at last

It's Friday!

I don't have much to say after a very exhausting five days, but I wanted to mention how tasty my enchiladas were on Tuesday. I shared them with an office buddy for Valentine's Day. I also shared a few of the chocolate truffles I made. I now know how to roll funny-looking little ganache morsels and dip and twist them to create fantastically delicious yet not-stunning truffle bites.

Now back to these enchiladas. I believe I may have mentioned before how at one point some years ago I realized that rolling enchiladas (although creative and pretty-looking) was basically a wild waste of time. Thus began my Enchilada Casserole years. Delicious, not as time consuming, and did I mention delicious?

You may be surprised that I am willing to share my recipe, but I'm pretty sure they're important enough to share. Also, I've never been one to think mine better than the original chef's so I feel that makes intellectual property pretty special and utterly sharable.

Layer upon layer, until you come out just right:

Corn tortillas

A round casserole dish that the tortillas almost fill

Rosarita vegetarian refried beans (you can add your own non-canned meat at will)

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (add to beans, stir until hot)

1/4 teaspoon chile powder (add to beans and cumin)

A sprinkling of garlic powder if needed (I don't use it anymore)

Sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Monterey jack cheese, grated (if desired/optional)

Mild diced green chiles (one small 3oz can)

Mild/medium/hot green OR red enchilada sauce (your choice of brand, but I like Hatch)

The following are optional additions:

Black olives, chopped

Cilantro, washed and chopped

Chicken breast chopped small, sauteed in tamari, ginger powder, garlic powder, thyme

Corn (add ancho chile powder for some added flavor)

Rice (add sauteed onions, pepper, chile powder, garlic powder for flavor)

Pre-heat the oven to 350F (expect 45 minutes to bake)

Add a thin layer of sauce to bottom of casserole dish

Add one tortilla

Add 1/4" layer of beans

Add sprinkling of cheese (not much needed)

Add chicken/olives/cilantro

Top with a few spoonfuls of sauce (not enough to be really wet)

Repeat until pan is nearing full.*

Top layer: cheese, sauce, olives (pretty) finish with more sauce

*Make eating your enchilada casserole more interesting by varying the amount in between each layer. I've noticed adding chicken to one but beans to another keeps the texture interesting.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350F. Your enchilada casserole is finished when the cheese is bubbly on top and sauce is bubbling.

Let sit for five minutes (if you can) and add small scoop of sour cream or plain yogurt.

This photo is from Monday night. I accidentally used Hot sauce, which made it more interesting but not in a super good way.

annual us

Rain is everywhere. It is falling on cheeks and streaming down windows. The air is only a little chilly, but the wind is having fun splashing water on the underneath of things.

I am sitting in my office thinking about my weekend. It was my annual Girls' Trip with dear friends, and I am always a little exhausted and a lot pleased afterward.

My girlfriends are wonderful. They are fun and sweet, smart and sassy. They are chic and stylish, perfectly sarcastic, and they are compassionate which makes all the sly remarks and silly giggles balance perfectly on the tightrope that friendship can be. Our tightrope is close to the ground (in case we fall) so we get all the good challenges and provoking conversation without the danger or any kind of meanness. Except when one or two of us are really hungry. And that is usually cured by lunch.

We had four nights and five days traipsing all over Seattle and even managed a 24-hour trip to Orcas Island. We loaded up my Volkswagon pop-top camper van (a.k.a. White Lightening), fully stocked with cheeses and specialty breads and spreads from Pike Place Market, and a few bottles of wine. We rode the ferry, hiked in the woods, went out for lunch, and sat on the beach sipping wine and watching otters. We went to dinner. We rode the ferry back the next day and had such a spread of culinary delights that passers-by made comments. We had to wash honey off the table.

The four of us can spend hours chatting, our conversations fluid, running all over the globe and up and down the span of our lives. We like to seek out boutiques and antique shops, locally made jewelry and small-batch perfumeries. We love dancing and even waited for 11:00p to roll around before we went out. This used to be no problem, but we're not the young sprouts we once were, so there is some self-impressing to do. (I could easily have sunk into the sofa for a nap.) As it was, we wore heels and got silly and dropped into bed at 3am.

Even after 24 hours a day together we were slow to say goodbye. They live 1254 miles South of me, which means we must plan our visits well ahead of time and save our pennies for splurging and discoveries. We found Vinho Verde (a Portuguese nearly-colorless white wine with an effervescent flavor). We found hand-hammered necklaces and Coconut-Curry Theo Chocolate. We have a list of funny quotes that will enter our stories the next time we get together.

I hope it won't be too long.

Here are a couple of photos (thanks to Morgan and Rachel with their Hipstamatic).

dig in

The Epicurean gods guided my hands yesterday as I hunted through our cupboards and that bottom drawer in the fridge. I can show no false modesty, I'm too excited! What emerged from this rather random assortment of vegetables and foodstuffs was a delicious, satisfying meal. It is vegetarian but full of protein and has a nice balance of textures. I'm calling it (for lack of any further inspiration) "white bean and cabbage salad with lime-yogurt dressing."

Here's the recipe in case you're interested. We made about half this much for two people, and had enough leftovers for my lunch today. Delicious! I hope you think so, too.

White Bean and Cabbage Salad

w/ lime-yogurt dressing

In a large mixing bowl combine:

1/2 head green cabbage (sliced thin like slaw)

1 12oz can black olives (chopped smallish)

1 12oz white Northern beans (rinsed, high in protein)

1/4 bunch (or to taste) chopped cilantro

2-3 leaves kale, chopped super thin (adds iron, fiber)

1-2 limes, juiced (start with one, to taste)

1/2 c. plain, lowfat yogurt (Greek style if desired, adds protein)

8-10 slices jar/mexi style jalapenos, diced tiny (to taste)

Enjoy! And I apologize for the photo, it is not what you would call "professional" or "good." I would have liked to rearrange the cabbage a little to reflect a more chic cabbage presence, but it said no.