Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo y'all! (I know that sounds just so lovely with a southern accent.) We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with Sangria, chicken enchiladas, and corn and black bean salsa. What a wonderful way to celebrate Mexico's eradication of the French (NOT the Mexican Independence Day, common misconception - that is actually September 16th... more sangria then too!) And it was so nice to have guests to share our celebratory meal with!

Look how festive our apartment looks!

Getting up close and personal con mi comida!

Our festive bar, patiently awaiting our guests!

Spicy chicken and salsa filling - I had to keep myself from eating  all the filling before rolling it up in tortillas.

Chicken and spinach roasted red enchiladas

And what would a holiday celebration be without some festive libation? Cranberry and frozen grape sangria, ole!

Cranberry and Frozen Grape Sangria

1 bottle white wine (we used Pinot Grigio)
1/2 bottle of 100% cranberry juice
1 cup simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar, simmered until the sugar is dissolved)
juice of two limes
Grapes and granny smith apples, frozen

Mix the liquid ingredients in a large pitcher. Refrigerate until chilled. To serve, add some fruit to the bottom of each white wine glass, then pour your perfect sangria over your frozen fruit.

** The frozen fruit will act as ice cubes to keep your drink cold without watering it down like ice cubes will. Fun tip of the day!**

Chipotle Doesn't Have Anything on Me

As you all know by now, I am a sucker for Tex-Mex and Mexican food. It is always my go to when I am out of ideas for dinner time, I not-so-jokingly kid that I could eat my weight in chips and fresh salsa, and it is the only way I have found to stomach avocados (I am still on uneasy ground with them... see here.) That being said, my weekend was filled with nothing but writing my business plan (not joking, that's all it was - I need to go back to school to get a break!) but was interrupted briefly to make this yummy bowl of comfort.

I think I should go ahead and put my two cents in there when it comes to the burrito fast food debate. Qboda, Chipotle, Pollo Loco, Taco Del Mar, Taco Bell (shudders)... so many to choose from, essentially offering the same things, and shamelessly overpricing their product. I mean come now, how expensive is rice, beans, grilled vegetables, and lettuce? Not. Very. But I have a special weakness for Moe's: http://www.moes.com/. But really, Moe's salsa. I buy it by the cup full and ask for it as a birthday and Christmas present, not joking. Seriously, if you aren't lucky enough to have a Moe's by you, drive to the nearest one, tell them Katelyn sent you, and I'm sure they will give you a discount.

And I am now following them on Twitter... I'm such a dork...

To avoid paying too much for rice and beans, plus saving the time to walk there, I decided to make my own rice bowl this weekend. It turned our scrumptious, I could use brown rice (which Mexican restaurants won't jump on board with,) and I saved eight bucks. Win-win-win!

Cilantro Lime Rice Vegetable Bowl

Cilantro Lime Rice:

1 cup cooked brown rice

1/4 cup finely minced fresh cilantro (I used the paste that comes in the produce section of the grocery)

juice of half a lime

salt and pepper to taste

Cumin Scented Black Beans:

1 can black beans, un-drained

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

2 TB minced cilantro

Toppings:

diced avocado

salsa/pico de gallo

shredded lettuce/spinach

shredded cheese (I used pepper jack!)

Mix rice ingredients together and place in your serving bowl. Warm your beans in a saucepan, bring to a hard simmer, then take off the heat and spoon your desired amount over your rice (making sure to get some of that yummy, spicy, cumin-scented juice too.) Top that with your sauteed veggies of choice (I used onions and red bell pepper) or meat for you carnivores out there. And finally, top off your bowl with all the toppings your heart desires.

This is not Barbecue Pulled Pork

I had this uncanny hankering for barbecue pulled pork this past week. I know, odd right? Probably because last weekend was St. Patrick's Day and there was a plethora of cabbage in the grocery store, waiting to be boiled with corned beef, and cole slaw (or as my uncle used to call it, cole salad) is a natural accompaniment for pulled pork. So while perusing the aisles (and realizing I get inexplicably and somewhat shamefully excited by grocery shopping,) I pondered the feasibility of making pulled pork in my minimally equipped college kitchen. I could make barbecue sauce, that wasn't a problem, but how shall I make the pork tender and juicy, without a crock pot, which is my traditional cooking method for pulled pork?

Still pondering, I collected my ingredients somewhat haphazardly - ketchup, brown sugar, onion, and Tabasco for barbecue sauce, whole wheat buns for sandwiching, and a pork shoulder for roasting - and headed home, still pondering the best way to go about this endeavor. I could tightly cover a baking dish with foil, but needed to be careful not to over cook the pork into tough, chewy submission. 

Plan in hand, I returned home only to find out that we were out of aluminum foil. What?! All visions of moist and succulent pulled pork evaporated and I was left with bags full of groceries for which I now needed to find uses. I found a can of jalapeno diced tomatoes in my cupboard, along with a jar of salsa, and decided to retreat into my comfort zone and go the Tex-Mex route. After all, anything wrapped up in a tortilla is delicious. Plus the extra liquid from the canned tomatoes and salsa would help keep the pork moist and create a protective crust, sans foil.

Taco comprised of roasted pork, warmed salsa, shredded cheddar, spinach, and lime

This was delicious and all, but I still want pulled pork!

Conquering the Wish List: #3

I might as well warn you now - this recipe is by no means a drop dead gorgeous plate that screams "eat me right now!" Alas, the difference that stands between what is pictured in my head and what actually makes its way to the plate is, well, vast at times.

So what did we scratch of the wish list this time? Green tomatoes? Nope. Rotten tangerines? Nope. Tomatillos. Yes, they are a dead ringer for both of the above on the outside, but on the inside they are a most peculiar specimen. Actually part of the gooseberry family, they are sold with their natural papery protective leaves on the outside that encapsulate the entire tomatillo, and are usually by the tomatoes in the super market. As you can see on the inside, they look like they could be a green tomato's stunt double, but lack the watery seeds and instead boast an almost spongy interior, perfect for picking up any flavor you put with them.

I chose to go pretty traditional with my tomatillos and quartered, roasted with onions and parlic, and pureed them into submission for green tomatillo enchiladas. Since I am a sucker for any type of Tex-Mex, Mexican, or Spanish food, I thought that I could just wing this foray into the unknown-ingredient-world guided only by past eating escapades. 

Here is the tomatillo sauce, specked with cilantro, up close and personal.

The filling was to die for, and probably the prettiest part of the meal (since the tomatillos lost all of their vibrant green after roasting.) Some poached chicken, and just about every veggie in my fridge, petite diced and sauteed with lots of smokey cumin and garlic.

Green tomatillo enchiladas, all wrapped up, smothered, and ready to be baked.

Up until now the pictures haven't looked too bad. The sauce was a muted mint green, the filling was studded with reds, yellow, and greens, and the enchiladas themselves looked pretty appetizing going into the oven. But when they came out... (makes a face.) Not so much. The sauce had gone from a light green to dark, almost musty green, indicative when you roast something, and not necessarily unappetizing, just not what I was expecting. I suspect more acid, like the juice of one lime, would have been the cure for this. 

Regardless of how it looked, my enchiladas tasted fabulous. The filling was savory and smokey, the sauce was pleasantly different, and I took pride in conquering an ingredient I wasn't all that familiar with without a recipe. All in all, a slightly ugly success!

Any requests on what you would like to see as the next ingredient crossed off the wish list?