Roasted Green Chilis and Chili Rellenos Casserole

The fresh produce co-op that I've been a part of for the past 2 1/2 years had green chilies and tomatoes for sale in last week's offering. I love green chilies and can't stand paying $2 for a tiny 2 oz jar. So I ordered a 25lb bag of green chilies and 25lbs of tomatoes.

I guess I didn't realize how much 25lbs really is. It was a WHOLE LOT of chilies, as you can tell.

I did a little research on how to roast chilies and Focus New Mexico's page had the best set of directions. I'll let you read them for yourself. However, I am going to share photos of how my chilies looked along the way and a few of the "Note to self..." moments that I had.

"Note to self number 1 ... leave the chilies whole. Don't try to clean them out." I cleaned out all but the chilies in this photo. I definitely wouldn't do that again. I thought it would save me a step at the end, but I found it was easier to "gut" the chilies after they were soft from roasting, then it was to cut them open and carve out their guts while they were still fresh.

"Note to self number 2 ... the blacker the better." Roast the whole darn pepper. The parts that didn't turn black were harder to peel.

"Note to self number 3 ... don't overestimate how long it will take to blacken the chili." I found that the chilies roasted a whole lot faster than I was expecting (I did burn a whole batch *opps*)

So all the labor paid off in the form of a DELICIOUS Chili Rellenos Casserole. It was soooooo wonderful, with the fresh roasted chilies. I usually use canned chilies, so if you're not willing to slave over a hot grill (it was 110 degrees outside while I was roasting), then canned chilies will also work.

Chile Rellenos Casserole
by The Mesquite Tree

• 15 oz can whole green chilies


• 1lb Monterrey Jack cheese


• 12 eggs
• 2 TBS flour


• 4 TBS butter


• 12-oz can evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9"x11" pan. Remove seeds from green chilies. Slice cheese into 1/4" slices. Layer chilies, then cheese in casserole dish. Sprinkle flour and butter on top, then add another layer of chilies and cheese.

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and milk with wire whisk; pour over casserole.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Serve with salsa.

*I'll save you the pain and agony and not post the nutritional information for a serving of this casserole...you're welcome!

Quiche - 5 Ways

So for Mother's Day I made dinner for the whole family. I decided, for my mother, I would make QUICHE and because of my brothers I made 5 of them. Don't ask...
I used the every fabulous Jamie Oliver Pie Crust recipe, made the dough Saturday night, and then just rolled it out on Sunday.

The general quiche filling recipe is as follows:
4 eggs (I used 2 eggs and 2 servings egg substitute)
2 C. milk (I use skim milk and it always turns out just fine. This time I used about 1 1/2 C. skim milk and 1/2 C. cream).
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar

mix together; pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake @ 425 degrees for 15 min. and then reduce oven to 300 degrees and back for another 30-40 minutes.

Some things I've learned (the hard way) about making quiche.

• Always put your empty pie shells, with whatever extras you want, on the baking rack first, THEN pour in the egg mixture. Slide the baking rack back into the oven and then bake.
• You will want to cook your vegetable al dente before adding them (unless you like crunchy vegetables in your quiches) and saute all your onions and peppers.
• There is such thing as "too much stuff", don't go over board on the fillings, you want room for the eggs.
• Don't fill the egg mixture all the way up to the top of the crust, eggs get poofy when they are baked and will spill over the top.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY, put your pie pan on a baking sheet before you put it on the baking rack in your oven. This way overfill with be caught by the baking sheet and not burn to the bottom of your oven.

Here are the pictures.Broccoli (it was actually CauliBroccoli) and bacon.It took me forever to bake all the quiches cuz I could only bake them 2 at a time cuz my oven is so small. Agghh! I dream of a larger kitchen someday, with tons and tons of counter space, a double oven AND warming oven, a side by side refrigerator and a seperate stand alone freezer, a stove with a pasta spout and 6 burners -- sigh!!

Anyways, back to reality...
Here's what I mean by putting them on the oven rack before I add the egg mixture.
You can see just how level my oven rack is (NOT).
Here's the finished product.

Ham, Bacon (isn't that redundant) and Swiss.
Green chili and cheddar cheese. This was the favorite.
Here they are all lined up, waiting to be served at mom and dad's. I made little name plates to tell everyone what was in each. I ended up making -- chili & cheddar cheese, ham & swiss, bacon & cheddar cheese, broccoli & bacon, bacon & ham & swiss.They tasted even better than they looked.