What is it?

While shopping at a little fresh market last week, I came face to face with a big bin of fresh poblano peppers. They were absolutely the most beautiful poblanos I have seen at any store in Michigan!


Since "Chiles Rellenos" is a favorite menu item for my dearly beloved, I bought 4 (they were so big that's all I could fit in the bag!), positive I could find a way around the deep frying part of the recipe.

I love the internet. Any recipe you could ever want is there. But I was having a bit of trouble finding a recipe that included ingredients that I already had in the house. And... this frying in inches of hot oil was in nearly every recipe. Finally, the perfect combo of ingredients and no oil fell into place and I was off on my poblano adventure.

Chiles Rellenos Pie

Ingredients:
6 fresh poblano chiles uh-oh I only have 4. I guess I will make 2/3's of the recipe
2 cups Monterey Jack cheese and 2 cups mild cheddar Oh boy. I have percorino romano, and mozzarella, and a little bit of cheddar. That will have to do.
1-1/2 cups cooked chicken!! I never saw that in the list! Well, let's see. I have some leftover seasoned steak strips. Ok. Next?
1 cup evap milk - Check. Oh wait, there's not much here. Guess I'll just add water.
1 cup sour cream Ugh. I know that sour cream is in here somewhere. Why don't they make refrigerators with revolving shelves? Hmmm. I think if I beat this cottage cheese it will be about the same. Good!
3 eggs But I only have 2! Wait... I'm only doing 2/3's of a recipe. Whew!
2 cups salsa YES!!! I have it!!!

Step 1: The roasting part went well. It is satisfying to zip the skins from the peppers with such ease.

Step 2: Well, I don't have an 11" square baking dish. (Do you? Have you ever seen one?) I do have an 11"x7"... could that be 2/3's? Lined my substitute pan with the roasted, seeded chiles and covered them with my trio of wrong cheeses. Topped that with the spicy beef strips - not chicken - and poured the mixture of diluted evap milk, flour, smashed cottage cheese, and 2 eggs over the layers in the pan.

Sounding good yet?

Step 3: Bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees. When the center of the casserole was firm, I spread salsa over the top and baked it for another 10-15 minutes.

Well... it probably should have had some standing time before I cut into it, but we were hungry. There is a phrase that I hear occasionally at my dinner table. (Whatever hackles are, it raises mine when I hear it.) My sweetie will look at me and say, "I wouldn't serve this to company..."

On Chiles Rellenos Pie night? He said, "I would serve this to company! This is sooo good!" I was shocked.

Here's my dilemma - what shall I call my new concoction? It isn't Chiles Rellenos. It isn't Chiles Rellenos Pie. I'll have to call it Manna (i.e. what-is-it?).

Yep... I'm thinking Manna is a good name for it.

And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing... and when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. Exodus 16:14-15