A few of my Favorite Recipes!!

A friend at stamp club brought a caramel fruit dip with sliced apples and it was so yummy. The recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Creme de Colorado. I will be sharing two fruit dips that you might enjoy for your next gathering or just a quick snack at home. So good and healthier than store bought cookies!

My friend and I got to talking about our love of cooking, and she told me she still had her first cookbook, the yellow striped Betty Crocker's for children...and what a coincidence, so did I! What fun it was to reminisce over those recipes that I recall making for my family to earn a Girl Scout's badge, like the porcupine meatballs!

Now it is so easy to google a recipe and download it...but I have to say I love my old cookbooks...I can leaf through them and they bring to mind not just a recipe but a memory. Many I have hand written notes dating back to the early 1980's when I made a certain cookie for my daughter's preschool party...or a special entree for a dinner with friends. Those recipe pages that are stained and almost falling out of the book are probably the most treasured. It also reminds me that I am not as adventurous in cooking as I once was...and maybe I should try experimenting a little bit more.

Anyway, hope you enjoy these.



Caramel Fruit Dip

1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp vanilla
8 ozs. cream cheese (may use light) softened
fresh fruit for dipping

Put sugars, vanilla and cream cheese in blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Serve with a colorful assortment of fresh seasonal fruit such as apple slices, strawberries, or pears.
Great for a healthy casual snack or afternoon teas!


Orange Cream Fruit Dip

8 ozs. cream cheese, softened
7 ozs. marshmallow creme
2 T fresh orange juice
1/2 tsp pure orange extract
(or if you don't have that, I've added 1/2 tsp of orange zest)

In food processor or blender, mix all ingredients together. Chill until ready to serve.
Created especially for strawberries!

These chicken enchiladas remind me of the kind in the restaurants with the green tomatillo sauce...they are spicy and creamy. To speed things up, I usually use a roasted rotisserie chicken from the store and a 16 oz. jar of Tomatillo salsa which is just the right amount. But hey, if you want to go for making your own salsa and have the ingredients in your produce department, then let me know how it turns out.
This is our oldest daughter's favorite too, and since giving her the cookbook, she makes her own from scratch. I am so impressed!!

Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce

1/3 cup half and half
6 ozs. cream cheese, softened
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
3/4 cup finely chopped onion (make it fine, you don't want to taste crunchy onion bits.)
Tomatillo Sauce
12 8-inch corn torillas
3/4 Cup shredded cheddar
3/4 Cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Condiments: shredded lettuce
chopped tomatoes, olives or sour cream (your pick!)
Sauce:
1 store bought jar or make your own:
2 dozen tomatillos, husked
4-6 serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded and minced
3 cups chicken broth
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 tsp salt
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Beat together 1/2 and 1/2 and cream cheese till smooth. Add chicken, onion and salt to cheese mixture and blend. Soften tortillas by wrapping in damp paper towel and heating in the microwave on medium heat for a minute or wrap in foil and place in low oven.
Spoon a thin layer of tomatillo sace in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Dip each tortilla in the tomatillo sauce. Place approximately 1/4 cup of chicken mixture down the center of the tortilla. Roll and place seam side down in the baking dish. Spoon remaining tomatillo sauce to taste over the casserole. Cover with foil and bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 20 minutes or until hot. Remove foil and add the cheeses. Bake for additional 5-10 minutes longer or until cheese melts and sides are bubbly.
Serve with condiments and enjoy ...ole!!