New Recipe Night

Have you ever discovered a new recipe that is a bit out of the ordinary, comes with a list of amazing ingredients and a mixture of interesting flavors which puts it on the top of your must try list? Well, this recipe fit the bill. It seemed like a really good idea at the time however, looking back, I should have known that it would be a hard impossible sell in this family.

The first red flag....mushrooms. I love mushrooms but Papa Bear is not fond of them to say the least and can detect the smallest piece no matter how well disguised. Not sure what I was thinking. Then there is the fact that it is meatless which is strike two. Squash in lieu of poultry, meat or seafood? Uh, no. Again, I should have known. But last Tuesday night I had the house to myself for a few hours and knowing that I had purchased all the recipe ingredients a few days before I decided the time was right and convinced myself that, just maybe, I could win the guys over with this new recipe. It is, of course, from a very popular restaurant here in Portland, that we really like, so how could I go wrong? I thought,  it will be fabulous and will instantly become a new family favorite. So with that in mind I started. 

First I gathered all the nutritious vegetables and herbs that needed to be prepped. Clearly I had not paid much attention to how many ingredients there actually were { 25 ingredients to be exact } until I started chopping. Eleven of the twenty five items had to be chopped or minced but that was fine. I chopped away until I had little piles of veggies all over my cutting board. Then it was onto cooking, rolling and baking the enchiladas. The entire process took about two hours, not counting the hour it took to cook the butternut squash which I had done a couple nights before. On a week night two hours is a bit longer than I ordinarily spend on preparing meals however on this night time was no problem. 

So I made the butternut squash filling and 

the spicy peanut sauce, assembled and baked the enchiladas. 

The house was filled with all sorts of wonderful spicy smells. As luck would have it the timing was right and the guys arrived just as the enchiladas came out of the oven. Unfortunately, as hard as I tried I could not convince them to be adventurous and give them a try so I was the sole taste tester.  Surprise, surprise! So, for what it's worth, I thought they were pretty good and I liked the spicy peanut butter sauce although I felt they were fairly rich. Since I couldn't eat all twelve I put the leftovers in the freezer and hope to get Miss E's opinion on them the next time she is home. 

Have a lovely day!