Leftover Magic

I'm really aware of using up my leftovers. I usually have my week's menus planned out to use everything up, but once in a while I get this odd assortment of ingredients in the fridge. Tonight I needed to connect a cup of rotisserie chicken and three kinds of Mexican cheese.

Eureka! Enchiladas!

I had the cheese leftover from making Green Chile Chilaqiles two weeks ago. Unfortunately, the Panela cheese did not make it. It is a fresh cheese, sort of similar to ricotta or farmer's cheese (sorta). The Manchego and Cojita were fine and I shredded them. (Oh, let's say...10 oz total) Chopped up an onion and half of a chile pepper from my neighbor's garden and let them sweat in some canola oil. Added the shredded chicken and hit it with a half cup of purchased enchilada sauce.
I dipped corn tortillas in some of the heated enchilada sauce and filled the tortillas with the chicken mixture and some of the cheese.
Roll 'em up, place in a casserole that has just a teeny bit of sauce in the bottom, cover with a teeny bit more sauce and cover with some cheese.
375 deg. 20 min or so.
Que Bueno!

I don't make enchiladas very often, but when I have made them in the past, I have made the enchilada sauce from scratch. It is not too hard, but takes a bit of time to toast, soak, and then blenderize the chiles. I was in a little bit of a hurry last night, hence the canned sauce. Maybe I picked the gringo brand or something, but it wasn't that good. I'll stick to my home made sauce.

Why Do They Hate The Beatles?

Back in the day Dale was in a band named LUNCH. The band took their inspiration from many sources, including The Beatles. Their repertoire included a few Beatles' covers, my favorite being "Flying". They truly made the songs their own, which to me is the true test of doing a cover song. A listener to Lunch's music once commented "Why do they hate The Beatles?"
Anyway.......Dale came across this awesome video on YouTube and it brought back all the wonderful LUNCH memories...I think these guys found an old LUNCH tape at a garage sale or something, which inspired them to make this video. ENJOY! (brains!)

PDX = MKE

This blog entry is extremely overdue. But, hey, I'm a busy kinda chick. And lazy. And forgetful.

This past May Dale and I took our first trip to the Pacific NorthWest. We went to Seattle and Portland and a few meanderings between the two. We had planed on a quickie across the border to Vancouver, but the State Department put the kibosh on that -- meaning Dale's passport didn't arrive until a week AFTER we got home.
We had a most excellent trip. The weather was super, only one day of rainy weather. Lots of good food, beautiful scenery, and once we learned to tell people we were from Michigan instead of SoCal--lots of friendly natives. (gosh these folks are touchy....don't worry, I am SO not cool enough to move there...and I DO luv my Mac!)

This is a little photo essay on "How Portland is like Milwaukee". Portland is one awesome little town. A beautiful river, lively neighborhoods, fun, friendly people and lots of cool architecture. Hey, you could say the same about Milwaukee too, aina? I was blown away on the number of similarities between the two towns. OK, except that in Milwaukee you get gun violence and Portland gets Matt Groening. Not fair.

Portland and Milwaukee are both located on rivers which form the core of the city.

Portland:


Milwaukee:


The city planners must have bought the same blueprints at "Bridges-R-Us".

Portland:


Milwaukee:

(thank you to John December for this photo)

Both cities have similar architecture--bungalows and brick construction.

This Portland firehouse is now a private residence.


This Milwaukee firehouse uses the famous "Cream City" bricks.



Even the city-issued house numbers are the same!

Portland:


Milwaukee:


The musical stylings are similar too! Oh wait....maybe not.

Portland has:


Milwaukee's (in)famous son:


The most surprising thing was that PORTLAND HAS BUBBLERS! Well, THEY call 'em "drinking fountains" but they are most definitely bubblers of the classic style. Note the orbs with water "bubbling" out. Now, THAT'S a bubbler!

Portland's bubblers were installed by some teetotaler civic leader way back when to provide sailors on shore leave an alternative to Demon Rum.


A not too fancy Milwaukee example:


Here's Dale's (Mr. Professional-like Website maker) site where you can check out the other cool photos and stuff from our PacNW trip....and see the wonder that is (or was) The Idaho Spud!

City of Torrance Entry for Tournament of Roses

I just got my neighborhood association news flash on the Torrance Rose Float entry. This year they are honoring the Sister City Association. The sister city of Torrance is Kashiwa, Japan. We send people there, they send people here...everyone feels all warm and happy.
Actually, I think I might just volunteer to help on the float. Sounds like fun...I mean, how hard can it be? And they give you a bus ride to the place (which is about an hour away)..so that's cool. Might be good blog fodder, eh?

Cocktails @ Fartwood Manor

"Hey Maw, git me a ginger beer!"

"Mmm, that sounds good, but I think I'll have some cider."

So I get the cider and beer from the fridge, and I think:

"Hmmm....I wonder what would happen if I mixed them together?"

Well, I'll tell ya....you get a really great drink! Nice and apple-y but still with the bite of the ginger.



We go through A LOT of ginger beer around here. If you like ginger, give any of the Reed's products a try. No HFCS...yay!



The Packer game was exciting today. I only got a little bit of a stomach-ache there at the end, but they pulled it out with that INT. Not too bad after a short week, too.

Spooktacular...and yummy too

On Sunday we had a dry-run of the haunt. We do it mainly to make sure the foggers are operational. No fog=bad haunt. This also enables friends with their own Halloween-night activities a chance to see the haunt fully operational.
This year I made a big pot of Posole Rojo. Just what was needed on a crisp fall evening.
You would think with the quantity of chiles the posole would be super hot, but it wasn't. In fact I added a little cayenne and a few shakes of chipotle powder right before serving to give it a little heat. There is a huge difference between Mexican oregano and Greek oregano. Search out the Mexican variety if you can. I get mine at Penzey's
You might notice the lack of toppings. Against my better judgement, I bought avocados from New Zealand. They were awful and I couldn't use them. California Avocados Uber Alles. I used cabbage instead of the lettuce and I totally spaced on the onions. The "home made" tortilla strips really do make the dish.

Happy Halloween!

Last night was show time over here at The Fartwood Cemetery. All the months of preparation came together flawlessly. We had a clear, mild fall evening to make it even better.
The kids started coming about 6:30 and there was a steady flow of goblins, witches, and Spidermen throughout the evening. Even King Tut visited us. Many people stopped by and told us they had been watching and waiting to see the haunt for weeks.
Dale got two votes of "tight" and one "sick" from the local teenagers. So I guess that's good, huh? I overheard one kid say "Mom! It's a MILITARY" Instead of "cemetery". That was cute.
The fog was really pumping. At some points you could not see across the street.

Here's a shot of a few weeks ago when we first put up the fence. This gives a good "before" image.


One new thing this year was the addition of a second gate, with the hopes it would provide better traffic flow. We put down a path of cedar mulch over the grass to delineate the way to go. Dale decided he needed some fall leaves to lend authenticity, so we found some maple trees in town and raked us up some leaves.


Here's a shot of the completed yard in daylight.


The Cryptmaster


Some close-ups of the props






What would happen in Insane Killer Klown and Hoochie Mama had a baby? It would be Pooh Bear! Who knew?!?


Dale and Mother Superior. Good thing she forgot her ruler.


We knocked it off about 9pm. Dale had counted 270 kids had been there. As we cleaned up the yard, we listened to our traditional broadcast of "War of the Worlds". A spooky and fun night was had by all. Plus we got a little candy leftover =)