Jacki’s Review of Enchiladas, Crisp and Ree

 

First of all – I took the above pics at the National Book Festival this past Saturday in D.C.  It is held every year on the Mall and is a wonderful event.  All sorts of authors (usually have a new book out) come and give short (30 min) presentations and sign books.  The hard part is there are several authors presenting at the same time in different pavilions so choices have to be made.  I had to choose between Laura Bush and Ree Drummond.  Due to metro delays I made it just in time to hear Ree speak but the pavilion Laura Bush was at was clear at the other end of the festival so my choice was made for me!  Ree was absolutely delightful and after cooking from her book and reading her blog I felt like I was listening to my neighbor speak:)  I was unable to hang around afterwards and chat and take a pic with her because I had to catch the metro again to get back to drive down to Tommy’s football game.  But I did snap the one pic of her chatting with others and speaking.  She said she has another cookbook coming out next year (2011) , a children’s book about her dog, Charlie as well as a memoir type book titled From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.  She has also sold the movie rights to that book which looks like it will proceed.  She said her message is that if she can do it anyone can meaning she started from scratch on everything – cooking, photography, writing, blogging etc.  She figured it out as she went.  Very down to earth and likeable. 

Onward to my cooking….Another save- the- recipe meal at out house last night.  I made the enchiladas and as Leslee mentioned, they were time consuming – something that would improve after making the recipe again I am sure.  I followed the recipe as directed.  I have never fried the corn tortillas before filling them just because it is more fat.  I just heat them in the microwave and roll.  But, I decided to try it and it really does add to the taste.  With frying the tortillas and then dipping them in the sauce they were getting too soggy so after a few I started skipping the sauce dipping and just put the filling on and rolled them up.  I also didn’t end up pouring all the sauce on – just until it seemed enough.  I usually only put cheese and/or chicken in mine but the ground beef filling was really good.  I liked the flavor of the whole dish.  I am also not a huge fan of canned enchilada red sauce but the addition of the chicken broth and cilantro produced a good, flavorful sauce. I didn’t feel like they were too spicy.   I would definitely make these enchiladas again.

The Peach Crisp was delicious but I had a bit of a problem with mine.  I used fresh peaches and they produced so much liquid that I couldn’t get the crisp part to crisp even though I cooked it for an extra 30 minutes.  The liquid just came up and overwhelmed it.  I think my problem was that I put it in an 8” square pyrex dish and the 7 x 11 dish would have been better because it would have spread out the peaches layer and therefore the liquid so it wouldn’t drown out the crisp part – does that make sense?  I probably would have been better off to not put the foil on at the beginning.  The maple sauce was heavenly!  I did add a little more maple as Tarin suggested.  I also liked the hint of lemon in the peach filling.  I definitely want to make this again and get the crisp part crisp!  I guess I could have stuck it under the broiler for a few minutes?

I am loving all the postings and reviews – thanks everyone!