Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Casserole (aka Tex-mex Chicken Lasagna)

   Tonight for supper at the Lazy W… “Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Casserole.” Or maybe, how about this… “Tex Mex Chicken Lasagna.”

   Either way, it is delicious and easy. The ingredients are pretty much just some leftover chicken, a few basic pantry ingredients and dairy products, and maybe some fresh hot peppers from your garden. The main inspiration for this recipe was a growing stack of broken corn tortillas in my fridge. I don’t know why, but for a month or more I cannot seem to lay my hands on good corn tortillas. Weird.

   See what I mean? They come out of the dang package this way. You could say that the broken tortilla scandal has been putting a damper on our weekly Taco Tuesday fun. Have you ever tried to eat a fish taco from a limp, crumbly, noncommittal corn tortilla? Not easy.

   Anyway, if you have some leftover chicken, dysfunctional tortillas, and some other stuff and you’d like a nice, quick weeknight meal… Give this a try. Really filling and yummy!

What You Need:

  • Three pre-cooked chicken breasts. Either grilled or baked, whaevv, it’s a texture or convenience choice. 
  • Olive oil, a few cloves of garlic, and a few fresh hot peppers. Maybe some onions if you’re an onion person.
  • Basic spices: salt, pepper, nutmeg, garlic powder, cayenne, paprika, etc. You will see later, just seasoning the sauce to taste.
  • Two to three cups or more of shredded Tex-mex style cheeses. YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT.
  • A short stack of broken up corn tortillas. I think flour would also be delicious, Decadent, in fact. What is already in your fridge? I am guessing I used about twelve.
  • A can of condensed cream-of-chicken soup.
  • One cup of sour cream.
  • Less than a cup of heavy cream. (Milk also works, but I am a heavy cream snob lately, which partially explains how my jeans have been fitting.)
  • I think that is probably it.
  • Okay.

What You Do:

  • Preheat your oven to about 350 degrees.
  • Shred or finely dice your cooked chicken. Your choice… It’s just a texture thing.
  • In a saucepan that seems too big at first, saute some garlic and some chopped hot peppers. Again, it’s a personal flavor thing, so your choice on exactly what or how much. I had some gorgeous habaneros and jalapenos ready to go, so I grabbed those and had some fun. Use olive oil and watch closely for burning garlic. And do NOT rub your eyes at any point during this process, like I did. Hey, if you like onions (we do not), add some diced onion to the party.
  • Now, in a big mixing bowl, add the softened, flavorful sauteed stuff to your tiny chicken pieces and also add an ungodly amount of shredded cheese. Any Tex-mex cheeses you groove. Stir it really well.
I kept thinking how other veggies, like mushroom and spinach would be great in this mix. 
And cilantro, tomatoes, etc. Yum! The possibilities are endless. AVACADO.
  • Okay.
  • Now, in that same sauce pan as earlier, to pick up the flavors, mix together the can of condensed soup, the sour cream, and the heavy cream. Season it all with nutmeg, salt and pepper, garlic powder, etc, to your liking. Maybe some cayenne? Or Paprika? Just heat it all through and whisk it to a smooth consistency. Taste and change as you like. 
  • The assembly is so much like lasagna. Use a 9 x 13 baking dish. Drizzle and spread a small amount of sauce over the bare pan, then arrange the broken tortillas into a flat layer. Then scoop some spicy chicken-cheese mixture over that and smooth it flat. Then evenly ladle some creamy, yummy sauce over that and repeat: Broken tortillas, chicken mix, sauce. The proportions I tried tonight were exactly enough for two layers.
  • Sprinkle a little extra cheese on top for good measure.
  • Bake in a hot oven for less than half an hour, really just until it is all hot and the cheese on top is bubbly.
   There you go! Easy, fast, and pretty economical, especially if you use leftovers. Served with salad, tortilla chips, and EXCELLENT salsa made by Junior, I got my Tex-mex food fix without driving to a restaurant or feeling like I overindulged. I mean, not too much…
   What is for dinner in your home tonight?
   Also, I had the best weekend and the best first half of the week, including a lunch date today with my eldest daughter. Lots of prayers being answered. 
   And on the blog front, in case you hadn’t heard, the month of October is going to be lots of fun. Tiny T is searching for love, and we are having a little choose-your-own-adventure party right here to help him! 
   So excited. Check out the new Tiny T tab up at the top of this main page!
Have fun, be happy!
XOXOXOXO

My Book Stack This Week

   Hello! Another busy week is chomping at the bit around here, and I’m so glad. Life. Is. Good.

   In between this thing and that, I’m enjoying lots of reading moments. In fact, Handsome has even found some reading material he grooves, proving that miracles do happen; and we have instituted a cool evening ritual of sitting in our fave outdoor chairs (his is a nice, wide hammock and mine is a nifty vintage aluminum chaise) and reading while the sun sets. We face the backlit vegetable garden and often have the llama girls watching us. This is WAAAAYYY better than vegging out in front of the TV! Last night Johnny Cash tried to kill me, but it’s worth it. Johnny Cash is a gander who hates my ever-lovin guts. Sort of like how Mia hates my husband. It all comes out in the farm family wash.

   So anyway, here is what I’m reading to fill my brain and my soul…

   What’s not pictured is a digital version of C.K. Chesterson’s Orthodoxy. It’s a short little volume, but I’m reading it slowly, taking too many notes and thinking too long. At this rate I will review it around Christmas. 
   Another book that’s not pictured is The Horse Whisperer, which our famous little Oklahoma book club read recently. We are meeting Friday night to discuss it (and eat a fabulous ranch style dinner), so I’ll post my review then.
   Okay.
   The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. My beekeeping mentor Maribeth loaned this to me a thousand years ago, but I understood it to be quite sad, a story about motherless girls. I kept it on the shelf until now. I finally feel strong enough to read it.
   The Art of Fiction by Ayn Rand. Maybe if I read this little book I will learn everything I need to know to make my idea for a novel come to fruition. 
   Zombactor by Sean Bingham. We became acquainted with this author at some local zombie-costume-art show events, and this book is the first in a trilogy he has written. Handsome has read and enjoyed them and offered to Sean my proofreading and reviewing services. (Stop laughing, Margi!) We’ll see about that. But in the mean time, if you think I’m gonna pass up an opportunity to read and discuss books with my husband, you’re crazy. Zombies it is.
   Keeping Bees by Green Guides and The Honeybee: A Guide for Beekeepers by V. R. Vickery. I have lots to learn, y’all. So dang much.
   The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall. Among all these titles, this is the one I can’t put down. Really looking forward to giving it a proper review soon. It’s a weird piece of modern fiction that changes perspective with every chapter. It has wildly fascinating characters, and I’m hooked against my will.
   And finally… The Rodale Herb Book. I am one-hundred percent infatuated with my little potagerie-style herb garden this year, and I am starving for more information and ideas of how to improve it. I dream big dreams for Lazy W herb production and propagation, and so, as with the bees, I have plenty to learn.

 

   So that’s it! What are you reading?
   Wishing all of our friends and loved ones, near and far, a spectacular week. The season is shifting. Prayers are being answered. Love reigns supreme.
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
-Lemony Snickett
XOXOXOXO

Senses Inventory: Moonglow

   At around 3 this morning I woke with a peculiar restlessness and decided to do some reading to train my thoughts and lull my body back to sleep. Tip-toeing past the west-facing hallway windows of our upstairs hallway, Moonglow stopped me in my tracks. It was spectacular and nearly brought me to tears. Happy, amazed tears. So before doing any reading, I stole down the carpeted stairs and slipped outside in my navy blue cotton kimono for a Senses Inventory.
See:
Startling silver light, this enchanted moon glow, washing over every shape in the farm. Stars as clear and glittering as they’ve ever been, arranged on that expansive black sky into secret patterns, coded messages about love and faith and promises. I definitely feel them looking at me in this private moment of reflection. Towering pine trees silhouetted in inky black against the sky, which is a deep grey there behind the forest, feathery and swirled before it turns the truest black for the stars. Shadows long and still, repeating the shapes of the basketball goal onto the driveway and a power pole onto the front lawn. I twist around toward our house, this place that has become such a wonderful refuge and oasis for us, and the big picture window is pouring out golden light, the only warmth of the scene. One lamp there burns like a thousand yellow candles. From there I look up, over the house and to the south, and see the distant moon. It is waning now, past its Harvest glory, and at this hour of night much smaller than how we saw it driving home, when it had loomed huge and heavy, and molten, over the hay meadows. The man in the moon grins. I notice the constellations again and marvel at the clarity of the sky.
Hear: 
Tree frogs singing. A screech owl calling out its hunger. Cheeps (baby chickens) twittering contentedly in that white Rose of Sharon bush. Crickets. So many beautiful, peaceful crickets. I can hear the interstate just a couple of miles away, and it’s easy to imagine the ocean instead. I hear a mysterious rattling in the drying canna stalks behind me and think I had better get inside soon. How many screech owls are there? Now the buffalo chuffs at me through the bright darkness, inquiring at my purpose at this strange hour. I blow him a kiss. The geese whimper, and I can pick out Mia’s voice among them.
Smell: 
I smell the smoky remnants of yesterday’s little bonfire. There is not even the slightest breeze, so I can smell the chill. The dirt, the grass, the air, the shrubs… Everything smells cold and fresh. Clean, expectant. I smell my husband on me, my own shampooed hair, and if I breathe deeply… A trace of skunk spray.
Touch:
Cold, rough concrete beneath my bare feet. A stray flower stalk there, too. The cold woven metal strips of the garden bench where I’m sitting and cool, smooth watermelons (temporary autumn decorations) to my left. So much cold, clean, refreshing air. Silver air. My cotton kimono is needed, and the generous sleeve openings allow in so much cold that the skin on my ribs and stomach seizes up slightly. I cross one leg over the other and feel another rushing chill.
Taste:
I taste almost nothing, just that sweet blankness of water. I’ve so far resisted the temptation of a midnight snack.
Think:
I think about how wonderful it would be to sleep outdoors in all of this intricate, saturated beauty. No bugs, even. I remember similar nights from the past, both special family camping trips and average bedtimes when I taught the girls to observe their sensations, thoughts, and feelings and release them into the night sky to get sleepy. We called it “Sparkling,” and it worked every time. I hear the oceanic interstate hum again and remember childhood in southeastern Oklahoma, and I wish to hear a train like then. I must learn more constellations. Thinking just lightly about marriage, friendships, romance. About how incredibly good and rich this life is. How loving people can be.
Feel:
After attending a wedding last night, and after soaking up this sensual midnight paradise, I feel deeply romantic. Swooning, even… Drunk on the details of the night. I miss my children of course; I do almost constantly. But for the first time in a very long time, I feel content and peaceful about that particular pain. I feel more joy for them than anything else as well as perfect, steady faith that everything is ok. I feel dangerously relaxed on this metal garden bench.
   My midnight reverie was brought to an abrupt end by some scampering, nervous noises in the flower bed. My eyes had grown heavy again, and  my spirit was light again. I used the last scrap of energy in my body to move back inside the house. Although every window had been open, allowing the night’s cold to visit our rooms, the front door threshold bathed me in warmth. I felt good and safe. Held. 

My Cup Overfloweth
XOXOXOXO

Missed Opportunity

   Our friend Marci required a little medical attention today, and I sat with her at the hospital. It was actually great fun (for me) chatting with her in a private room ahead of time, uninterrupted and easy, especially considering her truly fabulous wardrobe of a papery cotton tie-back gown and a blue hair net. I mean, she is usually decked out in adorable clothes, heels, great makeup and styled hair, and enviable “statement” type necklaces. This? Not normal. But the crazy thing is that she continued on with her normal confidence. LOL I tried so dang hard not to giggle. I can only hope to be this pretty while awaiting surgery, but still. So funny.

   Have you ever carried on a fairly weighty conversation with a friend while she is dressed this way? Hysterical. No matter the topic… I couldn’t take a single solitary word seriously. She was very animated, gesturing with her arms in all of their IV-riddled glory. She bobbed her hair-net head while relaying really serious-sounding general facts. In fact, I have no clue what we even discussed. But I do have two priceless cell phone photos of her in this memorable state.
   Anyway, when Marci was finally wheeled off for what turned out to be a VERY long surgery, she entrusted the care of her smart phone to me.
   Did you catch that? Not just a cell phone. Her smart phone. Her portal to the world as she knows it. In particular… Facebook.
   I know.
   In order to curb my obvious and understandable cravings to wreck Marci’s social media life while she rode the warm waves of anesthesia, I had to plug her phone in far across the room and distract myself with a new novel and a huge diet coke. It worked. 
   By the way, I just started The Lonely Polygamist and can’t put it down. Anyway.
   Time flew past, as did a luscious midday thunderstorm, and eventually Marci returned all sewn up and just as giggly and chatty as before surgery. (The anesthesia was still at high tide, for sure.) I texted her loved ones a message of success. I updated my Facebook status accordingly and realized OH NO!!! I TOTALLY FORGOT! Dang it. I sat with my regret over missing this rare opportunity and just watched sullenly as the slender piece of glass and metal technology changed hands from me back to her.
   A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Squandered for the sake of good manners.
   So I think I’ll now write all the things I wish I had done with Marci’s smartphone. Care to join me?
I should have posted that she was leaving the white collar world forever in pursuit of Etsy fame. Marci is a great painter and revels in creative activity. But she’s also a talented worker and fixture at the Commish. It could have caused turbulence.
I should have randomly chosen one of her Facebook friends and fastidiously “liked” and commented on every one of that person’s photos, comments, updates, etc. Every dang detail, for as long as I could stand it. Have you had someone do this to your Facebook? It’s funny. For like, a minute.
I should have sent friend requests on her behalf to a hundred random people, with private messages attached. The weirder the selection, the better.
Then unfriended actual friends, also with private messages attached. Ouch.
I should have “liked” a ton of inappropriate pages for her. Then commented publicly on them all. Especially lingerie models and such. Or known liberals.
I should have flooded her Facebook feed with disjointed haiku and bad song lyrics. And then asked her friends for advice on random life issues. 
I should have posted that she was abandoning Candy Crush Saga forever. But that would have been an OBVIOUS hack.

I should have done lots of liberal-politics supporting stuff. Especially gun control and unschooling.
I should have made fake status updates about the wrong appendage being fixed. That’s not NEARLY as bad as a pregnancy joke.
And finally… I REALLY should have posted that gown & hair net photo and made it her profile pic. You’re welcome, Marci.
   Have you ever been viciously hacked by a friend? What happened, and how mad were you? What would you LOVE to do as a prank to your friend’s Facebook?
  Rest up Marci. I know you’re hurting. I’ll be here if you need me but wishing desperately I’d taken this fun opportunity.
With friends like this…
XOXOXOXO




Today in First Grade

   I spent my Tuesday subbing in a local first grade classroom, and now, having cooked dinner and changed into yoga pants and a tank top, I have *just enough* energy left to share nine short stories. Thank goodness the animal chores and housework were super light today. It’s funny how I can work all day at the farm and not feel this particular level of exhaustion, even on six mile running days. There is nothing quite like twenty-four seven year olds to sap the marrow from your bones. I mean, they’re WONDERFUL and everything… But wow. 

   Okay. Nine little stories.

1.) A little boy in the hallway rushed up to me, examined me with curiosity, and said, “I like your hair. It’s kind of… Yellow.” He spoke these words with both conviction and authority. I wanted to say, “hey there buddy! According to L’oreal this is extra-light-ash-blonde! Not YELLOW.” But that seemed excessive. So I let it slide. Yellow it is.
2.)  At 8:35 this morning, a certain little girl asked whether it was lunchtime yet. When lunchtime finally rolled around, she was asking when do we get to go home. Poor baby. I wanted to give her hugs and protein and a vitamin. Then bake her cookies. And more hugs.
3.)  I had recess duty today, and this adorable little boy showed me his black-with-red-swoosh Nikes, explaining they were cheetah shoes. I paid him the appropriate amount of awe and admiration, then he spent the rest of recess running fast to prove the cheetah moniker. 
4.)  Also at recess, a fragile little girl watching a cartwheel exhibition caught a tennis shoe to the face. She cried so I held her. She climbed up into my lap and whimpered if I stopped rocking. So we rocked and whispered until she very nearly fell asleep. I didn’t want recess to ever end.
5.)  While holding my injured first grade angel, I noticed that at least half of the kids on the playground were playing a really aggressive and organized game of Zombies. By that, as surely you’ve already guessed, I mean that a bunch of kids were human and a bunch of kids were zombies. There was much chasing and fake (thank heavens) arm biting, and some incredible acting to indicate a change from human to zombie. I was impressed. Has the zombie craze gone too far? Who am I to judge?
6.)  Have you ever noticed that kids this age, at least some of them, need to be in physical contact with some other person at all times? 
7.)  Speaking of physical contact… At some point during the day, a couple of otherwise sweet and precious girls tried to give me a baby cricket. And I almost died. They couldn’t possibly know this, but I have a deep and paralyzing fear of jumpy things like frogs and crickets. Also cows, but that’s another story. NOT shrieking, fainting, or starting a fist fight with these two girls took more self control than I thought I had. So cheers to me. I came home and cuddled my buffalo for comfort.
8.)  Early in the day, I heard lots of “aww you’re the best sub EVER, Mrs. Reed! Will you come back and see us tomorrow??” Then as the hours ground away at our souls, it was more like, “oh man, you’re not gonna be here again tomorrow, ARE YOU… Mrs. Reed?” Ouch. And no.
9.)  Finally, to take the cake, my favorite heart warmer… A really cute little boy marched up to me with a crumpled sheet of paper and announced, “I’m gonna read this to you because I can read!!” Amen.
   So that was my Tuesday subbing first grade! I love the way these days widen my view of children, of people in general, and also how they bubble up my heart. I hope y’all had a great day too. I’m now curling up with a good book and some very, very hot salsa that SHOULD have won first prize at the state fair. See you on the flip side.
There are worse things than being yellow-headed.
XOXOXOXO