Elle's New England Kitchen

This was a lot of fun, and something I definitely want to keep doing. Having some ingredients put in front of me that I didn’t choose, and trying to come up with something edible was a great exercise for my brain. And I surprised myself. Not only did I come up with something edible, but it was delicious, too!

Here’s what I started with…

First, I rubbed the steak with one of our favorite rubs. (Remember, in Chopped, you get full use of the pantry!) Let that sit for a few minutes.

Trader Joe’s sells boxes of frozen, cooked Jasmine rice. I pulled one of those packets out and heated it up—I think there’s about 2 cups in each packet. Then I took about 4 or 5 of the figs and chopped those up with kitchen shears. I roughly chopped about 1/4 (maybe a little more) of the sweet and spicy pecans, and tossed both of those things into the rice. Then I threw in a couple handfuls of gorgonzola—about 1/2 cup. A little salt and pepper, about 1/4 tsp cumin, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar were added next. This is the mixture I stuffed the sweet peppers with.

Those baked at 350 in a slightly oiled pan for about 15-20 minutes. Turn on the broiler for an extra few minutes for some color on the peppers.

Now for the gorgonzola garlic butter. Get some butter to room temp, toss in some crumbled gorgonzola. Heat a little olive oil in a pan, add a couple cloves chopped garlic and let it slowly sauté. When that’s done, spoon it into the butter, leaving the oil behind. But looking back, I could have easily added that oil to the butter as well.

Broil the steaks for about 11 to 12 minutes. Turning them over every couple of minutes, and when they’ve reached the desired doneness, remove from oven and let them sit for about 5 minutes.

Serve the steaks with the gorgonzola butter and the peppers on the side.

I’m definitely going to keep this up. It’s good to get the creative juices flowing, and leave the safety of recipes behind. Even more fun when you’re presented with ingredients you may not necessarily choose yourself.

The next time I do it, I’ll see what my husband picks up for ingredients, and then post them just like I did here. If any of you want to participate, let me know, then when you post what you came up with, I’ll link them in my post. Sound good?

Damn enchiladas. They taste incredibly good, but those irritating little filled tortillas like to get all ugly for the camera. At least that's how it is for me. This is the second enchilada recipe that I've made and photographed, and the first one is still sitting in my files because even though they're delicious, the photos are just not good. Maybe I should just do a few days of ugly photo posts and be done with it, hehe.

Anyway, these enchiladas are George's recipe, at Culinary Travels of a Kitchen Goddess. (Check out her enchilada photos--they're much prettier!) I admit it, I'm a sucker for enchiladas, and these looked really interesting! I always make chicken ones, but these were ground beef and ground pork, with beans, too. Which is what my husband has been asking for--guess he wanted a break from chicken. They certainly don't disappoint! Now, she says right from the start that the spices are toned way down in these, because they were made for her Mum. No biggie, I just upped the spices, adding more cumin, chili powder, and as a quick afterthought, some of the homemade taco seasoning I keep on hand. Same with the sauce, just up the spices. For you recipe tweakers out there, this is a perfect one for you! You get an awesome base recipe, but you can personalize it to suit your spice/heat levels.

I only had one issue, and it wasn't a bad one. This makes 8 large enchiladas, like burrito size! So I used 2 11 x 7 pans with 4 enchiladas in each. This meant I didn't have enough sauce, and no more ingredients to make more of George's sauce. So I pulled out my trusty enchilada sauce recipe which is made from pantry staples and only takes about 15 minutes to make, and added it to George's sauce. The combination was perfection!!

And oh my goodness, are they delicious! Oh! Instead of buying ground beef and pork, I bought a meatloaf mix of ground pork, beef and veal. I also added a bit of a shredded cheese blend to the called for mozzarella topping--whatever kind you have on hand would be fine. Also, subbed black beans for the kidney beans.

These are satisfying and filling. And so good, that my husband took one for lunch, and wants the rest for dinner tonight. So there's a testimony for you!


And in case you're curious, here is my trusty enchilada sauce recipe, because the two sauces mixed together were just perfect--hers has pieces of tomato in it, and mine doesn't, but they added a nice texture to my sauce. Hers also has lime juice, which added an overall brighter flavor to the sauce.

1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1-2 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp dried oregano leaves
1 1/2 tsp cocoa
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce


Cook and stir onion and garlic in oil in a 2-quart saucepan until onion is tender.
Stir in broth, spices, salt and tomato sauce.
Heat to boiling; reduce heat, simmer uncovered 10 minutes.


Thanks, George, for another winning recipe! :)