As some of you may know, I volunteer at an ESL after-school program. Laura is the intern with the program. And currently, the Furman volunteers are trying to help organize a benefit dinner to raise money for the program and summer camp scholarships. Our kids are wonderful, and I really can't convey in words how much it means to get to spend time with them each week! In order to prepare for the benefit dinner, Laura organized a dinner so we could make, print, and stuff invitations for the event.
The theme was, of course, Hispanic food. (Ever since Mexico, Laura and James have been obsessed with Hispanic food, in a good way, and have broadened my culinary palate immensely!) James made Green Enchiladas for the first time ever. And Laura made her favorite dish, Chilaquiles. We all benefited from their expert choices. I thought I was actually not going to be involved in the cooking process, but Laura quickly delegated tasks to everyone near the kitchen. I was assigned the job of saute-ing the onions and garlic, then I was appointed at the tortilla frying station.
While the picture above is a rather goofy portrayal of my tortilla frying abilities, I got pretty good at crisping those suckers up to be layered among the tomatoes and cheese. One of the best things about Laura's recipe is that she uses cooking spray to "fry" her tortillas, so no unnecessary fat goes in to the crisping process. While I was frying and saute-ing, Lisa was hard at work grating the cheese. This cheese is delightfully creamy but light. Oaxaca cheese is a perfect, mild accompaniment to chilequiles. However, it can be difficult to grate, so kudos, Lisa!
Laura even used the special stir-on-the-chair technique to make sure the Chilaquiles turned out perfectly!
And finally we had a delicious, authentic (well, mostly) Hispanic meal. I really really enjoyed it! And I especially enjoyed working together to create the meal. Yum, green enchiladas!
David enjoyed it too! What a fun Saturday night!
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