Sunday, July 25, 2010 at 3:17PM 
Yummy Pork Carintas for a nice Sunday dinner! Taken to the next level with Mexican Street Corn. Recipes and inspiration courtsey of America's Test Kitchen. Details to follow...
Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 9:38PM Let's start of with a little background:
Richard and I have had an obsession with PBS lately, which has lead to a love affair with "Mexico One Plate at a Time" Chef Rick Bayless' show. If you have not seen this show, I highly recommend you tune in, I promise it will inspire you for some Mexican cuisine. Basically, we are Texans so we fancy ourselves authoritative on Mexican cuisine, but Chef Bayless (whom I might add is a native to Oklahoma..I know gasp!) takes it to a whole new level and leaves this Texan wondering if she has been shafted her whole life on Mexican cuisine.
Fortunately, Chef Bayless not only has the PBS show, but also an array of cookbooks and web sites to enlighten your desire to bring Mexican cuisine into your home. Additionally Chef Bayless has several restaurants in the Chicago area that I "dreamed" of going to one day. Lucky for me this past week was my birthday and my loving husband booked us tickets for a long weekend in Chicago so that we can *hopefully* dine at least one if not multiple of Chef Bayless' restaurants. This was truly to my surprise and utmost delight, sincerely I had no idea! Richard definitely scored points with this birthday.
Which brings us to the "Rick Bayless Twitter Recipe Challenge"...
While being a Twitter follower of Chef Bayless I saw that he is doing a recipe challenge for four weeks with winners chosen from pictures submissions for a chance to win an autographed cookbook of his latest book "Fiesta at Rick's". What a wonderful way to create yummy Mexican food at home and*fingers crossed* possibly win an autographed cookbook. Here is the link if you too want details on this contest: http://bit.ly/cMNUnl I encourage you to enter, it is so much fun!
This weeks tweet:
@Rick_Bayless
This week's recipe (harder than last weeks): Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas w Creamy Tomatillo Sauce & Melted Cheese. Recipe is my next Tweet
Rst 1#tomtllos,1 on,3 grlc,3 serranos;puree;sear n oil 2 thkn;simr w 2c broth,.5c crema.Oil,micrwv 12 torts,roll w rstd veg,sauce, chs, bake
(Trying out my hipstamatic iphone app...) This is what the roasted veggies for the sauce look like after 4mins under the broiler...
Here are what the sauce veggies looked like after another 4mins under the broiler before going into the blender to be pureed.
Next place all of the sauce veggies into the blender and puree until smooth.
Get a large sauce pan going on the stove, Medium High Heat with 1.5 TBSP of Vegtable Oil unti hot, pour in sauce ingredients from blender.
Stir constantly until sauce gets darker and thicker then add the broth and crema.
Semi cover and let Simmer on Medium Low heat for 30mins or until sauce looks a little like a light cream soup.
While you are waiting on this you can prep your veggie filling.
Choose any veggies you like that will total 8 cups or so, we used Mushrooms, Carrots, Arugula and Spinach.
Clean and cut the veggies and place on a baking sheet drizzled with oil and salt in a 400 degree oven.
I did Mushrooms and Carrots in the oven for 20mins and then added the Spinach and Arugula for additional 5mins.
Once the sauce and veggies are ready, take 12 corn tortillas, brush with oil and wrap in a damp paper towel, microwave on high for 1min.
Take 1cup of the sauce and add to the bottom of your baking dish. Take your veggies and place in a bowl to combine, take the tortillas out of the microwave and begin rolling.
Add the remainder of the sauce to cover the enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Place your enchiladas in a 400degree oven for 10mins or until cheese on top is golden brown.
Garnish with onions (I used the green onions) and cilantro. Finshed Enchiladas!
Getting ready to dig in!
Enjoy this recipe and go check out Chef Bayless' twitter challenge.
Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 12:49PM 
We are currently trekking through Austin, TX to get our ingredients for our Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas with Creamy Tomatillo Sauce & Melted Cheese. Can't wait to get cooking. Just picked up fresh corn tortillas from our favorite tortilleria El Milagro! Check them out at: http://www.el-milagro.com/
Friday, July 23, 2010 at 8:32AM I love the rain, I feel like it is nature's "refresh" button. Currently I am looking out the window watching the rain touch the ground and sipping a little bit of heaven in my latte this morning. Makes me inspired to take this Friday out with a bang!
We have been lucky this summer to have rain showers every once in awhile, last year it was dry for many many days so we have counted our blessing that this was the year we decided to start our raised garden beds. Here is a picture taken in our back yard during a shower that came through last week.
Who doesn't love a rainbow covering your home?
After finishing up some work today I get to go out this afternoon and do some inspirational shopping at home decor stores. I will post about projects later...more to come.
Hope you get to enjoy a rain shower soon!
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 5:39PM Happy Birthday to my good friend Michelle! Tonight we joined them for dinner at Pluckers, it was a yummy deep friend evening. If you go there be sure to try the "Baker's Gold" sauce - thanks Josh for forever changing our Plucker's experience.
My Mother used her craftiness to create these fabulous gifts for my dear friend:
First up a potato cooker (I will be devoting a whole post to this soon.) This one is done with an accent of University of Texas Longhorn material to specialize it for Michelle.
Next we have a pretty and PINK apron! Michelle loved it, I am so glad because I recently received one from Mom that I adore. (I'll be sure to post a picture in the future.)
Sorry for the lousy iPhone photos, I will have to get Michelle to model it for me and I will add that picture for a better view.
Many thanks for a great evening!
