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.