Bandwagon Buttermilk Blackberry Cake

Between gourmet magazine having a buttermilk raspberry cake, Smitten Kitchen having a version of the cake, Yahaira making the cake, it seems everyone and their mama is making this cake.

So I decided to hop on the bandwagon too.  I was going to do a post about an awesome lemon cake made with rosemary-infused olive oil (seriously! It was good!), but my camera battery was dead and I didn’t have any pictures of the cake before I brought it to the barbeque.  So I’ll do that bad boy later when I can make it and take pictures.

Meyer lemon buttermilk layer cake

I’ve discussed my passion for lemon cake before.  If not on the blog, which I’ve got to admit I’m too lazy to check, probably in person.  On my birthday, I’ve baked my own lemon cake from box mixes for years, with homemade lemon icing.  Imagine my delight to find a guy whose favorite cake was also lemon cake with lemon icing…  

At first, it was whichever cake mix was on sale at the grocery store, then when the foe protein gluten was eliminated from my kitchen, I used the ‘Cause You’re Special (which as a company name? Sigh…) lemon cake mix which was really good.  But I wanted to make a homemade cake.  So I went to Laura’s hibernating food blog to get a starting place.  Because she’s awesome.

English Muffins for breakfast

I love English muffins.  Love them love them love them.  Without gluten in my kitchen, I have a heck of a time trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast that’s not garbage, 97% sugar, and not leftovers from the night before (which I will eat for lunch, more often than not. Who wants to eat the same food for three consecutive meals? Yes, a real first world problem, I realize).

Gluten free brown sugar coffee cake

It’s recipe time again! If I were a good blogger, I’d also have photos. But I’m not. So it goes.

Chicken Encarada Rascapole

NEW PLAN!!!

My new plan is this: post a chicken enchilada casserole recipe every month.

It’s not really a new plan. It’s apparently what I’ve decided to do. My friend Droolie gave me her recipe and I liberated it from gluten. Aunt Droolie’s nephew used to have a hard time pronouncing Chicken Enchilada Casserole and called it Chicken Encarada Rascapole, so who am I to argue?

Also? Full disclosure, I haven’t made this yet, so let me know how you like it. :)

Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Casserole

I got peer-pressured, yo.  On Twitter/Facebook, I mentioned I was making a chicken enchilada casserole. The public demanded (okay, like 3 people) a recipe.

I’m not great with recipes because I throw stuff in without much regard to measuring – it’s a bit more intuitive.  Taste and add.  Here’s the best I can do.

(Despite the use of the crock pot and the word casserole, it’s not particularly one-pot. At least not if you make the tortillas when you get home.)

 

Enchilada Sauce Ingredients (based on Karina’s easy enchilada sauce):

1.5-2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast and/or thighs

1 28-oz plus one 14.5-oz can of tomato sauce (or puree, or crushed tomatoes)

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 large onion (or 1 small)

1 Tablespoon cumin

1 Tablespoon coriander

A few shakes of cayenne pepper to taste

4 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup flour (Rice flour or tapioca flour will work fine if you’re gluten-free. I like corn flour to impart the corn flavor from the tortillas)

salt

pepper

crushed red peppers (optional)

 

Plus:

16 corn tortillas (if you’re insane like me and want to make 16 tortillas from scratch when you get home after being at work for 11 hours, use 2 cups maseca, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 1/4 cups of water)

shredded cheese (I like jack and cheddar)

Gettin’ Down to Bidness:

Mix sauce ingredients and pour over the chicken in the crock pot.  Cook on low for 7? hours (maybe more? I don’t know – I left it for 11 hours on low because that’s how long I’m gone for work).  Remove chicken from sauce, and shred it using two forks.  Remove about 1.5 cups of the tomato sauce from the crock pot and set aside.  Mix the shredded chicken back into the remaining tomato sauce.

Lightly oil a 13×9-inch baking dish, put 1-2 tablespoons of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of the dish.  Lay 4 corn tortillas, dipped in the enchilada sauce, cover with 1/3 of the shredded chicken and 1/4 of the shredded cheese. Repeat these three layers 2 more times.  Top with remaining 4 corn tortillas dipped in enchilada sauce.  Pour any remaining sauce over the top layer of tortillas and cover with the remainder of the cheese.  Stick in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until it is melty and heated evenly through. 

Cut up into pieces (I use a pizza cutter) and serve hot.  Makes about 8 servings.  Take pictures to make your blog post less boring (optional).  Get someone else to wash all the stinkin’ dishes you dirtied making this.

 

The Post-Mortem:

That’s pretty gross to talk about a post-mortem on something you just ate, but it’s late and I’m tired.  Anyhow, it was pretty good – basically I have grown weary of ground turkey/beef and wanted to do something else.  The chicken was lighter than the turkey but it sucked up tons of extra sauce after being shredded and mixed back in.  If you wanted to do a turkey or ground beef enchilada sauce, mix the liquid ingredients of the sauce in a medium sauce pan, following Karina’s recipe.  Add the flour after sauteeing onions and garlic.  Use only the 28 oz can of tomatoes – you don’t need quite as much liquid for the ground turkey.  Mix about 1 cup of enchilada sauce into your browned ground turkey, and use the rest to pour over each layer as you assemble.  Eat, clean up and go to bed full.