White Chicken Enchiladas

It's been a month since we left Texas and moved to Colorado. Thus far, nothing but good things to say about this city! The weather has been gorgeous, 70s and sunny, with a few cooler days thrown in. With all that sunshine, we've had a lot of time to explore! 

One of our first weekends here, our ship friend, Kari, came to visit from Atlanta. We met up with another of our friends from the ship here in Denver and headed up to the mountains. 

We went to Bear Lake, which was completely frozen over. The snow was feet deep. 

 All of those people are walking over the middle of the frozen lake. You would think the pockets of lake water would be a warning. I laugh in the face of danger. Lies. I get really nervous as soon as I hear any crunch and become convinced that the ice is going to give way and I freeze, convinced that any move I make is my last. Wait for someone to rescue me. No one does. When another man begins to look at me as I squeal about being stuck, I say "Not really, it just feels like it," and hop/sprint off the ice. **We were never actually in any danger. There was 6 feet of ice and snow between me and the lake**

Lots of photos of the frozen lake and snow and the mountains. 

 Frozen waterfalls.

We even attempted a snowball fight. 

 

Last weekend we took a day trip up to Boulder. It was a beautiful, top-down on the Jeep kind of day. The setting of the main campus of The University of Colorado, this mountain town is picturesque. We explored Pearl Street, which was designed by the same person as Charlottesville's "Downtown Mall," and looked almost identical. 

We met our friend Sarah and headed up into the mountains. The hike up to the Flatirons was pretty crowded since it was a Saturday, but we had a great view of them and just drove the mountain road up as far as we could. It provided some amazing views over the city. 
 

Finally, if you've made it this far in the post, I have a recipe to share. On my day off this week, I ventured to a couple grocery stores- one an indoor farmer's market type! I had most of the ingredients already for this recipe, so I just grabbed some green enchilada sauce and it was a winner!

This recipe is from the book Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist, which I highly recommend reading. 

White Chicken Enchiladas

- 1 C sour cream
- 1 can (28 oz) green enchilada sauce, Las Palmas is recommended
- 2 (4 oz) cans diced green chilies
- 3 C cooked chicken, shredded
- 2 C Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
- 12 corn tortillas
      ~this is what the recipe calls for, I used 6 large flour tortillas, cutting each in half
- 1 C chicken broth
- fresh cilantro

1. Mix green sauce with chilies and sour cream. Smooth 1 spoonful of the sauce mixture around the bottom of a 9 x 13in pan. 

2. Simmer chicken broth in a skillet and pass each tortilla through the broth before placing in pan. If you leave each in the broth longer than seconds, they'll fall apart- so be quick!

3. Layer 4 (or 3 halves) tortillas over the first layer of sauce. After tortillas, add half the chicken, then 1/3 of the sauce, then 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat so there are two full layers.

4. Finish with a layer of 4 more tortillas (or 3 halves), the remaining 1/3 of the sauce, and the remaining 1/3 of the cheese. 

5. Bake at 350* until warmed through and the cheese melted, about 30-35 minutes. Let sit at least 15 minutes before cutting. 

I threw my stuff in the car, headed up to the Rockies

Again, after a decent amount of silence, I’m back with another random post. As of this week, we are Denver residents, where my daily commute consists of staring at the snow-capped Rockies as I drive to the hospital. 

I guess I should recap our last month in Houston, reading back we did actually do quite a few things before we left. We, of course, continued to try many of the restaurants on our list. But we also made it outside a few more times before it got cold. 

On a long stretch off we headed over to Austin and San Antonio, hitting some other Texas tourist sites, touring the Alamo and the like. Both were different but fun! We found a beautiful natural pool in Austin, from a Buzzfeed top 20 list of all places, that was awesome. And we hit up Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives #14: Taco Taco in San Antonio. So delicious and probably on my top 5 DDD list. 

Leaving Houston was bittersweet. I’m not sold on big city living by any means, my patience in traffic at any time of the day is minimal. However, I really enjoyed the people we worked with and the job itself, which were a huge part of it.

As far as cooking, I stuck to some easy comforts as we were wrapping up and trying to use up ingredients in the refrigerator. To use up some ground turkey I had, I made Mediterranean Turkey Burgers that I enjoyed more than I expected! The recipe will follow, after an update on our first few days in CO.

The drive was long. There’s not much in Kansas but windmills. Thankfully, my engineering brother could answer all my curious questions about them as we drove past miles and miles of them. Who owns them? Why are they not all in a row? How much electricity do they generate? Do they spin by the wind alone or do the magnets help propel them? Ok, maybe I’m the only curious one. He probably could have made up every answer just to stop the questions. I will never know.

There was not much in east Colorado either, but as soon as we got outside of Denver, there they were. Huge and giant and rocky. You can see them even though they are miles away, the land in between is flat. Hoping to get out there and explore them soon! First I need to buy a real winter coat….

After we got all moved in and unpacked, we had dinner with a bunch of Mercy Ships friends. It was just surreal (weird/awesome/really?) for all 5 of us, nurses who met in the Congo, to be sitting in a Mediterranean restaurant in Denver eating chicken schwarma, which was a frequent meal both on the ship and out in town. But so good. To have been in a city less than 48hrs and connected with people we know. Like I’ve said before, ship friends are a different kind of friends, in the best way possible. Looking forward to a couple months filled with those friendships and real Denver tour guides!

I think that catches us up! Hopefully it won’t be June before I get back on here. One of the goals in Denver is to cook a bit more, our list of restaurants to try is pretty long already though!

Mediterranean Turkey Burgers

recipe courtesy Food Network

- 1 (7 oz) container 2% plain Greek yogurt (about 3/4 cup)
- 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 2 ounces)
- 1 cucumber, grated
- 2 Tbs chopped fresh mint
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 1/4 lbs ground turkey
- 2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 buns, split and toasted
Lettuce and tomato slices, for topping

1. Combine the yogurt, feta, cucumber, mint, half of the garlic, 1 Tbs water, 1/2 tsp salt and a few grinds of pepper in a small bowl. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

2. Combine the turkey, the remaining garlic, 1 tsp salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Form four 1/2-inch-thick patties. 

3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, then add the patties and cook until browned, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.

4. Spread the yogurt sauce on the buns. Sandwich with the burgers; top with lettuce and tomato. 


"Telluride" - Josh Gracin