Fantastic Cheese Enchiladas / Happy Cinco de Mayo

   Happy Cinco de Mayo! This is a recipe for great restaurant style Tex-Mex Enchiladas. Be forewarned, this is not diet food and is addictive. Also it is a lot easier to make if there are more than one person  working in kitchen, mom and I make them  together. 

You can also add already cooked chicken, or spinach. We add spinach and kale to the cheese. And kale on top. I don't know what happened to the photos with the kale on top.



Here is a link to a printer friendly version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LCS_etHQCnSad0Un9fWsw70okdQWpvG9MAvPfsjm_QI/edit?usp=sharing

   First make the gravy.

Chili Gravy

1/4 c. oil                          1tsp. salt
1/4 c. flour                       1/2tsp. pepper
2T. chili powder              1/2tsp. oregano
2tsp. cumin                      2c. chicken broth or vegetable broth (if you want)
1/2tsp. garlic powder       2T. tomato paste

   Heat the oil and flour, stirring constantly, until you have a light brown roux. Add chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and oregano. Cook for a minute. Add broth and tomato paste, stir until thicken into a sauce.

Then make the Enchiladas.

Cheese Enchiladas  (quantities depend upon how many enchiladas you plan on making)

Yellow corn tortillas                                                  Half a yellow onion, chopped  (optional)    
Half a loaf of Processed Cheese cubed           One green onion, chopped (also optional)
Chili gravy                                                     Shredded Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese                                                                                        

Dip a tortilla in hot oil, just a minute or so to soften them up and get the water out. Place some chopped onion and about 6 cubes of processed cheese in a line on a tortilla. Roll the tortilla around the filling and place in the baking dish. Repeat until the dish is filled or the desired numbers of enchiladas is reached. Cover with chili gravy, shredded cheese, and chopped green onion. Bake at 350 until the cheese bubbles. Enjoy.


I told you this isn't diet food. I guess you could bake the tortillas, but that usually results in burned tortilla chips in this house. Or maybe microwave them, since you're really just getting the frost out and softening the tortillas when you fry them.
          
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One in the Nest

  This is one of our golden hens. I think she is half Barred Plymouth Rock and I know she is at least half Buff Orpington. Last year we got an incubator and hatched two batches at the beginning of the year. She was one of the ones in the second group.
 She is now very broody. Broody means she has stopped laying, is not eating or drinking as much, and is spending most of her time sitting in a nest.

  Her name is Mohawk. I called her that because she hatched with a black stripe running down the middle of her head and down her neck. (I'm not good at names, but that doesn't stop me from trying.) She still has little dots of black on her neck feathers and the tip of her tail, but the mohawk is gone. She has really grown into the name. She wing danced the rooster when we brought him in. (Wing dancing is where a chicken sidles around something with one wing down, hitting that wing with their toe nails, making a scraping sound. It's a dominance thing. Usually it's a rooster doing it to his hens.) If you hear a loud scream from South-East Texas that's me. I got too close. And now I'm blind.

    She gave us a scare yesterday when she left the nest for about an hour. Over the years we've had hens change their minds about motherhood part of the way though. Sometimes another will take over and bring the eggs to term, sometimes not. There had been a hen that had been taking over for her, but she seems to have changed her mind about the whole thing. So if Mohawk hadn't gotten back on when she did I would have had to set the incubator up.

   When she is off the nest she is usually fluffed up and clucking to imaginary chicks. I have never seen a chicken behave like this. She might have fallen on her head, but I wouldn't say that where she could hear me. She is very irritable now. Sometimes she will attack the other chickens and the rooster. Maybe they said 'What are you talking about? I don't see any chicks.' or maybe they just looked at her the wrong way. I don't really know.

  She has eight eggs under her. It'll be so great if they hatch. I will keep you updated.

             Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official Blog. Have a bat-tastic day!           
  
 

Blue Aquarius mermaid choker necklace

I got the idea for this when I made a tank top out of Sensations Rainbow Boucle yarn (which I really love) and realized it looked a bit like waves.
 Boucle is a type of yarn made by wrapping one of the strands looser than the others thus creating loops.  It can be a little difficult to work with at first, the loops have a tendency to catch on the needles and you have to work somewhat loosely at the beginning because the loops will pull out near where you cut it, thereby losing the boucle part of the yarn. But once you get used to it it's fine.

Variegated yarn is yarn that has been dyed with more than one color giving you the look of color working without the effort. And with a lot more randomness.
   Something I learned making this; if you knit a choker length wise and then sew a metal pendent on it, it will stretch out, horribly. So I make my knitted chokers from the bottom up.
 
   It is 14" long and 1 1/16" wide , not stretched, with an almost 1" silver plated mermaid pendant. The clasps is a hook and eye. Yarn is 88% acrylic and 12% nylon.
Can be made longer or shorter. Available in light blue, first two pictured, dark blue, not shown, and a mix, last picture. (Mix may not look exactly as pictured, because it is made by using variegated yarn.)
  I think it is perfect for that special someone born between Jan. 20 and Feb.18. I also thing it would be a great something blue, especially for an Aquarius or someone with a beach theme wedding.
 Use coupon code MOTHERSDAY for 5% off your purchase. Does not include shipping. Expires 5/12/13
Buy one at: https://www.etsy.com/listing/115749396/blue-aquarius-mermaid-choker-necklace

   Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a Bat-tastic day!

Foxglove, an update

   I ended up having to stake my fox glove. We had a horrible storm a few weeks ago, some places got hail, I'm not sure if we did or not but those rain drops sure sounded loud. I didn't even think to pull the Foxglove under the eves. The poor thing didn't stand a chance. The next day it was bent double with the top of the flower stalk trying valiantly to grow upwards. I moved it to a bigger pot (which was good because the thing was root bond) and as I was doing that I noticed a little Foxglove growing on the side of it that is growing another flower stalk. I didn't have the nerve to try to separate them.

  I also didn't have a long enough stick and now it's growing in a weird corkscrew shape. I wonder if the local Humming Birds can get any nectar out of it like this?


                  Thank You for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a bat-tastic day!