Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ok, so first up, some pics from Dan's (apple cake, soda bread, Matty):







Sunday we got up (slowly) and went to Marathon for brunch. We were a little disappointed, for the first time really. Matty ordered gingerbread pancakes and got regular, possibly with chocolate chips. And my breakfast quesadilla was a bit lacking in veggies. Everything was very good, as always, but still. Just sayin'. Then we walked up to the Parkway for the St. Patrick's Day parade. Pics can be found here. This city loves a parade. A parade centered around a holiday best known (in this country) for drunken tomfoolery? They are in heaven. White trash, public drunkeness heaven. The parade itself I like. Lots of kilts and drums and bagpipes and step dancers and sweaters. The other parade watchers, not such a big fan. They are the biggest group of chain smoking, miller lite drinking (from plastic water bottles in many cases), disgusting people I have ever seen. They all show up for these things. They are hard up people. I dont know what it is, they are dirty and have bad manners and their kids are gross and they yell. A lot. Usually in an attempt to get free things. Usually things they have no chance to get. And they fucking LOVE Danny Bonaduce. Talk about a hard-up person. He was in the parade since he does a show on WYSP now.

Well anyway after the parade we stopped at Naked for a hot chocolate (for Matty) and a chocolate tea (for me). Then we stopped at DiBruno's for some dinner fixin's. We got turkey saltimbocca meatballs, roasted garlic and artichoke potato pancakes and broccoli rabe. And some Irish cheddar and a loaf of Sarcone's seeded bread. Mmmmmm! Everything was lovely. We had dinner while we watched Speed Racer. I was pretty pleasantly surprised. I went in expecting a complete disaster. But considering it is a movie, made by the Wachowski Brothers, based on a weird-ass Japanese cartoon about car racing; I was really impressed. It is very pretty and technically pretty cool. The amount of detail, especailly with the cars is remarkable and the plot, while not exactly complex, is enough to keep you interested between the races. I never watched the cartoon, so I have no idea how true it is to the story. But if you like cartoony-comic booky movies, cool car races, monkeys (sorry, chimps) or John Goodman (I love John Goodman myself) - I would recommend seeing it.

Last night we made Creamy Spinach and Mushroom Enchiladas and Spanich Rice from Cooking Light (recipe follows) with Cuban Style Black Beans from Trader Joes. It was really really good. Would definitely make it again, with some changes (mentioned in recipe). It made enough for probably 4 dinners. I really really love the spanish rice. While eating we watched (finally) Sicko. Ok, now I am not going to get into the woes of our health care and insurance companies now. Hopefully I will have time to do a whole post on it, because I have a lot to say. And I know that Michael Moore does not present a fair and balanced story on any topic. But even if a quarter of the stuff in this movie is true, I just dont get how people aren't up in arms and revolting in the streets about this. Really. I am sure you have seen it if you want to see it. If you haven't and think that our health care system works and you think the evil's of SOCIALISM far outweigh the plight of the American people who can't afford their health care, dont see it, he isnt going to change your mind. If you think there is something wrong with our health care system and can deal with Moore's biases, see it.

Tonight we are going to go see Watchmen. So watch here for a review.

I am going to try putting recipes at the end of my posts so that you can just read them with my comments all at once. And then people who arent interested can skip all the discussion. Hope this works.

Creamy Spinach and Mushroom Enchiladas (their pic on left, ours on right)

Sauce:
1 teaspoon garlic powder (I used dried minced)
1 (10-ounce) can condensed reduced-fat cream of chicken soup, undiluted (next time I might use cream of mushroom)
1 (8-ounce carton) fat-free sour cream (I used reduced fat)
1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, undrained

Enchiladas:
Cooking spray
1 cup chopped onion
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon garlic powder (again, I used dried minced)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
10 (6-inch) corn tortillas (I used 12)

Garnish:
1/2 cup chopped seeded plum tomato (I just chopped up 1 plum tomato)
1/4 cup chopped green onion tops (I used half of an onion)

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare sauce, combine first 4 ingredients; stir well.

To prepare enchiladas, heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion and jalapeño; sauté 5 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. (I added a little olive oil since it was pretty dry) Add mushrooms; sauté 3 minutes or until tender. Stir in garlic powder, cumin, salt, and spinach; cook 5 minutes or until heated. Combine spinach mixture and 1/4 cup cheese in a large bowl; stir to combine. (I mixed it in the skillet, one less dish to wash)

Spoon 1/2 cup sauce into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Warm tortillas according to package directions. (We microwaved them under a damp paper towel for a minute) Spoon about 1/3 cup spinach mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up. Place filled tortillas seam sides down in the baking dish. (This was pretty messy as many of the tortillas split) Spread remaining sauce evenly over tortillas; top with 3/4 cup cheese.

Bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Top with tomato and green onion.

Yield: 5 servings (serving size: 2 enchiladas)

CALORIES 356 (26% from fat); FAT 10.2g (sat 5.6g,mono 2.8g,poly 1.3g); IRON 4.1mg; CHOLESTEROL 33mg; CALCIUM 475mg; CARBOHYDRATE 50.4g; SODIUM 874mg; PROTEIN 17.8g; FIBER 8g

Cooking Light, MAY 2002

Spanish Rice

Melt 2 teaspoons butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; add 1/2 cup chopped onion and 2 minced garlic cloves (I used 3). Sauté 5 minutes. Stir in 1 1/4 cups long-grain white rice; sauté 1 minute. Add 1 can diced tomatoes and green chiles and 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth. (We also added a 4.5 oz can of chopped green chilies, undrained due to a mis-reading of the recipe) Bring mixture to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes.