Cincrow de Mayo

Josh and I had a fantastic time camping with my mom over the weekend. We did some kayaking, some hiking, and some good eatin'. I made 2 batches of tortillas for the camping trip, and on Cinco de Mayo Eve (Friday) we had pork quesadillas, refried beans, guacamole, and salsa for supper.

Mom warned me that critters would steal any food that wasn't packed away for the night. And I thought I had packed everything away. But I was tired. And it was dark.

On Cinco de Mayo morning, Mom woke up with the sun, while Josh and I snoozed in our tent. She decided to go for a leisurely morning paddle in her kayak. However, when she noticed a crow fly by carrying a whole tortilla, she figured she better high-tail it back to the campsite. She returned to find a gathering of assorted woodland creatures negotiating over a ziplock bag full of homemade corn tortillas. 

And thank goodness she arrived when she did! Aside from the one tortilla, all the rest were in the bag and in tact (minus a few nibbles). 

{ And those nibbled tortillas made for some darn good Cinco de Mayo breakfast burritos. }

What? Camping.

The Birds

Last week I got all Pinterest-y and made some cute wall art for Andrea's baby's nursery. The nursery theme is "birds," and I had just picked up an old book about birds at a flea market. The book had beautiful illustrations, and I wanted to display them somehow.

 

I started with a pile of old frames with interesting shapes (25¢, 50¢, and 75¢; picked up from thrift shops).

 

Then I spray-painted them in the back yard, while Josh did sexy-man yard work.  

   

{Also while this was going on, I was making jalapeno pinto beans and learning that the French word for "food processor" is robot culinaire - hee hee.}

Primed and painted frame, drying in the sunroom.

 After this, I distressed the heck out of the frames using sand paper. 

Then I made fabric-covered panels to go in the frames. 

 

I used a double layer of fabric (a layer of light-colored burlap over a layer of cotton fabric chosen to match).

I secured the fabric using lots of tape (masking and box). I really stretched and tugged, because I did not want wrinkles in my burlap.

 

  

Tada! After that, I hot glued these old school-looking magnetic clips to the panels (idea from a Pinterest pin, repinned by Rachel B) and clipped the book pages in place. 

Yes I destroyed a book.

I feel guilty about it. But I also love love love these illustrations and am excited that they are now featured and can be enjoyed.

 

  

I figured that since I had already destroyed a book, I might as well make an envelope out of the index.

 

{I had just seen some simple instructions for making an envelope in Country Living magazine.} 

I stuck a little note to Andrea inside and sealed it with a bird sticker from Hobby Lobby.

 

The instructions say to use a glue stick for this, but I recommend using micro (1/8-inch) glue dots. A toothpick works great to get them where they need to go.

{ baby shower quote of the day }

Salina: 

"Only I would have a spare 'small stuffed dog' in my purse."

So true. 

Fajitas

I am still very much enjoying Lisa Fain's The Homesick Texan Cookbook. {Even though her recipes cause me to make epic messes in my kitchen.}

Yesterday I made 2 batches of tortillas {that's 16 tortillas}. You can see my most favorite kitchen tool in the picture. My thin metal spatula. Great for flipping tortillas, and so many other things.

For the first batch I used all flour, like the recipe says. But for the second batch I substituted 2/3 cup of the 2 cups of flour called for with masa. I was rather nervous about taking this liberty, but those tortillas turned out even better than the all-flour. They tasted better (if you like that corn flavor) and were easier to handle during the initial cooking process. Josh wants me to keep pushing the limit of how much "corn" I can add before they won't fold without breaking anymore. 

 

I also turned the rest of my jalapeno pinto beans into refried beans. My new favorite thing to eat is a homemade tortilla smeared with refried beans, sprinkled with a little cheese, and rolled up. That's what I had for lunch. Because I'm a peasant.

I'm a peasant, but Josh is a king because he commutes to work every day to pay for my groceries. So for dinner I made fajitas.

I had no patience for taking pictures of the process until I was half drunk (3 quarters drunk?) on my grapefruit margarita and packing up leftovers for Josh's lunch.

 

{Bell peppers and onions.}

 

{Steak.}

  

{Toppings.}

 

 

{Fajita, red chile rice, cupcake.}

    

{My first attempt at a fancy margarita. A margarita made with fresh-squeezed juice, that is. Lime juice and grapefruit juice in this one.}

{King Josh and Queen Lux.} 

This was my first time to make fajitas, and they were great. But I don't want you to think that everything I make comes out good. My journey of Tex-Mex self-discovery has been full of trial and error. I made some kinda yucky salsa the other day. I also attempted Homesick Texan's veveeta-less chile con queso, which was a touch awful. Oh, and I accidentally dehydrated some wonderful, tender pork carnitas while trying to "keep them warm." Sad.

Culinary Capers Ingredient of the Week: Tea

So I've decided to implement a new life strategy, which involves me making homemade flour tortillas at least once a week. Also homemade refried beans with bacon grease. 

 

Anyway, the Culinary Capers ingredient of the week is tea. Interesting choice, right? I made chai-spiced fruit compote with yogurt.

 

I used dates instead of prunes and craisins instead of apricots.

It was OK-ish.

{OK I didn't like it.}

But I do like the concept of infusing fruit with chai tea and honey. I just think it would be better with fresh fruit. I don't know what fruit. Peaches maybe? Yeah, peaches. Honey-chai peaches served over frozen yogurt sprinkled with toasted almonds. That sounds nommy.

So Marta's got me thinking...

Now that we've done tea, someone needs to make coffee the ingredient of the week!

Cheese Enchiladas

I hadn't cooked anything good for Josh all week, so last night I threw together some cheese enchiladas kind of at the last minute. My mom brings us special chile powder from New Mexico every time she goes, so the enchilada sauce (or "chile gravy") is extra good.

 

So good with posole, which is one of my new favorite things.

Enchilada Hint: The enchilada recipe I've linked to says to make 8 enchiladas. But there's no point of making 8 when your pan will hold 12. In my pan I arrange 8 in row, then 2 rows of 2 perpendicular to the long row of 8. The chile gravy portion of the recipe makes enough to cover all 12 enchiladas and then some.

Homesick Texan Thursday

{ Homesick Texan Tuesday fell on a Thursday this week. }

Ever since I became obsessed with the Homesick Texan and Tex-Mex cooking, I've been having all sorts of strange new thoughts while grocery shopping. Thoughts like...

"Kroger isn't stocking poblanos 2 weeks in a row?

What's up with that!"

"Why does no one carry chorizo?"

"That bunch of cilantro looks a little skimpy to me."

So funny. There was a time I would not even eat Mexican food, ask my mom.

~

So for this week's Tex-Mex dinner night I made two recipes from HT's blog:

Green Chile Hominy Casserole with Chorizo

Ninfa's Green Sauce

 Found it!

The green sauce was interesting. You put all of these green things into a pot; green tomato, tomatillo, jalapeno (and garlic). You cook it for a little bit; then run it through the food processor, along with avocado and cilantro; then stir sour cream into that mixture.

Before stirring.

Green Chile Hominy Casserole with Chorizo

 

 

Good combination. The casserole was hot & spicy, and the green sauce was cool & creamy.

{ Quote of the Day }

Josh: OK you should be eating that. Eat it, don't tweet it.

"Homesick Texan Tuesday" Leftovers

I need to reiterate how fantastic Homesick Texan's "Green Chile Posole with Black Beans" recipe is. We have all been raving about it since Tuesday. This one's a keeper.

Pictured here without the shredded Monterey Jack. I can't find this recipe on her blog, or I would post a link. Guess you'll just have to buy the book...

Here's a cute pic of a leftover kolache I heated up for myself. I never really warmed up to these, but Mom and Josh liked them.

Homesick Texan Tuesday

There's this thing that sometimes happens between me and my mom, where I'll borrow one of her cookbooks, become fanatically obsessed with it, then she ends up on Amazon, one-click ordering a new copy. This is how I acquired The Homesick Texan Cookbook. This evening I tried to make it up to my mom by inviting her over for Homesick Texan Tuesday! I made green chile posole with black beans, gorditas with picadillo, and kolaches. (I'm exhausted BTW.)

Green Chile Posole with Black Beans

HT's posole recipe is wonderful. It challenged me to use all kinds of ingredients I had never dealt with, or even tasted. 

Such as tomatillos...

...serrano chiles...

...and a poblano chile. (Lard is new to me as well, but it was used for the gorditas; not the soup.)

 

Here is the poblano in roasted form.

 

So anyway, the posole is really neat because you put all this green stuff in a blender to make the soup base. Then you add hominy (which is the English word for posole), black beans, lime juice and half-and-half. Love this soup!

Gordita with Picadillo

So the gorditas were insane. More specifically, the gordita shell was insane. You make the dough with masa and lard, then you pan-fry it, then you deep-fry it. No wonder gordita means "little fat girl" in Spanish. I know how she feels...

 I'm not sure that my gordita shells "puffed" the way they were supposed to, but we made it work.

The picadillo filling is a seasoned ground beef mixture that calls for one diced russet potato. 

That first gordita was totally staged (Josh's lunch gordita for tomorrow), but this is the actual gordita I actually ate for actual dinner. Not as picturesque, but it's covered in wonderful shredded lettuce.

This is Mom's actual gordita. She likes lettuce and tomato.

Kolaches

Not sure how I feel about the kolaches. I did half with cream cheese filling and half with apricot filling. They're not very sweet. The bread-to-filling ratio seemed off, especially with the apricot. I guess I'm not crazy about these, but I may feel differently tomorrow.