October 31, 2016 Lunch – Vietnam 2000. Dinner – New Mexican Chicken Enchilada Casserole

October 31, 2016 Lunch – Vietnam 2000. Dinner – New Mexican Chicken Enchilada Casserole

I worked on getting a protective order filed to avoid a trip to court in Santa Fe until 9:00, then I rode to Rio Bravo and then ate Breakfast, which was yogurt, grapes, granola, milk, and the new vitamin powder.

Peter Eller and I went to lunch at Vietnam 2000 at the corner of San Mateo and Zuni. We both ordered No. 21, which is Bun Cha Gio and grilled pork; a good choice for a warm day, such as today, due to it quantity of chopped fresh cucumber, lettuce, and bean sprouts.

Yesterday Suzette made a green tomato, green chilI, and tomatillo sauce.

Today, when I finished my appointments at 4:00 I drove to El Super
at the corner of Central and Atrisco to buy a few things for the enchiladas for Suzette.  I immediately noticed that the Wednesday specials were still in place so I bought limes for $.33/lb., yellow onions for $.20/lb., zucchini for $.50/lb., Manila mangos were newly arrived and cheap at $.59, so I bought three, and tomatoes and broccoli crowns each for $.69/lb.  I then went to the deli section and bought the items Suzette needed; Mexican FUD muenster cheese for $2.27/lb., Mexican cream con sal for $1.99/lb., and Requeson (Mexican cottage cheese) for $2.77/lb. I also bought a 40 count package of tortillas for $2.29 that were still warm, four small avocados for $.50 each, and two 12 oz. bags of corn chips for $.99 each

Suzette was home when I returned a bit after 5:00.  When I unloaded, Suzette asked me if I wanted Chard in the enchiladas.  When I said, “Yes,” she asked me to go to the garden to pick some.  I also shredded the white meat of the roasted chicken we had brought home from the Greenhouse Bistro Friday evening.

As I was picking chard, Don, Suzette’s brother and his wife, Bev, arrived.  I said hello and helped them with their bags and then de-stemmed the chard.

Suzette took it from there.  She chopped three green chilis and then softened the tortillas in tomatillo sauce and built the casserole in layers of tortillas, chicken, cheese, requesting, cream, and green chilis, chard, tortillas, and cheese and then filled the baking dish to the rim with tomatillo sauce and baked the enchiladas in a 350 degree oven until the cheese on the top was golden brown and all the ingredients were bubbling.

While Suzette was making the enchiladas, I made a salsa by chopping 2 each of the small avocados, the tomatoes, and the mangos with ¼ of a finely diced red onion and the juice of one lime and a dash of Cholula hot sauce.

Don and Bev brought Guinness Stout and after the enchiladas and salsa were prepared I drank one and helped Suzette give candy to the children for Halloween from 6:00 until 7:30.  We usually pick a question to ask.  This year Suzette played music by Bob Dylan on her Bluetooth speaker connected to the itunes app on her phone on the porch and she asked, “who won the Nobel Prize for literature this year? The clue is this music.”

With some more clues like, “He was a famous folksinger of the 60’s and 70’s”, most people got the answer, although many seemed to be of Mexican extraction and I felt they did not share the same cultural history that Suzette and I did that made the music and award relevant to their cultural orientation.

At 7:30 most of the 450 pieces of candy had been grabbed by little hands and we set the table and served enchiladas and the mango salsa and drank beers and talked while we all watched the Antiques Roadshow.

 We were tired and rested and after dinner and the Roadshow, we watched the British Baking Show semi-finals with the last four contestants, who made a chocolate torte, a chocolate soufflé and finally a chocolate centerpiece.

At 10:00 we went to bed.

Bon appetit

Bob