What's on your Cinco de Mayo menu? These easy enchiladas (that my husband loves, by the way) will definitely be making an appearance. Not only are they a perfect party food, they are also on my list of quick and easy meals.  

1 can of cream of chicken (my favorite is the organic stuff from Sprouts)

8 oz. of light sour cream

2 1/2 cups shredded chicken

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 4 oz. can of diced green chiles

Cooking oil

1 can of El Pato Mexican tomato sauce

Extra cheese for top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix first 5 ingredients in a bowl until combined.

Heat oil in a small frying pan, about one inch of oil. Fry tortillas for 20 seconds lightly on both sides. They should not be crispy. Salt lightly. 

Scoop a spoonful of mixture into the tortilla and roll up. Place in a 13x9 pan. 

Repeat for all tortillas or until the pan is full. Spread remaining mixture on top of the enchiladas. 

Pour about 1/2 can of El Pato on top of the enchiladas. Top with cheese.

Cook in oven for about 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Looking for something to celebrate? This week marks the 400th year anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, so why not throw him a party?! 

We tried out a Shakespeare reading with our book club, and it was so much fun. We passed out copies of scenes from All’s Well That Ends Well and King Lear and split up the parts. Everyone had a good laugh! The trick is to find a very funny scene or a very dramatic scene to read. It might sound a little odd, but with a group of friends, a dramatic reading makes for a great time.

We also had a full menu of scrumptious tavern foods. Recipes on these to come soon! 

The Menu

Chicken Vegetable Stew

Mini Mac and Cheese Pies

Spiced Beef Sandwiches

Cranberry Orange Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

Peach Oven Cobbler

The Decor

Pic of Shakespeare hanging as focal point (can make this traditional or retro. We went with retro—Shakespeare with the pink glasses)

Shot glasses in fun colors for toasts to Shakespeare

Shakespeare quotes in frames

Candles 

The Scripts
We read the final scene from All's Well That Ends Well because it has many parts and there is a lot of confusion, resulting in a lot of back and forth from characters. We also read Act 4 Scene 3 of King Lear,  a scene that really highlights Lear's madness and the Fool's silliness. Another fun play that has lots of parts is A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I recommend adding a scene from that to the mix!  

Let me tell you a story of a time when my husband and I expected maybe three people to show up to our house for Sunday morning conference breakfast, and about twelve came. That’s actually the whole story, really, I just had to work really fast to make more food than I thought, but it turned out just fine. More than fine, because I love my house being full of friends. I made mini pannenkoeken (also known as Dutch babies or German pancakes) with an array of toppings. Delish! 

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted

Mix first five ingredients until smooth.

Pour about 1 tablespoon of melted butter into each jumbo muffin tin slot.

Fill each jumbo muffin slot until about 1/3 or 1/2 full with batter.

Cook for about 10-15 minutes until done. 

Yields 18-24 mini german pancakes. 

Party notes: 

I can eat about 2 of these, but my husband’s hungry man friends ate maybe 5-6 each. 

Definitely use a jumbo muffin tin. I tried in a smaller muffin tin, and those turned out so weird.

You can put basically anything in these little babies. My favorite topping combination was bananas, blackberries, and boysenberry syrup.  

I combined a few recipes to achieve this perfectly delightful flatbread, which made its debut at my friend McKenzie’s baby shower. Easy, unique, and super tasty, my three requirements for party recipes :)

Foxy's Gorgonzola Pear Flatbreads

Recipe makes: 4 flatbreads

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

4 small pieces of flatbread or naan bread (I used the Stonefire naan from Costco)

2-3 pears

1/2 cup of walnuts

3/4 cup of gorgonzola cheese

A couple handfuls of spinach

Splash of balsamic vinegar

Splash of olive oil

 Party Notes:

 These went about one or two per person. 

My little brother getting married was one of the sweetest experiences. I love love!! The wedding was bohemian themed, so we took cues from that, along with some inspiration from spring and the evening nature of the event. Jared and Zoe getting married provided us with the perfect celebrity couple name: JZ. Here are some photos of the JZ wedding!


For the centerpieces, my parents went on another wood crafting adventure. They found some abandoned dead tree trunks and cut the circles for the wood stands. Aren’t they adorable? Then we hand picked the flowers for the blue mason jars, added a lantern and a small photo, and the result was these woodsy spring evening centerpieces. We hand burned the wood hearts. Tutorial on that to come! 

It was a great evening celebrating two people I love very, very much! 

And of course, some photos with my new sister!