Category: food

Homemade Enchiladas

If only my crap camera and skills did this meal justice!

Everyone loves enchiladas, or they should. My mom makes hers from scratch using a recipe from my dad’s side of the family. My dad comes from the Gila Valley in Arizona; they’ve been there for generations. I’ve asked my Grandma as well as Great Aunts and Uncles where this recipe comes from but no one seems to know. It’s always been around; in pretty much the same form though various branches of the family have tweaked it here or there. These enchiladas are my favorite meal of all time. Growing up we had them about once a month and whenever I visit home mom will usually make them as she knows I love them.

I know how to make these enchiladas. I have the recipe and have done so before. The problem is one of storage. The recipe for the sauce that has come down to us is not small, it makes over a quart of the stuff! If I had a family of four or five that wouldn’t be an issue but, there are only the two of us here. Freezing the sauce does something to it that changes its texture and I don’t have a canner (yet). So, most of the time we go without.

My mom is now canning the sauce!

I went home over last weekend for a good friend’s wedding and while there my mom handed me the can above and asked, “how many pints of this can you carry back with you?” My first response was, “As much as I can fit into this suitcase! I will mail my personal effects home!” She wasn’t buying that line, though… So we settled on four pints of the canned enchilada sauce. I had to check my bags (damned TSA) but eating enchiladas tonight was completely worth it.

The sauce with cooked ground beef added. You can't can it with the meat
Don't forget to accessorize!
rolling your enchiladas is for the feeble minded. You've got to layer them

I don’t know if this is breaking some family tradition or not… But, I can’t share with you how great this meal tastes and then not give you the opportunity to experience it yourself! So I’m including the recipe below! I warn you it makes a lot and is skimpy on the details, but then aren’t all things that are passed down from generation to generation?

Howard Family Enchilada Sauce

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup shortening
  • 1 46 oz can of tomato juice
  • 46 oz of water
  • 1 can El Pato sauce
  • 1 tsp. vinegar
  • 1 soup spoonful of sugar
  • 1/2 lb ground beef
  • cumin
  • oregano
  • chili powder
  • salt and pepper

You make a thick roux from the flour and shortening and then brown it (it is easier to thin the sauce than it is to thicken it so you want to error on the thick side here) once the rue has browned you add in the other ingredients, stirring constantly. Once all the ingredients are incorporated you may season the sauce. After seasoning throw in the already cooked beef. Raise the sauce to a boil and then let simmer for at least an hour.

To prepare enchiladas: soften corn tortillas in hot oil, a quick dip in and then out will be sufficient. Blot them if you want to cut down on oil. Layer the tortillas, sauce, cheese, and diced onions (three or four layers is sufficient). Top with lettuce. Be as generous or as stingy as you want with the sauce during layering. I’ve had it both ways and both are good. I usually run generous, though.

 

Second Anniversary

Together since 2006. Married since 2009

September fourth marked D and I’s second wedding anniversary. That is two whole years of awesome! Sadly, we planned our wedding to happen around the busiest time of the year for me and so we were unable to get away for our anniversary (this was complicated by the fact that D is in the midst of getting a paper published, drafting two more papers and apply for post-doctoral work right now). So, instead we spent the weekend relaxing and hanging out with each other. What did “hanging out” consist of? Working on her bicycle, going on walks, sitting in front of the television, etc. I know that doesn’t sound like an ideal way to spend an anniversary, BUT things have been so crazy around here that just being able to spend time together has been nice and we both needed a few days to relax and refuel before we have to dive back into work.

Oh! Yeah, and we went to our favorite restaurant in town a Nepalese/Indian place where I’ve had most of everything on the menu and now order the same thing every time chicken or lamb korma! (See, I fooled you into thinking this was a post about relationships but it’s really a post about food. I’m a glutton!)

From bottom, clockwise: Lamb Korma (mind blowingly delicious), raita, mystery Indian dish 1 (its pagan flavor makes it illegal in the South), naan and basmati rice, mystery Indian dish 2 (oh, Goddess I want more of it), mystery Indian dish 3 (why can't I make food this good?!)

I have close up pictures of the dishes, but I’ll spare you…

My eyes are closed because I'm experience Nirvana

D got the same large plate as me (they call it ‘thali” at the restaurant), instead of korma though she got a dish that is a mix of spinach and garbanzo beans. It too tastes amazing which is why it is not allowed in North Dakota, it’s pagan spiciness would cause conversions en masse (I’m already preparing to become a devotee of Shiva).

Looks like goop; tastes like heaven

After dinner, we went out to our favorite local pub and talked while having drinks and then walked around town for a little bit. It wasn’t anything fancy and it won’t win us any awards for creativity but I had a wonderful time and D did too (I think…)

In other news I beat Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I’m going to sleep on it a few days and see if I can gather my thoughts on the subject. If I succeed in doing so you’ll see a post here.

This post is late because it’s Labor Day!

 

 

 

How my Garden Grows: Summer 2011 part ?

Jungle-like density

Since last I chronicled the progress of the garden the pole beans have overgrown the fence and have proceeded to begin colonization of the front yard, I’ve lost an overgrown zucchini plant that spilled out of the box and then broke underneath its own weight, and some sort of animal has begun poaching all of my tomatoes! We’ve also been eating a lot of cucumbers (the regular and lemon varieties), zucchini, and green beans. We’ve been collecting so many of them in fact that almost every meal that is prepared now has one, or more of those three things in it. Bread salad is always a popular choice (seeing as it requires fresh basil and we have plenty of that as well)

The beans migrate into my neighbors yard...
Pole beans and cucumbers scale the growth screen and the fence...

That first picture is of the beans growing over one of the support ties for the tomato plants. The beans infiltrated into the tomato plants and then co-opted their supports. Next time I’m just going to plant bush beans. I can get the same, if not higher, yield, and not have to worry about the plants overcoming everything else in the garden. The second picture shows both beans and cucumber plants growing up their growth screen and over the wall.  One of the bushes in the front yard, planted to screen view of the electric meter and the fence has already been reached by a bean creeper and, I’m sure, will soon succumb to the pole beans. The funny thing is people said the soil in the garden was spent and nothing would grow! We’ve had a higher yield this year and more robust plants!

A cucumber blossom
Bean blossom
A cuke!

No picture of the harvest today. We’ve been going over the garden every day or so and so we pick a little produce everyday as opposed to a large pile of it on the weekends… This way we can incorporate the fruit into food throughout the week and have it at its freshest!

 

You can see previous entries in this series here, here, and here.

I Made Zucchini Bread or Cake

Not delicious yet...

I can only eat grilled, boiled, or fried zucchini so much before I just want to rip the plants out of the garden and throw them on the compost heap. Thankfully, those aren’t the only ways to prepare zucchini; you can also put the vegetable into baked goods such as cakes and breads. In fact, I’d say you can put zucchini in to just about anything the vegetable is mostly water and has little to no flavor of its own so it makes excellent filler. This morning while I was poking around in the fridge for breakfast I noticed one of our zucchinis was getting soft and failing to find anything to eat I decided I could use said limp zucchini to make bread. I dug out my mom’s recipe for the stuff and went to work! This is a really simple recipe so I’m just going to include it here at the top of the post instead of the bottom. (Unlike other cooking blogs that make you scroll through dozens of pictures of the dogs and kids and endless text that gets you no closer to the recipe you’re actually looking for.) Continue reading “I Made Zucchini Bread or Cake”

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