Vegetarian Enchiladas

So enchiladas may be my favorite meal. I love everything Mexican. EVERYTHING. I think it has to do w/ my appreciation for all things cheesy. My dad makes awesome cheese enchiladas, and I've been pretty successful at turning Christmas Eve dinner into Mexican night w/ enchiladas and tacos, and I'm pretty sure that's the best tradition ever. BUT, I'd never ventured to tackle enchiladas myself. My dad's have tons of steps and makes a boatload of food, so I think I was always overwhelmed that it would be a lot of work and produce too much food. Then one night Mollie invited me over for dinner and she'd made enchiladas and they were delicious, and didn't seem too difficult to recreate.

So I was at the store, planning on making an eggplant feta pizza when all the sudden the urge to make enchiladas overtook me. Corn tortillas were on sale, I had refried beans in my fridge I needed to use up, my cousin had brought me some fresh jalepenos, BUT there was only one type of enchilada sauce, and only one can wasn't dented. I bought that one... Then I came home and googled recipes to get some ideas.

I diced up jalapenos and a banana pepper and sauteed that w/ onion. Then I stirred in some cayenne pepper, chili powder and cumin into the refried beans. I warmed some corn tortillas, then smeared the bean mixture, threw in some peppers and onions, some shredded cheese and then rolled it up. I filled up a small baking dish and then just poured the can of sauce over top, threw some more cheese on top along w/ some dried cilantro. What is easier than that? Threw it in the over for abt 30 min and the enchiladas were done! Easy and delicious. Now that I know how easy it can be, I want to try and experiment, especially w/ the sauce. I used red, but would like to try the green. My dad stirs in some sour cream to make it creamy. Perhaps I'll attempt to make my own sauce... We shall see

Dinner Party

So I hosted a dinner party to thank my two good friends down here for all their help and support in helping me get set up down here in DC. Daphne lent me her awesome apt for a few weeks, where as Mollie has consistently lent me her husband, and I even managed to put his '94 Corsica in a coma for a bit. I'd been planning this dinner party in my head since the second I got the job (and even more so since I knew I would be living in a one bedroom apt!).

For starters we had 3 of the previous mentioned cheeses-- gouda (shout out to our times in Amsterdam), brie and bleu cheese. I also put out a mix of delicious olives I'd gotten at the market, some carrots and celery w/ homemade hummus.

For din, I made a pesto pea salad from Barefoot Contessa, altho I didn't really follow her pesto recipe and I did a mix of basil and mint, as well as a mix of baby spinach and mixed greens. I also made a summer squash dish that to me screams summer. As usual, I start by sauteeing garlic and onion, but then you add yellow squash and slow cook it over low heat for 20-30 minutes. The squash really cooks down and you can start to mash it. I then throw in some diced tomato because I think tomato (especially fresh) makes everything better. Plus summer squash for me can be a tough thing all on its own. I'm kinda weird w/ texture and I don't like things that make my teeth squeak. The primary example of this is mushrooms, but yellow squash have been known to do so as well. Somehow w/ yellow squash, I'm more willing to overlook it and this recipe is nice cuz the squash cooks down so much it doesn't seem to be "squeaky." Then you toss the squash w/ goat cheese and fresh basil. The end result is this amazingly creamy, but summery dish. Delish!

For dessert, I did another Food Network recipe from Semi-Homemade w/ Sandra Lee, Sangria Granita. I think we all know she is a lush, and to be honest my friends and I can be a bit of winos, so I decided to give it a whirl. You take a bottle of white, pour it into a pan, add 3 tbsp orange juice concentrate (I used orange mango), 1 tbsp limeade concentrate, 1 cup nectar (I used a Mango Naked Juice), 3 tbsp honey (I used wayyy less) and 1 tsp vanilla. Then you whisk it all together, throw it in the freezer and mix it every hour or so while it sets. It took abt 6-8 hours for mine to set. I served it with fresh peach on top. Sandra Lee says this makes 4 servings. There were 5 of us, and I still have half a pan of this in my freezer. She is a lush! Mollie brought over some chocolate dipped strawberries, which I thought went very nicely w/ my dessert because both were pretty light and fruity.

We ended the night by playing a riveting round of Apples to Apples. Mollie won, an attestment to her sense of humor. Tom was a close second meaning they truly are a good match! All in all, a great night-- good food, good friends, good times. Andddd, 5 bottles of the wine split between the 3 ladies. Oh yeah...

MJ

I wasn't a huge Michael Jackson fan, but I respect what he did for music and entertainment... and anyone who knows me can attest to my commitment to pop culture, so I DVR'd the MJ Memorial/Tribute and watched it after shopping for my upcoming dinner party. This meant I had numerous kinds of cheese, was hungry, and couldn't resist. Sometimes it is great to be a single 26-yr old living alone. Behold my dinner-- baby carrots, olives (some garlic stuffed), 2 kinds of crackers, bleu cheese, brie cheese, goat cheese, gouda and some red wine!