I didn't make them totally from scratch. Meaning that I used canned red enchilada sauce instead of making it myself. To make it myself would have been a little labor intensive. Simmering onions, garlic, pureeing canned tomatoes, etc. Mostly I was scared that I would add too much chili powder and no one would be able to eat it because it'd be too spicy for everyone's taste. So I just bought a big can of La Victoria red enchilada sauce, heated it up, and followed this recipe:
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moms_chicken_enchiladas/ .
Here are photos of the enchilada-making process:
That's the big can of red enchilada sauce. It was just barely enough. So if you like your enchiladas really saucy, you'll want to make your own sauce or buy a larger can, if your store has it.
Heat up the red enchilada sauce. Not very sexy.
Cook the chicken breasts before you shred them up and toss them in sauce (obviously; you can't really shred raw chicken). That's what parboiled chicken looks like. Definitely not sexy.
Get corn tortillas and shredded cheese. Try Monterey Jack, or a Mexican/Taco mix. Taco mixes come seasoned, though, so if you don't want that, just pick something else. You could probably even make your own shredded mix if you want.
I think there are recipes for enchiladas using flour tortillas out there, if you don't like corn tortillas. Corn tortillas do have a different flavor and texture than flour tortillas. I would have preferred corn tortillas from our local Mexican grocery store, because they make them on site.. Unfortunately, it's not actually that local to me and I had no choice but to go with what they had at the supermarket.
I didn't get pictures of the tortilla preparation, because I was trying too hard not to get burned from oil and letting the tortillas get too dark and keeping the tortillas from falling apart in the sauce. Do this after you prep the chicken (see below). Heat up about a tablespoon-ish of oil in a pan. When hot (and really, make it pretty hot), stick a corn tortilla in there until the edges get crispy and the tortilla starts bubbling a bit. Flip it and do the same on the other side. Then dip each side of the tortilla in enchilada sauce.
After the chicken is parboiled and has cooled enough to handle, shred it up with forks. Toss in about half a cup of sauce (or whatever you think is enough; that's what it took for 3 chicken breasts) and maybe half a cup of cheese (again, depends on your preferences). Mix it up and set aside.
Slap a couple spoonfuls of chicken into the saucy tortilla. Roll it up, stick it in a pan.
Snug as a bug in a rug. :) Slather with leftover sauce and dump cheese on it. Bake at 350F in a glass dish for ten minutes.
Look at that. Look. At. That. A little bit cheesy, a little bit saucy. Deliciousness. I used mild sauce. It had basically no heat and was just savory. If you like things a little bit hot, either make it yourself, try to find medium or hot sauce (they didn't have it at my supermarket), or add chili powder a teaspoon at a time until it suits your taste. I would suggest serving it with rice. However, we actually didn't because apparently we were out of rice and I didn't grab it at the store when I ran in. So we had enchiladas with cut up fruit. Yummy.
I also made brownies. From a box. So no great achievement there. A friend of mine is having a graduation party this weekend, so I am planning to make more baked goodies for her. On the docket: cream cheese brownies. Chocolate chip cookies (yet again). Funfetti cookies (from a box mix). So nothing terribly daring, but I can make them in large quantities, fairly easily, and they're crowd pleasers. Keep that in mind for parties: make lots of things that lots of people like. Especially if you're just a bunch of teenagers. Save the lofty aspirations for stuffed grape leaves, cherry clafoutis, and kale salad with lemon feta dressing for when you're older, have money, and know people who really like that stuff.
(I've been reading a lot of food blogs lately. Mostly from foodgawker.com. I'm a little obsessed. Actually, a lot obsessed. That's where I got the cherry clafoutis and kale salad from. I can't even tell you what a clafoutis really is, but it looks delicious, and I saw a lot of them because I guess cherries are in season someplace.)
Dinner tomorrow night: either burgers, for which I want to sauté mushrooms and onions as toppings, or linguine in garlic and oil with shrimp. I'm thinking maybe the pasta because you cook that stuff inside, and we have a heat advisory out here from noon until 8 pm. Which means I need to finish this soon and get to bed, because I intend to be running early in the morning tomorrow, before it gets too hot. When it's supposed to hit 75 at 7 am, you know it's gonna be hot and you need to hang around in the air conditioning. Or stay in your pool.
In other news, I have a job offer! Today, as I was just starting to get really desperate, I got a phone call from the theater academy where I took classes for basically my whole life. They offered me a job as a teacher's assistant with first through fourth graders for a month. I am very excited about it and hope that it works out. Go figure, I did not apply for this job. It may have been a conversation I had over the weekend with a friend who works there, in which I may have mentioned (like I have been to everybody, of course) that I was jobless and poor. It may have been the fact that my Facebook status was: "all the places I have applied to: Please hire me. I promise that I won't spend the money irresponsibly. 3/4 of it will be going straight into savings. Really! I am friendly and hardworking and I like people. You won't be wasting your money on me." Given that I am Facebook friends with a couple people who work at the academy as well, it is possible that someone took pity on me and suggested me to the man who is hiring for the summer, whom I actually don't know, of course. I'll go over the reasons why I didn't apply there in the first place. But for now, I'm going to attend the teachers' meeting tomorrow, check out the pay, and hopefully sign on!
Right now, I've been doing a lot of praying and reflection and trying to look for signs and figure out what this all means, if it even means anything. I hope you have a happy, wonderful week. If it's hot out by you, please drink lots and lots of water and try to put off your outdoor workout to the early evening, or get up and do it in the morning. If I want to do the latter tomorrow, I have to get to bed now.
Love,
Imara
French psychotherapist (1857 - 1926)
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