Creamy Chicken Enchiladas and Tres Leches Cake: Recipes Everyone Wants

      In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I made Mexican tonight, topped off by a delicious dessert - Tres Leches (3 milks) cake.



The main course of Creamy Chicken Enchiladas has become one of our favorites.  I got the recipe from my dear friend, Courtney and have made it many times since then.  Here's what you need.

1 tsp butter
1 can Rotel tomatoes and green chiles, drained
1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese cut and softened
2 C cooked chicken
8 - 8 inch flour tortillas
2 C Monterey jack cheese shredded
1 pint whipping cream



Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease a 9x13 pan.  Melt butter in a pan over medium heat.  Add rotel and saute 1 minute.



Stir in cream cheese and chicken and cook, stirring constantly until cream cheese melts.  (I must admit that I did not stir constantly, and still had good results.  Just saying.)



Spoon 2-3 TBS of chicken mixture down the center of the tortilla and roll up, placing the seam side down.




Sprinkle with cheese and drizzle with whipping cream.




Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Take foil off and cook for another 15 minutes until the top is golden.  Enjoy the Mexican goodness.




Now for the cake recipe - also from Courtney.  Tres Leches Cake - one of John's all time favorite desserts.  Here's what you need, sorry, no pic.

Cake:
6 large egg whites
1/2 C sugar
6 large egg yolks
1 C all purpose flour

Cream:
1 (14 oz) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 C heavy whipping cream
2/3 C (5 oz can) Evaporated Milk
1/4 C Brandy (I used Rum, because that is what I had on hand)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Toppint:
1 C heavy whipping cream
2 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For Cake:  Preheat oven to 375°.  Grease and flour 9 inch springform pan.



Separate eggs into two different mixing bowls.



Beat egg whites and 1/4 C of the sugar until stiff peaks form.




Combine egg yolks and remaining sugar and beat until it is light yellow in color.



Fold egg yolk mixture and flour alternately into the egg white mixture.




Pour into prepared pan and bake for 15-20 minutes or just until golden and wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.




Mix the sweetened condensed milk, heavy whipping cream, evaporated milk, brandy and vanilla extract in a medium bowl and stir well.  Prick the top of the cake thoroughly with a toothpick (I even used a fork for extra holes.)



Pour 2 C of cream over the cake.  (The recipe makes about 4 C of cream - I saved half of mine for the next time I make Tres Leches.)




Let stand for 30 minutes, or until the cake absorbs cream.  Remove the side of the pan.  (This is how my cake looked when I was done pouring the cream, and it was absorbed in about 15 minutes.)



For the whipped cream topping - beat cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a small mixer bowl until stiff peaks form.  Spread over top and sides of cake.  So delicious!



I served fresh guacamole and Black Bean and Corn Salad with the meal to round it out with a little freshness.  Today is Cinco de Mayo, but I would eat this any day of the year.  Here is what my sweet girlies were up to while I was cooking.  I love how much they love each other (and that they are starting to truly entertain one another now!).

Our House: Lily's Room

      Continuing our little home tour, here's Lily's room!  Several things became the inspiration for this bright space.  I saw some curtains at Cynthia East here in Little Rock done by a brand called Karma Living, which I quickly realized is not available online.  But, I loved the bright colors, and a couple of stores in town carried some of their stuff.  And I fell in love with the Indian Patch Work quilt bedding from Land of Nod, so it all sort of stemmed from those things.  The final product is an upbeat, original room for our little upbeat, original girl - and it will eventually be shared by both girls.  I already knew we were having another girl while putting this room together.




The curtains are by Karma Living purchased at Cynthia East, and once I had them, I thought a nice complement would be bright teal paint.  I really did have to sell this one to John, and, while he is glad he does not have to live in this room, he likes it for Lily.  I wanted to stencil a border that would look similar to a sari.  After scouring stencil sites online, I found the stencil from this site that happens to be in the UK.  (This has led to much joking from John that the best stencils can only be found overseas.)  I didn't realize it, but it turned out to be a double layer stencil, which means I stenciled one layer of cream and after that was dry, I stenciled a smaller stencil of accent gold over it.  It took a little more time than I imagined it would, but I like the way it turned out.  The little seat is also done by Karma Living, and I found it at Kid's Furniture here in the Rock.  The gorgeous quilt was made especially for the room by my super talented sister.  It is perfect!  That orange chair in the corner was originally my grandfather's, though my brother has had it for years and gifted it to me.




I made a magnetic wall by painting magnetic paint in a taped off area, and then going over it with paint a shade darker than the rest of the room.  I trimmed it out with part of the stencil that I used around the top of the room.  I had little squares left-over from a clock that was from Pier 1 years ago, and I used them in several places throughout the room.  The magnetic paint is not nearly as strong as I would want it to be, but it will hold some fun stuff and Lily loves playing with the letters of her name.  Above the cabinet, I covered large photo frames that I got on clearance from Hobby Lobby with Indian print paper that I ordered from Paper Source.  I wrote verses inside of them that all have to do with our hearts.  I made a giant stencil using poster board to mimic what was in the stencil to get a little more of that pop at eye level.




The bow-holder (a necessity) was made using a cream colored frame that I had on hand already.  I added some gold accents to it and glued some more of the little squares onto the corners.  I hot glued orange and pink ribbon across it on the inside of the frame to actually put the bows onto.  It works great, because then they are set of the wall a bit, making it easier to grab bows in a hurry.




I wanted there to be a little "reading nook" in the room, which is where the pouf ended up with the book shelf and the rag rug.  It makes it easy to take books in and out.  The elephant hook-thing came from super clearance at Hobby Lobby, and I recovered it with more Indian paper from Paper Source.  The baskets in the cabinet are all from Land of Nod, with more squares glued onto them.  Lily loves to rearrange these regularly.  I took all of these pictures while she was at Mother's Day Out.




I did the monogram painting above the bed for Lily's nursery in our old house, and it still works in this room, though they are decorated vastly differently.  We had a specific thing in our mind for the beds - we wanted a full size bed on the bottom that came out at an L-shape with a twin on top.  Because we have no family that lives in town, we knew we would sometimes sleep couples in here, and it has worked great, especially since the bottom bed is on wheels and rolls out.





I know an "Indian" themed little girl room is not for everyone, but we like the way it turned out.  And Lily loves her "big-girl bed."



If you want to see the other posts I have done about our house, click here. Thanks for stopping by!

Project: Giving New Life to an Old Pillow

      Thanks for all the kind feedback about my post yesterday - I really appreciated it.  Switching gears entirely, today's topic is pillow-making: my new addiction.  John and I have amassed quite a collection of pillows over the years as we have moved and changed decor.  It feels wasteful to keep buying new throw pillows, especially when I can sew.  So, I decided it was time to recycle some old pillows.  This one is for the craft room, which is in the final stages of being decorated and organized (and will probably be revealed next week).



This project is really simple and will only take about an hour to complete without interruption (which never happens at my house, but I love my little interruptions, so it is okay).  If you can sew a straight line, you can make a box pillow like this one - you could get your own stuffing and fill it up if you don't have a ton of old pillows sitting around.  I started with a pillow that had been in our bedroom in our very first apartment many moons ago.



I ripped the seams of the pillow and took out the stuffing so that I had both separated.




      I cut my fabric to be the same size and shape as the original pillow case.  (sorry, no pic)  I tried to figure out how the original had been sewn and copy it, so that it would match the stuffing that I already had.  I bought an extra curtain panel, because I liked the fabric on it so much, and I wanted it to match the curtains.
      Take the corner and fold it over itself, with the front of the fabric on the inside.  (I did it wrong the first time.)  It will make a point.



Sew a straight line across the fold, about 1 1/2 inches down.  I didn't take a picture, so I decided to show you what I mean.  Repeat this on all four corners of your fabric.



Then, lay your fabric onto your work surface, finding the middle.  Fold the fabric to form a triangle with the point being at the middle.  Then, pull a little more of it over to create a seam allowance in the middle.



Sew straight across the triangle, about 1 1/2 inches down, just like the other corners.  Hold the seam down so that it is sewn closed.



The left picture shows what it should look like when you are done sewing it.  Do this to both sides of the pillow.  So, at this point, all of your corners should be sewn into little triangles, and both sides should have a triangle sewn across the middles.  Now, it is time to start sewing the sides together.  Gather the seam that you sewed over itself on the side of the pillow - shown in the right image.



Sew all the way down to the triangle at the other corner, closing the side.  I used a seam allowance of about 1/2 and inch.



Now, it is time to sew up the last side part of the way.  I just started from a little past where the corner was sewn and stitched about 3 inches in from both sides.



Turn the pillow so that it is no longer inside out.  Once I was finished, it left me with a pillow shell ready to be stuffed.



Which I happily did, and then pinned the rest of it shut, putting the seams on the inside pinched together.



Then, sew across the pin line, and the pillow will be sealed forever.



I liked the pillow like this, but since the old pillow had been sewn together in the middle, I thought I might give that a try.



So, I picked a spot on the pattern of the fabric that seemed to make sense to me, and I hand sewed it to itself.  I thought this would give it just a little more interest.



And I liked the finished product so much that I made two of them.  (And, I had two of the old pillows to use up!)  If you have any questions about this, please let me know - I would be happy to help you recreate your own pillows.  Now that I realize just how easy it is, I can see it possibly becoming a slight obsession.  I ♥ pillow-making.

REMEMBERING MY DAD

      Eight years ago today, my father went home to be with Jesus.  He lost the fight with pancreatic cancer that he had been fighting for two years, and it was a crushing moment to realize that he was physically gone from my little world forever.  He was absolutely the best dad imaginable, and I am eternally grateful to have had a father that made loving my heavenly father that much easier for the example that he was.  He was kind and funny, but more importantly, godly, and I still have people come up to me and comment on what an impact he made in their life by who he was.  He loved my mother more than anyone in the world, and their marriage painted a beautiful picture for me of how to put one another first and raise a family to honor the Lord.
      It was the week before I graduated from college.  I guess it is an understatement to say that my life was changed forever.  I now understand that God does not work the way that we sometimes may want him to, but that does not make him any less good.  He is loving and gracious always, though we may not be able to fathom the "whys" of the ways he works.  I am infinitely more compassionate after having suffered grief of my own - a quality that will serve me well in a world that is hard and full of hurts.
      John was actually there at the house with my family, even though we weren't "officially" dating yet.  Having John walk that long and painful road with me helped me know that he was the man I should marry.  He was just so gracious and wonderful to have around - still is for that matter.  I am so thankful that he was able to meet my father, since he is the only spouse in our family who had that privilege.
      Though the pain of the loss has decreased significantly in the intermittent eight years, I will always miss my dad.  I miss him in all the important moments - marriage, having children, getting jobs and houses.  But, I also miss just being able to call him and get his wisdom in my life.  And, he would have loved being a grandfather to my sweet girls.  I mean LOVED it.  It is hard to lose all that love - it just leaves a void.
      But, what I can say, is that God has been gracious to fill in the gaps.  He has provided in amazing ways for things that each of us has needed.  This upcoming month we get to celebrate my mother's marriage to a new, wonderful man - what a blessing.  And, God has brought each of us kids a spouse that loves the Lord and people in our lives that are wise and loving.  For that I am sincerely thankful and humbled.  And, I so look forward to the day when we are reunited with him in eternity in the place where there are no more tears.  What a hope we have in Jesus.

miss you, dad.