Anne Can Cook

Most of the people I've met in my life have one dish that makes them think of home. It varies from person to person, tastebud to tastebud, but it's one of the things that everyone has.
For me, it's my mother's enchiladas. Mom often makes these when I'm going home for an extended period of time. She also used to make up a pan, unbaked, and send them with me back to college to bake for my roommates.
I love my mom. She spoils me.
Mom has always insisted that these are really easy to put together. She's right, but even without a ton of effort, mine weren't as good as Mom's. Of course. They are still my favorite meal, though. My home meal.
Mom's Chicken Enchiladas
8 Flour tortillas
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 or 3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 4oz can diced green chilies, drained
1/2 c. sour cream
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 c. cubed cooked chicken
1 c. shredded cheese, divided
1/4 c. milk

Remove tortillas from refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Saute the onion & garlic until tender. Stir in the chillies, sour cream, and cream of chicken soup. Stir thoroughly, and set aside 3/4 cup of the soup mixture. To the remaining soup mixture, add 1/2 of the cheese and all of the chicken.

Grease a pan (I used an 8"x8" for four enchiladas, you can use an 8"x12" for eight enchiladas). Fill your tortillas with a few spoonfuls of chicken mixture. Roll them up and place them seam side down in the pan. Take the reserved soup mixture and mix with the milk. Spoon over the enchiladas, and bake for 30-35 minutes until bubbly. Turn off the oven, sprinkle enchiladas with the remaining cheese, and let set in the oven for another 5 minutes while the cheese melts.

Serve with hot sauce and sour cream.

Mmm. Home.

Last week was a lazy week for cooking. I honestly don't even remember what I had for dinner last week. I think it's because I was so geared up for my hoity toity dinner with my boyfriend in Minneapolis.
Andrew and I didn't see each other on Valentine's Day, and his birthday was on the 19th, so we decided to do this past weekend instead. He booked us a reservation at Porter and Frye's, which is a small fancy place in the Hotel Ivy.
I won't bore you with our dinner details, but I will say that everything was excellent and it was really fun to go somewhere like that when we normally wouldn't. I mean, the dessert was plated like something from Iron Chef. You just don't see that at the local burger joint.

Anyway, it was time to head back to the kitchen. Tuesday at work I was wracking my brain, trying to come up with something to eat that wasn't spaghetti. Then it dawned on me: Chicken Enchiladas. Chicken Enchiladas are high on my list of favorite foods. In fact, my mom makes me enchiladas pretty frequently when I visit because I love them so much. Mom's enchiladas are the best, of course. I hope she doesn't get too offended that this isn't her recipe. Someday I'll make Mom's enchiladas, but it's just never the same, you know?
Apologies that this picture isn't better. I'm experimenting with my food photography.
Here is what went down:

4 tortillas
4 oz cream cheese (or lite cream cheese)
1/4 c. salsa
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 c. cooked chicken, chopped
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 c. shredded colby jack cheese

Grease a baking dish and preheat the oven to 350F. In a small sauce pan, melt the cream cheese and salsa together. Once the mixture is more or less homogeneous, toss in the garlic, chicken, and spices. Stir together and heat through.
Spread about a fourth of the mixture on a tortilla. Roll up the tortilla and filling, then place in the baking dish, seam side down. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas.
Sprinkle the enchiladas with cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes.

Mom does get credit for this recipe, as it was her homemade salsa I put in my enchiladas. Mmmm.
These enchiladas, while not as good as Mom's, were still pretty good and very easy. I got a little over enthusiastic with the filling and ended up with only three enchiladas instead of four. One of these days I'll post Mom's recipe, but for now these will do.