We Enter Into October........

...............................Cheese Enchilladas....................................

Fall stepped in to stay hello...yes, I mean 'stay'... with early morning showers and an orange, otherworldly light, and the acrid smell of forest fires far away. I usually sleep through September, until I am freed by the Autumnal equinox. It's been a thing since I was born. If you pay attention to the others standing in line at the supermarket, you will see lots of yawning and passive complaint about how tired they all are and how they just don't understand it.
We sort of look forward to Halloween, if only to make the leather bouquets for our spouse.Then there will be Octoberfest, and Vikings Day, and Thanksgiving and Christmas, or Festivus, or take your pick, the season will be everywhere. At this point, I dread thinking of New Year's and those painful shoes. We usually choose to stay home in our bunnies and drink hot cocoa.
Enter in: The Changing Of The Menu...."It's not all plaques and hams, you know."- The Simpson's
Those cold nights creep in after a sunny day, and no one is thinking about crispy green salads and fruit sorbet. Mr. P stops requesting light dinners and the favorite fruits and vegetables are ready for Harvest. The pumpkin gets made into cupcakes, dressed in foreign liners, wrapped in black feather boas, batting their shameless hussy eyes, marching along the counters in their finery like lesbians on parade. Lipstick sisters. Hey, we all have an inner bitch.
The shopping cart gets filled with the flour, butter, sugars and spices , and our freezers see a new neighborhood of beef, sausages, pork, bacon, and some vanilla ice cream for the pie you will be sneaking for breakfast. It's a treasure under the glass cake dome, kept full with muffins, cupcakes, sweetbreads, artisan breads, coffee cake, and "Of Course" cake.
The gallon glass jar stays filled with cookies, and biscotti deja vu. Well, cookies are food. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!
Living in the mountains, the weather does delight with four distinct seasons. But, only a flatlander would predict the weather. There are some years when the snow comes early and the tourists complain the summer turned into winter after it took them 11 hours to get here. Their plans are to fish, camp out, stay on houseboats at the lake, rent kayaks and do rafting down the river, they windsurf and they water ski and they buy up all of the beer. Then they have to leave because a serious fire breaks out, or the rains come and block the highway with avalanches. Yup. All sorts of things can take a turn around. Whaaaaa. "The fishie won't bite my line, Daddy. All it will do is float".
Say what hunters will about the pure experience of hunting, I still say that there's no good reason to take a critter's life when there is food already at the store. To kill for the sake of bagging a buck seems a bit psychopathic. Not on my land you don't.
Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to stop the mountain lions from taking down a deer in the middle of the night. A couple of weeks ago, they took down two, and one of those huge, slow, furry flies inside my windowsill was a major clue. They are wicked-looking and they only come around for one reason; the corpse. I say,"Get your kitty-cat ass outta here and go steal some kibbles from a neighbor....BAD kitty!"
The Mexicans tell me that cat is delicious meat. "The other white meat". Back in the 1980's there was a taco shack that got raided for using cat meat in their tacos, right around the same time they busted a fried chicken establishment, in Ohio or Massachusettes, for deep-frying gerbils. Somebody always gets a fresh idea and turns a profit cuz the rats are free.
In North Carolina, they sell bumper stickers that read "Eat More Possum". See, you can't blame The Mexicans for everything, ya know...."Where the peckerwoods eat possum"...Sounds like an ad for tourism. And what a restaurant review that would be! Right alongside of Sweet Sugar Belle's tutorial of how to make and decorate Roadkill Cookies. See? Blogs can be FUN. No kidding, though, Sugar Belle is a real person and she is my favorite cookie artist. She's got a website, so, check out her stuff if you like. She is amazing with cake art, too.
Boy, that's a platter of goodness to take to a snooty gallery reception. Walk right in, dressed like Jackie O. with the elegance of Grace-fucking-Kelly and graciously help dress the table with a platter of Roadkill Cookies.

So, what is this magic of Autumn? In October, you got dead skunks in the middle of the road and the bears start eating meat. That's when you DON'T want to take a bear for its meat. Cooking said bear in the house, you'll have the stinkingest bag o'shit ever just ruin your house if the walls are wood. In November, ya travel who knows how far to spend a day with family you've managed to avoid all year, to collectively gorge on food until you look and feel like a pregnant platypus. And then you get to make the journey in traffic home, trapped in a car with no toilet near. Lovely holiday. I'm sure that figures into the fictitional pilgrims feasting with natives who didn't want them there, too stupid to make their own food. I'd like to know if anyone helped with the dishes.
Every so many years, my birthday falls on Thanksgiving. Do ya think they even care about a birthday? Nope. It's all about food, football and farting off.
Tis the season to squeeze your wallet when Christmas comes around. Go away. Nobody home.
This post is with recipe for cheese enchilladas, my way. Lots of compliments on this one. If you can't handle the chili pepper slices, omit them. No big whoop.
If you want to do chicken with this dinner, I have included an easy recipe. Some may have a hard time with two entrees plus rice, with all the red sauce. I would advise to make the chicken plain. But today, somebody bought the wrong can at the store and I must do something with it. I'll just add it to my cauldron and....
I do have recipes for enchillada sauce from scratch. Today, I don't have all the ingredients.So, here is my 'secret' sauce: Las Palmas Enchillada Sauce, Medium Hot. It really is cool to have a few cans handy in your pantry. I have reached the point to where it is all I'll use anymore.

If you choose to make this chicken, better start it first. The chicken bakes for 1 hour, maybe 15 minutes more. The enchilladas bake for 20 to 25 minutes. The rice simmers for 25 minutes. And the beans, put in the oven, take about 10 min., unless they are still in the crockpot.

VERY HOT SPICY CHICKEN
Pink Elephants coffe Cafe

4 large chicken thighs
1 28-oz can Las Palmas Enchillada Sauce, Picante Hot
1 smallish yellow onion, sliced thick or thin, as you like

Spray square casserole dish with non-stick spray. Spoon in 1/3 of the sauce to cover bottom of dish. Place chicken on top (with or without skins. as you like). Pour the remaining sauce over the chicken to cover. Add onion slices, submerging using your fingers to coat the onions in sauce. Bake at 375F, uncovered, for 1 hour or up to 15 min. more.

note: It is easy to get confused by the labels on the cans, all of them the same color. Make sure you don't get Chile Colorado Sauce by accident. There really is that much of a difference.

ZATARAIN'S NEW ORLEANS STYLE SPANISH RICE
1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes, with every drop of the juice
To make an excellent, tangy Spanish rice, use only Zatarain's. Follow the instructions on the box. It is the ONLY Spanish rice I will cook.

LINDA'S CHEESE ENCHILLADAS
Pink Elephants coffee Cafe

8-14 corn tortillas, depending on the size of your casserole dish ( 7 1/2" x 11 1/2" for eight
enchilladas)
1 medium serrano chili
2 medium to large yellow wax chilies (quantity according to heat tolerance)
8 1/4" or thinner slices of mozarella, or Cacique, or Jack or cheddar cheese, or a mixture with the mozarella, sliced in half, lengthways
1 19-oz. can Las Palmas Enchillada Sauce, Medium Hot
Vegetable oil for par-frying the corn tortillas

Preheat the oven to 375F if chicken isn't already baking.
Slice cheese and peppers thinly.

1. In skillet, heat up to 1/4" vegetable oil to medium high. When very hot, partially fry the tortillas just until right before they can turn hard, on both sides each. Stack on a plate and let cool a few minutes.
2..Pour whole can enchillada sauce into a large frypan. No heat. Using hands, dip each tortilla generousy in the sauce and put on a bigger plate. Sprinkle the sliced chili peppers across the tortilla making sure to evenly space 3-4 serrano slices per enchillada, and a smattering of the yellows. Place cheese on top, running legthways with the line of pepper slices. Roll it up and place into casserole dish that has been ladled with some of the sauce on the bottom. Place them seam-side down.The enchilladas will become a tight fit and you will put the last two against the longside of the casserole at ends of the other enchilladas. Pour the remainder of the sauce over the encilladas to cover as much as possible, maybe using a spoon to baste-cover.

6. Bake , covered for 15 min. Remove cover and sprinkle garnish cheese, and put in oven for 10-15 more minutes, uncovered.

If you like, you can garnish the plated enchilladas with green onion slices and chopped, hard-boiled egg.

The "Puppet Men" by yours truly; Linda Odekirk Tewes. Sculpture/mixed media.
3rd Place - Annual Juried Show 2011, October 1st, Highland Art Center, Weaverville, CA

Skull Sconce sculpture in ceramic clay by yours truly, cooked in a fire pit.
For the "Altars" show, Lee Fong Ranch show, October 2001.