Green Enchiladas

This is the best I can do for a recipe on the green enchiladas. It is Greg’s recipe, but he said I should write it up, and everyone knows I don’t care much about measuring ingredients. However they turn out for you is how you will eat them.

2 pounds ground pork
2 pounds Monterey Jack cheese, grated
1 big bag of the small tortillas (either flour or corn; we prefer corn)
1 big can of green enchilada sauce
Cilantro

First, go to the butcher shop and have them grind two pounds of pork. I ask the guy to cut off as much fat as he can before he grinds the pork, and I will pay him extra to do it. Brown the ground pork, and season it with garlic salt. If you like peppers and onions, add them to the pork. Cool the browned pork.
Grate the cheese.
If you want to do it, you can sauté the tortillas in oil as you roll the tortillas. I don’t do this, but Greg does.
Place a tortilla on a dinner plate, add equal amounts of ground pork and grated cheese, roll up the tortilla, and place in a Pyrex baking pan that has a small amount of enchilada sauce in the bottom. When all your pans are full, snip the cilantro all over the top of the enchiladas. Pour the green enchilada sauce over the top. Sprinkle some grated cheese over the top. Bake at 300 to 325 degrees.

I only bake one pan, and freeze the rest unbaked.

The traditional Mexican way to prepare the enchiladas is to layer everything in a pan; don’t bother rolling up the enchiladas, and it will be like a big casserole.

I made a similar dish when I organized a St. Patrick’s Day buffet at work and requested everyone bring green food. I think this is what I used (it was vegetarian as I didn’t know my co-workers dietary habits).

1 or 2 cans diced green chilis
1 big can green enchilada sauce
Corn tortillas
2 pounds grated Monterey Jack cheese

Pour a small amount of enchilada sauce in the bottom of a Pyrex pan, layer the tortillas, sauce, chilis, and cheese, ending with a layer of tortillas and a thick layer of green sauce (so it stays moist and the tortillas don’t dry out). If it looks like it is getting too dry while it is baking, cover it with aluminum foil.
You can also add sour cream and/or a can of cream of chicken soup when you are layering it.
I didn’t have any leftovers, so I guess everyone liked it. It takes five minutes or less to put together, and the only utensils you will get dirty will be a can opener, cheese grater, and a bowl.

Adult (geriatric) Beverages!

For 42 years I have been the head of the cooking department for a household whose dietary habits are mostly influenced by food lore and kitchen superstitions; toast and Cheerios; my blatant disregard for timing (grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast and popcorn for dinner); my life-long refusal to make fried chicken because I am not cleaning up that kind of mess and besides, my friend sustained third-degree burns when she fried chicken; my distaste for bananas; anything starting with "pancakes"; and my extreme annoyance regarding anything related to the grocery store ("can't you just eat fish sticks and dried apricots for dinner, because that's what we have and I am not going to the store now; I promise I'll make steak and baked potatoes tomorrow").

It's hot in the valley, and sometimes we like a cool drink in the afternoon. And I try to live by my motto, "let someone else clean up the mess", so we are big fans of Jamba Juice. If someone is making a Juice run, my order is "anything that doesn't have a ground-up banana in it". So, it's established we like cold, blenderized, fruit-flavored drinks.

Now, I realize that for most folks a cold, fruit-flavored drink involving the use of a blender means Daiquiris, Margaritas, or Pina Coladas. We have an entirely different idea about liquid refreshments--ours are milk based, discovered by accident! Most people call it a fruit smoothie, but we call it elixir, nectar of the Gods.

Remember my dislike of bananas? A couple months ago, I had planned to eat one banana that had been lingering or malingering around the kitchen, and then the next day I again planned I would eat it, and then the next day, I planned to throw it away. But I thought I would give a blender drink made with a banana a chance, and how bad could it be anyway, especially if Greg drank half; after all, it is just fruit, and I am not wasting food that I have had to chase myself to the store to get. I blended up the banana with a carton of yogurt, some milk and soy milk, and frozen raspberries. Oh, my gosh! I don't know the magic part of these ordinary ingredients, except that perhaps it happens when everything is whirled together. We are hooked! We have had some version of this every day except one in the past two months, and the day we didn't have it, everything went wrong!

So far, the only two required ingredients are the banana and a cultured dairy product or dairy substitute. Even if you are on a diet (especially if you are on a diet), this is a great drink as you can regulate the amount of sugar and fat. We use kefir or yogurt, the banana, soy milk and whole milk, and any kind of fresh, frozen or canned fruit. Our favorite addition is frozen mango chunks.

It is easy, it is cheap, you can keep enough ingredients on hand so you don't have to go to the store every single day, the variations are unlimited, and it can even be used as a meal, especially if you are a little old grandma or grandpa.

Monster Cookies Abbreviated

I like to bake--kind of. Mostly I like to eat fresh cookies and pretend I am domestic. The things I don't like about baking are making a shopping list, going to the store, and buying unusual ingredients; measuring a lot of stuff and mixing it up; putting 800 cookies on baking sheets and waiting for them to get done when it is already 102 degrees in Galt; taking them off the baking sheets and putting them on cooling racks all over the kitchen; finding enough containers to store them; and getting a bunch of odd utensils dirty that Greg will be mad about when he goes to wash the dishes. But I wanted some Monster Cookies! I found a lot of recipes on-line and had a couple in my cookbooks, but they all start off with "1 dozen eggs"--I wanted a dozen cookies! So I hunted down a small recipe and reduced it down even further until it was something manageable, and even reduced the sugar a little. There is no flour in them, so you won't get heartburn due to your wheat allergy. The measuring isn't fussy; if they don't turn out like you planned, you are just going to eat them anyway. These aren't diet cookies; sorry, I don't know how to fix that. There is only one dozen, little old grandmas and grandpas don't need a Rubbermaid tub of cookies. I didn't even use the mixer, just creamed the first six ingredients together with a spoon. If you plan to eat them for breakfast and want them to be a little healthier, use raisins instead of chocolate chips and M & M's (that is, if you like raisins; we don't). You know how you like your cookies--if you like them crisp (like we do), bake them a little longer; if you like them chewy, use less oatmeal and bake them for a shorter time. After you make them two or three times, you won't even need to look at the recipe. See? There, now you have one dozen cookies and you hardly made any mess at all.

Use a greased baking sheet and set the oven at 350 degrees.

1 egg

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons butter (just cut it off the stick)

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 1/3 cups oatmeal

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup M & M's

Cream together the first six ingredients. Stir in the oatmeal, add the chips and M & M's. Roll into 12 balls and place on a cookie sheet, and flatten them down a little. Bake them. Eat them. If there are any left, put in a zip lock bag.

Me---Reading!

I know all you book-lovers and readers will find this difficult to believe, especially since I have always considered myself a book-lover and reader. I never take time to go to the library! But today I treated myself to a trip to the library. I know most people don't consider that a treat--its more of a necessity!
Sacramento County has an amazing library, but we live 35 miles from the library. There are numerous little branches that are great, too, and we have a wonderful little library in Galt. It is 1 minute away by car and 10 minutes by foot. But do I ever take the time to go there instead of spending my time playing Bejeweled Blitz, browsing the internet, or knitting while lying on my back in bed? Today, all that changed!
And I think I really scored! I picked up "The Soloist", "Names My Sisters Call Me", "Retail Therapy", and"The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing". Nothing heavy, you know. I have to ease myself back into reading.
It's not like I haven't been reading anything. I read the Bible from cover to cover three times, three different versions in the past two years. And my AARP magazines.
So, I am feeling rich, I have a stash.

My "Garden"

I took some great pictures that make it look like I am a gardener. I like to plant things, and drag the hose around watering plants, and I like to look at flowers, and eat vegetables. But that definitely does not make me a gardener. I don’t have the “know-how”, the soil, the energy or time or patience to be a real gardener. Most of my “garden” is planted in pots due to our hard-pan soil. Whatever isn’t growing in pots, is just due to time and circumstances.
Most of the garden is red geraniums. The hummingbirds love them and they are so hardy that I can stand on them with no damage. They don’t freeze over winter. They don’t burn up when it is 120 degrees. They don’t shrivel up if they don’t get watered for a week. It takes no skill to grow geraniums and they show up well. If you want another geranium, just break off a branch and stick it in the ground.

The area I photographed is the strip between our driveway and our neighbor’s driveway. We have been friends and neighbors for many years, and they are great neighbors, but we have different ideas regarding what makes a good yard. They prefer concrete and dirt, and refer to the strip between our driveways as “the weeds”. The strip with the flowers has taken me at least 10 years to get growing, due to my minimal skills and interest, and our lawn guy's best efforts to destroy anything he hasn't planted himself. But when this little strip finally took off, I was definitely proud. The pink flowers are Mexican evening primroses. There are white four o’clocks springing up that won’t bloom for a while yet, but they are very fragrant. There is a carpet of scarlet pimpernel (it’s native; this development used to be a cow pasture), violas, and spearmint running wild. There are garlic chives that I can’t control. There is a pot of Shasta daisies and a couple of pots of African daisies. And of course, there are California golden poppies. I am really hoping that Round-Up doesn’t happen when the neighbor comes home. I apologize for the TV cable tower; we think it is an eyesore, too, and doesn't really fit the scheme of the "garden". But, on second glance, in the picture, it looks kind of Asian and modern, doesn't it?

Taste Restaurant

For Mother’s Day, my dear husband took me to my favorite restaurant, Taste. It was a beautiful drive to Plymouth yesterday afternoon, but did I have my camera so I could share the gorgeous California scenery with you? No, of course I didn’t. We drove through the valley to the foothills and saw valley oaks, hundreds of pygmy goats with their babies in pastures, volcanic rock formations, wild flowers, vineyards, and snow still on the distant Sierra Nevada Mountains. Dinner at Taste is always a treat and always delicious. Greg had prawns for the first course and deemed them the best prawns he had ever eaten, and he also had mushroom cigars. I was skeptical, too, the first time I heard of mushroom cigars, but they are a treat that shouldn’t be missed—chopped mushrooms rolled in phyllo dough and baked, served on little dabs of mashed potatoes with truffle gravy. We both had filet mignon, our favorite, topped with green peppercorn butter, and served with grilled asparagus and lyonnaise potatoes. I had sorbet for dessert—pineapple, blood orange, and raspberry.
But our very first course was a bottle of pink sparking wine that we shared with our two favorite servers and the owners of Taste to toast their two recent awards. Taste was voted in the top 50 U.S. restaurants by Open Table and voted the Best New American Restaurant by KCRA (for non-Sacramentans, it is a local TV station).
Check out their website at www.restauranttaste.com and try to get to Plymouth for dinner.