Enchilada Lasagna

I am really excited to be sharing this recipe with you today. I have seen the idea of an enchilada lasagna around for a while, and after making some homemade tortillas, I thought, why not try it out! The tortillas that I made were not the roundest and most even looking tortillas so I thought they would fare well in this recipe.

Tortillas are actually really easy to make and taste infinitely better than most of the grocery store varieties. Not to mention the short ingredient list. Flour. Oil. Milk. Baking Powder. Salt. That's it. No glycerides, no fumaric acid or a number of other presumably preservatives. I used this recipe from the Homesick Texan. I used half whole wheat flour and they seemed to turn out well. When you make these, don't forget to have one when it is still warm and fresh. You will not regret it.

This recipe from Perry's Plate was the inspiration for using the tortillas for an enchilada lasagna, instead of making just plain old enchiladas. The recipe is totally adaptable to your taste and preferences, but this is how I did it:

Enchilada Lasagna adapted from Perry's Plate and Simply Recipes
serves 4-6

Sauce:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
1 cup of salsa
1 can of crushed tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/2-1 cup of water

Tortillas (I suggest you make these; I doubled the recipe)

1 tbsp olive oil
mushrooms
red peppers
corn
black beans
spinach
shredded cheddar cheese

1. Heat olive oil on medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until cooked. Add salsa, tomatoes, tomato paste and water. Add water to make the sauce according to your desired consistency. You don't want it too thick because it will thicken up even more in the oven, but too thin will result in soggy tortillas.
2. Reduce heat to low and keep warm while preparing the lasagna.
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
4. I decided to do sautéed vegetables. In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add all vegetables except for the spinach and beans. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the black beans and stir to combine.
5. In a large greased baking dish, add a little bit of the sauce to the bottom and spread around. Place a layer of tortilla. Add 1/2 of vegetables, top with sauce and spinach. Place a layer of tortilla, add the rest of the vegetables, add sauce and spinach. Place the final layer of tortilla, add a little bit of sauce, and sprinkle some shredded cheddar on top.
6. Bake at 450 degrees F covered with foil for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.

This is an amazing dish. It makes great leftovers, and is very easy to assemble. I cannot wait to make it again!

Mother's Day Cheese Party with Baked Brie

Happy Mother's Day to all Mom's out there! We all have a Mom in our life, whether biological, or another woman we look up to. My relationship with my Mom has strengthen over the last couple years, as I have gotten older, and I look forward to spending time with her on the weekends (and I am not just saying that because she reads my blog). This Mother's day instead of buying her something she really didn't need, I thought I would spend money on something we could do together.

Last weekend I was walking down Locke St. in Hamilton when I passed the Cheese Shoppe on Locke. I had been in a few times and it is a wonderful store. It has a great atmosphere, and fantastic products. These include cheese (obvi), jams, marinades, spices, vinegars, oils, pasta, pies, lots of locally produced as well as imported goods. My Mom has not been in the store before but I knew she would love it, since she loves cheese just as much as I do, so I picked up a gift certificate.

Today we took a trip to the store together and Mom picked out 3 different cheeses and a jam. To go along with the cheeses we picked up spelt flatbread crackers and a multi-seed sourdough baguette from local De La Terre bakery. The bread from De La Terre bakery tastes amazing, not to mention it is local and organic. (can be found at Goodness Me as well as the Hamilton Farmer's Market).

Our platter of goodies:

Starting from the left we have the sliced sourdough baguette. Going clockwise, the first cheese is Asiago. It was very mild, especially compared to what I am used to. The Zerto Asiago is from Wisconsin and is aged for 6 months naturally. This short aging time makes it more soft and mild. I enjoyed it but it wasn't the star of the plate.

Beside the Asiago we had some spelt flatbread (was excellent with the baked brie). Now here was the show stopper. 9 years old raw milk cheddar from Ontario. Never have I had raw milk cheese, nevermind cheddar aged 9 years. I think the most I've had is 5 years. It was strong, but delicious. I loved this cheese on the sourdough bread and found that while the cheese was very strong and overcame the flavour of the bread, the aftertaste of the cheese was generally pleasant and not too overbearing.


Beside the cheddar was some Que Pasa chips (coloured with beet juice!) which was enjoyed with Summer Fresh spicy chili pepper topped hummus. While all this was being assembled, the Brie cheese was baking in the oven.

To prepare the baked Brie the rind was removed from one side of the wheel. Then an Apricot and Jalapeno jelly was spread on top.

This was then baked in a 350 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes.

We chose this jelly after trying a strawberry and jalapeno jelly at Whole Foods which was sooo good! Should have bought it when we had the chance! This one was delicious as well though. I love the sweet and spicy combination.

We also had my Mom's favourite Sangria and a green salad.

It was nice to have some time just my Mom and I at home, and sample some new cheeses. I think she enjoyed her "cheese tasting" Mother's Day gift...Mother's Day success!