Enchiladas

One afternoon last week, while J and D were playing outside and friends (unbeknown to us) were planning a Thai adventure, I made dinner. Had we not missed our friends' call I could have continued on my streak of foraging in the cupboards, getting takeout, or eating cereal for dinner. We always have plenty of food for J though I admit I'm not too creative and cycle through the same handful of options, poor guy. But at least he always has a well-balanced meal.
Anyway, back to the fairy tale turned reality. . . I found inspiration for dinner online in two different places. I'd bookmarked a creamy vegan bean & corn enchilada recipe knowing full well I'd make it non-vegan. That evening a chicken three- cheese enchilada recipe presented itself with a very simple homemade sauce. This was perfect considering the only thing I lacked for enchiladas was sauce. I merged the sauce of one recipe with the vegetarian filling of the other. I happened to have heavy whipping cream in the house and cut it with whole milk to achieve the half and half the recipe called for - I don't normally have heavy cream in the fridge. I think milk would work too, though it may need a bit of a roux to thicken it up.
D described these as "Paula Dean" enchiladas because they were that rich. They were soooooooo good.

Giving credit where credit is due, these are:

Three cheese, creamy black bean & corn enchiladas.

(In our house they will be referred to as "those" enchiladas; the ones that all others will be measured against.)

INGREDIENTS:

Filling:

1 can black beans, rinsed

1 cup frozen corn (or canned)

1 can fire roasted tomatoes (drained)

1 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)

2 TBS cream cheese

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp red pepper

salt & pepper to taste

Sauce:

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

3/4 cup milk

juice from drained tomatoes (~1/4 cup)

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp red pepper

salt & pepper to taste

For Assembly:

feta cheese

cheddar cheese

4-6 medium sized tortillas

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat Oven to 350

In a saute pan combine black beans, corn, and drained tomatoes (reserve the juice ~1/4 cup). You likely can't get all the juice out of the tomatoes and that's good. You only need about 1/4 cup (or less) of juice for the sauce. Add cumin, red pepper, salt, pepper and heat.

In a small sauce pan combine all ingredients for sauce. Heat on low/medium-low and stir often, being careful not to scorch the milk/cream mixture.

Once the beans and corn mixture is warm add the cream cheese and nutritional yeast, stir and continue to heat until cheese melts and mixture becomes creamy.

Keep stirring your cream sauce! Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

Heat tortillas in the microwave until pliable (~ 30 seconds for six tortillas)

Lay tortilla flat and line the center with filling. Top with feta cheese. Roll tortilla, place seam-side down in pan. [I used a 9x9 square pan for 4 tortillas (I only had 4! I had plenty of filling left over for 6 tortillas). Use a larger 9x12 pan for 6 tortillas.]

Repeat until tortillas and filling are gone. Pour sauce over the top. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Bake in oven for 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

No offense to our friends, whose company we would have enjoyed, but these were worth missing dinner. Try them. You'll agree - they are fantastic. This is not my first time at the rodeo with enchiladas, but these out-shine all the others that in comparison I would call disasters. And let me know if you use only milk, or something else, in place of the cream!

Notarized - Copied - Presented

Though all's been quiet on the adoption front it doesn't mean we haven't been busy. We've been scurrying about getting physicals, clearances, inspections, driving records and references. With only the child abuse and neglect clearances absent, we decided we should get our papers into our attorney so the process could get moving. We took our stack of papers up to the bank yesterday morning right when they opened. Thankfully J was his normal toddler self, climbing the chairs and attempting to run off with their keypad. This saved us from trying to be sold any new products or moved into "better" accounts. We got a stamp and a signature and took off.

I made copies of everything - all 30 or 40 pages of application and clearances. I didn't want any of that getting lost somehow. Then I hand delivered it to our attorney just before they closed. Today doesn't feel any different. I wonder if they filed it or if it's sitting in their own "to copy" pile or outbox. There was only one person in the waiting area when I was there - a young woman. Of course I wondered if she was a birth mother. I went so far as to think perhaps I should get a photo into our life book in which I'm wearing the exact same outfit she saw me in yesterday for that split second. Lots of assumptions there, I know, but I'm going to just believe that's normal.

The two big things on the horizon are the life book and the homestudy. The latter is nerve-wracking. The social worker will spend a couple hours in our home with us and J. He or she will look over the whole place and ask us a ton of questions. Now we'll be glad we've been through Pre-Cana! We've got a few things still unpacked and the new baby's room is a catch-all. So we've got our work cut out for us. I'm thinking of this as the same housework blitz we did to stage our house last spring at this time. We realized we were listing in 3 weeks and had a page-long to do list. D's going to have to tap back into that momentum again. On the bright side, our house sold in 30 days, in what was still a slow market. I think we'll have the same luck (not sure that's the right term - guess it depends on your belief system) with adoption.

The life book is in some ways easier but in many ways more difficult than the homestudy. This will be what each birth mother sees. This has to be a representation of ourselves and our life on paper and in photos. That's not that easy. Answering the tough questions isn't that easy either. You can't write what you think someone wants to hear; that's bad on multiple levels. You have to get in-touch with an honesty that may not be comfortable. And in all fairness to human nature, you want to put that honesty in the best light possible. Our attorney gave us some examples, good and bad to help guide us. We've chosen the method where we'll both answer the questions and then somehow weave them together. First we have to answer the questions though - all of them. We've both started and we've both quit with many of the same blanks.

We'll keep you updated. We'll also be looking for some eager readers to help us out. Poor AJ can't do it all.

Food, Glorious Food

I have a new obsession . . . FoodGawker. I visit at least daily. It's a photo-listing of new blog entries on what else, food. It's searchable and you can save favorites. No more over-full bookmark folders or getting bogged down following way too many food blogs. Even as a vegetarian, there are a ridiculous number of blogs out there I could follow. I don't plan on making my own tempeh or seitan though so I just assume not see those posts. Also, I'm not fond of the blogger's ruts like the one that keeps posting pancake recipes (and only pancake recipes). I want ideas. I need inspiration.

One of the recipes I found and quickly saved to my favorites was Rhubarb Galette. I made it for Mother's Day brunch. Yes, I made brunch on Mother's Day. My mom was in town so it was for her. D helped. I was in charge of sweets and he took savory. He made a delicious crustless spinach quiche. D hates the term "galette" as it makes him think of Gilette and shaving cream. He insisted I Google it to find out what it was, how it was pronounced, etc. Considering I love research and I love odd facts, I was already planning to Google 'galette.' Turns out it's pronunciation is straight-forward just as it sounds and it's simply a rustic pie that's not in a pan. They can be savory or sweet and their crust often contains corn meal.
I love rhubarb. Considering it's in-season there were plenty of recipes for me to choose from on FoodGawker. Personally, I never mix strawberry with my rhubarb so that reduced the number of recipes I was willing to make. I didn't have to search long. The galette looked so simple (not as in simple to make but simple as in plain & unadorned); it was an obvious choice.

The galette being assembled.

The finished galette. It was delicious.

While I've found dozens of recipes I want to make, including some vegan lemon bars and candied lemons to top them, I opted to make more granola yesterday. I bought all the ingredients during the Mother's Day shopping trip in hopes of making them then. I always think I can fit more into the day than actually ever happens. I made a tropical version yesterday with macadamias, pineapple, mango, extra coconut, and candied ginger. I only put chocolate chips on half the pan and I was sure to keep them on top this time so they'd remain intact. I really liked this version, possibly more than the first. I just need a tropical drink . . . ooooh, or better yet a tropical setting in which to eat them.

Done & ready to eat.

Tropical Granola: ready for it's close-up.

Last but not least, I found a link on FoodGawker that wasn't a recipe. It was a request for votes on which reader submitted the worst meal(s) they were served by a parent, grandparent, or other family member. They were both revolting and hilarious. It got me to thinking and remembering. My mom cooked for years until my father took over because in-part he apparently liked cooking more than she did. Now everyone tells me his food is fabulous but it's a vegetarian's nightmare. I couldn't tell you how it is. I tried to recall the meals I had that my mom made and they were all really normal compared to those mentioned on this blog. I'm sure one of my siblings could of and/or did love the meals I didn't like. I'd say my least favorite meal that I was regularly served was mini-pizza on hamburger buns. It was made by "spreading" raw hamburger onto hamburger buns and then popping them into the oven. They get topped with some sauce and cheese. The burger turned the white bread burger bun a bit slimy. I really hated them. I've been trying to recreate quite a few of my childhood dishes into vegetarian options, but that won't be one of them. So if you check out the blog and have a contender, their contest is over but I'd love to hear your horror stories! :)

Question

I'm working on an adoption update. I'm also working on getting some pictures up from Mother's Day. I'm a bit behind. Probably because I'm a bit busy too!

I'm "reading" (read: skimming) a book about someone who created in interesting home-based business. I'm not sure how old the author was when they started the business but it formed out of what seemed like a "what should I do when I grow up' moment. Been there. Maybe I'm still there. How long can a quarter-life crisis last anyway? Can it run right into a mid-life crisis? Hmmm. Well, considering my issue is only employment related I don't think it's considered a crisis of any sort (anymore - that quarter-life thing is real though people, what's up with that?!?!).
I spent half my time in college as "undecided" and while I should have enjoyed the wealth of liberal arts options at my liberal arts school, I didn't. Only a handful of months after graduating with my science degree and plans for post-graduate schooling, I found myself (my entire self) inside a dog kennel with a bottle of diluted bleach. You don't want to know what I was cleaning off every surface surrounding me
Though it wasn't my first or last time cleaning kennels, I thought to myself, 'self, what the hell are you doing; is this really THE plan?' Within three months I had an office job related to photography. Didn't take me long to realize, though I loved the job, I wasn't going to be doing photography. Not that my job required it, but I still don't "get" all the relationships of aperture, f-stop, lighting, etc. Someday I'll learn to use my DSLR in manual mode. Someday.

Fill in a few years of "blah blah blah" and you'll find me glad to have the "out" that is Jack. An out as in a time out, a time out from the cage (or cubicle, same difference). I'm really happy to be home playing with matchbox, learning to decipher toddler-speak, baking, cleaning, and yes even changing diapers. Someday though little ones will be in school. What will I do with myself then? And more importantly what do I do with my brain now so it doesn't turn to toddler-mush?

Well, when I find a moment of quiet time, like the author of the home-based business book, I plan to ask myself the same questions she did. I already have a gut response to them and I tend to trust those (intrigued? check out my other blog where I expound on this: Squash the Inner Critic).

What I'm interested in is hearing from you. Because I know a few of you I was jealous of in college with your solid knowledge of what you wanted to do have ended up in my camp. What about the rest of you? Have you had or are you in the midst of your own 'what should I be when I grow up' crisis? How would you answer the questions below? I'm interested to know; comment away!

"What would I love to do tomorrow? . . . Could I lose track of time doing? And wouldn't care if someone paid me or not?"