What I Ate (and Will Eat) Wednesday

As I mentioned in this post (and this one), last night we made Chicken Enchiladas with Pumpkin Sauce.  It was so good and so easy I just had to share it with you.  Normally I think of pumpkin as a fall or winter vegetable but in this recipe it becomes more of a mole sauce (without the work!) which would taste great any time of year!

Warning: if you have a cat that is anything like Woods and loves chicken, be prepared for lots of meowing and leg rubbing while you shred the chicken.  I don't think Woods stopped talking for the entire 15 minutes it took me to shred the chicken even after I gave him a few pieces in the living room (where he gets all treats in a vain attempt to keep him from begging).  It was so funny; I really wish we would have gotten the whole thing on video!

Chicken Enchiladas with Pumpkin Sauce, taken from Martha Stewart's Kitchen Everyday Food cookbook

Ingredients:
1/2 roast chicken, skin removed and meat shredded
6 scallions, thinly sliced
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 jalapeno chile, quartered--remove ribs and sees for less heat if desired.  I removed them because I am not a big fan of super spicy things but with the amount of pumpkin in the sauce, you could leave some or all of the ribs and seeds in.  We missed the heat!
1 teaspoon chili powder
8 corn tortillas (6 inch)
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) grated sharp white Cheddar cheese

Kitchen Supplies:
Medium mixing bowl
Blender or food processor
Cutting board
2 quart baking dish
Sheet tray

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine the chicken and scallions.  Season generously with salt and pepper; set aside.

In a blender, puree the pumpkin, garlic, jalapeno, chili powder, 2 1/2 cups water, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper until smooth.  Hold the top down firmly with one hand as the blender will be quite full.  Pour 1 cup of the sauce in the bottom of a 2 quart baking dish (square or rectangle).

Lay the tortillas on a work surface; mound the chicken mixture on half of each tortilla, dividing evenly.  Roll up each tortilla in a tight log; place seam side down over the sauce in the baking dish.  My logs didn't stay together very well but the pumpkin sauce and cheese cover all sorts of things.

Pour the remaining sauce on top; sprinkle with the cheese.  Place the dish on a baking sheet; bake until the cheese is golden and the sauce is bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes.  Ours took 30 minutes to get really bubbly and golden brown.  Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Serves: 4

According to the cookbook, this dish can be made up to 8 hours ahead of time.  Simply prepare as described above, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to bake.  Be sure to add a few minutes to the cooking time to account for the chilled dish.

This recipe was everything a weeknight dinner should be (in my book at least): quick, simple, cheap and tasty.  We will definitely be making this again soon.  As is our tradition, we had leftovers of this yummy dinner for lunch today, hence the What I Ate part of the post.





Now for the What I Will Eat part.  In yesterday's post, I mentioned that meal plans should be flexible.  Tonight's dinner is a perfect example of that.  We were planning on making shrimp and egg-knot soup tonight but J emailed me earlier today that he wanted to do something fun tonight.  All of the ingredients for the soup were freezer and pantry items that could keep for another week so we quickly devised a plan: 

Dinner at this local-food restaurant (which came recommended courtesy of Slow Food St. Louis) followed by a free night of jazz music at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  We will have an appetizer and dinner at Brasserie before we feast on homemade chocolate and cheese danishes and wine at the Botanical Gardens.

Source: dressdesigndecor.blogspot.com via Kt on Pinterest

Want to know the very best part?  This whole night will be free!  You see, we are having dinner on my parents thanks to a generous anniversary gift they sent our way that has been burning a hole in our pockets sitting in our account for a while now.   THANKS MOM AND DAD!  The concert is free.  We had a bottle of Charles Shaw Pinot Grigio in our fridge and ingredients for the danishes in the pantry and freezer.  So we might have to pay for parking in the Central West End but I think I can handle that.  I can't wait!

What have you eaten this Wednesday?  What will you eat for dinner?  In my family, we always talk about what we are going to eat for our next meal while we are eating our current one, which goes a long way in explaining my love of meal planning and talking about food.  Happy Wednesday everyone!

Spanish Saturday Night

After a busy week for both of us, J and I unwound with some Spanish tapas and red wine on Saturday night, made easy by Trader Joe's.

For a while now, I had seen a three pack of Italian cut meats (prosciutto, salami and one other I can't recall) and this weekend when I was perusing their aisles, I came across a similar three pack but this time featuring sliced chorizo, serrano jamon and a Spanish salami.  J and I love Spanish cuisine (so much so that I bought him this Spanish cookbook for Christmas) and I thought that this would be just the thing to transport us to Madrid and tide us over until we can get there in person.

I also picked up a large baguette, some Spanish cheese, Two Buck Chuck (not Spanish but still a cheap and tasty wine) and some shrimp to round out the meal.  I also added some kalamata olives I had in our fridge and some of our good olive oil for dipping that we got as a wedding present from this place to round out the meal.

The whole thing probably cost us less than $15.00 bucks (with leftovers which we had for dinner the next night) which is a lot less than we would have spent had we gone out for tapas instead.  We finished off our cheap but relaxing date night by joining some friends at Schlafly for a drink!

Have you had any cheap dates at home recently?  What about at a restaurant thanks to a coupon or gift certificate?  I'd love to hear all about it!

Lions, Tigers and...Groupon, oh my!

We are big fans of Groupon.  Over the past year, we have used it to:

• Get a nice hair cut and color (for me)
• Eaten several times at this great restaurant
• Seen a movie with 2 for 1 movie tickets
• Eaten fresh Creole food here
• Got an eyebrow wax and conditioning treatment for $13 (again for me)

Yesterday we added one more to the list: Dinner, drinks and a tour at Tiger Ridge Restaurant and Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary!  Hence the tiger reference in my last post.  This was by far the best Groupon we have used so far and made for a wonderful date night!

J has been busy with the end of the semester and finals quickly approaching.  It was great for us to be able to take the afternoon off and spend time together exploring a new place, learning new things and eating great food!

Crown Ridge is located in Ste. Genevieve, which was approximately 1 hour and 20 minute drive for us.  Nestled in the heart of Crown Valley, an area rich with wine, produce and livestock including bison, Crown Ridge is a fifty-five acre facility that features a restaurant, Bed and Breakfast, and most importantly (at least to us) a tiger sanctuary, which is currently home to five tigers and one lioness.

When we arrived at the grounds, we were welcomed by the hostess and ushered into a dark wood library and bar while we waited for our 4:30 tour.  J and I sampled the beer on tap: Crown Valley wheat beer, which was very refreshing.  Other Crown Valley varieties, including a root beer named after one of the tigers, Fizzy Izzy, were available in bottle form.  Wine from Crown Valley Winery was also available.

Soon it was time for our tour, which was conducted by the sanctuary's intern.  She explained that Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary is an USDA approved big cat sanctuary whose funding comes from a 501(c)(3) foundation.  All of the cats in the sanctuary had been rescued and had come from bad situations.  Because they had all been bred by exotic animal traders and many are of mixed breed or inbred, zoos do not/are not able to take these cats when they are seized by animal control.  Crown Ridge is able to offer some of these cats, who would otherwise be euthanized, a home.

The cat houses are double fenced with a sidewalk nearby, which allowed us to get very close to the cats but still maintain a safe distance.  Most of them were sleeping as it was early evening.  We learned that tigers can sleep anywhere between 18 to 20 hours a day, which I could verify anecdotally by how much our "tiger" Woods sleeps.  He's sleeping next to me as I write this actually.

The lioness, Alexis, did come out and greet us, however. At one point she and the white tiger, Mohan, got into a shouting match.  The intern explained that Alexis always has to get in the last word with the other tigers, which she did while we were there! 

Each tiger is housed in their own enclosure, since in the wild tigers are solitary animals.  The only exception to this are Thor and Gracie.  Gracie is 90 to 95 percent blind due to previous neglect.  Thor and Gracie lived together in their previous home.  When they were rescued, the caretakers noticed that Thor was giving Gracie some of her meager share of her food.  This behavior continued at the sanctuary for several months, until Thor learned that there was enough food to go around!  It was obvious from that moment that Thor cared deeply for Gracie, which is why they still live together today.


J and I had a lot of fun learning about the tigers and laughed out loud several times when the big cats exhibited mannerisms we recognized in Woods.  From the way they lie down to the way they clean their paws, it was just like Woods, only they were 200 or so times his size!

Yes, I have caught Woods sleeping like this.  This is their youngest cat, Izzy.

After the tour, we were taken into the dining room, where we were greeted with fresh bread and herb butter.  At the restaurant, as many of the ingredients as possible are locally sourced.  I ordered a Bison Stroganoff and J ordered a roasted duck.  We split a wedge salad that had local blue cheese and pecans.  The food was delicious and filing--we didn't even have room for dessert, although if they are anything like the food we had there, it would have been delicious! Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of the dining room or our food before we gobbled it up!

Overall, J and I had a wonderful time with those exotic and majestic creatures.  We hope to return soon, perhaps to spend the weekend exploring Ste. Genevieve and some of the local wineries while we are at it.  Sounds like a good Valentine's Day or anniversary trip to me!

If anyone in the St. Louis area is looking for a little getaway, I definitely recommend Tiger Ridge!

Weekend in Review or Coming Attractions

On Friday I shared some of my plans for the weekend.  I thought I would share with you how I did with those plans.

• Laundry: I did 7 loads of laundry on Saturday morning.  Note to self: do not wait so long to do laundry next time!
• Menu planning: postponed until midweek due to a number of meals I froze and did not make last week
• Grocery shopping: see above
• Read (and hopefully finish) one of my books: I finished I See You Everywhere.  Look for a book review post this week!
• Go out to dinner with friends tonight after work: we went here and it was delicious!
• Go to a concert tomorrow night with Ashlee: we saw Augustana and Sara Bareilles at UMSL.  Sara was sweet, funny and very entertaining!
• Write my first letter to my pen pal: I wrote this while doing laundry.  It was a great way to pass the time!
• Take a nap: accomplished Saturday afternoon while watching football with Woods
• Watch some football: woke up, watched some football and to my surprise and delight, Notre Dame won!  

I also did the following:

• Drank tea
• Discovered a new TV show: thanks to Ashlee and Justin, we watched 4 episodes from the first season on Friday night.  It is hilarious!
• Took pictures of a Thanksgiving table setting that I started late last week: look for details and pictures later this week!
• Went to church
• Made a delicious pumpkin soup for lunch: recipe to follow this week
• Had an amazing date night with J last night: details and photos also to follow. For now all I will say is that it involved TIGERS.  The real ones, not a mascot--sorry Mizzou!

How was your weekend, friends?