Trust me when I tell you once you go with Homemade Enchilada Sauce you’ll never go back to the canned variety.  From start to finish in 20 minutes and worth every one of those.

Take 5 minutes to gather your ingredients before you begin.  Once you start making the sauce it moves quickly.

It’s delicious over your favorite Enchiladas and the star of your Game Day Cheesy Beef Enchilada Dip, but also a great base for Soup.

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Homemade Enchilada Sauce

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 3 Tbl. canola oil
• 1 Tbl. flour
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 10 oz. tomato paste
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Instructions

• In a medium saucepan heat oil over medium heat, add flour, smoothing and stirring with a wooden spoon.
• Cook for 1 minute, then add chili powder and cook for 30 seconds.
• Add stock, tomato paste, oregano, and cumin. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• The sauce will thicken and smooth out. Adjust the seasonings, adding salt as necessary.

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When summer tomatoes are at their best, I could eat a ‘matter’ sandwich for dinner every night.  Give me some fresh baked white bread, sliced garden tomatoes, Homemade Mayonnaise and listen to me utter these words.  Good gracious!

Now that we’re smack in the middle of the tomato season we’ve had plenty of opportunity to fine tune this recipe for Homemade Mayonnaise.  It’s officially ready for Prime Thyme. (couldn’t help myself).

The success of this recipe is attributed to beating the room temperature egg yolks, vinegar and dry mustard powder with a hand mixer until they become fluffy and pale yellow.  Don’t be in a hurry, good things come to those who wait.  Plan on a good 3-5 minutes.

Once the yolks are fluffy, slowly, and I mean slowly, drizzle one drop of oil at a time while blending.  It will take a few minutes of patience for the mayonnaise to emulsify.  Once the mixture begins to thicken, add the remaining oil in a very slow stream with the mixer running.

Your mayonnaise will change from pale yellow to almost white in color.  Season with salt and/or pepper to taste.  We love freshly ground black pepper, especially on sliced ripe tomatoes.  Adding pepper to this batch of mayo was perfect.  As a general rule of thumb, for day to day mayo, we won’t add pepper.

As a girl who has failed at mayonnaise making in the past, my tip is to be patient.  It will be worth it.

We are not afraid of raw eggs, however if you have concerns I have a disclaimer at the end of this post.

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Homemade Mayonnaise

Author Libby with Lemony Thyme

Ingredients

• 2 egg yolks room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. ground mustard powder
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1/4 tsp. salt or to taste
• pinch black pepper not traditional but tasty

Instructions

• Using an electric hand mixer, blend together egg yolks, vinegar, and mustard powder. The mixture will become a pale yellow color.
• Slowly, and I mean slowly, drizzle one drop of oil at a time while blending.
• Once about 1/4 cup of oil has been added the egg yolks will emulsify, you can then add the remaining oil in a very slow stream while continuing to blend.
• Storage: Store in a jar with well sealed lid in refrigerator for no more than 5 days.

Disclaimer: Contains raw eggs which may not be recommended for some folks who’s health may be compromised. To reduce the slight risk of salmonella use pasteurized eggs.

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When life gives you pulled pork, we think pulled pork sandwiches…which require hamburger buns.  We could run to the store or we can make Homemade Hamburger Buns from ingredients already in our fridge and pantry in just over 30 minutes.  Bingo!

If you’ve been following Lemony Thyme for a bit you may be familiar with our Eat Out of the Fridge/Pantry Weeks.  They are a chance for us to use up open ingredients and generally reduce the clutter that can take over a fridge…and a pantry.  Through this process we have become quite resourceful, have reduced our grocery bills, and are beginning to think twice before placing an item in our buggy at the grocery store.  So much so that I may write a post with more concrete statistics on this topic.  For now we’ll focus on these soft, golden brown, delicious buns.

I’m beginning to see a pattern with bread making.  Warm water, sugar, oil, and yeast when left alone for about 5 minutes begin to look like a science project…in a good way.  The dough comes together with the addition of egg, salt, and “enough flour to form a soft dough.”  You’ll notice in the picture above that I used Bread Flour.  The recipe called for all-purpose flour and that tub was empty.  Bread flour worked just fine.  Eat Out of the Fridge/Pantry Week = no trips to the grocery store.  None.

The sweet deal about this recipe is after 3-5 minutes of kneading we skip right over ‘rise’ and jump to…divide the dough into 12 balls, then allow to rest for 10 minutes.  We’re twenty minutes into the process at this point.  That’s all.  Just twenty.

Into a 425 degree oven for 8-12 minutes and voila.  Homemade Hamburger Buns.  In thirty to thirty-two minutes.  Hot out of the oven, no burger required, the first two were buttered and gone in mere minutes.

The next two Homemade Hamburger Buns were topped with yummy slow-cooked pulled pork.  THE single inspiration for making these buns.  Check out our Warm German Potato Salad recipe that was a perfect side dish.

Recipe source:  Taste of Home.

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Homemade Hamburger Buns

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Author Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 2 Tbl. active dry yeast
• 1 cup plus 2 Tbl. warm water 110-115 degrees
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3 – 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• In a large bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. Whisk in vegetable oil and sugar. Allow to rest for 5-minutes.
• Add the egg, salt and enough flour to form a soft dough (I used about 3 1/4 cups).
• Turn out onto a well floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide into 12 balls. Do not allow to rise. Place 3-inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets, cover and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
• Bake for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.

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As I continue with my quest to share all the “Classic” Salads I can think of I’m branching out to dressings as well.  I hadn’t had Catalina Salad Dressing in years until Friday.  I had forgotten how much I love it’s sweet tangy flavor.

Catalina Salad Dressing and the Classic Lunch Counter Style Chef Salad are meant for each other.

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Catalina Salad Dressing

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 3 Tbl. sugar
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• shot of hot sauce
• pinch of salt & pepper
• 1/2 cup canola or other mild oil

Instructions

• Add all ingredients through salt & pepper to a high-speed blender. Process for 1 minute.
• With blender running, slowly pour oil through feed hole and blend for 1 minute or until emulsified.
• Store in an air tight container for up to 3 weeks in refrigerator.

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