Experimental recipes…Maniladas

Summer 2009 008

The other day Tyler and I watched the food network (that’s nothing new) and we saw the most tasty looking meal!  It is called Maniladas.  It is a combination of manicotti and enchalads.   It sounds a little weird, but trust me, it was so tasty and pretty easy.  We took a picture because we were so proud of how well it turned out.

Ingredients

  • 1 (8-ounce) package manicotti shells
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 Vidalia onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
  • 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
  • 1/2 cup sour cream

For the Tomatillo sauce:

  • 1 pound tomatillos, quartered
  • 1 small red onion, quartered
  • 1 jalapeno, halved
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the cheese sauce:

  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups heavy cream, room temperature
  • 2 cups grated fontina cheese
  • 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
  • Salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Boil manicotti in salted water for 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water and set pasta aside.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 minute more. Remove pan from heat and mix in chicken, tomatoes, cilantro and sour cream. Set aside.

To make the Tomatillo Sauce:

Place tomatillos, onion, jalapeno and garlic in a baking dish. Toss with oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast until tomatillos turn golden around the edges and are soft, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven and blend ingredients together until smooth. Use reserved pasta water to thin sauce, if necessary. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

To make the cheese sauce: In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add flour and cook 2 minutes. Whisk in heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Add cheese and nutmeg and stir until melted. Season sauce with salt, to taste.

To assemble: Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Stuff manicotti tubes with chicken mixture and assemble in a 9 by 12-inch baking dish. Pour cheese sauce over the top. Bake 30 minutes until cheese is bubbling. Drizzle tomatillo sauce on Maniladas before serving.

UP!

Over the weekend Tyler and I finally went to see Up!  After Ryan and Kayla’s open house, Aly, Jarom, and Marlie came with us to see up.  I was pretty surprised, we didn’t hear much from Marlie at all.  But she enjoyed the movie too.  We thought it was so funny.

The Last High School Grad!

Joseph is the youngest in the family and it was a sad and happy day to see him graduate from high school.  It was a really nice graduation, too bad it took the grads almost an hour to walk!  It was a little too long, but we were all happy to see him walk even if he didn’t want to.  Really I just can’t believe he is that old…

Quick trip to California

So I decided that Tyler and I just really like all of these quick trips.  Over Memorial Day Weekend Tyler, Rachel, Joe, and I all drove to California.  Ali called and asked if there was any way for us to bring back her puppies.  So we jumped on the opportunity to take a little road trip.  We woke up and left on Saturday morning at 5 which means we got in about 4:30 there (it takes a little longer when you are driving with puppies).  We went to the beach and dinner.  We had dinner at this place called Swingers, and it was super tasty (they had the best onion rings I have ever had).  Then we went back to Ali and Rob’s house and all of us were exhasted and fell asleep watching tv.

The next day we woke up and relaxed most of the morning.  Then we decided to get up and get going so we went to get brunch at this place called the Terrace which was excellent too.  The best part about that place was it was feet away from the beach.  Then we went and played at the beach again.  Tyler was feeling artistic so he tried to take all of these fun pictures… don’t worry, i joined in too.  How did we do?!  :)

After a while we decided to head out because Rachel had to work the next day so we couldn’t stay too long.  We left about 4:30 utah time and make it in at 2:30.  Don’t worry though, we had to stop at this place called Raising Cane’s for dinner on sunday night (it was a fried chicken place, a southern food chain that Tyler fell in love with on his mission). The car ride was pretty entertaining though, but let me tell you, driving in the car with rachel and joseph when they are getting tired is not always the most fun.  haha It was still fun though.

It may have been a quick trip but we had a blast and it was so fun to see Ali again!

A fun trip to Missouri

So almost a month ago Tyler and I drove out with his parents to Missouri for our nephew’s blessing.  It was such a fun trip, but the drive out there took way longer than it should have.  We were driving about 25 hrs (by the way I think it should have taken us 19 or 20).  But we had to take a slight detour from Rawlings up to Casper and then back down to Cheyenne and the road between Casper and Cheyenne had about 3 inches of snow on it in some places which made us drive a max of 40 in a 75… then other times the road had at least been plowed but were still icy at least we could drive 50 or 55 then…. finally we got behind a big 18 wheeler and cruised at a whopping 65.  We made it alive though and I think once we got into nebraska the roads were clear (I don’t know exactly when because I fell asleep).

We made it safe to St. Louis and went to dinner with Joel (Tyler’s older brother), Liana, and Jaxon.  We went to Bandana’s and got ribs… don’t worry, we had ribs the next night as well at a Lottawatta Creek Grill (which was way better than the first night).  We were able to go to the arch there in St. Louis and then on Monday we went to the Zoo!  Rand and Hillary (Tyler’s oldest brother) came into town on saturday and we were able to hang out with them.  So we had the whole family together at the Arch and for dinner.  (Oh and Tyler lost his jacket at the arch.) It was such a fun weekend.

I think out of all the days we were there Sunday was the funniest.  Joel locked his phone and keys in their apartment.  He thought they had left the their patio door open (did I mention they live on the second floor)  So after they tried the front door Rand and Joel boosted Tyler up on the balcony to try the patio door… well it was locked as well.  So we left Tyler up there while we called a locksmith.  In the meantime, Tyler was the poarch monkey and we threw him candy.  :)  The rest of the day (well after the blessing) we just relaxed and played games.

Monday we flew home after the zoo.  Thank goodness for our flight home.  I like driving in the car for a while, but I’m glad our trip home was only 3 hrs instead of 20 hrs.  Tyler and I had a great time with all the family and are happy to say that baby Jaxon is super cute!

Driving…driving….driving…

So the other day (Sunday) Tyler, Rachel, and I all woke up at 4 in the morning to drive up to Idaho for my cousins baby blessing (who by the way is such a cute little guy!).  Rachel had to be the funniest person to wake up.  I walked in her room and this is how our conversation went…

Me: Rach… are you coming to Idaho with us?   Rach: Huh, ya.   Me: Alright, you gotta get up.    Rach: Huh, where are we going? 

It was such a funny conversation.  Don’t worry, when we got in the car Rachel slept the majority of the way up and the way back home.  Anyhow… That was our first drive.  8 hours in the car on monday! 

Tuesday night we decided it would be fun to drive up to Park City to meet up with my parents who are staying the week up there.  Rachel, Joseph, Tyler and I all jumped in my car and left.  It was raining pretty bad!  We almost hydro planned four times.  It was the scariest drive up there ever… until we started driving home.  You know in star trek when they go into hyperspeed or whatever and the stars look like they are streaming towards you… well it was snowing and that is what it looked like.  We could barely see the road.  It was the scariest drive ever!  I was on the edge of my seat almost the whole drive! 

Well I wish I could say that was the last of our driving for a while, but we have one more drive (which I think will be fun, but maybe a little too long).  Thursday night we are driving out to Missouri.  It will be about 16 hours maybe more, who knows.  But we are going to see Tyler’s brother Joel who just had a baby.  St. Louis here we come!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

On Saturday March 28th, I decided it would be fun to throw Tyler a surprise party (because his birthday wasn’t until the 31st).  I had things all worked out.  I was going to make Cafe Rio stuff and the night before I put the pork in so it would be extra tasty!  The next day we ran some errands and then Tyler was off to softball practice (yes, tyler is on a softball team with some of his buddies).  While he was at practice I hurried and tried to make everything and Jenni came over and helped.  Finally 4:30 came around and Tyler called saying he was on his way home.  I had told him earlier in the week that we were going to hang out with our friends Nat and Matt, so I asked Tyler to stop at the store and get stuff for spinach articoke dip, and he did because he is awesome like that.  Anyhow, after we stalled forever while we waited for people to show up, I finally told him to just come home.  He walked in and we yelled surprise, and all he had to say was… I saw your cars.  Geez!  Oh well, it was still fun.  I guess it was mostly my fault because I acted “fishy” the whole day!  Whatever.

The rest of the day we ate our “Cafe Rio Salads” and just hung out with friends.  It was such a great day, even if i didn’t do the greatest job of surprising him.  We all had a blast.

Adventures of Wisdom and Pain!

Alright so last friday I decided it was time that I had the rest of my wisdom teeth taken out.  I had two taken out in a study a while ago, but I still had two left.  Well I was terrified.  I don’t know if any of you know much about my strange phobia, but I have a terrible phobia of needles and obviously they need to use needles at some point in the process of getting my teeth pulled.   I went to the dentist and i dragged Tyler along because I did not want to do it alone.  We sat and chatted with the dentist for a while and then he said alright let’s walk you back to the operating room, I looked over at Tyler wide eyed.  He asked if he could come back and hold my hand while they did the shots and they said no!  I then was even more scared and upset than before.  Eek!  Well anyhow, I went back and made it thought it…. and I would have to say the worst part of it was the shots.  Oh but what was funny was they gave me a little bit of laughing gas and I had to tell them to turn it off because I thought I was going to pass out.  It wasn’t good.  They turned it off and pulled the teeth and I was outta there!Mel's numb eye

I thought everything went a lot quicker than it was going to, and really, Tyler said I was in and out in 13 mins!  Crazy.  As I left the office something was terribly wrong.  My eye was numb!  I could see out of it, but all the area around my eye was numb and then I couldn’t move it.  I would look one way and my left eye would follow but my right eye just didn’t want to move!  It had to have been the strangest thing I have ever experienced.  It took three hours to finally be able to move it.

On the bright side… I am healing great and there is still a little pain, but overall I’m doing excellent and I can see out of my eye! (Sorry, the picture doesn’t do it justice… I looked pretty stupid. )

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