Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Happy Cinco de Mayo

A few of my favorites to serve on this festive day or any day when the sun shines. Hope you celebrating this day with a Corona!

Carrie's 2 minute Guacamole
My husband Mike gave my guacamole this name when he timed me one afternoon. Its easy, tasty and always is a crowd pleaser.

3-4 avacados smashed and clumpy
any salsa you prefer-I like Trader Joes Chunky Salsa
real lime juice-not from the plastic fruit shaped juice container-use the real thing.
pepper to taste.

Thats all you need - mix it together and serve.

Red Sauce Enchiladas
2 full chicken breasts (you can make this easy for yourself and buy a rotisserie chicken) shredded
flour tortillas
chopped yellow onion
1 small can green chiles
fresh corn from the cob
shredded cheese, I buy the pre-schredded mexican variety. Trader Joes sells it.
nonfat plain yogurt
lowfat sour cream
1 can red enchilada sauce

mix sour cream and yogurt, add chiles, onion and corn. Add chicken to the mixture.
dip tortillas in the red sauce
fill the enchiladas, add cheese, roll them up. Place enchiladas in oven safe caserole dish. Add cheese and extra red sauce to top.

Cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. or until cheese is bubbly and enchiladas are cooked through.

This amount of chicken, tortillas and filling should yield about 12 enchilada's.

Add avacado for topping.

Friday, May 1, 2009

The what and how of LLC

Ladies Lunch Club was created in April 1998. Eleven years ago. I love it. Our current group is comprised of 8 ladies living in Danville and Alamo. We are working moms and stay at home moms. We have known eachother as far back as elementary school and as little as a few years.
We get together once a month and enjoy a full yummy lunch for two hours. No kids, no husbands. Just us. Its typically the highlight of my week.

I am Carrie and I have been a proud member of LLC for ten years. It started as a group of newly married and for some newly moms who wanted to share time and good food.
The rules are simple and hold strong to this day. Choose your month, send out the invitation, prepare, cook and serve. When you are the hostess, you do it all.
We sent out invitations and we prepared our menus days ahead. We set beautiful tables with fresh cut flowers and displayed our new china and crystal. Tami and Debbie had experience with LLC. They are sisters and their mother still had a group going of her own.
Our group has changed a lot over the years. No more printed invitations for one. We now use evite.
Some girls have moved away and we have added others. What I love most about the group is that we are never judged. We are happy to be there and enjoy the time.

Christy hosted today. It was raining pretty hard so it was my last chance for awhile to put on the suede boots and black sweater dress. I was so tired that I figured if I dress up I might wake up.
Six of us were there today. Four regular LLC members and two guests. As the host, you can invite guests to lunch club. Christy did a great job. She served Ina Gartens Canneloni. So good!
We also had a delicious salad with strawberries, walnuts, feta and spinich. Before everyone else showed up we nibbled on hummus and crackers. I loved how Christy served the hummus. Seems simple but she made it look good. She drizzled olive oil and paprika on it, then added a few pinenuts.

Anyhow, the best of LLC is the food and conversation. Today I felt like I was a little out of sorts (could be the exhaustion!) I just kept talking and talking and I think half the time I made no sense. It was nice to hear that an old roommate from my SF days is getting married and the funny memories about some of our crazy sorority sisters was hilarious. I am convinced that the character you had in highschool and college carries on throughout life. You grow up and mature but you are the person you are. My friend Jill is great at remembering the hilarious moments of college days. We have each had the friend that loved to control all situations. The friend that had a collection of close friends and that collection seemed to change quite often. I wonder if those girls are still controlling their husbands, children and close girlfriends today-almost twenty years later. Most likely, yes. I prefer to spend what little free time I have with easygoing people I can laugh with.

I am going to serve hummus with olive oil, paprika and pinenuts next time. And for dessert I will get creative like Christy and serve ice cream with chocolate sauce and crumbled thin mint girl scout cookies. If we don't serve them to friends, we end up eating those cookies alone!

Till next time-I am signing off to do the dishes and watch mindless TV.


Goodnight-