Chipotle Shredded Pork Enchiladas

I actually roasted myself some tomatillos and some tomatoes!

And then I made a homemade enchilada sauce.

And it was so good.  So, so Good.

As you know, I have a huge cookbook collection---some of them are good, some fair, and some, like this cookbook are amazing!  (if you want to see a small sample of what I have go here .  Oh go ahead click on it, I'll wait.)

Muy Bueno, Three Generations of Authentic Mexican Flavor.

Recipes AND Stories.  I love the stories.

I was really happy with the 3 generations of viewpoints: traditional, modern and south of the border-home-style  recipes thru-out the cookbook.  The photos are great, so are the stories, but most of all this pork enchilada dish was great!

If you like Mexican cooking at all---I suggest you try this cookbook.

The Handyman and I enjoyed a nice supper outside on the patio. We love to eat there in the summer time.  And in Nevada we are not bothered by bugs much.  A yellow-jacket bee once in a great while comes to see what we are eating, but no mosquitoes at all, no gnats, no bugs.  

I guess it's a pay off right? We have no water, no trees---but a nice gorgeous desert to look at.  And---no bugs.

Fix a nice big margarita to go with this and enjoy!

I love to make from scratch recipes, and I thought the sauce for this dish was very good.   I'd use it on other things.

Chipotle Shredded Pork Enchiladas
from Muy Bueno

pork

• 1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin, shredded *see instructions below
• 1 (8 ounce) beer
• 1 bay leaf

sauce

• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
• 1 can (7 ounce) chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 1 can (8 ounce) tomato sauce (depending on spice tolerance you may need an extra can)
• 2 roma tomatoes, roasted *see instructions below
• 4 tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and roasted *see instructions below
• ½ large white onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon flour
• ½ cup water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt (to taste)

enchiladas

• ½ cup canola oil, for frying
• 12 – 18 corn tortillas, preferably white
• 1 medium white onion, diced
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (preferably Enchilado or Muenster)
• 1/2 cup crema Mexicana or sour cream, for topping

directions:

shredded pork

1. Place the pork tenderloin and bay leaf in a slow cooker; pour the beer over the meat. Cover and cook on low until well cooked and the pork shreds easily, 6-8 hours.
2. Discard the bay leaf. Remove the pork from the slow cooker and shred the meat. Set aside for assembly.

roast tomatoes and tomatillos

1. Arrange tomatoes and tomatillos on a baking sheet. Place your oven rack as close to the broiler as possible.
2. Broil the tomatoes and tomatillos for about 20 minutes until softened, turning over after 10 minutes. If the skin has blackened remove it. Set aside.

for sauce

1. In a blender place the can of diced tomatoes, chipotle peppers with adobo sauce, tomato sauce, roasted tomatoes and roasted tomatillos, chopped onion, garlic cloves, flour, and water. Puree until smooth.
2. Heat olive oil in large skillet. Pour mixture into skillet and stir. Taste and season with salt, usually about 2 teaspoons. If sauce is too spicy, add an additional can of tomato sauce and stir. If sauce is too thick, add water until desired constancy is reached, making sure to add more salt if necessary.

assembly

1. In a large skillet, heat canola oil until hot. Fry tortillas until softened. Drain on paper towels.
2. Place lightly fried tortillas, one at a time, in pot of warm red sauce, turning to coat. Place coated tortillas on serving plate.
3. Layer each tortilla with cooked pork, grated cheese, and onions. Repeat layering until stacked three to four tortillas. Serve with a dollop of crema or sour cream and your favorite side dish.

It's Monday

What I just finished reading today....

and what I started   reading this evening....( apparently, it's a ferriswheel theme!  ) 

What I had for dinner...

and I'm listening to this....

and this is where I walked today  (okay,  yesterday)... (we took a picnic, but it was too nice not to talk about, so here you go...)

That's my Monday.  How was your's?  (or is it yours?)

I'm linking to  "It's Monday, What are you Reading"  hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.   Check it out!

Banana Bars

I wasn't kidding ( a few days ago when I said I was going to post about them)--here are Banana Bars!
A quick recipe from  my friend April.

She's the one we went on the boat with last summer.
She's the one who has the movie nights in her back yard each summer. 
She's the one who we went out in the desert with in May.  (oops never blogged about this)
She's the one who threw a great red-necked cocktail party at my 52nd birthday at Wallowa Lake.

Holy cow!  She's the one!!  Too bad I already have the Handyman.

If you like banana bread, banana cake, banana pudding (mmmmm....) you will like these little banana snack bars.  You can't really go wrong with banana flavored anything.
And these are really easy and quick. 

Banana Bars

Cream together:
1/2 cup soft butter
2 cups sugar

Add to sugar mixture and blend well:
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas

Sift together  and add to batter.  Mix well:
2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

Pour into a greased  15x10x1 baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes at  350 degrees.  Let cool and frost.

Beat together until creamy:
1/2 cup softened butter
8 oz cream cheese

Mix into cream cheese and butter. Blend well. Frost bars:
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Saturday Snaptshot

I've been gone so long, that I have a million things on my mind that  I had wanted to do/post about, so....this is a accumulation  of all those things, music, daughters-in-law, and SATURDAY SNAPSHOT.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy.  It’s easy to participate – just post a picture that was taken by you, a friend, or a family member and add your link on Melinda’s site.


I love music. And I've been wanting to write a blog post on how much I love music. But I've never been quite sure how to do that.
I mean, yes, I love music, but no, I do not play an instrument or sing, nor can I read music. (the Handyman can, which is really weird to me. He just remembers it from his elementary music lessons).  So I can't really tell you anything specific.  I just like to listen to it.  A lot. 
But why would this be interesting to anyone?  I have no idea.  But my mom will read it and like it.  She likes everything I do.  ~grins~
I'll post it, but then I'm gonna post about banana cake really fast, so everyone will think I'm 'normal'.

 I like all music...every single genre there is.  My favorite being the decades of the 60's and 70's, and my least favorite are Rap and Hard- Headbanger Rock Music.  I'll listen to it tho, and I have an appreciation for it. 

I just got back from a visit with my parents and they sent me home with their old record albums. Close to 200 of them.

I couldn't let the records go to a rummage sale, I just couldn't.  OR a recycled record place. And I could not let them be made into chip bowls (I've seen this done. Kinda cool, but not for MY albums. You just heat one with a blow-drying and it will bend and shape into a bowl.) But what the heck am I going to do with 200 'easy-listening' record albums. BUT--at least they are from the 60's and the 70's, my favorite!  It'll be fun to listen to them.   Now I am going to segue into this strange subject---my daughters-in-law.  Not that they are strange, but you  might think it  strange going from music to my son's wives in one blog post.  I do not.     I like music.  I like them.  It seems perfectly natural to me.  
Or maybe this post is really about them, my daughters-in-law.  I like them very much.

My daughter-in-law Sadie, once worked at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale, while she was going to school (yep, I am  blatantly bragging/name dropping.  I can't help it, I am proud).
I love Sacred Music!  ( For the next year, NPR will take a musical journey across America, which is one of the most religiously diverse countries on earth. They want to discover and celebrate the many ways in which people make spiritual music — individually and collectively, inside and outside houses of worship. )
It's different for all people--and I just love the diversity of 'sacred' music.
(of course I also LOVE the Partridge Family....I'm just saying, I really like all  kinds of  music)

This is a photo of  Sadie and my son Marcus, taken this summer at the Annual Conference of the CA-NV United Methodist Church.

She is a Methodist Minister and this was at her commissioning.  

for the record Sadie's favorite music is not church music, but country music.  I felt I must state that---it was ME who loved the Institute of Sacred Music.

*

My daughter-in-law, Jessica is very patient when I asked dumb music questions.  But now I  understand  that there are genres inside of genres inside of genres, when it comes to music.  Between Jessica and SongPop on facebook, that is. 
I saw once on SongPop that there is  'East Coast Rap' and 'West Coast Rap', and I was seriously amazed.  So, Jessica explained the difference to me.  She also introduced words/phrases like  "G-rap", "Crunk"  and  'electro-world pop" to me.  Oh..and the group "Leftover Crack", a punk band.

*For the record---and in case you're ever playing Trivial Pursuit and this question comes up:
East Coast Rap are artists like:  the Notorious B.I.G or Biggie,  Puff Daddy or Sean 'Puffy' Combs
and West Coast: Dr. Dre and 2Pak
I will end the history lesson here...but I just find all that stuff interesting.  I'm all  kinda dorky.
BUT---Jessica can talk the talk with me.  Or, rather, I can ask her any ridiculous question about music genre's and  she explains things to me.

This is a photo of Jessica and my son Dustin, in my backyard last fall.

My daughter-in-law Mara has introduced me to a whole new world of  international music.  The music of Mexico.  It's much more complex and intricate  than we think--- not as stereotypical and trite as we in the United States think it is.  It IS NOT only a Mariachi band, it is so much more,  although Mariachi bands serve a purpose too.    
My grandson,  watched a video of Luke and Mara's wedding and they had a Mariachi band, Camron (my grandson) said to me,  "turn it off, I can't stop dancing!"
It's true---sometimes  you just can't stop your feet from moving.

This is Mara and my son Luke, last Christmas at their house in Arizona.

Oh...and this was right before my grandson Christopher was born. 

I was waiting, I just KNEW he would come at Christmas, but nope he waited until after the new year.

My family is used to me asking stupid questions like---if you went to a party and had to take one CD  or the music of one artist, who would it be?  What is your 'theme' music?

So, now I'm asking  you....what CD would you take to a party if you had to chose one that is 'you'?

So there you have it.  My rambling.  Have a great rest of your day.  I have to go make the banana snack cake now.  I'll post about it tomorrow.

Hi there

Hi there.  I guess I took a little break.  I didn't really know I was going to take a little break---it just happened.  I didn't post for few days, and then a few days turned into a few weeks and, well...  here I am!

Here I am back without an particular post in mind, so I will just share what I did last night.

Yes, I weaved bacon.

I saw it on Pintrest (I think) so I tried it for our BLT's last night.  I must say it was pretty good. There was  bacon in each bite I took.  As you can tell it  is just the size of a slice of bread, so it covered the whole sandwich.

And...this is my new favorite song:




The song is  probably not new to anyone but me---I love all kinds of  music, but country music is not my genre of choice, so I could be a bit behind the times here.
But Dave Matthews?  Who doesn't love his voice?

That's it for now. 
I'm back.