Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

Let me say I have no idea how the type color got so messed up for this post - I apologize and hope to have it fixed tomorrow.

When I was in Indiana, one night I made some enchiladas at Steve and Terri's house. This is a concoction all my own, although not unlike lots of other recipes out there.

Here is the recipe:

2 rotisserie chickens
1 box of Velveeta
2 cans Ro-tel
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 oz sour cream
12 large flour tortillas (you could use soft corn tortillas if you prefer)

Strip the rotisserie chickens of all their meat, hand shred and set aside.
Or, if your mom is there, have her do this part.

Dice onion and brown in a skillet in the olive oil.

This is a slab of Velveeta. I understand it is not a color or substance found in nature. I get that. And, generally, I'm all for natural foods. But, sister, Velveeta is great in Mexican dishes because it melts easily and doesn't grease up like "real" cheese does. So, I used it for this recipe. If you can't bring yourself to use Velveeta, use something else. Knock yourself out. Just don't say I didn't warn ya.

Now I know you're shakin' in your boots, aren't ya.


Chop up Velveeta into a microwave bowl larger than it needs to be and melt in microwave.



To that bowl, add browned onions, 2 cans Ro-tel, and cream of chicken soup and mix well. Heat mixture again in the microwave to make it easy to work with and well mixed, but not too hot to touch.

Spray or grease a 9x13 pan.
Lightly fill the bottom of the pan with some of the cheese mixture.


Tortillas were ridiculously priced in Indiana compared to Dallas prices.


Dip, one at a time, the flour tortillas into the cheese mixture,
then fill with some chicken, roll up and place in 9x13 pan.

Repeat, pushing the enchiladas together as close as possible as you insert them into the pan.
When the pan is full, top the enchiladas with remaining chicken and cheese mixture.

Then, top with sour cream.

Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes. The point here is just to get it all to brown up a little and warm – so when that happens, they are done.

INSERT FINISHED PHOTO HERE.

Except I didn't take a "finished" photo. Nope. Everyone was so eager to eat (it was a little past normal dinner hour) that I just planted it on the table and we started eating. I never even thought to take a photo until we were boxing up the leftovers. So picture a photo like the one above, just more brown and bubbly. And hot.

Or picture this, only a whole pan of it, and not cold. Ahem.

It really was good. And it makes a lot.
Steve took it to work for a couple of days.

So there you go. Some cheesy chicken enchiladas. Made with fake cheese and rotisserie chicken. That's just how I roll sometimes people. Go with it. I will say, that every time I make these, people want the recipe. So they can't be that bad, if you know what I mean. And I know you do. Amen to that.

Since this is an "original" recipe, I will post it on Tasty Kitchen sometime soon.

Best wishes for your Thursday! See you tomorrow.

In My Mother's Garden

In my mother's garden there are many beautiful things.

I have photographed this little garden angel in almost every season.

There are many beautiful things, even at the edge of autumn.

I mean, look at that beautiful hydrangea!

And the gorgeous geranium.

But one plant in particular demanded my attention and it was this Hyssop plant. It was a favorite of bees of all kinds - and even a hummingbird, but I didn't get him on camera.

Leave it to the point and shoot to capture the only two photos I got...

...of the bees actually in motion off the flowers.

But the SLR does take creamy photos, doesn't it?

In my mother's garden, the hyssop looked amazing.

I was quite taken by the hyssop plant.

Also known as "Agastache Honeybee Blue"

Or "Giant Hyssop"
Whatever the name, it was fun to watch nature interact.

Also in my mother's garden - tomatoes.

Tomatoes grow no place as well as they do in Indiana.

And they taste better, too.
In my humble opinion.

My dad planted some "near dead" plants one year, forgot them, and got a bumper crop.
They love Indiana weather.

And boy do I love tomatoes.
Especially right off the vine.

From my mother's garden.

I sliced a good number of these up and devoured every last morsel.
Just add salt! Dee-licious.

You gotta love a Midwestern garden, especially when it's been carefully tended by your mom. Beautiful. Even at the start of autumn. Thanks Mom, for sharing your "harvest" with me.

See you tomorrow.

The Artist's Muse

Saturday night S and went to the Eclectic Expressions gallery for the opening of an art show that his cousin Lynn was part of.

That's Lynn, smiling this general direction, on the right.

Lynn is a well schooled and very talented artist. We enjoy going to see her work whenever we have the chance. And, it usually is also an opportunity to catch up with some of the S-man's clan. We knew his other cousin Ann and her husband Miles and his Aunt Sug and Uncle Harold would also be in attendance. So, it's a double whammy sort of event - good art AND good company.

Lynn's husband Jim and S's Uncle Harold

S's Aunt Sug and the man himself.
This is a great photo of both of them, no?

Aunt Sug doesn't like to get her photo taken. Neither do I really. But, as I've said before, and I'll just step right up to say again, GET OVER IT. I have to say it again to remind myself just as much as anyone else. Here's the thing - no matter what YOU think you look like in the photo, someone else will be glad to have it. To look at it now and someday in the future. I mean, don't you like to look at photos of family and friends, old and new? Yes. You do. We all do. And we cherish them when they become the old ones. And, heck, five years from now, you will definitely be younger in that photo than you will be, and you might even be thinner. So, GET IN THE PHOTO and we'll all be happy. Thank you. Amen.

S and Uncle Harold

When S was growing up, Uncle Harold was his scout leader. He learned an awful lot from him and has many fond memories of their time together. And he respects his expertise on just about anything related to home improvement. Harold to this day is a constant source of information, support and friendship to S - now and over the years - and he loves him for it. That's for sure.

He also has some really funny stories that involve Harold. Very funny. There's this one where the zippers were over the fire...oh, that's a good one. And there's the one about the day he got lost in Corleone, Sicily all by himself carrying a large bright pink bag and not speaking a lick of Italian. But those are for another day.

Back to the gallery - above all the wonderful reasons to attend already mentioned - and really, that would be enough for me to post a little about Lynn and the gallery opening here - but, in addition to all of that, Lynn was displaying a painting based on one of MY PHOTOS from Sicily! She had asked me for some copies of my Sicily photos a while back, and I had given her permission to paint from them. But I couldn't believe she used one of mine! I was so honored and surprised!

You haven't seen it here yet, because I took it in Cefalu, and sister, we've only gotten to one of the Sicily cities, and that was Palermo - now in that photo up there, behind the guitar player, on the far wall, is another painting based on a photo from Sicily. This time, those central fountains in the old town square in Palermo. You saw a bit about that here. But I didn't take the photo that one was based on - Lynn took that one herself.

So, here is the original photo by me.

And, here is Lynn's wonderful creation!

(I did get permission to photograph it and tell you about it from Lynn.)

So, there you go. It's almost as if my photo has been in a gallery. Ha. Almost. Anyway, as I said, I was so honored and it was so fun to see it there! Thanks Lynn for using it. And, thanks for inviting us to attend the gallery opening. We had a great time.

See you tomorrow!