Cooking at Helm's Deep

We had one of those dinners last night that was just so quintessentially us. I found a recipe via Pinterst. It was pinned by one of my favorite bloggers, Tsh Oxenreider, founder of the Simple Living Media. (Those are possibly some of my most favorite blogs.)

Anyway, back to the recipe. Tsh pinned this recipe and suggested using a homemade biscuit recipe to avoid all the yuckiness that comes with such processed food. I thought that sounded like a great idea but of course had to take it a step farther. We also make our own enchilada sauce (LOVE). Our current favorite biscuit recipe comes from the inimitable, Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.

Buttermilk Biscuits
by Ree Drummond
From The Pioneer Woman Cooks , pg 44-45


Ingredients:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2.5 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup cold butter (5 1/3 Tbsps) cute into pieces
• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk

I just throw all the dry ingredients into a food processor and give it a quick whirl. Then I add the butter and shortening and whir it until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add the buttermilk until just combined. It comes out slightly sticky but not overly dry or crumbly. Roll then out on a floured surface to desired thickness (we like ours thick), cut out and bake at 450 for 11-14 minutes. You want them golden brown. 

Now, of course, for the Bubble Up Enchiladas I just measured out 12oz on my food scale and used it as directed in the recipe. Then I rolled out the rest of the dough and we had biscuits for our breakfast this morning. 

I also felt the recipe was missing a few things so I added green pepper, onion and garlic to the hamburger while it was browning. My enchilada sauce is not super spicy so I also added a pinch or two of cayenne pepper. 

Now Ralph and I loved this, as did Nugget who had 2 helpings. She just wouldn't eat the biscuit part, which is funny because she loves these biscuits. She had 2 with jelly for breakfast. Zita didn't eat much probably because I didn't start dinner until 6. I hadn't started the biscuits, enchilada sauce and had semi-frozen hamburger. Ahem. Like I said, a Helm's Deep quintessential meal. Anyway, an hour and a half later and countless snacks in between, Zita lost her appetite. My bad. If you're smart, unlike me, you could make up both the biscuits and sauce up ahead of time (probably even a day or so). That would save on time for sure.

So here is my much modified recipe:

Bubble Up Enchiladas 

modified from this recipe

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2-3 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 10 oz Mexican Enchilada Sauce (or your favorite sauce)
• 1 (8oz) can tomato sauce (after making the enchilada sauce I didn't have a full 8 oz left in my 15oz can so I just made up the difference with a little extra enchilada sauce)
• approx 12 oz of PW Buttermilk Biscuits (or recipe of your choice)
• 1 1/4 cup of your favorite cheese, shredded (we used Tillamook Special Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brown hamburger, green pepper, onion and garlic cloves. Drain if needed. Add in enchilada sauce and tomato sauce. Drop pieces of biscuit dough into mixture and incorporate. Pour mixture into greased casserole dish. Bake for 25 minutes. Add cheese to top and bake another 10 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Should serve about 6. 

I'm fairly confident we lost all resemblance to the Weight Watchers calorie goal the original recipe was going for but it sure was yummy!