Homemade Tamales With Mole Sauce - How To

Well I made it, a year of projects. It's ironic I started with Feng Shui and ended with the same type of activity. I managed to clear out over 200 bookmarked web pages. I'll continue with new projects but they won't be so product oriented, next month, I learn juggling.

The Mole Sauce Recipe came from Food dot com. Here's their recipe but with the changes I made.

1 cup chopped onions
3 tablespoons oil  fry the onions in oil until they start to become translucent
3 tablespoons flour  add the flour and cook together to make a roux

4.5 cups chicken broth whisk into the roux

1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2.5 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon cocoa  stir in and continue to cook until the sauce thickens

I had never attempted tamales so the step by step instructions at What's Cooking America were very helpful. Here's the changes I made to their recipe.

Tamales

Cook the meat in a large pot. I used hamburger since the pork shoulder didn't look good at the market. It's becoming difficult to find meat that hasn't had water with "flavor enhancements" added to it. Add some Mole Sauce to the cooked meat.

Soak dried corn husks in hot tap water. I put a plate on top to keep them from floating 

Dough

2 pounds of Masa Corn Flour (this is not the same as corn meal)
3 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons garlic salt stir together in a large bowl

1 cup oil stir in

add water or broth until the dough becomes the consistency of fresh Play Dough

Assembling the Tamales

Drain the corn husks.
Lay a husk on the counter, if it's a narrow one you may need to overlap more than one to make it wider.
Take a handful of dough a press it a 1/4 inch thick. Don't go all the way to the edges, You need to be able to roll the husk later and fold over the bottom edge.
Spoon some meat mixture into the center.
Roll the husk up and fold over the end.
Place into a steamer.
Steam the tamales until they are no longer doughy, mine took almost 2 hours.

Easy Enchiladas and Sauce Recipe - How To

I've never made good enchiladas, until now.

The sauce recipe came from All Recipes. I made a few changes but their recipe is excellent. The quantity here is what I used for 2 dozen enchiladas. We like them saucy. This sauce is also good for making Tacos.

1/4 cup oil
2 tablespoons flour    combine and make a roux; use more oil and flour if you like a thicker sauce.

4.5 cups cold water   stir in and whisk until smooth

3/4 cup chili powder
1 small can of tomato paste
3/4 teaspoon dried minced onions
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon garlic salt   add and continue to stir until thickens

The Pioneer Woman has a thorough step by step tutorial for making enchiladas. Here are my changes, but once again, her recipe is very good.

Cook your meat. I used hamburger but chicken or shredded pork would be perfect.
Add black pepper to the hamburger. The pepper gives it some heat later on when it mixes with the chili powder.
Moisten the cooked meat with some enchilada sauce

corn oil
corn tortillas  fry them in oil until they bubble on both sides, not crisp, in a frying pan. stack the fried tortillas on a plate.

extra sharp cheddar cheese  shred

green onions cut into small pieces

To Assemble  
cover the bottom of a casserole pan with sauce

pour some sauce onto a plate 
place a tortilla on the plate on top of the sauce
pour some sauce in the center of the tortilla
add meat
add shredded cheese
add some green onion

roll and place the enchilada seam side down in the casserole pan
repeat for the other enchiladas

pour sauce over the completed enchiladas
add more shredded cheese
sprinkle green onion across the top

Bake at 350 until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly.

Easy 6 Minute Caramel Recipe - How To

My hubby is bonkers for caramel; I usually make it in a crock pot.  Cover a can of Sweetened Condensed Milk with water and leaved in a Crock Pot overnight on Low. Allow the can to cool before completely before handling and Voila, caramel. If you try this, the can has to be totally immersed in water and don't open the can before it's cool. You don't want the can to spray molten hot caramel. This recipe used to be in vintage cookbooks and they discontinued it because of accidents. I ran across a safer method that doesn't involve candy thermometers or soft ball stages.

Food dot com has an excellent recipe that cooks for 6 minutes in the microwave and is outrageously simple. Do read the comments since others have intriguing ideas for tweaking the recipe. The next time I'll try sea salt of adding chocolate.

My Notes:

Combine the following in a deep, microwave safe bowl

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

Microwave 2 minutes. Stir.

Microwave 2 minutes. Stir. 

Microwave 2 minutes. Stir. Carefully pour into a buttered dish.

Slice after cooling. Cover and refrigerate of you like firm caramel, we left it on the counter. My Grandma used to wrap individual caramels in buttered wax paper. I left this in the pan a bit too long and they will not come out pretty. Luckily, we are a step above ravening beasts, so no one really cares.

Stuffed Squash With Meatballs, Tomato Sauce and Parmesan Cheese - How To

Tattooed Martha has a tasty idea for squash and no, I have zero tattoos. I took a few shortcuts with my version but I liked it a lot.

Oven roast squash halves.

Stuff the cooked squash with:
Meatballs (I used frozen, precooked ones)
Hot Italian Sausage (this oven roasted in a pan while the squash cooked)
Cover with marinara sauce (I found a salt free one at the store)
Parmesan Cheese.

Bake at 375 to heat through and brown.

She shredded the squash with a fork before stuffing it. Next time I think I will shred at least my husband's and plate it without the skin since he found it perplexing.