Enchiladas and Margaritas, please!

Spring is in full swing in this unusually warm year, and we have had plenty of days of what we refer to as great deck weather.  Afternoons and evenings when you just want to hang out on the deck and relax!  The kids and the dog wear themselves out playing in the yard, and we like to keep an eye on them while we work in the garden. After we bring them in and stick them in the tub to clean off after all of the good old fashioned fun, we are all ready for a relaxing dinner, after which the hubby and I like to get them all tucked into bed and then go enjoy a cocktail on...you guessed it...the deck.

Days like this, a simple and delicious dinner really hits the spot, and since it is beautiful outside but not yet super hot, we don't have to worry making the whole house sweat by turning on the oven.  Once the days and evenings really heat up, it's grill season, but in the spring (or really any time, to be honest), my favorite dinner is enchiladas.  They have to be made from scratch, I'm not really a fan of canned enchilada sauce.  Also, they have to be paired with one of 2 perfect drinks.  Mexican beer or margaritas.

I've been promising my enchilada recipe to my friend Tricia, or more specifically to her husband Amos, and (as usual) they have been very patient as life with 4 active small children and the unknown perils of gardening with the kids (yes, I said perils of gardening, but I'll save THAT set of stories for my next post, which will definitely contain another strong drink recipe) have delayed things time and again.  I hope that now that I have found the time to sit down and finish this post, which I started almost 2 weeks ago, they will find the time to enjoy it soon!

Enchilada sauce is easy to make, and while there are lengthy, multi-step recipes, mine is pretty fast and easy and I love it.  If I didn't, I wouldn't be sharing it here!  Once you get the sauce made (it's only a 10 minute recipe), throwing together the rest of the enchiladas is a snap as well.  I do add cheese to mine, but when I assemble Cassidy's I just leave the cheese out, which makes it a filling and satisfying allergy friendly recipe.  Here's what you need:


Enchilada Sauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. flour
1/4 cup chili powder
8 oz tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 tsp onion powder
1-2 tsp salt, or to taste

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, then stir in the flour and chili powder. Stirring constantly, cook until lightly brown.
Stir in tomato sauce.
Gradually stir in water, cumin, garlic, onion powder and salt into the flour and chili powder until smooth, and continue cooking over medium heat approximately 10 minutes, or until thickened slightly.

I usually pour this into a glass measuring cup and set it aside so that I can use the skillet for the next step, no need to wash it first!  Of course, you could always just use a second skillet.

Enchilada Filling

1 pound of ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
about 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce that you just made
black pepper to taste

You will also need enchilada shells (Traditionally enchiladas are made using soft corn tortillas for the shells, but you could also use taco size soft flour tortillas) and green onions.




 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brown the ground beef in a skillet, along with the onion and pepper.  Stir in the enchilada sauce and black pepper. Turn off the heat.

In a 9 x 13 glass pan, spread about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of enchilada sauce in the bottom of the pan. If you are using cheese (shredded sharp cheddar is best!) add some to an enchilada shell. If dairy is a concern for you, rest assured that these are very satisfying and filling with or without cheese. Scoop some filling into the shell.  Wrap closed and place seam side down in the pan. Repeat until you have run out of shells or space in the pan. If you are lucky, you run out of both at the same time!  
Pour the remaining enchilada sauce evenly over the top and top with more cheese (if you are using cheese, of course!) 
Finally, top with sliced green onions.
Pop into the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, and you are all set!

 Something to drink with that?

Strawberry Margaritas (or slushies, for kids and non-drinkers!)


3 cups of strawberries, washed and stems removed
2 cups of ice
1/2 cup tequila
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup triple sec
lime wedges and/or strawberries for garnish


Toss it all in the blender and whirl away.  Some people prefer sugar also added to these, but that makes it too sweet for me.


If you would rather have a non-alcoholic slushy, leave out the tequila and triple sec and add 1/2  cup of orange juice.


Hope you enjoy!





 

Light Sabers and Fairy Wings

A full week and a half after the twins' birthday party and I am just now getting back to the blog.  Of course, I put off customer orders for 2 weeks leading up to the party, so I've been trying to dig my way out of that mountain of work, but no complaints!  In addition last weekend we were dealing with Chloe's patch testing (you can read about Cassidy going through this process here and Chloe's recent diagnosis that necessitated the testing here). I'll be talking about Chloe's allergy screening experience in an upcoming post.  For now, I wanted to share with all of you the little day of happiness that we squeezed in among the doctor's appointments and testing.

If you are a regular reader, you know that Chloe and her twin brother Quinn just celebrated their 5th birthday!  He picked a Star Wars theme and she chose woodland fairies.  We had the party at a local orchard, and I really think that a wonderful time was had by everyone.  It was chillier that it has been this spring, but it didn't rain, and since the kids were running around with wings and light sabers, they didn't seem to mind at all.  I posted earlier about making the food all allergy safe, including my favorite baker for ordering allergy safe food when I can't make it all myself.  I'll give an overview of what we served, as well as details of the goodie bags and the party itself.

For starters, we purchased print-at-home invitations packs on Etsy.



Quinn's were these, which you can find here,
  
This party package included tons of stuff, so much that we didn't even use it all!  It was great, and I highly recommend checking out the Etsy shop.

 Chloe's were these. Chloe just loved these, and the pack included favor tags and signage.








 Fairy and Jedi Food

The fairy side of the table held "Fairy Fruit" (pre-cut fruit tray), "Pixie Love Cookies" (allergy safe sugar cookies with pink and purple frosting) and "Twigs and Branches" (pretzel sticks and rods).

The Star Wars side had "Vader Veggies" (pre-cut veggie tray), "Wookie Cookies" (allergy safe star wars shaped sugar cookies) and "Death Star Doughnuts" (Allergy safe mini doughnuts with fun sprinkles)

For drinks, we had juice boxes as well as chocolate soy milk boxes (Cassidy is allergic to apples and therefore most juice boxes) and bottled water.

Each table also had cupcakes.  I bake them using my favorite allergy friendly chocolate cupcake recipe from the Food Allergy Mama cookbook; the fairy cupcakes were frosted grass green with little fairy pics on top, and the Star Wars cupcakes were frosted with vanilla, sprinkled with red or blue sugar and topped with light saber flags included in the party pack with the invitations.  Easy as it gets, as far as I am concerned.  With the exception of the cupcakes, all of the allergy safe baked goods were ordered from HippieCakes.  As I have mentioned before, her baked goods (pictured to the left) are fantastic, and her prices are very reasonable.  We are ALWAYS working on a budget (a normal budget, not a wedding budget.  My thoughts on that in this post!) 


We ended up having enough cupcakes left over for the snack at the preschool the following Monday, which was great since I didn't have to bake another batch on Sunday.

Since everything was basically finger foods, the kids (and parents) were welcome to graze when they wanted to, which was casual and in my opinion, just right for a children's birthday party.



Goodie Bags

The goodie bags were so much fun to put together, and they were probably a bit much.  But each twin had specific ideas, and just as I don't agree with making them share a theme just because they happen to be twins, and because their ideas were so heartfelt and generous for their guests, we decided to let them both contribute.  So we ended up with what were basically double goodie bags for the guests. Each bag contained the following:

From Quinn, Han Solo in carbonite or R2D2 shaped soap with a washcloth (the soap was  simple melt and pour stuff from the craft store, the washcloths I made from star print cotton and flannel) We packaged these in little light saber goodie boxes from the party pack! Also, Star Wars stickers and a push pop decorated to look like a light saber.  The boys also got a chinese yo yo, and everyone got a personalized jedi training pass (also part of the party pack!)

From Chloe, a crayon roll and sketch pad.  Wish I had a picture of these, they were so cute!  If I track down a picture, I'll post it.  Also, a ring pop and a jar of bubbles.  The girls also got a little fairy wand and a personalized hair clip.

The washcloths, crayon rolls and hair clips would have been budget breakers to purchase, but since I sew and machine embroider for a living, they only cost me supplies (I don't charge for time when it comes to my kids' party budgets).  My advice in party planning is to capitalize on whatever craft or talent you have to help keep costs down.



Other Fun Stuff

 As I mentioned in a prior post, the orchard lets the party guests feed the farm animals (the kids especially loved the baby goats!) and takes them all on a hayride. We also made fairy wings and tiny crowns for all of the girls, and everyone (boys, girls and some grown ups!) had foam light sabers made from pool noodles and duct tape.  Many thanks to my friend Becky, for her amazing photography!

Chloe, in her extra special birthday wings, enjoys the hay ride with friends.

Mark (aka Daddy) handing out light sabers before one of many big battles.  Not sure which age group had more fun...the kids or the adults!

Chloe, the birthday girl, enjoying herself.

Fairy wings and a light saber!

Helping my little man, Quinn, (in the red jacket) open his gifts.

Big sister Cassidy, little sister River and a fairy friend.

River and her buddy charging into a Jedi battle!

Fairy size crowns for the girls.  We made these from empty toilet paper tubes.  It was super easy.  Look for that tutorial next week!

Jedi Quinn fending off a rebel attack!

A group of fairies heading over to feed the farm animals.

Quinn, Daddy and crew on the hayride.

Birthday boy Quinn, running and playing.









The day was wonderful, and for my kids as well as some of their food allergic friends, being able to enjoy the party and all of the food  and treats without worry was priceless.  It is really something that you tend to take for granted until you are forced to worry about it first hand!  In addition, we stayed within a low budget and the party was proof that the kids were thrilled to just be kids, and that the over-done bells and whistles are not necessary.  Everyone wins!  Now that's my kind of (kid's birthday) party!