Chicken Chile Lasagna

This recipe is awesome! I love pasta but I'm really not a super huge fan of the red sauce that they pretty much put on everything. So when I saw this recipe that didn't involve red sauce I jumped on it and almost couldn't wait to make it.

• 6-9 lasagna noodles
• 2 medium chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
• 1 (4 oz) can chopped green chiles
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups milk

• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
• • Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
  • Cook the lasagna noodles to al dente and set aside on paper towels in a single layer.
  • In a bowl, combine the shredded chicken, softened cream cheese, 1 cup of the mozzarella and the green chiles. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
  • Make the alfredo: In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook until thickened, a few minutes. Stir in the parmesan cheese to melt.
  • To assemble the lasagna:
  • Put just enough of the alfredo in the bottom of a 9-inch square baking dish just to cover the bottom. Put down one layer of the noodles, followed by half of the chicken mixture. Put down another layer of noodles, the remaining chicken and then a last layer of noodles. Cover the top with the remaining alfredo, then sprinkle on the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.
  • Bake until the cheese is melted and the lasagna is heated through, 30-45 minutes.
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White Trash Casserole

White trash aka tatertot casserole is one of the greatest foods in existence and is one of those foods that you can make for a ton of people. It's super simple, takes no time and is one of my favorite things in the world. 

I made this like a week ago for my 20th birthday white trash bash and am just now posting the recipe, I take forever posting I know. 

1 LB Ground beef
1 Medium onion- chopped
1 can cream of mushroom soup 
1 TBS Worcesteshire sauce
1 TBS Ketchup
1 Bag of tater tots

1. Cook beef and onion in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until beef is well browned, stirring to break up meat. Pour off fat.
2. Stir soup, ketchup and Worcestershire into skillet. Spoon beef mixture into 12x8-inch shallow baking dish. Arrange potatoes around edge of casserole.
3. Bake at 425 degrees F for 25 minutes or until potatoes are done.

Lady Bird's King Ranch chicken

So I’m kind of a sale and freezer whore, when I find something on sale I have to stock up on it and if it’s food I just keep it in my freezer until I actually need it. I went grocery shopping this morning after spending way too much money on a new charger for my laptop (thanks a lot apple) and found chicken on sale and I had to get like 15 pounds, not exaggerating. 

Since I have a ridiculous amount of chicken in my freezer I figured I would pull some out and make King Ranch Chicken to live off of until I get to make food for my white-trash themed birthday party this Saturday because my life is about to get hectic with tests and work and pretty much everything

King Ranch chicken is possibly the best soul food casserole around. The recipe origins are pretty unclear, but I think it’s safe to say that it probably originated somewhere in the vicinity of the King Ranch. The King Ranch is the coolest ranch in the world and one of the only places in Texas that you can actually hunt zebra. 

I’m using Lady Bird Johnson’s recipe, because it’s freaking Lady Bird. Us Texans love the Johnson’s and L.B. is practically the hero of every debutante ever from the great state. She even has a lake named after her in Austin. I got the recipe from the LBJ presidential library website http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/faqs/recipes/king%20ranch.asp

Here is a recipe that is super good, just not the original recipe

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2007/10/king-of-casseroles-king-ranch-chicken.html

Tamale Pie

Healing a tattoo and watching the Texans game was pretty much the two things to do on my list for the day, and with the tattoo being under 24 hours old this was no easy feat even though this is far from being my first, I can still be a baby about it... 

I decided that I wanted to make some texmex because my lovely mother constantly sends me pictures of everything she eats that I could possibly miss about Texas. This week it was Chuy's tamale pie, so I decided to make my favorite recipe of tamale pie, the recipe is from HEB.com

Oh, I'm sorry have you never been to HEB? It's the most fantastic grocery store in existence. 

This was hands down the exact thing I needed to heal and enjoy watching the Texans beat the bills, and pretty badly.. not trying to brag or anything but the Texans are actually doing great this year. Anyways back to the recipe, 

1 Lb ground beef

1 envelope Taco Seasoning

2 teaspoons oil

1 onion, chopped

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 (10 ounces) cups frozen corn

1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 cup shredded Colby Jack cheese

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup shredded Colby Jack cheese

-Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Chop onion. Rinse and drain black beans.

-Brown the ground beef, drain and add onion, add the taco seasoning packet and probably 1/3 cup of water and simmer, letting the water evaporate. Add the corn, tomatoes, tomato sauce and beans along with 1 cup of the cheese

-Whisk eggs and milk together in a medium bowl; whisk in cornmeal and baking powder. Pour topping evenly over beef mixture in skillet; sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese. 

-Bake 20 minutes, or until the top feels firm when lightly touched. Serve with a spoon. 

Deep Fried Pork chops (the opposite of kosher)

All I can say about this recipe is damn...

This recipe is a staple from my house my mom has made it for the past couple of years, no clue where my mother got this but I'm sure it was somewhere online.

It contains everything that is good in life, and since I'm newly single and I eat my emotions, I figured this would be the perfect thing to get me through the break up. Not to mention it is quite possibly one of the easiest things to do. 

There are three parts to this recipe, it is easy, but takes a good hour to put together. 

The mashed potatoes; 

   1 pound of boiled red potatoes ( I skinned them because I think the skin tastes like dirt)

   3 oz of cream cheese

   3 tbs butter

   Sour cream to taste

   Half and half to taste ( you can cheat and use milk, less fattening but also less tasty) 

   Salt and pepper to taste

Mash the potatoes and then add the cream cheese, butter and sour cream. Then I add the half and half and salt and pepper and then you're done!

The pork chops; 

   4 pork chops (I use the thin boneless ones but you can use any boneless porkchops) 

   2 eggs 

   1 sleeve saltine crackers 

   Oil for frying

  Place vegetable oil to a depth of about 1/4 of an inch in a large heavy bottomed skillet. Place over medium high heat while you prepare the pork chops. Crush saltines and place in a shallow bowl. Beat the eggs and add just a splash of water to make them coat the chops better. Dip each chop in the egg mixture on both sides, then press both sides down into cracker crumbs(the finer the better). Reduce oil temperature to medium. Add in pork chops to hot oil. Cook until browned on both sides (will need to turn) until completely done and no longer pink in the center. Remove to paper towel lined plate.

The Gravy;

   3 tablespoons bacon grease (optional but why would you not use it?)

   1/4 cup all purpose flour

   1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

   1 1/2 cups milk

   Just a touch of cayenne pepper

 Put bacon grease into a medium skillet over medium heat. Add flour and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly until flour begins to brown. Whisk until the milk in until it isn't lumpy anymore. Lower heat to low and continue cooking and stirring until gravy thickens. I like the gravy thinner so I add just a little more milk. Serve over mashed potatoes, pork chops, biscuits, chicken strips and pretty much anything you could possibly dream of.

Some times the top falls off your pepper and you have to start your gravy roux all over again 

The final product was so worth the stress of the gravy mishap and makes you lick the plate(literally)

Just another southerner missing Mama's Cooking

Being born and raised in the great state of Texas, has spoiled me when it comes to my expectations of High School football, the southern graces and most importantly the food. Nothing will ever compare to coming home from a long semester 2000 miles away in Ogden, Utah.

This is a southern cooking blog, where I intend to make at least one southern recipe a week that I've collected from my mama over the summer break. I had to practically beg my mother for her recipes and swear to never let her barbecue sauce recipe out in the open, so unfortunately I can't include that, but everything else is fair game

All of these are bone sticking, fattening recipes that aren't for the faint of the heart or those on diets, just fair warning. One of the staples is bacon grease so I will probably have to make bacon weekly to keep up with the demands of the delightfully fattening bacon grease, or as my mother calls it liquid gold. 

This blog is for my Media Writing class that I am taking my Sophomore year at Weber State University. Being super homesick, I thought what better way to make Utah feel like my home than to cook something of my mother's once a week and have people enjoy it with me... mostly because I don't want to end up eating all of it and gaining more weight than I already am going to. 

Since I haven't cooked anything yet, here is some pictures of my favorite things to eat in texas with some of my favorite people.  (massive photo over share)

Doesn't everyone get guns for christmas? 

Me and my dad at the world famous Goodson's Cafe in Tomball, TX  

My chicken fried steak with a side of gravy at Goodson's

The Bake Shoppe, no gravy involved, but their sandwich bread tastes like cake.