CHARLES PHOENIX TEST KITCHEN

Pronounced “INCHEZ-ON-YA,” it’s the combination of enchiladas and lasagna. At last, they are together as one! It’s potluck perfection, the ultimate main dish and the latest culinary creation from the Charles Phoenix Test Kitchen.

Recently I went back in the Test Kitchen to concoct a new dish that we could all serve up as a magnificent main course. My goal was to make something that just about everyone would enjoy.

So I began by daydreaming about my two favorite foods my mom made for when I was a kid: enchiladas and lasagna. Moments later my imagination was inspired and my spirit soared when the culinary gods spoke to me and said “Layer them together in the same casserole dish and call it INCHEZONYA.” Because it’s a new addition to the gastronomical galaxy, I spelled the name out in green onions on a lasagna noodle and placed it like a sash on a beauty queen. People want to know what they are eating.

Who knew enchilada sauce and pasta sauce blended so harmoniously; that tortillas and noodles duet so deliciously? All that with pounds of meat and mounds of melted cheese…it’s yummy, yummy in everyone’s potluck tummy! But don’t eat too much…it is called INCHEZONYA after all. And you’ll want to save some room for a big piece of Cherpumple for dessert!

INCHEZONYA – SO easy to make and bake! I invite you to try this in your test kitchen! Please SEND PIX!!!

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 24 corn tortillas
• 1 box lasagna noodles
• 1 lg can red enchilada sauce
• 1 lg can green enchilada sauce
• I lg jar chunky tomato pasta sauce
• 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
• 2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 6 green onions

Prep:

1. Sauté ground beef until done
2. Cook lasagna noodles according to box instruction
3. Mix sauces together in large bowl

Layer:

1. Cover the bottom of a large aluminum roasting pan with about 1 cup of sauce. Cover the bottom of the pan with 12 tortillas dipped in sauce.
2. On top of that, layer about third of cheese and half the meat. Cover with sauce and repeat layers ending with a layer of lasagna noodles on top.
3. Add the rest of the sauce. Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven, remove foil and cover with the last third of the cheese. Put back in over for 10 minutes or until the cheese is perfectly melted.

For the INCHEZONYA title banner: Spray a cooked lasagna noodle on a foil covered baking sheet with Pam cooking spray. Cut green onions to spell out INCHEZONYA. Put it in the broiler for a couple of minutes. Remove just before the green onions begin to brown. Let cool. Cut the leftover green onions into confetti size pieces and throw them on the melted cheese right after you take it out of the oven. Place the title banner and serve with Americana pride!

Here’s to my Inchezonya, your Inchezonya and YOU!

The Cherpumple is the desert version of the Turducken! It’s a three-layer cake with a pie stuffed in each layer. YUM! Cherpumple is short for CHERry, PUMpkin and apPLE pie. The apple pie is baked in spice cake, the pumpkin in yellow and the cherry in white.

The inspiration for the Cherpumple came from the typical desert table selection you would find at one of my family’s holiday celebrations. Seems there’s always cherry, pumpkin, and apple pie and a cake that’s a family tradition. It has a layer of spice and a layer of yellow. Since I always want to have a piece of each of the pies and the cake I figured why not make that waaaaaaaay more convenient. So I baked them all together as one and the Cherpumple was born.

CLICK HERE for the full recipe!

The Astro Weenie Christmas tree is the ultimate Holiday centerpiece!  Charles’ how-to video demonstrates basic construction, inspires Test Kitchen fans to get creative and share their crafty culinary creations!

Do you love Thanksgiving dinner but like me you’re getting tired of the same ‘ol, traditional dishes year after year, decade after decade? Well this year, I decided to do something about it and mix it up a bit by making a Tiki Turkey Dinner. It’s the traditional Thanksgiving dinner menu but with an exotic Polynesian twist!

Replacing the roast tom turkey with a turkey meatloaf carved into the shape of a Tiki gives “carving the turkey” a whole new meaning. Mangoes make cranberry sauce sensational. And cornbread stuffing becomes Hawaiian bread stuffing with ham and pineapple. I doctored up the yams up with bananas, Kahlua and macadamia nuts on top of the toasted marshmallows. YUM!

I thought coconut curry would completely reinvent the green bean casserole and it did. The mashed potatoes were served in the shape of a giant volcano and I renamed gravy “lava.” For desert, I wanted something really special…and flaming!. The Flaming Coconut Pineapple Apple Pumpkin Upside Down Pie Cake was just that! A two layer yellow cake with a pumpkin pie baked into one layer and an apple pie in the other. The top of the cake looks just like a pineapple upside down cake and the sides like a coconut cake. As if the flame effect before serving wasn’t enough, the guests gasped when I cut it to it revealing the pies hiding inside.

I mixed tropical cocktails, Played Martin Denny on the stereo console and greeted each guest with a lei. What a great way to make Thanksgiving fun. If you think about it Thanksgiving is our most boring holiday – all we do is eat. But not any more. After dinner is served, it’s time to do the limbo. How low can you go???

Here is the menu and recipes:

Tiki Turkey Meatloaf
You won’t eat this one until the next day. It’ll be you’re the centerpiece of your buffet table and the talk of the town the day after Thanksgiving. (You’ll make two smaller loaves to serve.)

9 lbs ground turkey
3 lbs sweet (or spicy) Italian sausage
2 packs of Lawry’s meatloaf seasoning mix
2 tbsps. onion powder
2 tbsps. garlic powder
2 tbsps. ground pepper
3 cups bread crumbs
6 large eggs

2 8” x 4” loaf pans
1 10” x 14” disposable tin roasting pan

Squeeze sausage from casings and add to turkey, bread crumbs, seasonings and well-beaten eggs. Fill each of the two small loaf pans with mixture. Fill the large tin with the remaining mixture, get creative and shape like the face of a Tiki god. Smooth the meat’s surface with olive oil “painted on” with a spatula. Bake at 350 for 40-55 minutes or until a probing meat thermometer reads 170 degrees. Drain off fat and remove from pans. Let sit 15 minutes before serving. Slice and serve only the smaller loaves.

Make a “face”on the Tiki loaf by sticking multicolored toothpicks with maraschino cherries and pineapple chunks. In a raised serving dish or vintage electric skillet, prop the Tiki up by leaning it on a tall glass fixed in a bed of mashed potatoes dyed orange. Garnish with more maraschino cherries and pineapple chunks (lightly tossed in yellow food coloring) and lit votives sunk into the mashed potatoes.

Cranberry Mango Salsa
1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup fresh or frozen chopped mango

Combine ingredients, chill and serve.

Hawaiian Bread Stuffing
2 loaves of day old Hawaiian Bread
2 sticks of salted butter
¼ cup soy sauce
2 small cans chicken stock
1 small can pineapple chunks
1½ cups diced ham
1½ cups finely chopped onion
1½ cups finely chopped celery
1½ cups finely chopped carrots
1 tsp. sage
1 tsp. Thyme
1 tsp. poultry seasoning

Tear bread into small pieces. Saute onions, celery, carrots, ham and well-drained pineapple in butter until the onions are translucent. Combine mixture with bread, stock, soy sauce and seasonings. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered 5 more minutes until its crunchy golden brown on top. Serve.

Banana Yams Kailua
4 cans of yams
3 mashed ripe bananas
½ stick of salted butter
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup Kahlua
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Saute bananas and brown sugar in the butter until it bubbles. Pour mixture over well-drained yams and add Kahlua. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Remove foil, top with marshmallows and macadamia nuts and bake uncovered 5 more minutes until marshmallows are toasted on the top and serve.

Coconut Curry Green Bean Casserole
8 small cans French cut green beans
1 small can cream of mushroom soup
1 jar coconut curry simmer sauce
¼ cup crunchy peanut butter
1 large can French fried onion rings

Combine well-drained beans with soup, coconut curry and peanut butter. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil, top with onion rings and bake uncovered 5 more minutes and serve.

Volcano Mashed Potatoes
10 pounds russet potatoes
1 stick butter
1 ½ cups whole milk
1 small tub of sour cream
Cut potatoes into bite size pieces and boil in salted water about 15-20 minutes until tender. Mash in milk, butter and sour cream. Shape them into a volcano and serve.

Lava Gravy
3 small can of turkey gravy
Heat and serve

Flaming Coconut Pineapple Apple Pumpkin Upside Down Pie Cake
1 8-inch frozen pumpkin pie
1 8-inch frozen apple pie
1 box yellow cake mix (mixed)
1 tub vanilla frosting
1 cup shredded coconut
4 canned pineapple rings
9 maraschino cherries
2 tbsp. lemon extract (for flambe)

2 9-inch round cake pans

Defrost pies to room temperature. On top of the pumpkin pie place well-drained pineapple rings and maraschino cherries in symmetrical pattern (think pineapple upside down cake.) Place decorated pumpkin pie face down and centered in a 9-inch round cake pan. Remove pie from tin and cover with half of the batter.

In the other cake pan place the apple pie face down, remove tin and cover with the remaining half of the batter. Bake according to box instructions. Cool and remove from pans.

Place apple pie layer face up on very special cake plate and frost the top. Place pumpkin pie layer pineapple side up on top of that. Frost the sides with remaining frosting and cover with coconut.

Just before serving pout lemon extract in the middle of the top of the cake. Gather guests around, turn out the lights and light it with a match it. Everyone will gasp…then eat it!