Triplet Watch 7/7/09

Nicole is carrying as if she is 42 weeks. In reality she's 31 weeks. Doctor says "any day now" and gave her her first steroid shots to help develop the babies' lungs. That's all I know for now. Here's her at 28 weeks, posing for the camera at her June 14th baby shower. Nothing there to scale, but she's only 5'1".

Think I'll Go Eat Worms

Despite the fact that the cheese in the enchilada photos looks like little orange and white worms (oh gross) , thank you for letting your mouth water down your front, Mom :) I think we could write a fabulous cookbook, as long as we improve on the food styling.

No new news about the triplets.

When I'm not cooking, or knitting, or at work, or watching Rescue Me, I'm making jewelry. So far: a brooch, a ring, three pairs of earrings, and a bracelet and three pendants in progress. The bracelet...has been challenging. I guess it's my lot in life to embark on a project so far outside my league. It applies to work (that story is for another post) and jewelry. On the other hand, "it's a great learning opportunity." Harumph.

For the record, I'm not a project manager, as in: I hate doing project management. Which doesn't mean I don't like working on projects. Don't confuse that with outlining the steps of a small crafty project. And in the realm of jewelry projects, this is kind of detailed. But there's no comparison. The latter (outlining steps for a small crafty project) is infinitely more palatable. And you know what? People make assumptions. "Oh, you can do that? You must be a really good project manager. Hey, here's one for you..." Buyer beware! Don't let them label you as a "project manager" no matter how thrilling it might sound, or how much more money you might make.

But I digress. And I'll probably just lift that entire paragraph as the lead to my rant post about project management. But that's Not This Post.



This is the bracelet. 10 stations for 5 stones and 5 mixed media resin pieces, one box station, and one box clasp. 12 hinge pins for 12 hinges comprised of 36 independently soldered tubes. Yes, you are supposed to say "holy shit!" to the business about the tubes. Was it a pain in the ass? Most definitely. Would I do it differently? Probably not, but I'd use different fire. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last summer I picked up a back issue of Jewelry Artist magazine. I ordered it because on the cover was the most beautiful hinged bracelet. Over and above the fact that I thought the construction and choice of colorful quartz was gorgeous, I'm a sucker for hinges in jewelry. Hinges provide nifty kinetic opportunities. Hinges are also impressive, but that wasn't a driver. They are just cool. Like jazz. Cool. Dig?

So I says "Hey, Barbara." Barbara, wonderful Barbara, is my silver jewelry master/guide/yogi/instructor/mentor. "I want to make something like this."

Barbara says, "Okay." Silly Barbara.

I have three square pieces of some kind of jasper Kent brought back from MIT. Two pieces of rectangular apatite that I picked up at a local bead store. Visions of interesting resin-with-embedded-pieces dancing in my head, a la found object art. Some wood bits with polka dots in a color that goes with the jasper and apatite.

There is lively and repeated discussion in the Ganoksin forums about whether to design around a stone, or design around an idea. My personal opinion is that...it depends. In my limited experience as a jewelry designer (dare I call myself that? so presumptuous!) I've done both. The bracelet was designed around an idea, and I refined it based on what I had in my stone collection. The brooch was designed around an idea, and I found The pearl earrings were about trying a technique, the "messy bulky wrapped loop," technique, and then I chose the stones. The chandelier earrings were designed around the red beads in a beading class. A pendant was designed around two stones that look good together. Another pendant was designed for some extra pieces of silver I had lying around and a nearby stone that looked like it belonged, although it began with a circle of square wire that was waiting for a purpose. Another pendant was designed to experiment setting stick pearls. but you could make an argument that I designed around the stones and mixed media because I didn't formally draft the design until I had those in the right order. Hmph.

In other words, the chicken and the egg mysteriously occur ed simultaneously and any attempt to determine which came first just takes all the fun out of it. There is something to be said for those who enjoy the debate. Kent.

1. Gathering the requirements/technical specifications, in which our hero measures her wrist, the stones, determines which tube thickness looks best, and what type of clasp will be used.
2. High level design (HLD), in which we make a pencil drawing using the specifications and ask the all important question: does it work? does it look good? are the pieces in a pleasing order, and answer the question: are you sure you want the bracelet to be this long? (Answer: yes, I like my bracelets loose, and it matches the length of another favorite bracelet.)
   
3. Low level design (LDL), in which we figure out how much silver we need, how tall the bezels should be, does Barbara have right sized tubing or do I need to purchase from Rio Grande, what gauge to use for the bezel backs, gauge for the hinge pins, how to approach the actual build, and again answer the question: do you want the bracelet this long? It seems really long. (Answer: my wrists are big and I like my bracelets loose. It matches the length of another favorite bracelet.)
4. Build, in which our hero begins the tedious process of measuring, sawing, soldering, resoldering, resoldering, fussing with her creme brulee torch (and which we eventually discover is completely inadequate for this kind of fine detail work).

Build is taking a looooong time, because every time I get to the stage where I am doing the rough polish I have to boomerang back to build because a hinge snapped. Over and over and over and over. And I stopped doing some of the work at home because I got busy with other things and unenergized about the whole thing.

Then I got energized again, and it broke. During the build stage, The Bracelet has popped apart many times. A bezel popped off when I started setting the first stone. Ah the joys of learning to make complicated jewelry. It doesn't LOOK like it should be complicated. Stations and hinges and a clasp. What's the big deal?

En-chee-laaaa-das

This was an awful week in the world of Me. Primarily work-awful, but allergy/sinus infection/head cold awful, too. But instead of spending my time venting, I thought instead I'd share my Enchilada recipe, and along the way maybe some of the vent will...vent.

Triplet update: All is well, all is normal. Nicole is cranky, Nick is excited, I'm bored knitting baby things after only three little hats and three sockies. End of July is the expectated due date. The babies are fraternal, not identical, and one of the girls has Mom's name as her middle name.

Red Chicken Enchiladas
This is a medium-hot to hot enchilada dish. You can make it more or less spicy by adjusting the mix of enchilada sauce and adding or eliminating jalapenos. A little chipotle sauce sprinkled on top of the sour cream when you serve adds an interesting smokey note. We use Búfalo Chipotle.


This recipe began almost 19 years ago, right after Kent and I were married. We had gobs of leftover champagne from the wedding, and we were in the mood for Mexican...enchiladas, specifically. We boiled chicken breasts in champagne and allspice, and used that in the enchiladas. The recipe hasn't changed much since then, but it is really based on a recipe I received from my mom for white chicken enchiladas. I don't think this bears much resemblance to her original recipe, or if she even remembers it, but I speak the truth. I seam to recall thinking "roux? eewwww, I think I'll just substitute red enchilada sauce." Mom will deny all of it. She now has a wonderful enchilada recipe from my brother which is similar in spirit if not in specifics to mine. We both created our recipes independently of one another. Must be genetic.

We buy a better champagne these days and prefer to drink it rather than use it to boil chicken. Although if it goes flat...

• 3 or 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, boiled, baked, or somehow cooked, your choice.
  (or one of those deli-rotisseried chickens)
  (or deli-rotisseried turkey)
  (or leftover baked chicken)
  (or a combination of any of the above)
  *the pictures show the turkey option
• 1 cereal bowl of shredded white cheese
  Think monterey jack or Oaxaca quesadilla cheese. Mozzarella is a little too rubbery and mild for this. The Oaxaca is a little saltier than mozzarella, and shreds beautifully, and jack is a good old stand-by. Pepper jack would be interesting.
• 1 cereal bowl of shredded cheddar - we use our store-brand sharp cheddar
  If you want really cheesy, double these amounts
• 1 cereal bowl of chopped not-green bell peppers
• 3 fresh green onions, chopped (or one small onion, chopped and sauteed)
• 2 or 3 fresh jalapeno peppers, finely diced
• 2 10-oz can regular/mild enchilada sauce
• 2 10-oz can hot enchilada sauce
• 1 pack of a 12 to 20 medium-sized flour tortillas
  not the super-ginormous ones, you know what I'm talking about.
• Sour cream, salsa, and more chopped green onions as toppings
  
  
• One 13x9 glass baking dish and, possibly, one 9x9 glass baking dish.
  The tortillas fit perfectly side by side like little soldiers in the Pyrex dishes. Whether you use one or two depends on how much meat you have. A rotisseried turkey yeilded enough for one 13x9 pan of enchiladas. You'd probably need two rotisseried chickens (they're pretty puny, yes?). With four chicken breasts, we always used the 13x9 plus the 9x9.
  

Get your chicken cooked up, removed from it's bones, shredded or chopped, whichever is appropriate. I like chopped because I get a cleaner bite when I stick my fork into the cooked enchilada. If you don't like getting shredded poultry in your teeth, go with chopped. If you really dig the acting of using two forks to shred up the bird (and I know those who do), then knock yourself out! Put the chopped or shredded chicken into a large bowl.


Chop up your bell peppers, onion (we used sauteed white onion in this photo), and jalapeno, and dump it all into the bowl with the chicken. Shred the cheeses and put most of that into the bowl. Reserve a large handful of mixed cheeses to sprinkle over the top. If you are using green onions, reserve a couple tablespoons of that to sprinkle over the top, too.

Everything should be in your big bowl, so use your hands or a big wooden spoon or some implement and fold the ingredients together so everything appears to be well distributed. This is now called The Filling.

Open the cans of enchilada sauce and mix them together. I use a 4-cup glass measure because it has a spout. Lightly oil the glass baking dish(es) (yes, Pam and it's type work fine) and pour a just enough sauce in to coat. Tilt the pan around so the sauce clings to the bottom and sides. It helps extract the enchiladas when it's time to serve.

Stir a little enchilada sauce, say no more than 1/2 cup, into the big bowl of The Filling. Hands, big spoon, tossing in the air (dangerous but also effective), whatever stirring method floats your boat. The purpose of the sauce in The Filling is to bind it together some while you are getting it into the tortilla.

Remove the flour tortillas and heat them.

There are several different ways to heat up these tortillas. The objective is to soften them so they don't crack when you roll 'em around the filling. My favorite way, time consuming though it is, is to cook them over a flame. No pan needed. This works best with a gas burner, and you just gently and slowly flip the tortillas back and forth over the flame. It cooks the floury taste out and warms them up nicely. These don't need to be COOKED and charred up, just warmed. Don't go nuts. However, the fast trick is to wrap the stack of tortillas in a barely damp towel, and zap them for a minute (on high) in the microwave. Or wrap them in aluminum foil and keep them warm in the oven. It isn't as culinarily romantic but it's effective. My heart thinks the stove-top cooked ones taste better but I'm probably wrong. Warning: don't do this with an electric stove top or a glass/ceramic/smooth-top stove top. You have to have the heat up a little higher to achieve the same end and they are likely to stick if you aren't careful. Trust me on this. And anyway it's still just not the same.

Okay. Now you have warmed your tortillas in some wonderful romantic or wonderfully efficient way, and you need to set up a little assembly line. I go from right to left: bowl of The Filling, my stack of tortillas, my empty pan(s), and a big spoon.


Take off your jewelry, this can be messy. I like to use one of those big soup spoons, or a small serving spoon to do this. Scoop a couple of spoons of filling into the center of the tortilla. Carefully roll up the tortilla and place it seam-side-down into the baking pan. Keep doing this until the pan is full. If you have extra tortillas and extra filling, use the 9x9 dish.
**If you have leftover tortillas but no leftover filling, save them for quesadillas or make your own chips.
**If you have extra filling but no extra tortillas, this stuff is great on these grilled nachos. I give them 5 stars.

All the tortillas are panned up; pour the remainder of your sauce over them to coat. Use a spoon to spread it around. The edges of the tortillas need to be coated or they get hard and crunchy. Unless you like that :) Live dangerously. Sprinkle the reserved cheese and green onions over the top.

< Kent's two cents worth.


Bake in a 350°F oven for 30 minutes, or until the top is nice and bubbly and the enchiladas are heated through. Remove and let rest for five minutes or so while you get out condiments.

Enchiladas, cooked, having a rest >

I recommend sour cream, a fresh chunky salsa, maybe a few more green onions. Black olives are tasty, too.

Yum!