Easy Green Chile Enchiladas

I'm not above using the recipe from the back of a can, especially if it's a good basic recipe and it's simple to make.  Case in point, Creamy Chicken and Green Chile Enchiladas.  Here's the recipe as it appears on the can, but stay tuned for the way I really make it.

1 lb uncooked chicken breast strips
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, cubed
1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles
1 pkg (10.5 oz) flour tortillas for soft tacos (6 inch size)
2 cans (10 oz each) Old El Paso green chile enchilada sauce
3/4 c. (3 oz) shredded cheddar cheese

In a large nonstick skillet, cook chicken over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink in center.  Stir in cream cheese and chiles; reduce heat to medium.  Cook and stir until blended and cream cheese is melted.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a 13 x 9 inch baking dish.

Spoon chicken filling onto tortillas; roll up and place seam side down in baking dish.  Pour enchilada sauce over top; sprinkle with cheddar cheese.  Bake 15-20 minutes or until hot and cheese is melted.  Yields 12 enchiladas.

Customize this recipe and you'll make it your own.  I've had great success using a small whole chicken, which I boil, de-bone, and shred.  I like the flavor of the mix of dark and white meat.  I lightly season the shredded cooked chicken with Lawry's seasoned salt, fresh ground black pepper, cumin, and coarse ground garlic salt.  Use whatever seasonings you like on Mexican food, but don't season so heavily that you overpower the cream cheese sauce.  While it's still warm, toss the chicken with the cubed cream cheese and the green chiles.

I think this would be even better with roasted or rotisserie chicken because the meat would be drier.  And you could even buy the whole cooked chicken at the grocer's deli counter.  My sons absolutely love this dish.  I love the fact that it's so easy to make!

The FRUITING BODIES Are Here!

Today it finally stopped raining, and the sun came out! The plasmodium is gone and in its place are the fruiting bodies! Each leaf is outlined in sporangia, and the overall effect is almost frilly.

If you like novelty, see yesterday's post for the backstory on the slime mold Physarum polycephalum.



The multicolored spheres are insect galls that measure less than 1/4 inch in diameter.



If you look on the landscape edging, you can see traces of the protoplasmic strands of the plasmodium.



This is a testament to the reproductive strategies of even the simplest organism. (Click on the picture for an enlarged view.)



In the lower left hand corner, sporangia are growing on a piece of lichen.

Slimy Subject

Today when I came home from work, I found this. The bright yellow color and nonrandom shape caught my eye.



I think it's a true slime mold, Physarum polycephalum. Physarum is fairly common on rotting logs, mulch, or leaves, and sometimes you can see it on the soil surface, but this is the first time I've ever seen it "growing" on a sidewalk!

The slime molds aren't true fungi. They appear gelatinous (slimy) and can grow quite large. Physarum is bright yellow and netlike in appearance. We buy Physarum cultured on media in Petri dishes, for biology lab. Within each strand of the protoplasmic network, you can see the cytoplasm rapidly stream and change direction. The plasmodium actually migrates!

The true slime molds are thought to be a single cell, kind of like a bag of cytoplasm containing thousands of nuclei. Slime molds feed on micro-organisms, and when the food supply runs out, the "supercell" forms fruiting bodies (sporangia) which release spores. The spores hatch into single celled amoebae, which can mate and form zygotes. The zygotes then grow into plasmodia "supercells." It's a really weird life cycle!

Since the fall rains started in mid-September, it feels like we've been living in a monsoon season. I just wish the rains wouldn't last all weekend. I've already got cabin fever. Now even the slime mold seems to be trying to escape from the wet leaves!

Fear Not the XL-5200 Lamp

On Monday, my TV quietly "died" from a burned out bulb. There was no warning message, no fading, no sputtering. I was unprepared for this event, thinking my TV would communicate signs of its distress like the owner's manual described. But no. It was sudden and unexpected. It was even anticlimactic. It just wouldn't turn on. By Tuesday I had the research done, and I ordered a new part. I got the replacement bulb on Friday. Today I started taking apart the "patient."

Burned out bulb in its protective armor

Nice and dusty!

Broken filament

Removing the lamp from the enclosure

Alien?

"The eye" and one cotton glove (included)

New lamp, 2 screws, 1 nut, 2 metal clips

Presto change-o

All clean and ready to go

The cavity awaits

Pushed in and plugged into the wire harness

Latching the lamp door and tightening the set screw

Replacing the outside cover. Doubly protected!

Necessary implements (the coin is for turning the screw on lamp door)

For twice the price, I could have saved myself some labor and ordered a whole new assembly. But why do things the easy way? I couldn't have thrown away the old lamp enclosure. So now I don't have to feel guilty about keeping something I might "need again" someday. It's been cleaned and reused. That's a good feeling. And it was worth an hour of my labor. Satisfaction and a savings of $120, not bad. :)

Mexican Firebush Envy

This is Hamelia patens, Mexican Firebush, growing luxuriantly near my daughter's front porch in Houston. It's more than 6 feet tall and wide, and covered with blossoms. The bees were very busy working the bush, so I had a hard time setting up to get a good picture. I also got buzzed by a hummingbird!



These two pictures show flower clusters with buds, open flowers, and fruits.



This is a large shrub or even a small tree in its native habitat in subtropical to tropical America. The bright red-orange tubular flowers attract hummingbirds, and the foliage is very pretty. The fruits are a small dark red, almost black berry and are very decorative after the flowers fade. The fruits are eaten by birds, which helps disperse the seeds.



I first saw this plant in cultivation at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens and of course had to have one in my own yard. Planted one and lost it the first winter. Tried again the next year with the same result. And of course, my plant didn't attain the size of the one in San Antonio, because I live squarely in Zone 8. Now I grow it as a pot plant, and it gets very pretty and full but only reaches about 3-4 feet tall. But it overwinters just fine in an unheated greenhouse.

I was amazed by my daughter's plant. Her comment was, "The lawn service was supposed to trim this back." I would love to have this problem, LOL!



These are the fruits in late September. They will turn dark red to almost black with the onset of colder weather.

Slaid Cleaves

Slaid Cleaves

This is one of the most beautiful albums I've ever heard. Slaid lives in Austin. If you go to his web site, you can hear four songs from the album. Also check out his "stories" page. I think you'll be impressed with everything on his site.

Support your local artists!!!

It's Raining Again . . . Surprise!

Went outside during a lull in the rain last Saturday and found this green anole hiding out in my Plumeria plant! I've noticed the anoles around my house and garden for several years now. The geckos used to be more common, but now it seems that the anoles predominate.

This one seemed completely unconcerned, even curious, at having his picture made, until the flash went off! Then he decided to look for another hiding place. He raced down the Plumeria, along the rim of the pot, jumped onto the deck, then disappeared over the edge. Never could get a photo of his entire body.

I think he (she?) looks pretty fat and healthy. I marveled at the way his eye seemed to rotate and follow my movements. The lower lid was a beautiful turquoise color. The eyes of anoles move independently of each other, much like those of chameleons. The brown spot behind the eye is the external ear opening.