F & W: You'll never want meat in your enchiladas again

You may be wondering why you are reading a Fire & Wine night post on a Wednesday. No, you aren’t going crazy. We moved it to Tuesday this week due to scheduling issues.

Also we were a man down with Roomie feeling under the weather. So it was just DD Girl and QoQ.

Ever since Blogher Food, I’d been eager to try Elise of Simply Recipes‘ cheese enchiladas.

I can hear you now….But I thought the rules of Fire & Wine were that you had to try something new. And I know for a fact, you’ve made enchiladas before.

Yes, yes. I know I can’t sneak one on you, smart readers. But see, I have never made my own sauce for enchiladas, so it does count as new.

Pushing it.

Shut it.

These. were. phenomenal.So good,  I swore off ever using meat of any sort in enchiladas ever again.

And now I’m going to offer a few tips for any of you who would like to make them.

1. Get good tortillas. There is a Price Chopper in Roeland Park that makes corn tortillas fresh daily, for those in Kansas City. Otherwise, seek out the best tortillas you can. (I’d aim for thicker v. thinner so they hold up to the sauce.)

2. Use good cheese. After all, it is the centerpiece of these bad boys. Even if you are cheap (like me) and prefer to use generic when possible, splurge on the cheese. In my botched chile rellenos (don’t you worry, pretty ones, that nightmare of a story is yet to come this week.) I used generic Monterrey Jack cheese. And while the cheese did not lead to the demise of the dish, it certainly didn’t help anything. Last night I bought Kraft Monterrey Jack and shred a pound of it myself. It had so much more flavor. Mmm mmm mmm.

3. Serve with black beans. Yeah sure, you can make them yourself, but, if you are lazy like me, use Goya black beans and season with a little cumin, ancho chili powder and salt and pepper. (I also had to add the cumin and chili powder to the enchilada sauce because I couldn’t find fire roasted crushed tomatoes.)

4. Garnish with iceberg lettuce as suggested by Elise. Only, to be thrifty, I dressed it with juice from half a lime and olive oil with salt and pepper. Why was half a lime thrifty? Because I used the other half in fresh guacamole.

There are a million ways to do guacamole. All of them are probably right. But this is how I roll:

(Serves 2-4, depending on how much you pig out while the enchiladas are cooking)

2 avocados

 1/2 lime

1 roma tomato, pulp removed and diced

1/4 cup of diced onion

course sea salt

fresh cilantro (about a table spoon diced)

Core out your avocados and add to a bowl with the onions, tomatoes and add some salt and lime juice. Using a fork, mash it all up really well. Then add cilantro. Taste and if you need more salt or a little more of the lime, add it.

I served the guac with homemade corn tortilla chips which I baked the night before. Just take thin tortillas and cut them into four triangles. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and lay the triangles all over the tray. Spray the tops of them, then crack sea salt evenly over them and bake at 350 for about 5 minutes, or until crispy.

We ate them out of the ziplock baggy I stored them in. Klassy. I never said Fire & Wine night was anything but.

Please make these enchiladas soon so we can be in the cool kids club together, k? And then let me know how it goes. Oh, and tell Elise too.

I am so demanding.