Baked Flautas de Carnitas

Who doesn't love fried flautas smothered with salsa, guacamole and sour cream?? I sure do, even though I've never made them myself. These are just as good, in my humble opinion and much better for you. You can surely use chicken to save even more calories.

Flautas are a nice alternative to enchiladas and are a snap to assemble after you've let the pork cook in the crockpot all day. It took me all of 5 minutes to get the meat going. I definitely prefer the "butt" roast (no snickering, kids). For some reason, the last few times I tried using a pork shoulder, it came out kind of gamey.

FOR CARNITAS:
Put into crockpot:
1/2 cup water
3-4 lb. pork butt roast with dry rub*
sprinkle 3 sliced jalepenos on top of meat

Cook on high for 5-6 hours. Remove from crock and shred meat, picking out obvious fatty spots.

* My favorite dry rub seasoning is something called "Santa Maria Style Seasoning" which is salt, garlic, black pepper and parsley. I used about 2 tablespoons of this along with 1 tsp. of cumin.



FOR FLAUTAS:
10-12 flour tortillas
shredded carnitas (above)
2 cups shredded cheese
1 can black beans
1 cup salsa
1/2 onion, minced
Olive oil for brushing over tops

Preheat oven to 375. Warm tortillas in foil for 10 minutes in oven. Spread a little of each ingredient in a line down the middle of the tortilla and roll up as tight as possible. Place on greased cookie sheet, seam side down. Once, you've made them all, brush with olive oil and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve with salsa and guacamole.

Baja Style Fish Tacos

Just got back from a trip to sunny Carpinteria and had a great time cooking, eating, drinking and visiting with family. It was unusually warm and not foggy, which made the beach mandatory. Every day. The kids LOVED it this time... splashing, jumping, digging, screaming, chasing birds and doing all things a kid should do on the beach. It was great to see that maybe they will turn out to be beach rats just like mom was.

While we had much yummy food, this meal here is worth mentioning. My (much) older and adventurous brother is quite the fisherman. Turns out our dinner was a small portion of a 30 pound white bass caught off the coast of Santa Barbara. By my brother. With a spear. Seriously.

Anyways, many thanks to the whole family for making such a wonderful dinner. Everything was delish and the fish was so fresh and light, and had a beautiful crunchy coating that made a great base for all the yummy toppings. Other highlights include a lesson on Guitar Hero by my niece and nephew, a mean margarita from my Sis-in-Law and lick on the face from Otter dog.

Baja style tacos are basically battered and fried fish wrapped in a grilled corn tortilla and topped with a creamy tangy white sauce and other condiments. Cabbage seems to be the most unique of these toppings. I suggest not skipping it. I could look up the origin and some other interesting story about this style of taco, but I don't have the energy or time! You'll have to do your own research. Or better yet....just try it!!

The Basics:

Corn tortillas, grilled over flames
White fish, cut into 2 inch pieces
Oil, enough to fry fish

Fish Batter

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. double acting baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup water

Mayonesa Secret Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp. white vinegar
1 1/2 T. milk

Condiments (any or all)

pico de gallo
sour cream
cilantro
cheese
guacamole
onions
shredded cabbage

Directions: Mix up the batter and fry fish in batches until you have a nice little pile. Lay out all the condiments, mix up the secret sauce and grill those tortillas. Put a couple pieces of fish into a tortilla, top with secret sauce and condiments. Don't skip the cabbage!!

Crockpot Chicken Enchiladas

Okay, well I wasn't going to post this because it was an experiment for me (and I wasn't thrilled about the pictures). I cooked the chicken for my enchiladas in the crockpot from about 8 am to 12 noon and after shredding it, realized that maybe it would work for the actual enchiladas too. It was worth a try. Looking online, I found many recipes for enchiladas layered into a type of casserole instead of rolling them up like I did.

From 2 bone-in breasts, salsa, a can of black beans, some cheese and a small can of enchilada sauce, I ended up with about 3 layers of enchiladas.

Here is the result: As I suspected, dishing it up and making it look good would prove difficult. Those first enchiladas were beautiful. Underneath was a complete mess. But hey, it all tasted the same...pretty darn good.

My recipe is usually about the same, with variations depending on what I have on hand.

Crockpot Chicken Enchiladas

Place chicken breasts and a cup of salsa in the crockpot. Cook on high for 4 hours. Shred meat and add some minced garlic and black beans (olives, corn and onions would also work well at this point). Stir until uniform.

Grate some cheese. Spray each corn tortilla with Pam and stack them up on a paper towel. Cover and microwave for about 45 seconds, until they are soft and warm.

Put a spoonful of enchilada sauce on the bottom of crockpot. Place chicken mixture and cheese on tortilla, roll up and place in crock. Continue this until you have the layer complete. Cover with sauce. Another layer and more sauce. Keep this up until you have enough enchiladas stacked up to feed your family.

Cook on low for a 2 hours or so.

Grilled Tri-Tip and Rajas con Crema

IMHO, Tri-tip is best done on the grill. We have a special seasoning that we use called "Susie Q's Santa Maria Style Seasoning" which we rub on the outside - it gives the meat a wonderful smoky flavor. I'm not going to go into detail about the grilling because it's not my forte and it's best left to Tall Guy, who is getting to be quite the Mr. BBQ. Maybe I should change his name to Mr. BBQ. We always serve our tri-tip in the Santa Maria tradition of slicing thin and topping it with your favorite salsa and a squirt of lime juice. This time a side of peppers completed the meal.

Check out these interesting bell peppers:

I found them at the farmers market in Concord and the woman who sold them to me could not give me any information except that the light purple ones were "very sweet" (and they were, especially when cooked). When I sliced them open, I was suprised that their flesh was about half the thickness of the red and green bells from the grocery store. They almost seemed like a cross between a bell and a poblano.

Anyways, I decided to do some sauteed Mystery Peppers in a classic Mexican style. I've never made this before and it turned out really good! I call it Rajas con Crema and here is how I did it:

Rajas con Crema

Sliced peppers of your choice

1 tsp olive oil

salt, pepper and/or favorite seasoning

1/4 cup milk

1 clove minced garlic

Heat oil over HIGH heat, add peppers and seasoning and let them get almost black before giving a stir. Once they start to soften up, turn the heat to low and add the garlic and milk. Simmer until the garlic is soft and half the milk evaporates.

Guy Fieri's Chile Verde Pork

I was watching the Food Network last weekend, actually right before going grocery shopping. I don't suggest that. Ever tried shopping with several different recipes floating in your head and end up coming home lacking a key ingredient for all of them? I'm a pro at that. Anyways, I wanted to try his Chile Verde Pork because it looked yummy and low fat (besides the pork). Well, I fogot to get the pork butt...so I'm using chicken today, about 4 boneless skinless breasts. I ended up just throwing the peppers and tomatillos under the broiler, while I sauteed the onions. Once you get everything chopped up and in the pot, you can attend to other things while it simmers. My kind of meal. I only used 2 onions and more chiles. I only used 1 tsp. of salt and really, it didn't need any! This is much too spicy for my kids, but I'm tempted to pick out some of the chicken and give it a rinse to see if it can be tamed that way. Here is the original recipe as written:

Guy Fieri's Chile Verde Pork

4 pounds pork butt, cut into 1-inch cubes, trimmed of fat

4 yellow onions, chopped

4 Anaheim chiles

2 jalapeno, minced

4 tablespoons garlic, chopped

1 pound tomatillos, husk removed

1/2 cup white wine

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 cup chicken stock

2 tablespoons ground oregano

2 tablespoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

In a medium Dutch oven, heat the oil, add the onion, peppers and garlic. Saute until translucent, do not brown. Remove and set mixture aside.
Lightly grill the tomatillos on open flame until lightly charred. Remove from heat, place in bowl and cover with plastic wrap to keep warm for 20 minutes.
Add pork butt to Dutch oven and cook over high heat until browned on all sides
Add the onion-pepper mixture and tomatillos to the pork. Mix thoroughly and then deglaze with white wine and vinegar. Let reduce for 5 minutes, then add chicken stock, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper.
Let simmer for 1 hour.

Al Pastor Taco

Carpinteria is filled with taquerias. So many, in fact, that I have probably tried 6 of them while visiting my parents here over the years. I believe there are several that I haven't tried. Some are sit-down restaurants, but most are just taco counters inside of Mexican markets.

This particular taco is from Reyes Market in Carpinteria, CA. It is BBQ Pork with salsa, onion and cilantro on two homemade tortillas. Yum. Seriously, they make the tortillas while you wait. This one cost a whopping $2.40. OMG!

We also like Taco Grande, and the counter in Beach Liquor (for breakfast burritos). This sleepy little beach town is great for a low key beach vacation or camping trip. While lodging is never cheap near the beach, its less than half the cost of Santa Barbara and only about 7 miles south.

Below is a photo of a quirky restaurant on the main drag. It's called The Palms, and its been a staple in this town for ages. I don't know anywhere else where you order a steak and they bring you a slab of raw meat! While there are dinners that come fully prepared, the fun part of this place is taking your meat over to the communal grill and cooking it yourself. They have seasonings lined up and tongs for you to use. You can usually strike up an interesting conversation while you tend your food. Included in your dinner is a salad bar, and another bar that has warm bread, beans, salsa AND baked potatoes. Quite the bargain!