The whole enchilada

Yeah, I said it.

When I lived in Oregon, we had a COO who owned a share of a beef ranch and liked to go elk hunting.  Both of those are more popular than you might think, because Oregon is like that (he also was part owner in a well-known and high-end goat cheese dairy, but that doesn't fit with this story).  Each year, usually late in the fall, was my favorite holiday: Elk Day.  That's when the COO would show up at our office, and fill any coolers we had with elk chops, deer chops, elk round steak, deer round steak, ground elk, ground venison, and ground beef.  I lived alone, so I could make my supply last until the next elk day.  The last of my treasured elk was marinated on a camping trip; the last of the venison was an inauguration day meal.  I tell you all of this only to explain the joke: the first time I made enchiladas, they were elkchiladas, and they were fantastic.

Now I settle for beef, but last summer I decided I had made them enough to start experimenting, and devised the following Chicken Spinach Enchiladas.  Enjoy!

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cooked and shredded
10 oz package frozen spinach, cooked and drained
1/2 C chopped onion
1/2 C sour cream
1 C shredded cheddar
2 T chopped fresh parsley*
1/4 t black pepper
1/3 C chopped bell pepper
2/3 C water
1 T chili powder
1 1/2 t chopped fresh oregano*
1/4 t cumin
1x 4.5 oz can chopped green chiles, drained
1 clove garlic, finely minced
15 oz can tomato sauce
8-12 tortillas (5-6")
shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped onions, or any other toppings you like

disclaimer: the original recipe I used as a starting point called for corn tortillas. I only used those once, and they pissed me off.  If you try to roll them around the filling, they break apart.  If you soak them in sauce to make them pliable, they shred apart.  They are horrible.  However, I once got into a heated argument with someone on Facebook over corn vs. flour tortillas, and it quickly became obvious that neither of us would ever back down from the position of "You're an insane moron with crazy, stupid opinions, and also wrong," so I just de-friended them and had a beer.  You can use whatever you want, as long as it's flour.  Because corn tortillas are horrible.  However, after the first draft of this post, I heard from someone else that if you fry the corn tortillas in oil, it makes them pliable without making them disintegrate.  I haven't tried it yet.

• Combine cooked, shredded chicken with onion, sour cream, 1 C cheese, parsley, cooked spinach, and black pepper.
• In 2 qt saucepan, combine bell pepper, water, chili powder, oregano, cumin, green chiles, garlic and tomato sauce.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, then reduce heat.  Simmer uncovered 5 minutes.
• Spoon a little sauce into the bottom of an 11x7 baking dish (or whatever nearby size you have handy) and spread it around to cover the bottom surface of the pan (I usually achieve this by gently shaking it side-to-side).
• Did you pre-heat the oven?  You should do that now.  350F.

• Spoon about 1/3 cup of filling into a tortilla, roll it shut, and place seam side down in the baking dish.  Repeat until you run out of filling.

• Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas.  Bake uncovered about 20 minutes, or until bubbly, and the tortillas crisp a little.  Top however you like (namely, cheese and sour cream).

*PROTIP: when using fresh herbs, you need about three times as much as you would dried herbs.  There are three teaspoons (t) in a tablespoon (T), so if you are like me and pretty much never have fresh parsley laying around, and can't see the reason in buying a big package when you only need a little bit, de-capitalize the T and used dried instead.  (or, if it calls for some amount of fresh herbs in teaspoons, just divide by three.)

Strawberry rhubarb coffee cake

We visited the Chief Taster's parents earlier last spring, while rhubarb was in season.  Her dad, who once infamously snitched the last two pieces of Thanksgiving pie while nobody was looking, had some rhubarb cut fresh from his garden (which is vast).  While I was in another room, I overheard him tell everyone else, "I have some rhubarb and fresh strawberries, so if Ryan wanted to, he could make me a pie!"  I almost laughed hard enough to spray my toothpaste out of my nose.  I told him such a feat was possible, but we would need a recipe.  The Chief Taster's mom (who missed out on pumpkin pie the previous Thanksgiving when someone filched the last piece she had saved) threw herself into the task, but we got distracted by the allure of strawberry rhubarb coffee cake (scroll down for the variation recipe).  I volunteered to make it for breakfast the next day.

fruit and sugar, bubbling away on the stove.

My only real mistake was not spending more time familiarizing myself with the recipe and hidden location of kitchen items the night before; breakfast was a little later than we wanted.  Plus, some idiot had to keep stopping his work to take silly pictures.

Batter, then fruit goo, then the rest of the batter.  The last bit of batter won't spread well over the fruit goo, so try to glop it out evenly, because it's not going anywhere.

Eventually, we got to eat breakfast.  It was pretty good.  The Chief Taster's dad even served himself a second piece before finishing his first helping.  I take that as a good sign.

morels, please!

Last year we went hiking on Mother's Day.  You may recall there were bears.  There were also morel mushrooms.  When I was a kid, my parents discovered morels and got really excited about hunting them.  For a while, there was a pretty reliable patch in our back yard, and a couple others within a ten minute walk from our house.  Admittedly, I was never that excited about them back then, but it had been over a decade since I'd had any, so I was excited to try them again.

If you go out mushroom hunting, the first thing you should do is make sure you don't pick something poisonous that just looks like morels.  If you don't know, don't eat them.  I'm not telling you how to tell the difference--find someone who's willing to take that responsibility with your life, and ask them.

Second, the forest and park services advise using a mesh bag to carry your haul so the spores can stay in the forest.

When you get your mushrooms home, clean them and soak them in salt water.  This will help drive out any bugs that might have been living inside and didn't fall out of your mesh bag.  Then, slice them lengthwise and do what you will.

On the night I cooked mine, I had also happened to cook some sausage, so I just threw the mushrooms in the pan of sausage juices and sauteed them.

Butter will also work, obviously.  There are plenty of sites that are full of recipes and suggestions.  They probably also have better presentation on the plate than I do.

They taste better than they look.  Honest!

Ii was happy to get to try them again, but I was a little disappointed once I did.  Generally speaking, I love mushrooms.  I put them in salads, pasta sauce, lasagna, pizza, whatever.  But since I had cooked these in sausage drippings, they just tasted like sausage.  None of the original mushroom flavor survived the onslaught of seasoned meat.  Oops.  But they were still very good.  The Chief Taster, however, was wary of them, despite being excited about picking them, and refused to try more than a bite.  Good thing I didn't put them on the pizza I made that night, or I would have had to eat the whole thing myself.  And wouldn't that have been sad?  (for her.)

I make an outstanding pie.  My humble pie is not as good.