kristilynk

Culinary Bucket List 2014 ~ JANUARY!

Hey there and Happy New Year! As usual, it’s been a while since my last post..you know..holidays, family and life has kept me away BUT..one of my goals this year is to visit you all more often. 🙂

My friend, Kim, came up with a brilliant idea of Culinary Bucket list for this year. She and I will be making one or two dishes every month this year..each of these dishes has to be something we have never made before. Fun, right?? 🙂 I am excited about this and can’t believe it took me three weeks into the first month to get started!

Check Kims blog out ~ she started with Chinese ~ mmm mmm delicious!! http://tryingforbabys.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/culinary-bucket-list-january/

Me? I started with Swedish Meatballs. I have been wanting to make these bad boys since I read this blog: http://www.thelondoner.me/2013/12/swedish-meatball-recipe.html

Looking at the pictures from this blog you can see why I was so excited to start here! The color and the texture of these photos you can just TASTE how amazing those balls must be!! 🙂

On the way home from the office I stopped at a local butcher shop ( http://site.themeatshopaz.com/Home.html ) I have been meaning to try for the past few months. What better excuse to actually stop in today?? I needed 1lb of ground beef (I opted for the local grass fed beef) and 1lb ground pork (apparently they don’t grass feed the pigs because that was not an option but…it was local pig).

I was greeted and served quickly BUT I was disappointed. The meat was FROZEN! I said, “Oh..it’s frozen, you don’t have anything fresh”? “No, always frozen”.

Noted…

I got home around 17:30, unwrapped the meat, set the meat in the cast iron pan (I was told setting the meat in a metal pan helps defrost meat faster) and waited and waited and waited. While I was waiting, I set the produce and what not on the counter, washed up the potatoes, cut them up and threw them in a pan.

Here’s the meat…STILL FROZEN!

Once I had the potatoes cut up, in the pot of water and set to boil..I decided…”Kiah, do you want to go for a run?”

We went for a run, or rather WOG (walk/jog). Just a short one, we couldn’t go for too long..I was cooking! When I got home the potatoes were done and Jason had taken control of those.

I hate to admit THIS but…he also had to put the meat in the microwave to defrost. THE HORROR!!! Oh well, what’s done is done..

Back from the wog, I washed up and got to chopping up the onion, melted the butter and cooked the onion for a couple of minutes.

Back at the mixing bowl, I added nutmeg, two eggs, cooked onion and sea salt to the meat. I used an electric mixer to whip the meat (I read, using a mixer makes the balls smoother).

After it is all mixed I used my hands to make the meatballs – next time I think I will use an ice cream scooper. I forgot about that tip until just now..

In the cast iron skillet I melted 1 TBSP of real salted butter. Once I the butter was melted I placed the balls in the pan to brown.

It took about 10-12 minutes for me to feel like they were cooked ~ because I mixed pork in the meatballs ~ I felt it was NOT ok to have ANY pink..That’s just me..pork and chicken I tend to over cook in fear of getting sick. Just sayin’

OH! While the meatballs were cooking..I heated the oven to 200F

After the meatballs were done, I placed them in an oven safe (aka another cast iron skillet) pan and placed them in the oven to keep warm.

To make the gravy, I used the butter and fat that was left over from the meatball cook, added 1 tbsp of flour, 10oz of chicken broth, 2 tbsp of Worcester sauce, 1 tbsp of mustard and 1 tbsp of honey boiled and stirred for a few moments and then added a pint of heavy whipping cream.

After a few minutes I took the meatballs from the oven and added them to the gravy.

Voila!

DINNER…is served 🙂

It was good. Not the best I’ve made and will need some practice in regards to spices. My opinion..needs more salt. The meatballs were not as soft as I had expected. I will, one day, figure out how to make them smooth.

Feel free to give me advice!! 😀

The Ultimate Lesson in Procrastination…

Rewind to September of 2012… Take a little read on this. It is a short blurb I wrote a little over a year ago.

When you’re done..let me know and I will continue on.

Homeless in Arizona

Monday night football on the television, I have already lost my fantasy football match, the Bears and the Cowboys I care not to watch so I open the laptop and surf the interwebs 😉

And I come across this…

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/slideshow/i-have-a-name-project-at-9-gallery-12-6-13-40708274/#9

Click on the link above and you will see exactly what procrastination actually looks like….

Good on the man who put this together but…REALLY?? Really, Kristi?? ** Big sigh **

Trippin’ in Tucson ~

The worst part of each of my days is trying to get out of bed. Now that it is colder (and I live in Arizona and refuse to turn on my heater until at least January..) getting out of bed in the dark, cold morning is an even more difficult task! This Saturday it was a teeny bit easier..The Jason had brought me a cup of coffee and I was a little bit excited to get on the road.

Jason had plans on recording with a friend, Mike from the band Love Mound ~ listen and buy here: http://lovemound.com/lovemound/?page_id=119, in Tucson and Kiah and I went along for the ride so we could piddle around town. We piled into the Jetta..Poor kid barely had enough room to squish in. Jason had his drums packed in there pretty good!

BUT..where there is a will..there is a way and she slept like a champ the entire trip. It takes about two hours to get to downtown Tucson from our place.

Mike was waiting for us outside the studio..they quickly unloaded the drums and brought them into the room..Kiah and I said “See ya later!” and we were off to San Xavier Mission ~ one of, if not THE, oldest churches in the state of Arizona. It was founded in 1692! Here is the website if you want to read more.. http://www.patronatosanxavier.org/
In the meantime, this is what we see from the parking lot. Dont let the amazing blue cloudless sunny sky fool you..it was COLD.

Mike had warned us..the church is SMALL. I don’t think I realized how small until we walked into this room. The next picture was taken from just inside the entrance.

I have no idea who the lady on the right is..I did not get a disclaimer and I hope she doesn’t find my blog and sue me 🙂 OR…maybe it’s a GHOST???

Look how close the benches are to each other…people must have been A LOT smaller back in the late 1600’s ~ I could hardly walk between them and I am a small person..

The top of the door, on this shot, to give you an idea..is maybe four inches above her head. She is 5’1

Little nook for some holy water.

Amazing wood work..

All of the pictures taken above were just from the entrance. I started walking toward the front of the church and felt a little uncomfortable..I took one more picture and nudged Kiah, “Let’s get out of here”. She completely agreed..San Xavier is a functioning church. No, there was not a church service going on at the time but there were a handful of people paying respects, lighting candles, leaving flowers and sitting in the pews (I think that’s what the benches are called?) with sullen expressions and full of emotions. I was there for the history, the art, the architecture and felt like I was intruding on these peoples and their special moments.

While walking from the main place of worship to another side alter building Kiah and I both noticed an elderly Native American woman following us, pretty quickly..it kinda freaked us out so we turned around, headed straight at her, smiled and walked the other way. Turns out..she was only headed to the bathroom. We watch way too many scary movies..as I may have mentioned in the past..

To the east of the missionary is a hill with a cross on the very top. Before take the little walk up the hill…someone has to stop and be silly..

Better her than me..after all..I am the mom 😉

While walking up the hill..I spotted something really strange..

Obviously, it had been a muddy day..who is out walking up hills in the rain or mud barefoot?

While we were walking up this way..a nun was following us. Or for a few minutes anyway, we ditched her pretty quickly. It was a nice little walk around the hill and it didn’t take us too long to get to where we started.

This kid was waiting for us on the other side. Sorry for the instagram photo but it was much faster to “shoot” him with my phone 🙂 He was patiently waiting for all of the tourists to get out of his way so he could ride his bike down the hill.

He was kind enough to wait for everyone to clear the path and sped on by never to be seen by us again. Once we were at the base of the hill, Kiah spotted a cute, dusty black mutt dog. She looked like a black lab mixed with another breed, cute pup! Roaming the Missions grounds with a dirty nose and a collar. Kiah was trying to take a picture of the tag to call the owners but the spunky mutt ran down the path and into the little store selling candles before she could get the picture.

We hurried into the store and asked if the dog that ran in here belonged to the church or did we need to find her and call the owners. To which the shop worker replied, ” I didn’t see no dog come in here but if it did..she belongs to the community and might be taking a nap”.

Kiah and I both looked at each other like…”what?” but instead said, “O.K,” turned around and walked back to the car laughing the entire time. It was the statement combined with the accent that made us laugh so hard…you may have had to have been there…but I’m still laughing.

The ride back to downtown was quick. We managed to get a parking space right in front of the studio, parked and walked around downtown.

It was around 11:30 in the morning, on a Saturday and there was only one place open to grab a coffee..Brueggers Bagels. I don’t think I have ever been to a cities downtown area where nothing was open on a Saturday…have you? Hot coffee in hand we set back out to the cold streets of DT Tucson. Kiah spotted a big church down the way so we walked thataway…

Inside, we have a Jesus

And Kiah gives Jesus a LOW FIVE 😉

and a HIGH FIVE to the baby jesus in his golden fleece diapers!

That was the extent of our fun here so..we left and continued to walk the sleepy streets of downtown Tucson.

We met up with Jason and Mike and walked to a local eatery called The Hub Restaurant and Creamery : http://www.hubdowntown.com/

The website is not that great but you can download the menu and see for yourself..good selection!

Mikes wife Karen and their youngest daughter met us there, cheeseburgers all around (with the exception of the one who ordered the veggie burger), we ate, talked and had a nice visit. 🙂

So many missed opportunities at the Hub for the blog. I should have taken pictures of the restaurant, the ice cream bin display, the ginormous mug of coffee, the burgers and our friends. On the upside of that notion..I was fully enjoying myself in the moment and not thinking of my camera or phone or internet..weird 😉

The Conjuring…

Oh..em..gee..

I seem to only watch scary movies….ALONE. Not sure if I just enjoy the torture of being petrified or if it is just because I don’t think my family will appreciate the scary flick as much as I do. It is what it is and that’s what I do..I’m alone..I’m watching a scary movie.

Tonight, Jason’s out with the guys shooting things in the desert, Kiah is at work and I’m watching “The Conjuring”.

It’s very rare, these days, I get my heart racing with fear over a movie…this one did the trick. 🙂

It started out with a scary doll ~ I hate scary dolls…they freak me out. Why? No clue…they just..do! Creepy doll was old..had crackled blues eyes, red lipstick and cracked cheeks painted in red rouge. I am still, even after the movie is over, a little confused as to what this doll had to do with anything. The opening scene is two female roommates on the couch talking to someone (you can only assume is a shrink or a ghost hunter) about this creepy doll who they allowed some demon soul to possess. Then the movie cuts too a family with a boat load of kids moving into a new house.

First clue something may be wrong with the house…the dog..will..not…go.. inside. ALWAYS..trust your dog. If your dog barks incessitanly at something or someone, IT is NOT to be trusted.

** Spoiler alert* So this family dog refuses to enter the house and of course, its a scary movie, the dog is found dead the next morning.

Why, do the scary movie writers insist on always killing the dog? Really? Kill the jackass teenager who expects way too much out of life! Poor little dupper dog didn’t do anything wrong..shoot..He didn’t even go inside. And it’s not like he can speak to the humans and tell them, “Hey, person..you have freaky deaky ghosts living in your house. You may want to get out”.

Dog is buried and the family doesnt even question, “why did the dog die”? They move on. Unpacking, playing games, going to work, going to school. Until one night..

Two of the girl children – who share a room – are sleeping. The younger one keeps waking up in the night because “her older sister” keeps pulling her foot. After the second night of this shenanigans the young one finally realizes..”holy crap, my sister is in her bed..asleep..it’s not her who is pulling my leg”. What does she do? She looks UNDER HER BED..

Who out there would LOOK UNDER their bed, in the middle of the night after being scared of WHAT was grabbing your foot while you were sleeping?

Sorry..but I would have pulled the covers over my head and held my breath until the daylight shone.

I won’t go into too much detail but the above described..good scene. It gets better from there..The mom starts realizing something is up with the house after a night of chasing around a strange clapping noise and being locked in the basement until the husband comes home..Which brings me to another..Really?? Would you ever??

So she hears the basement door creak and sees it open and yet she still..goes down the stairs, in the dark to the creepy basement of the house they just moved into.

Would you go? I..would..not.. I would run upstairs , jump in my bed, pull the covers over my head and hold my breath until the daylight shone.

At this point, the movie is heating up and they bring in a married couple who perform cleansing rituals to rid homes and people of other worldly issues.

Now, I do have to say, I become a little conflicted with some of the story line.

I believe in ghosts. I do not believe in the devil. Which also means that I don’t think I can believe in demonic possession. The conflictual aspect, on my part, comes into play is at this point because the writers introduce the demonic possession theory.

With that said..the movie did still end up being ~ hold your breath until the next scene scary. if you like scary movies.watch it. 🙂

Uncomfortably Numb

This is going to be a tough one for me to get through and I will apologize in advance for my ramblings but I NEED to get this out.

What I need to get out, I have no idea but I have had a tough day and that is what you’re here for, right? To read the thoughts and feelings and ramblings and stories from another persons experiences?

~ Sighs deeply ~

I feel utterly confused. I feel gut wrenching emptiness. I feel….A LOT.

It started out as a normal happy day. I surprisingly woke up at 05:15….BEFORE my alarm clock buzzed me out of bed! It helped that Jason woke up a tad bit earlier and kind of woke me up with the piddling around the room in the dark. I didn’t go for the two mile run BUT..my goal for this week (again) is just to start training myself to get out of bed an hour or so earlier than normal.

We had coffee, watched the weather channel (yea..we do that..mmmhmm) and talked about what our plans for the day were to entail.

He took off for a couple of jobs and I felt so happy to be able to work from home today and I got to it!

Around one in the afternoon, I decided to check in on a friend/co-worker. You see, she was diagnosed with leukemia in 2011. She went through rounds of chemotherapy, after chemo, her sister was (luckily) a match for her bone marrow transplant! She got through all the shenanigans of that ordeal and came back to work in August of 2012…life was going pretty good for her. Sure she was tired alot and wasn’t back to her old self quite yet, but really?? Who would be after going through everything she did to battle leukemia?

I think it was around August this year she started complaining of headaches and finally went in for her check up. She had relapsed. I didnt see her again. She went into hospital for more chemo treatments and the plan was to give stem cell transplant a shot. They started the process on September the 24th. September the 23rd was her last day off freedom….until today.

LITERALLY, thirty seconds after I checked the website her mom set up and kept us updated on, I received a text from my boss letting me know that Kirsten has passed away.

I breathed in an extremely deep breath, my head dropped back into the recliner I had been sitting on all day working and there was silence.

I don’t know how long I was silent with my head back and eyes closed but Jason was here (THANKFULLY) and I could feel him looking at me, waiting for me to say something..anything..he knew from my reaction to the text I had just read that something was terribly wrong and I was beyond upset. I thank him right now for knowing what to do – whether he knew what he was doing or not – his silence was EXACTLY what I needed. And then my head shot up, I was unable to breath and the tears just poured out of my soul.

It breaks my heart that a woman in her early thirties can be diagnosed with a horrible disease such as leukemia, never experience life (she was not married, did not have children, had not yet had the opportunity to travel as much as she would have liked) go through the painful process of trying to recover using chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants, stem cell transplants, etc… only for the outcome to be a loss of life.

I do not understand how this can happen. We live in an age where we, as a country, “pride” ourselves in such wonderful and miraculous medical advances…why are so many many people dying?

Reprogramming…

Who do I talk to about adding more time to our daily clocks?? Is it just me or would everyone else benefit from having more than twenty-four hours in a day?

I don’t know about you.. but I honestly can’t seem to squeeze in work, exercise, cleaning, family time, husband time, ME time, fun time, friend time OH annnnd SLEEP time in just twenty-four hours!

This dilemma has prompted me to take a look at a few things I can change. The first one being to wake up earlier. In my mind I know what I need to do to get up earlier..DUH..just get up earlier, right?

So much easier said than done!

I DO NOT WAKE UP. When I’m up..I’m up but it’s the whole getting me out of bed thing where the problem begins.

Example..last Thursday Kiah and I set our alarms for 05:00 so we could go for a little two mile run before our day began. After thirty minutes of riding the snooze button train, I saw Kiahs light on in her bedroom..She’s the good one..she was getting ready to run. Me? I yell from the warm coziness of my bed, ” KIAH…GO BACK TO BED”. She gladly obeyed. 🙂

My new short term goal is now to get me out of bed early enough to get a two mile run in, come home, shower and get to work..maybe even on time?

My first step towards succeeding in my goal…I googled, “How to wake up earlier” Do you know there is actually a wiki how to?

http://www.wikihow.com/Wake-Up-Early

I have actually tried ALL of these methods in the past and they just..don’t…work. Maybe now that I have an actual goal of getting my exercise in first thing before work..maybe now it will work.

I started with the most basic. Set the alarm thirty minutes earlier than I need to wake up. Hey! I actually woke up on time! No..not at the 05:30 hour I had set the alarm for but the 06:00 hour which is the real hour I am supposed to wake up.

Tomorrow..yes, tomorrow is the day my plan will work!

Look out people…I’m not the only cook in the house!

After six LONG weeks away from the Jason and six LONG weeks of my kitchen experimentation…I came home to a night off!

A ridiculous hour and twenty minute ride home…this is what I came home too 🙂

I am not going to claim to know anything about what was going on in this pan. All I know is that the smell was amazing and all I had to do was sit my bum down, have a glass of wine and wait for the magic to unfold.

Well..of course, I did have to chase him around with my camera letting him know he has earned a highlight spot in my blog. I think he’s trying to show me up..your thoughts?

There was food, there was wine, there was whiskey and as promised…there was George Jones 😉

Happy Hump Daaaayyy my friends!

Kooking with Kristi

If the family would let me..I would eat seafood EVERY SINGLE DAY. Last night I made an amazing clam chowder soup with bread bowl and the time before that was calamari tacos. The man of house, AKA the Jason, told me that although the last few dishes have been spot on…”I need MEAT, not poultry, not fish…MEAT”.

Sometimes we just have to compromise, eh? OK, OK…tonight..it is Hamburger steak with a sweet-onion mushroom gravy concoction.

I found this simple recipe online and manipulated it to my liking. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/hamburger-steak-with-sweet-onion-mushroom-gravy-10000001723326/

In the large mixing bowl I dropped 1lb of angus ground beef, 1/2 cup of Panko bread crumbs, 1 egg, as much salt as I wanted, as much pepper as I wanted and I think I squished up 4 large garlic cloves…I love the garlic!

I used a broiling pan and put tin foil on it ahead of time..I have been known to just start making patties and have no where to put them 🙂

Wedding rings and fashion rings off, washed the hands and dove in to mix it up!

NOTE! If you want left overs…seriously..you need to double up on the meat I only bought 1lb and it made only three burgers!

After I made the meat stuff into patties, I set them on the broil pan and left them alone while I went on to step two.

Cutting up one medium white onion and slicing of the 8oz fresh mushrooms. You can, of course, buy the pre sliced but my disappointing grocer (as of late) only had whole mushrooms.

In a frying pan, I melted as much butter as I wanted to – probably around 1/2 a stick and then I threw in the onions and mushrooms.

While those were browning, I started a sauce pan for the gravy..yep…I cheated and bought a packaged brown gravy and just followed the directions..after about five minutes I added the gravy to the mushrooms and onions and just let that simmer for a bit.

Turn the broiler on and put the patties on the top rack – cook them for 3 minutes on each side…I wondered off and let the man tend to the broil…I should have stayed..they were cooked a little bit longer than they should have been. Oh well, they were still REALLY good and moist!

and here is the end result! I will NEVER admit to what the side dish is, by the way. 🙂

Just imagine it to be something yummy that goes well with the patties!

Small Town History

I have lived in the town of Weedville, AZ since the later part of the 1980’s. I had no idea I was living in Weedville until one day I posted a status on FaceBook and that status stated my comment was coming from Weedville, AZ.

What the heck is Weedville?? I thought I lived in Peoria. As I was giggling about Weedville..because let’s face it..Weedville is pretty funny….I googled Weedville, AZ. Apparently some Reverend (Reverend Weed) from Nebraska moved to the area in 1911 and named the town after himself.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0427azhist0428.html

The link above is for any of you who may be interested in reading more..I’m not writing about Weedville today.. I am writing about Peoria. 🙂

As I said, I have lived here for over twenty years. Today was the fist time I have ever stopped at the Peoria Central School in Old Town Peoria. I have driven by this place many of many of times…thought about stopping but just never have. Today..I stopped.

Not only did I stop but I got out of the car and actually went in! 🙂

I was warmly greeted by the volunteers at this facility, “We are open but as you can see, we are in the process of redecorating, renovating and cleaning. You are more than welcome to come in and look around.”

The nice man noticed I was armed with a camera and proceeded to tell me, “and of course you are welcome to take pictures as well!”

I thanked him and proceeded to walk into the first building, this room will be set up as a replica of the old school rooms of the super early 1900’s.

Question..you see rule number 2? Well now look at rule number 3…How are you supposed to address the teacher if rule number 2 is NO TALKING? Yea, I was THAT kid. 😉

By the looks of these desks, I imagine in the early 1900’s they did not have the problem of child obesity that we have today. Maybe the answer to that current issue is to bring back the smaller desks!! Inappropriate? Well, I’ll save that discussion for another blog then. 😀

This is a piano from the late 1800’s – It looks as though it’s in GREAT condition! Chickering was in business from the late 1800’s and actually got out of business before The Great Depression, or so this website tells me anyway. http://www.antiquepianoshop.com/online-museum/chickering-brothers/

I’m not sure if classrooms were equipped with pianos in those days or not. Most likely not , the museum probably just has it because it’s old and cool and that’s fine but it did make me wonder so I asked uncle Google. I didn’t find anything on music in the classroom in the early 1900’s but I did stumble on this little note. Now, I’m not sure if it’s real or not but it’s cute and kind of neat to think about this little girl sitting at her little desk writing to students 100 years after her time.

http://www.dltk-kids.com/pioneer/school_in_the_1800.htm

To any of you teachers out there…this is a brilliant writing assignment for your students!

Yep, the classroom is even equipped with life size, creepy mannequin teachers. 🙂

This photo was hanging on the wall. I graduated from Peoria High School, the school is 91 years old! The people all look old so I don’t know if this was a graduating class or if it was the staff? I am leaning more towards guessing it is the graduating class..I don’t think in 1938 they would have had that many teachers in Peoria..

The next room looks like they might set it up as a home type setting. Here are some pictures of clothes drying..I like the long johns and the old time picture set up behind them.

I would imagine mom would wash, then squidgy the clothes before she hung them up to dry..

And just look at the art work on this sewing machine! The colors are so vibrant!

In this room was another piano or organ or?? I’m not sure..Anyone know what this is? Who makes it (I forgot to read it when I was actually there and I tried to zoom in on the picture but I cannot make out the lettering..)?

While I was in this room, one of the nice volunteer ladies came back to bring me a flyer for the Grand Re-opening happening November 2nd.

Here she is 😉

And see… there are the creepy, mannequin teachers in the back! Can you tell I am not a fan of mannequins?

After her and I talked for a bit, I walked to the Agriculture room. I didn’t get any pictures of this room because I was actually so engrossed with the stories I was hearing!

When I walked into the room there were two couples, about my parents age, in there. The ladies were sweeping and talking and dusting while the men sat and talked. Hmmm…. hah, I guess the old school mentality still applies here. 🙂

They told me stories of how long they have been in the area, what it looked like in their day and actually.. one of the ladies family had owned the farm property directly behind my house until about five years ago. It had been in her family for around fifty years!

Small Town..

Her and I walked together to the next building which was decorated with old old typewriters, stenographer machines, adding machines and in the corner was a glass display that scared me…In it was an old beauty shop set up..to be more precise it was a perm machine..yep..perm MACHINE..hairdressers would wrap ladies hair up in pin curls and cushions and hooked them up to ELECTRICITY…Check out this little video – about 40 seconds in the scary machine makes its grand entrance…. Sorry, in advance, for the poor quality but hey..I didn’t make it.

On that note..I will leave you for today! Until next time. Get out there everyone, learn, explore, talk to people!

Friday Food Frenzy…

Two posts in one day? Sorry but I couldn’t help myself. I tried to wait a few days but I have no self control..so enjoy anyway. 🙂

Last night, I was home alone on a stormy Friday and found myself perusing through Pinterest, like I normally do, to find my next meal to try.

I stumbled upon this little delight ( http://hotcookinmama1.blogspot.com/2013/08/baked-chicken-and-spinach-flautas.html) and decided to give it a whirl. I followed the instructions but instead of 16oz of chicken broth I used 14oz..it seems my grocer does not stock the 16oz sizes. It was either 14 or 32..14 won! Instead of garlic powder, I used five cloves of fresh garlic and instead of paprika, I opted for Cayenne pepper 😉 For the grated cheese option I used La Chona Quesadilla..PERFECT CHOICE, I might add.

I boiled three chicken breast, in the chicken broth and 2 cups of water, for about 10 minutes.

Shredded the chicken and placed it in a mixing bowl, added the cayenne pepper, salt and chili powder then set off to the side.

Using the same pot I used to boil the chicken, I took out the broth – all but 1/4 cup as instructed – and added four cups of freshly chopped spinach, fresh diced jalapeno and the five cloves of garlic.

Then I preheated the oven to 450 – my opinion – 450 may have been a bit too high – try 425 🙂

It took about 3 minutes for the spinach to wilt. Once complete I transferred the spinach mixture into the spiced up chicken.

How pretty is that?? 🙂

After I mixed it up nice mixed like…I took the burrito tortillas and cut them in 1/2 — I’m not sure why they are cut in half. I can see that a burrito tortilla is a little big for a flauta but couldn’t we have just used maybe a taco tortilla? Oh well, I did what I was told. 🙂

So tortillas cut in half and I was ready to start spooning the bowl contents onto the tortilla.

Take note: Notice I put the mixture on the rounded side..don’t do that..place the mixture on the long straight side. This was the only one I messed up but by this time my fingers were greasy and I didn’t want to get any of it on the camera and I didn’t want to wash my hands.

Bake for 10 minutes each side. That’s it!

This picture is before they were baked.

Now…who’s going to come over and clean my kitchen?? 🙂