As far as life goes, work is work and has been commanding most of my attention these days, besides the holidays. Omar and I enjoyed a lovely Christmas at home (for which I received two dutch ovens!) and a sufficiently raucous New Year’s with friends, but now we are readjusting to life as usual. Which means – regular cooking schedules!

Now that I’m back on my cooking game, I must share a recipe I have now made twice and will most definitely be making again and again.  My neighbor has a depressing lack of good Chinese and Thai restaurants and an even more depressing abundance of fast food and Applebees’. To cope with my foodie grief, I’ve been trying out more Asian recipes, especially for stir-fry. So far, this one definitely takes the fortune  cookie.

I adapted this recipe from a beef and baby bok choy recipe I found on foodnetwork.com. Since my local grocery store does not sell baby bok choy, I thought I’d give swiss chard a chance, and let me tell you – I’m so glad I did.

Using swiss chard in this recipe brings such depth and earthiness to the dish. Though not quite as crunchy as bok choy, the swiss chard retains enough bite and chewiness to create a very pleasent mouthfeel with the beef and onions. Paired with rich oyster sauce, a little dried chile spice, and a splash of sherry, this is one killer stir-fry.

Tonight when I made it, I actually used some (full-size) bok choy as well, though I think I like it better with just swiss chard. The stems of the bok choy added some extra crunch, but seemed to water the sauce down. I think swiss chard must have low water content, allowing the sauce to remain nice and thick.

I also recommend doubling the recipe if you want to serve more than two people. The first time I made this, Omar and I nearly polished off the entire wok-full (is that a work?) and I barely had enough for lunch the next day. Trust me, you’re going to want leftovers of this one. If you decide to double it, you’ll probably need to cook the beef in two or three batches. The swiss chard too. Just make sure you mix the sauce in a bowl big enough to hold the beef and at least half of the wilted swiss chard.

Spicy Beef and Swiss Chard Stir-Fry

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons dry sherry or rice wine
• 1 pound beef sirloin, thinly sliced against the grain into strips
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 3 to 4 tablespoons
• 1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed and roughly chopped
• 5 to 7 dried red chiles, halved, or 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed chile flakes
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 2 bunches swiss chard, stems removed and roughly chopped
• pinch of sugar

1. Whisk the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons sherry in a medium bowl. Add the beef, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Set aside for 15 minutes.
2. Mix the remaining 1 tablespoon sherry, the oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil in a large bowl; set the bowl near the stove.
3. Heat a wok or large skilled over high heat until very hot. Add 3 tablespoons peanut oil, then the ginger, garlic, and chiles or chile flakes; stir-fry until fragant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add the beef and cook, stirring or shaking the skillet occassionally, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer the beef with a slotted spoon to the sauce mixture and toss.
4. If the pan is dry, add 1 tablespoon peanut oil, then add the onion and stir-fry until just soft, about 2 minutes. Add the swiss chard and sugar; stir-fry until just wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Return the beef and any juices to the pan and stir to combine. Serve over jasmine or white rice.

Note on making rice:

Nothing accompanies stir-fry better than a heaping pile of fluffy, slighty-sticky jasmine rice. Recently, I did some research to find out how to achieve perfect rice for stir-fry, and here is the method I have found works best for me:

1. Add rice and water to saucepan in the amounts listed on the package.
2. Bring to a mild boil and stir once.  Cover and reduce heat to a very, very low simmer. Simmer rice for the amount of time on the package (the jasmine rice I use is 15 minutes). Important: DO NOT open the lid to the rice. Not even once. Turn on a timer and forget the pot is there. Just. Say. No.
3. When the time is up, turn off the heat without opening the lid. Let the rice sit for 10 minutes in the pot with the lid still on. After 10 minutes, remove the lid and fluff with a fork.

Trust me folks, this works. If you can exercise enough self-restraint to leave the lid on for the whole cooking and resting time, you will be rewarded with fluffy rice that is just sticky enough to be easily eaten with chopsticks.

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Due to a series of extremely full weeks and weekends, I’ve been slacking on the cooking and especially on making interesting dishes. In the last couple months, I have planned and thrown a bridal shower, a bachelorette party, and a small Halloween dinner, as well as performing maid-of-honor duties at my best friend’s lovely wedding. (Congrats Pauline and Mitchell!!!) Between these events, I have been working like a miniature schnauzer and getting  hooked on more shows than I’d like to admit, (although I will say Top Chef is my number one, absolutely-can’t-miss-it-no-matter-how-dire-the-situation addiction).

Nevertheless, I have been missing the blog and my adventures in the kitchen and plan to get myself back in action ASAP. I have no recipes prepared to post as of today, but COOKING WILL HAPPEN THIS WEEKEND!!!! I swear. And then, my dear friends, I will post.

I believe I promised the rest of the feast. Why do I wait so long to post? Although taste is the sense most strongly tied to memory, remembering taste is shockingly difficult. What I remember most from the Feast is the smell of the fish roasting in the oven. The fish (a 4 lb. red snapper) was doused in olive oil, seasoned liberally with salt and pepper, the stuffed with and laid upon fresh thyme,  oregano, and marjoram, thin slices of lemon, and a few smashed garlic cloves. For good measure, a half-bottle of white wine is added to pan to keep the fish moist and fragrant. Opening the door to the oven to check on the fish was like opening the door to an Italian villa on the coast of Sicily at lunchtime. (Or at least what I imagine a coastal Italian villa would smell like – aromatic and earthy and little of the sea.)  Talk about delicious.

Impressive, right? Serving a whole fish to guests has an extremely satisfying “wow” factor. The only tiny issue I had with the fish was figuring out the best way to get the meat off the bone. The flaky, delicious, moist meat. None of us had the patience to figure out how to fillet the thing, so we all just went at it with a big fork. Totally worth it. Thank you, Anne Burrell, for a great fish recipe.  I may not like to watch her show, but the lady knows whats she’s talking about.

Do you see the pretty little bundles piled around the plate? Yes, that is prosciutto-wrapped asparagus. Its so simple and delicious, its almost criminal. Cut the stems off some good, fresh asparagus, toss around with a drizzle of olive oil and season with a decent amount of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven at 425 or so until a little crispy and tender. Allow to come to room temperature. Wrap a couple stalks with a thin slice of prosciutto, and there you have it! (Its even surprisingly cheap! Get the prosciutto at the deli counter and tell them to use the thinnest setting on the slicer. I got enough for 8 people for about $3 dollars. No joke. Buy the asparagus at the farmers market or when its on sale at the grocery store and you’re golden.)

To complement the fish, I chose to serve a bright, fresh fennel and cabbage slaw. It was a bit of a cheat, really, because my sister-in-law made it for our family dinner a few days prior to the feast. Let me tell you, if you think you don’t like fennel, try this slaw – it will change your mind. I’d heard that fennel has a slightly bitter, anise-y flavor, which sounded disgusting (I grew up hating anything remotely tasting of black licorice – bleh!) – but fresh fennel completely took me by surprise.

The fennel has a mild zing – a little extra pop of flavor in its crunch. Paired with a slightly sweet dressing like in this slaw, the fennel is barely distinguishable, but adds enough interest that I found myself compulsively getting 2nd and 3rd helpings just to figure it out. This slaw is like a little mystery – with each bite, you get a moment to ponder the clues of flavor, but all to quickly, the bite is gone. So you take another and another, looking for the man behind the curtain, but fennel is too subtle for that. You just have to keep eating.

The fennel and cabbage slaw recipe is courtesy of Melissa d’Arabian. Warning – When I made this for the Feast, I made it 5 or 6 hours ahead of time and let it sit in the fridge. I don’t recommend it. I found that the fennel loses its flavor the longer is sits, so what starts as a subtle, intriguing spice turns into a bland filler – more crunch than taste. Not so good.

As for the plum and raspberry tart… it was okay. My first attempt at pastry ended up mediocre – not bad for a first try, but a little lacking in flavor. The plums were sadly underripe, and the tartness of the raspberries totally overpowered the plums. Don’t get me wrong – it was still tasty – just not as tasty as it could have been. I won’t bother with the recipe. It was adapted from a couple different places but didn’t really pay off. Hopefully my second try will be more satisfying.

The Feast is complete! I have a few recipe-posting requests that I promise to get to ASAP. Until then… happy eating!!

I suppose first with an apology. It has been too long since my last post, and for that, I am sorry.

Secondly, I made a feast over Labor Day weekend – a bona fide, seven-course feast – and it was delicious. Imagine this menu: Three-color cherry tomato bruschetta, stuffed artichokes, fennel and cabbage slaw, prosciutto-wrapped roast asparagus, whole roasted red snapper with herbs, and cappellini with lemon sauce. Oh – and a plum and raspberry tart to finish. Needless to say, it was an all day cooking affair. My kind of vacation.

Lets start with the bruschetta. The topping is a simple combination of ingredients -  tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, red pepper flakes, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and olive oil. For this recipe, I used red and yellow cherry tomatoes and orange grape tomatoes, mainly for the color.  I combined the topping about 3 hours ahead and let the flavors mix and mingle in the fridge. Mingling food is happy food. Or something.

Just before the guests arrived, I took the topping out of the fridge to come to room temperature and toasted up some decently thick slices of french bread that had been brushed with olive oil. (Well, I actually did this as the guests were arriving, which resulted in me running back and forth from the door to the oven in a slightly frenzied state, yelling my ‘hello’s with my face in the oven.) The toasts came out wonderfully, and I could hardly top the bread as fast as my guests ate them up.

I’m not happy with the quality of this photo, but I suppose the iPhone can only go so far.

My other appetizer was stuffed artichokes. I’ve been wanting to try stuffed artichokes for a long time, but I must say – it’s not really worth the effort. Prepping an artichoke takes a lot of waste and a lot of time. I used Anne Burrell’s recipe for stuffed artichokes from foodnetwork.com, which forewarns of the amount of waste. There are just so many STEPS. (Anne Burrell smartly wrote the recipe of paragraph form, because this is about what it would look like in steps…)

1. Make big bowl of water with lemon.
2. Chop off pointy tops, putting artichokes in lemon water after cutting.
3. Cut off stems and reserve in lemon water.
4. Peel off tough outer leaves and discard, returning artichokes to lemon water after peeling.
5. Scoop out hairy choke with melon baller.
6. Find substitute ‘melon baller.’
7. Figure out how to find the ‘hairy choke’ and attempt to coax leaves to open enough to see into the artichoke.
8. Trim stems to expose soft inner flesh.
9. Chop up the stems, some garlic, and anchovies.
10. In another bowl, combine bread crumbs, Parmesan, garlic, lemon, crushed red pepper, anchovies and the chopped stems. Don’t forget to season with salt and pepper.
11. Drizzle oil into bread crumb mixture until it forms a paste. Don’t forget to test for seasonings.
12. Stuff artichokes with mixture, trying to gently open leaves to distribute stuffing evenly.
13. Give up and stuff wherever you can.
14. Realize you forgot to season the stuffing and do a last minute sprinkling of salt and pepper.
15. Shove artichokes into a saucepan that is just the right size. Too much room and they’ll fall down. Big enough to fit their unforgiving girth.
16. Attempt 3 other saucepans before settling on the first one.
17. Pour two-ish cups of white wine into the pot around the artichokes.
18. Drink a little from the bottle.
19. Pour in some of the lemon water till liquid is 3/4 of the way up the sides of the artichokes. Don’t douse the artichokes with the lemon water in the process.
20. Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer, and put on lid.
21. Check after 5 minutes to find that 2 of the artichokes have lost a good bit of stuffing to the lemon water.
22. After 20 minutes or so, remove artichokes to serving plate.
23. When friends ask how to eat the artichoke, shrug and hide behind wine glass.

Yes, my friends, this is the TRUE recipe for stuffed artichokes. I feel bad for the prep guys in fancy Italian restaurants that have to do this every day.

A little blurry and sad-looking. Mimics perfectly how I felt about them.

Compared to the artichokes, the Cappellini with Lemon Sauce barely counts as cooking. And it was definitely worth the miniscule amount of effort required. I got it from Giada De Laurentiis’ Everyday Italian – well, she calls it Lemon Spaghetti. Very simple: I a bowl, mix together lemon juice, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. (The sauce can be made ahead and kept in the fridge.) Cook some cappellini to al dente (about 3-4 minutes), reserving some pasta water. Combine pasta, sauce, a bit of pasta water, chopped basil, and lemon zest. Season with a bit more salt and pepper. Voila! Cappellini with Lemon Sauce is ready!!

It was great to have such a simple, clean-tasting pasta to complement all the other flavors on the table. I liked it so much, I made it two nights later as a side dish to Mediterranean Chicken Packets (which I also recommend.)

I think I will take a break here. So many dishes, and still so many more to come! Next time: Fennel and cabbage slaw, whole roasted snapper, prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, and plum and raspberry tart.

Case and point: Step 1 of Charlie Phan’s Glass Noodles with Crab

“1. Cover noodles in warm water for about 10 minutes. Drain.”

Simple, right? The process started well enough – I opened the noodle packages (the recipe calls for 2 – 2 oz. packages of mung bean threads, mine were 1.3 oz.) and released the first one into a shallow dish. The noodle bunches were tall enough and long enough that they just didn’t quite fit the pan. No biggie. I rinsed out my giant, new mixing bowl from Ikea and moved the noodles to bowl. Done. Now to cover the noodles in warm water. This is where is the fundamental mung-bean-thread-soaking issue begins, because how warm is “warm”? Is hot water out of the faucet “hot” or is boiling water “hot”? If boiling water is “hot”, is faucet water “warm” or just “tepid”? Is “warm” warm enough that I can’t stick my hand in it?

I decide that warm is not boiling, but a mixture of a bit of very, very hot water from my swanky hot/cold water cooler and the hottest water I can get from my faucet. While the noodles are softening, I chop the garlic and enough green onions for both the Charlie Phan recipe and a salad. I get out all the sauces – soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil – and line them up on the counter, lids open, with a tablespoon ready and waiting. Ten minutes have passed at this point, so I check on the noodles.

The noodles are… al dente. Really al dente. Thinking the water cooled too much during the softening process, I dump out the water, doing my best to keep the noodles in the bowl, and refill with more hot water from the faucet. I allow the noodles a few minutes to soak, busying myself with salad preparations. When I try the noodles again, they still have more bite to them than expected. Should I have covered them in boiling water? Is my warm-o-meter off? Am I mistaken about the meaning of the word “warm”? My solution: Dump water out. Put medium pot on stove and begin boiling. As soon as the water reaches a boil, dump boiling water into noodle bowl.

Not even one minute after adding the boiling water to the noodles, I knew I had made a mistake. The noodles go from individual threads to one gelatinous mass in about 30 seconds. In the process of trying to quickly dump them into the colander, I remember that the water is probably still about boiling and the bowl is way too hot to handle. So as the noodles are rapidly turning to chewy mush, I’m twirling around the kitchen, looking for something resembling hot pads. When I dump the noodles out, they plop into the colander like a jello mold. Lovely.

Noodle mess aside, I decide to make the dish. What do I know? I’m not Vietnamese! Maybe the noodles are supposed to look this way! I heat some oil in (what I though was) a “large” skillet until its really, really hot and drop in the garlic and green onions. All the green onions, apparently, including the ones for the salad. Oh well, a little extra onions never hurt anyone. Within seconds, the garlic is already getting too browned and I need to add the noodles – the noodles that, although “drained,” are waiting in a watery clump in the sink. Whatever, dump the noodles in anyway.

Oh dear.

The Noodles mound way higher than the sides of the skillet. The Noodles also immediately adhere to the bottom of the pan. The Noodles have become one giant Noodle mold and refuse to separate or accept the garlic and onion into their Noodle kingdom. Whatever. I dump in the crab, try to stir, switch utensils a few times to find the best Noodle-separating instrument, then hurriedly add in sauces, hoping some liquid will help coax the Noodles into defecting and joining the forces of flavor smothered under the Noodle blob.

The Noodles will not defect.

So… I give up and dump the noodles into a serving bowl (they’re looking mighty unappetizing in the pan), sprinkle with some fresh cilantro and call Omar to dinner. (For those of you who don’t know, Omar is my boyfriend, he is wonderful, and he will eat anything I cook. Well, almost anything.)

The first bite is… surprising. Its actually worse than I expected. The noodles are the texture of Jello salad but have a salty, toasted flavor. The fresh cilantro  is such a different texture from the noodles that you have to mush the noodles against the roof of your mouth a bit, swallow, then chew the cilantro. Even the sweetness of the crab was lost in the massive amounts of noodle goo and garlic. Have you ever seen Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? Remember the gillyweed that Harry had to eat before swimming around in the lake to save Ron? I imagine gillyweed and over-softened mung bean threads have about the same texture.

Sadly, we dumped the Glass Noodles with Crab in the trash. Even Omar couldn’t handle it. I doubled the salad and baked some crescent rolls from a forgotten Pillsbury tube in the back of the fridge. Not as chic, but texturally pleasant, at least. When I got around to cleaning the ‘large’ skillet from the noodles, I was glad to discover that the noodle crust covering the bottom of the pan came off quite easily. Like dead skin after a sunburn. Or the sticky glue stuff banks use to attach new credit cards to letters – something I’m glad is not currently lining the walls of my intestines. (Hmm… maybe I shouldn’t talk about intestines on a food blog… unless they belong to my dinner. Thoughts?)

Although dinner was a bit of a failure, a few good things came out of it:

1. I now own a bottle of oyster sauce to add to my growing Asian pantry.
2. I used the crescent rolls in the fridge that expire next month.
3. I learned that “warm” is a relative term. So is “large.”

If you want to check out the recipe, find it on the Wednesday Chef blog.

This dip was created in an attempt to make my perfect spinach artichoke dip. There’s a lot of things going on here: pepper jack cheese, sauteed onions and garlic, cream cheese, cayenne pepper… the list goes on. Reading the ingredient list almost looks like its too many flavors competing, but, for me, this dip is just right.

I love the spicy punch of the garlic and red pepper flakes in this dip, balanced by the tartness of the cream cheese. Popping the artichoke hearts in the food processor helps create a dip that is uniform in every bite.  I will say, though, if you bring this dip to a party, don’t expect to be taking any home.

Garlicky Southwest Spinach Artichoke Dip

• 1 box or 1 bag frozen artichoke hearts, thawed (use whatever size is available at your grocery store – I get the Private Selection steam bag of artichoke quarters at Kroger)
• 10 oz. box frozen spinach, thawed and excess juices squeezed out*
• 6 oz. pepper jack cheese, shredded
• 1/2 c. grated Parmesan (I usually grate my own by putting a few chunks in the food processor)
• 1/2 pkg. (4 oz.) cream cheese
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• pinch cayenne
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Add thawed artichoke quarters to a food processor. Pulse until the artichoke is diced into small bits, but hasn’t turned to mush. Set aside in a large bowl.

3. Add spinach to bowl, breaking up with your hands. Add all three cheeses, leaving aside 1 Tbs. Parmesan and 1/3 of pepper jack. Add the Worcestershire, red pepper flakes, and cayenne to bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.

3. Heat olive oil in a small skillet over med-low heat. Add onion to pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook until just beginning to soften, about 2 minutes. Add garlic to pan and cook until fragrant and onions have turned translucent, 1-2 minutes. Add onions and garlic to bowl.

4. Combine all ingredients throughly, using the side of a spoon or spatula to help break up the cream cheese. The heat of the sauteed garlic and onion should help soften the cream cheese.

5. Spread mixture in a 2 qt. casserole dish. Sprinkle with reserved pepper jack and Parmesan. Bake for 20 -25 minutes, until cheese on top is melted. Broil for the last 1-2 minutes to brown the cheese just a bit. Allow a few minutes to cool. Serve with toasts or thick tortilla chips.

*Note – To remove excess juices from frozen spinach, thaw in microwave or on counter. Wrap spinach in paper towels or cheesecloth and wring juices out as well as possible. If you’re thawing the spinach in the microwave, be careful to let spinach cool a bit before squeezing juice out. The liquid can be very, very hot. Trust me.

I’ve jazzed this version up with some dill, Dijon mustard, and cayenne. I don’t often use a lot of butter, but this recipe calls for a decent bit and I don’t feel at all guilty about using it. The resulting creaminess of the sauce makes up for any fat content. I haven’t figured out what cut of beef I like for this recipe yet. Tonight I used a thin cut top round steak, but I’m not necessarily sold. Maybe I’m just overcooking it. However, the dish still turned out very tasty. I’ll take overcooked beef stroganoff over no beef stroganoff any day.  This meal also makes great leftovers.

Beef Stroganoff

• 3 Tbs. butter, divided
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 3 1/2 (ish) Tbs. flour
• 1 – 1 1/2 lbs. top round steak, sliced into thin strips
• Sliced mushrooms (1 tub – 12 oz.?)
• 1 large white or yellow onion, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can beef broth
• 1 Tbs. Worcestershire
• 8 0z.  sour cream
• 1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
• 1-2 tsp. dried dill
• pinch cayenne
• 12 0z. egg noodles

1. Cook noodles in boiling, salted water to al dente. Drain pasta and return to pan. Stir in 1 Tbs. butter. (I find that if I start boiling the water when I begin the recipe, the noodles and stroganoff are done at about the same time.)

2. Melt 1 Tbs. butter and 1 Tbs. olive oil in a large skillet. In a large plastic bag, combine 2 Tbs. flour with salt and pepper. Place beef strips in bag, seal, and shake to coat beef strips in flour mixture.

3. Using tongs or your hands, add beef strips to pan. You don’t want to dump the excess flour into the pan at this time.  Brown beef on all sides, about 4 minutes. Depending on how much meat you’re using, you may want to brown the beef in two batches. Repeat with remaining beef, adding a bit more butter and oil, if necessary. Set sauteed beef aside in a large bowl.

4. Add 1 more Tbs. olive oil to pan. Add sliced mushrooms and onions. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until mushrooms soften and onions become translucent, about 6 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 1-2 more minutes. Mushrooms should be soft and onions should have picked up some brown color from the pan. Set veggies aside with beef.

5. Add 2 Tbs. butter to pan. When butter is melted, whisk in remaining flour from bag, supplementing with extra flour to make about 2 Tbs. flour total. Cook for 1 minute. Add beef broth and Worcestershire to pan, whisking quickly to incorporate flour and scrape up all the tasty brown bits on the bottom of the skillet. Bring broth to a simmer. Stir in beef and vegetables.

6. Allow beef and sauce to simmer for a few minutes, till sauce reduces and thickens slightly, about 6 minutes. Turn off heat. Stir in sour cream, mustard, dill, and cayenne. Serve immediately over hot, buttered egg noodles.

Nearly everyone I know has an intimate relationship with the food they choose to eat. Eating great food is one of the simplest, most satisfying ways to spoil yourself – and, good news folks, food is a necessity. Unlike manicures, massages, expensive clothes, and vacations (not that I don’t love all those things and wish I had the funds to spoil myself with them more often), we all have to eat, and with a little extra effort, we can all eat very, very well.

That being said – not every recipe turns out as expected. For this blog, I plan to write about whatever I make – success or failure. If the meal is a disaster, I’ll be honest. If it turns out great, I’ll write all about it. Above all, I welcome comments. If you try the recipe (which I’ll be flattered if even one person cooks one of my recipes), let us know how it went. Some of the best meals I’ve made have come from recipe sites where home cooks post their own additions and omitions to the recipe.

So, without further ado, I’m pleased to introduce….

THE FIRST RECIPE!!!

Eat-For-A-Week Chicken Enchiladas

This recipe was adapted from enchiladas I had visiting a friend in Austin. When I asked for the recipe and made them at home, I was amazed at how good they tasted the next day. They might as well have been right out of the oven. These enchiladas have also been a stand-by for parties. I love making recipes for parties that go in the oven, leaving me time to clean up the kitchen and still have hot, fresh food when my guests arrive. Serve with a bit of Spanish or yellow rice and you have a great meal. Well, maybe a little guac and chips too – everything’s better with guac…

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 1 bag frozen, pre-cooked, diced chicken (or 1 lb. leftover chicken, diced)
• 1 package sliced mushrooms
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 1 tall can (4 oz. ?) sliced black olives, drained (optional)
• 1 8 oz. tub sour cream
• 1  8 oz. block pepper jack cheese, shredded
• 1 6-8 oz. package queso fresco cheese, shredded
• 1 jar Herdez Salsa Verde (or any good salsa verde, at least 12 oz.)
• 1 pkg. corn tortillas

Garnish: chopped tomatoes, sliced green onion, sliced avocado

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. In a large skillet, saute frozen chicken according to package directions. Try to break up the larger pieces of chicken while sauteing. Put sauteed chicken in a large bowl.  (If using leftover chicken, do not saute first.)

3. In same skillet, saute onions, mushrooms, garlic, and bell pepper in 2 Tbs. olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until onions are translucent and bell peppers are becoming soft. Add veggies to chicken.

4. Add sour cream, 1/2 of each cheese, 1/2 jar of salsa verde, and olives (if using) to chicken and veggie mixture. Mix well. This will be the filling for the enchiladas.

5. Set up an assembly line with corn tortillas, filling, and a 13×9 baking dish and a 2 qt. baking dish. (I list two baking dishes, because this recipe makes a lot of enchiladas.) In batches of 4, wrap tortillas in a damp paper towel and heat for 20 seconds in microwave. Fill tortillas with a few tablespoons of filling, roll like a taco, and place tightly together in baking dish, seam side down. Continue until all filling is gone.

6. Bake enchiladas for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, top enchiladas with the rest of the salsa verde and then the rest of the cheeses, distributing evenly. Put enchiladas back in oven for another 10 – 15 minutes. Crank oven to broil for the last couple minutes to brown cheese a bit, if desired. Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving. Garnish with tomatoes, green onion, and sliced avocado.