour and stir in 1/2 t salt.

In a small sauce pan, heat1/3 cup of shortening (or I use oil and just use a scant less

than 1/3 of a cup) and 1/4 cup water and bring to boil, remove from heat and pour in your

pie plate over the salt and flour,

mix til all flour is moistened and then press in pan,

flute the edges if you want to and prick bottom with a fork.

bake at about 375 til golden. then fill with whatever filling you want like chocolate or

whatever is already cooked.

Or if you want to make a fruit pie or something that cooks in the shell, then pour in the

filling when the crust is raw and then bake accoring to pie directions.

Bake a 9 x 13 pan of cornbread ahead of time.  I love my homemade recipe, but both grandma and I use Shawnee Mills Cornbread mix when in a hurry.

In a large pan crumble a 9 x 13 pan ( or a little less) of cornbread with a half loaf of white bread and set aside. In a medium sauce pan, boil some chopped onion and celery in some water and and add to bread mixture, use extra chicken broth if you need more liquid. Add sage, salt and pepper. Add sliced up boiled eggs and turkey or chicken pieces and bake in a 9 x 13 pan at 400 for about 45 minutes.

Penny’s version

I saute my onion and celery in butter instead of boiling it in water and add butter and all to the mixture. And since I don’t have the water from boiling, I just use more Swanson’s chicken broth.

I also like to add some cream of chicken soup.

I also like to add chunks of turkey if you have any to use.

I also like to add a larger ratio of white bread to cornbread than grandma does. Probably close to half and half but, more cornbread than white bread.

Preheat oven to 350°F.Mix corn syrup, eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla using a spoon. Stir in pecans. Pour filling into pie crust.

• 1 cup Karo® Light OR Dark Corn Syrup
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon Spice Islands® Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) pecans
• 1 (9-inch) unbaked or frozen** deep-dish pie crust

 Bake on center rack of oven for 55 to 60 minutes. Cool for 2 hours on wire rack before serving.

**To use prepared frozen pie crust: Place cookie sheet in oven and preheat oven as directed. Pour filling into frozen crust and bake on preheated cookie sheet.

RECIPE TIPS: Pie is done when center reaches 200°F. Tap center surface of pie lightly - it should spring back when done. For easy clean up, spray pie pan with cooking spray before placing pie crust in pan. If pie crust is overbrowning, cover edges with foil.

  Boil a chicken, wait til its done, remove chicken, then drop the dumplings in (recipe below), at the very last after dumplings are done, add some cream of chicken soup, gently, be careful not to break up your dumplings. debone chicken and add it back in. add pepper at the end.   Making dumplings flour and salt,  per mom “i just put flour in a bowl and then add some salt and then add eggs, one at a time”. add eggs one at a time until you get a dough, to form, it will be sticky at this point, then put it on a floured cabinet and work in the flour with your hands until it’s thick enough (mom usually had a flimsey type dough that made very tender noodles) to roll out with a rolling pin or glass (mom said she used a glass for years because she never had a rolling pin, but then she found one at a garage sale years later and used it) mom said to flour your glass or pin also, when you have it rolled out, rather thin, slice in wide strips (break them up about 2-3 inches long) and drop in broth as it boils on medium when you get a few in turn your heat down to low and keep dropping dumplings in, you want the heat a little above a simmer but mom said it should be on low, “the loose flour will help thicken the broth but you don’t want it to stick to the bottom of the pan so use large spoon to keep the noodles moving and to keep anything off the bottom from sticking per mom” do this gently or you’ll break up your noodles”.

I was thinking about how good mom’s dumpings are and then realized that although I have seen her make them many times, I have never paid attention to detail enough to pass the recipe on to Hannah or Jacquline (or even our “men’s men” Josh or Cody ;0) so I called her up and asked her to tell me how to make them. Below you will find the recipe in her words. They are truely awesome, just like mom… -Penny

Boil a chicken, wait til its done, remove chicken, then drop the dumplings in (recipe below), at the very last after dumplings are done, add some cream of chicken soup, gently, be careful not to break up your dumplings. debone chicken and add it back in. add pepper at the end.

Making dumplings flour and salt,  per mom “i just put flour in a bowl and then add some salt and then add eggs, one at a time”. Add eggs one at a time until you get a sticky dough to form, it will be sticky at this point, then put it on a floured cabinet and work in the flour with your hands until it’s thick enough (mom usually had a flimsey type dough that made very tender noodles) to roll out with a rolling pin or glass. Mom said she used a glass for years because she never had a rolling pin, but then she found one at a garage sale years later and used it. Mom said to flour your glass or pin. When you have it rolled out, rather thin, slice in wide strips (tear them up about 2-3 inches long) and drop in broth as it boils on medium. When you get a few in, turn your heat down to low and keep dropping dumplings in. You want the heat a little above a simmer but, mom said it should be on low. “The loose flour will help thicken the broth and you don’t want dumplings to stick to the bottom of the pan”, “so use large spoon to keep the noodles moving and to keep anything off the bottom from sticking” per mom” and “do this gently or you’ll break up your noodles”.

Mom, aka Grandma Kathy