Procrastination, Easter Egg Hunts, and Chocolate Cake

Creative title, huh?

Who thought it was a good idea to move in the last two weeks of grad school?! My motivation to finish up the 23 page paper, the 12 page paper, 2 presentations, and a final in the next 13 days is at an all time low. And that is saying a lot.  In a weird way I wish I was freaking out more so I would actually work on stuff instead of daydreaming about decorating the new house. I need to finish up/START some of this stuff before we do the big move Saturday. Basically I need to stop procrastinating. I know this intellectually, but I can't seem to stop myself.

So in an effort to procrastinate even further I wanted to share some pictures and a recipe from the weekend.

On Saturday we celebrated Easter (eve?) with my parents and siblings at my parents' house.I made a yummy cake that I can't stop eating because 1. it's yummy and 2. carbs and sugar are my cure for stress. Since food is always my priority numero uno I took an overexposed picture of the cake but nothing else.

 I found the recipe via Pinterest from The Nonpareil Baker. I copied the recipe exactly from her blog and it was the best cake I have ever made. It's basically the Hershey's chocolate cake recipe with a cream cheese frosting in the middle and chocolate buttercream frosting on the outside. Yum! I would definitely recommend adding the chocolate chips on top because in my unprofessional opinion there can never be enough chocolate. The cake was a little time consuming but so worth it.

On actual Easter Sunday J and I spend the morning painting. Fun right? We painted the kitchen and living room Sherwin Williams Amazing Gray and I am very happy with it. I need to finish my school work so I can get my booty over there and take some pics of the paint in the daylight. But instead I'll write a wordy blog post.

In the afternoon we went to J's parents' house for Easter. There are tons of little ones on his side so I actually remembered to take pictures of the egg hunt.

 

Our niece, Bella got to get a head start.

Another niece, Shelby looking cute in her Easter outfit. 

And her sister Taylor hanging out with her candy stash.

Chloe is our oldest niece who never stopped long enough for me to get a good picture. She took this Easter egg hunt seriously.

Hubby playing basketball with his brother and dad

My beautiful sister in law Kiara and Bella Boo

And we will end with a cute baby pic. How can you not love that face?!

Chicken Enchiladas

We love love LOVE this recipe so I had to share. These enchiladas are very similar to the ones you would get in a restaurant. It is a little time consuming and some work but it is so worth it. Trust me.

You need:

1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped fine
1 tsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. cumin
1 tbsp. sugar
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 tomato,  chopped
Salt and pepper
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
½ cup minced fresh cilantro
12 tortillas
Cooking spray

I usually half this recipe for just the two of us. Just FYI, the ingredients for the whole recipe is what is written, but the pictures only show half.

First, you combine the onion, jalapeno and oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Cook, stirring often, until the onions and peppers have softened, 8-10 minutes.

Somehow the jalepenos didn't make the picture. (opps!)

After the veggies have softened add in the garlic, chili powder, cumin and sugar, and cook just until fragrant, less than 30 seconds.

Then put in the tomato sauce, water, and chopped tomato.  Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat and cook about 5 more minutes or until the sauce has slightly thickened.

The next step is to put the chicken in the sauce. I half-ed the recipe so I only used one of the HUGE chicken breasts that come in the bags in the frozen aisle at the store. It was plenty.

Lower the heat, cover, and let cook until the chicken is completely done. About 15-20 minutes. When the chicken is cooked completely, transfer it to a cutting board.

 Strain the sauce through a strainer into a bowl. Make sure to press down on the onions and tomatoes to extract as much liquid as possible.

Add salt and pepper to the sauce to taste.

Put the solids left in the strainer is a large bowl and set aside for now.

Now it's time to shred the chicken. I just shred it right on the cutting board with 2 forks. I basically use one fork to hold the chicken and pull at the chicken with the other one.

After it's all shredded add it to the onion and tomato mixture bowl. Add in ¼ cup of the enchilada sauce, ½ cup of each of the shredded cheeses, and the cilantro.

Stack the tortillas on a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for 40-60 seconds, until warm and pliable.

Now it's time to assemble!

Spoon 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture onto a tortilla.  Roll up the tortilla around the filling tightly, and place in a greased baking dish (9x13), seam-side down.  Repeat with the remaining filling and tortillas

 Lightly spray the tops of the enchiladas with cooking spray.  Place in the oven which was preheated to  425˚ F, uncovered, for 7 minutes or until the tortillas start to brown slightly.

Reduce the oven to  400˚ F.  Remove the enchiladas from the oven and pour the rest of the sauce and remaining cheese over the top.  Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake for 5 more minutes, until the cheese is browned.

 Let them sit for about 10 minutes before serving or they will completely fall apart.

On this particular night we served dinner with some frozen strawberry margaritas with sugar around the rim!

Source: Annie's Eats, Pink Parsley Catering

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Weekend Update

I can't believe it's Monday. We had a very busy weekend, but we had a lot of fun!

On Friday, we went out to celebrate my new internship at Methodist. We went to Fogo de Chao for the first time. It was yummy and a lot of fun! We did gain about 20 lbs though

For Father's Day we had my side of the family over for a brunch. I think breakfast food is my favorite.

The cinnamon rolls are Pioneer Woman's recipe. I follow this recipe exactly, because they are perfect. I usually make a powdered sugar icing with them though instead of the maple icing. It's just powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk mixed together.

For the fruit salad I first put in the bowl a big can of pineapple chunks and a big can of peaches, juice and all. (Note: I wouldn't put as much juice in next time). I then mixed in a package of instant Vanilla pudding until it dissolved and added blueberries, grapes, and strawberries. I would normally also put in a banana, but my mom hates them.

The Eggs Benedict were a group effort. We toasted the English Muffins by putting them under the broiler for 2 minutes then added the Canadian Bacon and broiled for 1 minute.

Grandma showed us all how to poach an egg correctly. Apparently you can do this ahead of time according to Martha.

The Hollandiase Sauce was Julia Child's recipe:

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cut into small pieces
Directions:
In a blender, combine the egg yolks, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Set aside.
In a small saucepan over medium-high, add the butter and heat until foaming.
Blend the egg yolk mixture at top speed for 2 seconds then, with the blender running, remove the cover and pour in the hot butter in a thin stream of droplets. By the time two-thirds of the butter has been added, the sauce will be a thick cream. Continue pouring, but don't pour in the milky residue at the bottom of the pan. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Then we topped it with paprika!

At the last minute, I also added Raspberry Stuffed French toast. I used this and this for guidance.

I took a loaf of french bread and sliced it into 2 inch pieces. I got 9 pieces out of the loaf, not including the ends. I then cut a deep slit across the middle of each piece which served as the pocket for the filling.

For the filling I mixed together 2 blocks of cream cheese with about 2 Tbsp of raspberry jam and a handful or two of fresh raspberries. I stuffed each piece of bread with the filling before dipping it in an egg bath.

The egg bath had:
4 eggs
2 cups milk
2/3 cup heavy cream
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extrat
 1/2 cup sugar
Cinnamon ( I eyeballed it)
A little bit of nutmeg

After each piece was dipped into the egg bath, I cook the french toast for about 3-5 minutes on each side.

To finish them off, I sprinkled some powdered sugar on them and topped them with a few fresh raspberries.Yum!

I didn't mean for this post to only be filled with food pictures, but apparently those are the only pictures I took this weekend. I promise we did more than just eat all weekend, although the pictures on my camera would argue otherwise.

I did snap a picture of baby Isabella while we were at my in-laws though

So now we have a post with babies and food, which pretty much sums up the highlights of my weekend.

Of course, the other highlight was spending time with my family and my dad! For those that know my family, you know that I have a pretty awesome dad. There has never been a question in my mind that he would do anything for any of us kids (even if he did wear the shirt he knows my siblings and I hate to the house just to get a reaction). But hey, that's Dad humor. Even with his ugly shirt, loud snoring, and "jokes", I wouldn't trade him.


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