I’m just going to say it upfront, this is my favorite episode so far. I have made tacos countless times but never have they been as fresh, flavorful and delicious as what I created for this episode. The biggest factor playing into the flavor is without a doubt the fresh tortillas given to me by Nicole Misencik (@NicoleWTHR). As a fellow food lover (and great local meteorologist), Nicole was nice enough to bring back some fresh tortillas from her favorite Mexican restaurant in Phoenix. A huge thanks goes out to her for making this recipe possible.

I even get so excited at the end that I fail to recognize the difference between a lemon and a lime.

Ingredients:

• Package of eye of round or skirt steak
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 lime sliced in half
• fresh cilantro sliced
• 1/2 onion

For salsa:

• 8-12 chili peppers
• 1/4 onion (I added some additional fresh onion after blending)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tomato
• 2 jalapeno peppers

Directions:

Over medium-high to high heat, cook steak seasoned with salt and pepper until a nice char forms on both sides. Once cooked, cut into thin strips.

Boil a pot of water and add in the vegetables for the salsa. Cook until they become soft.

Add your salsa ingredients into a food processor and blend until you reach desired texture. I added in some additional fresh onion and cilantro for added taste.

Warm your fresh tortillas in a pan over medium to medium-high heat just enough to get both sides nice and warm. Place on a plate and cover with a clean cotton towel to keep warm. Once all tortillas are ready, build your tacos by topping with salsa and fresh onion, cilantro and a squirt of lime.

Looking in my fridge at yet more turkey, I decided I had to come up with some other way to use the leftovers besides another sandwich. After checking around a bit online I decided on a turkey pot pie. The recipe takes a bit to pull together but it is not difficult at all. The end result was well worth the effort.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 cups shredded turkey
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 1 prepared pie crust
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Preparation:

Melt butter in saucepan and cook chopped onion until tender. Stir in celery and carrots and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes. Add chicken or turkey stock and bring to a simmer. Add potatoes and simmer until tender. Stir in turkey, parsley, garlic powder oregano and peas.

Pour mixture into pie crust after letting cool for about 15 or 20 minutes. Top with pie crust and brush with egg. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees and for 20 minutes at 350 or until crust is golden brown.

After much delay and anticipation, the chili recipe has surfaced. This is a recipe we obtained online about a year ago and have been tweaking ever since.  This time around we have it just about perfect for our taste preference and we are pleased this is the one we get to share with all of you.  Since chili is such an incredibly flexible recipe, feel free to experiment and change things up.

Also, we would love to hear from you if you do make some changes so we can try them out as well.  Send us an e-mail at recipes@cuisinemadequick.com or hit us up on twitter at cphadley, ebear6 or cuisinemq.  We would love to do a follow-up episode making your recipe.

Preparation:

Brown 1 pound of lean ground beef and drain grease.  Dice 1/2 of a sweet onion and 1/2 of a sweet bell pepper. Also, mince 1 clove of garlic.

Start heating a large pot over medium heat.

For drop 1, have the following ready:

• 1 pound lean ground beef browned
• 1/2 diced sweet onion
• 1/2 diced bell pepper
• 2 cups beef broth (you can just dissolve 2 beef bouillon cubes)
• 8 oz unsalted tomato sauce/paste
• 1 Serrano chili
• 2 tbsp. chili powder
• 1 can beans (your preference here)
• 1 clove minced garlic

For drop 2, have the following ready:

• 2 to 2 1/2 tbsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar
• 6 to 8 oz cola
• 1 cup salsa of choice (we used Salsa Verde)
• Dash of hot sauce

For drop 3, have the following ready:

• 1 tsp salt (to taste)
• 1 tbsp. chili powder
• 4 or 5 chocolate chips

Cooking directions:

Add ground beef to pot over medium heat and add tomato sauce, beans, Serrano chili, garlic, beef broth, onions and peppers.  Allow mixture to come to a mild simmer. Then add other dry ingredients from drop 1.

Turn up heat until mix reaches a boil.  Then drop heat to medium to medium-low.  Cover and allow to simmer for one hour.

After one hour add drop 2 and stir.  Be sure to remove your Serrano chili and use a spoon to squeeze the juices from the pepper into the chili.  For a hotter chili, allow some of the seeds to drop in as well.  Recover pot and allow to simmer for an additional 30 minutes.

Finally, add drop 3 and mix in allowing enough time for the chocolate chips to melt.  At this point taste and add anything you feel you may need.  If chili seems to thin, add in about 1 or 2 tbsp. creamy peanut butter to thicken mixture.  Leave pot uncovered and allow to simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Turn off heat and grade your cheese of choice.  You may also use this time to prepare some fresh tortilla chips or open up a bag.  Use a ladle to add chili to bowl and add cheese if you desire.  Once cheese is melted, dip in a chip and enjoy!

You can move remaining chili into resealable containers and store in the freezer for months.  Simply allow thawing in fridge for about 6 to 8 hour and reheat in a pot for quick chili preparation.

Take tortillas, eggs, salsa and cheese and before I even see a recipe, I know I’m in for a treat. Today’s dish is a perfect example of this wonderful combination of tasty ingredients. Some may argue this is not really a casserole but I tend to think of a casserole as a meal that ends up in one dish and that can be eaten directly from the pot or pan without the need for a side dish. Under my personal definition, this dish definitely fits the bill.

In what may be the easiest recipe (besides the Pizza Rolls) yet on Cuisine Made Quick, I fly solo in fixing one of my favorite Mexican breakfast feasts. In about fifteen minutes you can have yourself a hearty and spicy breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Elisabeth was home visiting family during the taping of this episode but she is not without appearance. The episode before this was supposed to be a recipe for a prosciutto and melon burger with sweet potato fries. Needless to say, things did not go as planned for that recipe. Some of the highlights of that failure can be seen in this episode.

As always, if you have a favorite recipe you would like to see us attempt, or if you have video preparing your favorite dish, please leave a comment or send an e-mail to recipes@cuisinemadequick.com.

Click for recipe or to leave a comment

Subscribe to Cuisine Made Quick | Follow Cuisine Made Quick on Twitter

Ingredients:

• 3 or 4 eggs
• 5 corn tortillas
• 1 cup shredded cheese (your preference – I prefer sharp cheddar)
• 1 cup salsa
• Sprinkle of garlic powder
• Sprinkle of seasoned salt
• Multiple dashes of hot sauce (less if you prefer mild)
• 1 or 2 tsp. ground black pepper
• Enough olive oil to coat bottom of pot

Directions:

• Pour enough olive oil into the bottom of pot and place over medium high heat until oil is at roughly 350 to 400 degrees.

• While oil heats, break eggs into bowl and whisk with a fork. Add in the garlic powder, seasoned salt, black pepper and hot sauce.

• Cut about 5 corn tortillas into smaller wedges and place in pot covering bottom. You should have enough tortilla to soak up the cooking oil as they brown.

• While browning tortillas, bring a pan to medium to medium high heat and start to scramble your eggs. While they are still a bit undercooked take off heat.

• After a few minutes the tortillas should just be starting to get crispy. At that point add in the eggs and cover pot for 1 – 2 minutes.

• Add salsa and mix into the eggs and tortillas. Finally, move ingredients into a mound and top with shredded cheese. Cover pot for about 1 – 2 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

• Remove mix into large bowl and add any additional condiments (I like Tabasco Sauce).

I can’t get enough of Gregory Ng’s (the Frozen Food Master) Freezer Burns video podcast.  So when I found myself looking for a snack at 10 o’clock at night, I immediately went for the old standby – pizza rolls.

Greg did a “Fro-Down” of Pizza Rolls vs Bagel Bites back in January and I thought I would bring something new to the table.  Instead of cooking in the microwave or oven, I dropped the tasty morsels into cooking oil.  The results – delicious!

Be sure to check out Freezer Burns at http://freezerburns.com for some great frozen food reviews.

After coming across this recipe numerous time in various books and on television, Elisabeth and I decided to put this one to the test. Was the combination of apple, cheese, pastrami and onion too much for our pallets or did we have our first official cuisine made quick?

Ingredients:

• 2.5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 1 cups beef broth
• 1/3 cup dark beer
• 3/4 teaspoons minced garlic
• 3/4 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced yellow onion
• 3/4 cups thinly sliced apple
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces shaved pastrami
• 4 slices pumpernickel bread
• 2 ounces thinly sliced sharp white Cheddar

Directions:

To make the rosemary-ale jus, melt 1/2 tablespoon butter in a medium sized saucepan, over medium-low heat; whisk in beef broth, beer, garlic, rosemary, onion powder and pinch pepper, and allow to simmer.

In a large cast iron skillet, melt 1 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Stir in onion, apple, salt and a pinch pepper, and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring frequently, until light golden brown and tender; remove from skillet and set aside.

Divide pastrami equally between 2 slices of bread; top with apples and onions, Cheddar and Swiss cheese. Top with remaining bread slices.

Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter in same skillet; place 2 sandwiches in pan, place the bottom of a heavy skillet on top, and press down to flatten. Cook for 2 minutes, flip, press down with heavy skillet again, and cook an additional 2 minutes, or until crisp. Divide rosemary-ale jus into 2 small bowls (70 style of course), and serve with panini for dipping.

Since so many ingredients were already on-hand for this meal, I do not have an accurate approximate price for the ingredients. The price of many of these items will vary depending on the time or year and your geographic location.