Enchiladas and an Exception

First, the enchiladas:

A few Sundays ago, Michael and I made enchiladas. With this challenge being as it is, it took the *entire* day. I started out making tomato paste, which is essentially reducing 5-6 lbs of tomatoes down into about 2 cups of paste. Of course this was the morning that my refrigerator broke for the second time, and only about 1/3 cup made it safely into the freezer. The rest had a one-way ticket to moldsville. Despite the lengthly process, thepaste was actually quite delicious. However, Michael had asked me if there was something I had made this month that I wouldn't make again, and the answer is definitely now tomato paste. It was a lot of time in the making, and wasn't very cost efficient. Maybe I'll make it again some day when I have a garden overflowing with tomatoes and there's nothing else I can think to do with them. If you're interested in taking this journey into tomato paste, here's the link with instructions.

The next step was to make veggie broth. I adapted the recipe from Super Duper Soups, a wonderful cookbook that I had bought on sale a couple years ago. It also has a recipe for the best shiitake mushroom soup that I have ever put in my mouth and hour-by-hour instructions for a one-, two-, or three-day detox plan. I've done the one and the two, but I've never ventured into the three. Maybe that'll come up after the month is over. I have never felt better in my life than the morning after doing a detox. Anyways, this was a great veggie broth, but again, I don't know how often I'll be making my own broths without having 1) a garden and 2) to share a freezer with 2 roommates and a ton of frozen food.

The tomato paste and the veggie broth were made to go into the enchilada sauce that can be found here (on which I based the entire enchilada as well). One note: when it says whisk in broth, whisk in a little at a time, as if you were making a roux. Otherwise, it'll be too liquidy, and you'll have to add some cornstarch to it, because at that point, after cooking all day, you'll be too lazy and hungry to wait for it to thicken on its own.

That aside, I decided to make some queso fresco to adorn the enchiladas, instead of the cheddar jack called for in the recipe. Queso fresco was delightfully easy, much like ricotta, and can be made with materials you may have in your kitchen (milk, white vinegar, and salt), and it takes about 40 minutes, including draining time.

Then onto tortillas! I followed the step-by-step

directions I found here. Again, very simple: masa (corn flour) and water. I read on another site to roll out the tortillas in between cut up ziploc bags instead of saran wrap. I'll second that here. I would definitely make these again, as they were far superior and easy to roll for enchiladas than the store-bought ones (read: they didn't split the second you put them into a concave shape).

Then Michael, the carnivore, added his contribution to the enchiladas by giving some chicken breast a nice flambé in some tequila (sorry about the picture quality; the sun had gone down at this point):

The food was delicious, and it was fun, long day (good thing the PGA finals was on to entertain me). I may not do it all again from scratch, but these were some pretty nice enchiladas. I also made some guacamole and baked some of the tortillas into chips, but I was ready enough to be done at this point, that their pictures do not exist.

And now, the exception:

Last Thursday, I decided to donate blood with the American Red Cross, who comes to my workplace every 8 weeks. I've given twice before, but was unable to the last time they came, as I had research subjects coming in and was unable to sneak away. As you may know, it's important to eat before and after donating blood. However, I had forgotten that they were coming that particular day, and had only packed enough food to eat before. And so after I tried to give blood (the needle slipped from my vein, leaving them with just a little bit of my blood and leaving me with a nasty, < shaped bruise on my arm), I felt a little lightheaded, and so I decided to not risk passing out on the way back up to my office. I ate a run-of-the-mill blueberry muffin with some sugary cranberry juice, and I don't feel one ounce bad about it!