Friday Night Dinner: Enchiladas

I love food. I love to shop for food, cook food, and best of all, eat food. I have always loved reading about food, too, and can remember spending hours as a child reading my parents' cookbooks. I still have my recipe box that I created as a child with all of my favorite recipes neatly printed on Strawberry Shortcake recipe cards. It's so fun to look at my young handwriting and the recipes that captured my interest back then. I know, I was a supreme dork. But, what can I say?

Looking back at my Strawberry Shortcake recipe cards, it's plainly obvious that I loved Mexican food even as a child. Most of my recipes are for different types of chilis, enchiladas, mexican-style casseroles, and tacos. And, that love has followed me over the years. There is just something about the spices, heat, and flavors of Mexican food that I crave. In fact, I could eat it every day and sometimes, we do. I don't play favorites, either. I love all types of what I call "Mexican" food, whether it is Tex-Mex, Americanized Mexican, or authentic Mexican. It's just all good. I really lucked out with Sean, too. He likes Mexican food and is willing to indulge my cravings by eating it quite often. What other sign of true love do you need??

Lately, I have had a mean craving for Tex-Mex, especially Tex-Mex style enchiladas. You know, the yellow cheddar cheese variety that is covered in chili gravy, more cheddar cheese, and a sprinkling of onion? We just can't find good Tex-Mex here. We have an abundant supply of "authentic" Mexican-style restaurants, but they serve white Chihuahua cheese, bland meat, and fake guacamole. It's okay for what it is, but it's not great. And, it doesn't satisfy a craving for Tex- Mex.

One Friday night when I was dying for some cheese-and-onion enchiladas, I asked Sean if he would want to try making our own chili gravy and enchiladas. He was game. I don't know why we didn't try this earlier. We love to cook and to experiment with new recipes, but for some reason, I envisioned enchilada sauce being more difficult to make than it was. Don't get me wrong, this is a time-consuming meal, but it's super easy.

I found a recipe on Homesick Texan's blog for chili gravy by Robb Walsh, the guru on all things Tex-Mex, and we jumped right in. The basic method is simple. You make a roux with flour and oil and then you add tons of spices, mainly chili powder and cumin, and let it thicken to a rich, thick, hearty gravy. Then, you lightly fry corn tortillas, stuff, and bake, and voila, you have homemade Tex-Mex. And, oh my, are they good. Those enchiladas are simply heaven on a plate. We have made these enchiladas for several Fridays over the past few months, and they are my favorite meal right now. And, the fact that Sean is willing to spend hours in the kitchen making my favorite meal just melts my heart. You know the saying that food is the way to a man's heart? It's totally the way to my heart, too.