January 2024 – I Want To Cook

Enchilada Casserole Is Amazingly Easy

I’m a fan of recipes whose results have family and friends thinking you’ve spent hours slaving away to create the delicious meal they’re so eagerly eating, but which in reality was a snap to make.

One such example are enchiladas, a Mexican dish that you can think of as burritos smothered in spicy sauce and then baked until soft and hot – a bubbly bit of cheese heaven. Like their tortilla-clothed brethren, enchiladas can be filled with any manner of goodies, from just cheese at their simplest to chicken, carnitas, or even lobster at the other end of the spectrum.

But making traditional enchiladas has its downsides, namely getting the tortillas pliable enough to roll in the first place, not to mention the messiness involved when it comes to rolling the things.

Enter the enchilada casserole. You get all the delicious benefits of a regular enchilada, but in an easier-to-make, easier-to-serve format. The dish is made by simply layering tortillas with cheese, sauce and your favorite ingredients (a perfect way to use leftover meat, chicken, veggies, etc.).

Shishito Peppers Only Get Better With Char

When it comes to chile peppers, you might fall into one of two camps: You either love them or you fear them. If you know me, you know that I am firmly in group one. Like, cemented in. I absolutely love the heat, flavor, and rush I get from eating spicy foods, chiles key among them.

My daily drivers are often serranos and jalapenos, habaneros, and specialty peppers like Hatch chiles when they’re in season. Oh, and I’ve been either brave or dumb enough (likely both) to gobble a ghost pepper and try Da Bomb Beyond Insanity hot sauce, the infamous widow-maker from Hot Ones.

But chiles aren’t just about tongue-searing heat. A good one should prioritize flavor and, heck, maybe even fun. And here we get to the star of this post: shishito peppers, which pack a whallop of both.

Orzo Salad Ain’t Your Average Pasta

We usually think of pasta as something to be drenched in a rich marinara or a heavy, cream-based alfredo sauce. We also usually think of it as something that comes in long ribbons or strands.

Orzo is a type of pasta that turns that latter notion on its head, and used in the recipe here, does the same for the sauce that it’s served with.

Upon first glance, you might mistake orzo for rice. That’s because it is shaped just like those little grains. But orzo is indeed pasta, and is made from the same kind of wheat used for more familiar shapes like fettuccine, spaghetti, and angel hair.