Cooking in the City of Roses

I am visiting my sister, Cheryl, in Portland right now, enjoying her cool apartment while writing this blog. It sure is a nice change from my sweltering apartment in Pasadena (we need a/c!). The weather was so beautiful today, and we got to go to visit the farmer's market at PSU this morning with our good family friends. Cheryl picked out this pretty bouquet of flowers- Bonbona likes them as much as we do.

Luna Salad

My mom makes the best salad ever, Luna salad, and Cheryl and I decided to make that today for lunch. Even though our mom isn't visiting us this weekend, at least we are able to include her in our weekend through this recipe. It's so easy, and we picked up some of the ingredients from the farmer's market, and the rest at Trader Joe's.

The first step of Luna salad prep is to make the candied walnuts. Just boil up equal parts of sugar and water, throw some walnuts in there and stir it around for 5 minutes. Then throw it in the fridge to cool down before putting them on the salad.

Next, the most amazing salad dressing ever.

1 c olive oil

1/2 c white wine vinegar (but today we used red wine vinegar)

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp lemon juice

1-2 cloves of garlic

salt and pepper, to taste

All that goes into Luna salad are lettuce (we like mixed greens), candied walnuts, goat cheese, red onion, and craisins. Pear and granny smith apples also make good substitutes for the craisins. The greens and goat cheese were from the farmer's market, and made for a fresh tasting salad.

Doesn't it look amazing? I promise, you will love it, too! In the past, I have tried to make a crust on goat cheese slices as Ina Garten suggests here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/salad-with-warm-goat-cheese-recipe/index.html. It didn't work out well, and I was left with a crumbly mess, but it would make Luna salad even more amazing to have warmed goat cheese on top.

Enchiladas

A couple of weeks ago, while planning our weekend together, Cheryl decided she wanted to make enchiladas while I was here. I have to say, flour tortillas make better homemade enchiladas. Corn tortillas become too mushy, but the flour tortillas held up well. We grabbed what looked good from the store for the inside goodness.

First, a thick layer of spinach.

Then sauteed mushrooms and onions.

And cheeeeeese. Mmmm.

We based our sour cream sauce from this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/sour-cream-chicken-enchiladas/detail.aspx.

Smothered the sauce on top, then more cheese, and jalapenos on Cheryl's side.

The grocery store had an easy mix of Mexican rice that we put on the stove, and we also heated some black beans up on the stove with chopped cilantro in it.

Cheryl says "Bien buena" about the enchiladas. Yo estoy de acuerdo.