Dinner Party with Friends

Late September I had a fun get together with a small group of friends. It was fun, entertaining and great night! I made for the first time Rum Punch (with help from Dorota) and tried out some new canapes with help from Kyle.

I wish I had more time to have more intimate get togethers. I'll let the photos tell the story.

A little bit of prep beforehand!

I had a tray full of fruit, veggies and kalamata olives!

Aunt Wendy's pretzel dip was a HIT!

A lot of fun conversations and mingling going on!

Dorota and Pablo

Pablo and Alberto

Vanessa and Dorota - hanging out!

Marisol & I

Sean and I

Ruben and Andrea

Stewart and I

It was a great evening and I had so much fun pulling it all together for everyone to enjoy! Hope you enjoy the blog as much as I had fun showing you the story in photos! Thank you for everyone that came! Hope to do it again soon!!!

Here's a little video coverage:

Family Enchilada Night

Enchilada night at Michelada's house!! I had some really special guests over tonight. We had scrumptious chicken Chile enchiladas and homemade apple crisp for dessert. Oh..and Sophia threw in some dancing entertainment as well!!!


Picture of the loving family that accompanied Luna & I for dinner!



Here is how the finished Enchiladas turned out! Sooo..absolutely yummy!

And while Kristin, Pablo & I were resting our bellies..Sophia put on a beautiful interpretive dance for us to enjoy. Which I caught on video!! Isn't she just absolutely adorable. Just two seconds before she was jumping around to faster music and then a slow song came on and she gave us this interpretive dance. Either Dancing With The Stars or So You Think You Can Dance is in this toddlers future!! :) Take note of her passion and pure crazziness. If you pay close attention, you'll see the water gushing out of the drainage pipes in the background. Hop on over to The Dazzling Details to check out what we are doing to help the families in need due to the tremendous amount of rain we are getting here lately.

Michelle's Famous Enchiladas

Ok..this blog post goes out and is dedicated to my beautiful cousins Kristin & Pam! You both have wanted my version of the recipe and this time I took time to document my process with photos.

First - the recipe!! I found 3 1/2 years ago and have re-vamped with my own flair mainly because I can't eat RED tomatoes and I've never seen prepared enchilada sauce here in PV. :)
The recipe can be found on Betty Crocker Website.

Ingredients that I use and what you'll need:

• 1 box Dona Chonita Tomatillo Broth
• 1 box Del Monte Salsa Verde
• 1 block Monterrey Jack Cheese
• Package of Tortillas (I don't like the burrito size, I think they are too big)
• 1 container of sour cream
• 1 can of chilies
• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 onion chopped
• chicken seasoning and 1/2 block or cube of bouillon

1st thing I do is poach the chicken breasts. I add about a teaspoon of chicken seasoning and 1/2 block of bouillon to the boiling water. Let them cool and dice into bite size pieces.

Then I shred the cheese. The recipe calls for a lot of cheese, but I've found that 1 block of your preference cheese is fine. I prefer Monterrey Jack over Cheddar, but again this is a personal preference.

Next, I like to add a little onion to the enchiladas, but again this is just a personal preference because I'm a HUGE ONION FREAK! I chop a 1/4 onion, add the chicken, about 3/4 of the cheese, sour cream (per recipe), chilies and about 1/4 cup of the tomatillo broth. I usually add some extra chicken seasoning and pepper to the filling mixture because I find sometimes it's just a little bland.

***NOTE: If preparing this in Mexico, DO NOT dump the entire can of chilies in. Chilies are much different here than in the US!! I made that mistake already. If preparing this in Mexico, I add about 3 tablespoons of chilies with a little of the juice from the can.***

Spread about 1/4-1/2 box of the tomatillo broth in the bottom of your greased 9x13 pan. Now, comes the FUN PART - filling and rolling the tortillas. I do follow the recipe here and place about a 1/3 cup of filling into each tortilla.

Continue filling and rolling your tortillas until you have filled your pan. After I have all of them in the pan, I usually sprinkle on a few extra chilies just to add a little more heat.

*** Note: This pan was made for youngsters as well. The two enchiladas on the side were made without chilies, etc.***

Next, pour the remaining tomatillo broth and the entire box of salsa verde over the top of the enchiladas and sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese on top.

Next, I follow the rest of the recipe as directed. Spray sheet of foil with cooking spray; cover baking dish foil sprayed side down.

Bake 35 minutes. Remove foil; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until hot and cheese is melted.

I do have on hand to garnish - sliced green onions, chopped avocado and extra sour cream. I HIGHLY recommend the green onions and avocado. It just adds something YUMMY!!

I've made this the night before and it takes a little bit longer to bake because everything is cold, but it works and tastes FANTASTIC!! I have yet to freeze it.

Enjoy my lovelies!!

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the FINAL PRODUCT and the dessert! I'm having guests for dinner tomorrow that have specifically requested this dish! :)

Luna being Luna

Tonight folks while Luna is recuperating, I'll post a video of a couple days ago when we were playing around.

Luna is recovering comfortably and I am praying for a speedy recovery.

I shot this video on Sunday evening. She goes nuts when I ask her if she wants a treat. It's absolutely adorable. Please excuse my laundry hanging all over. I don't have a line to hang clothes on, so my kitchen, dining and utility areas are my clothes lines. :)

Enjoy the video:

Here are some photos that I captured today with her bandages and all. I put her on my bed because I had to get her bed ready and she doesn't want to move and I've decided to just let her be.

LUNA Dedication Post

Before you all go ballistic on me, don't freak out that I haven't been blogging lately. But today's post is going to be all dedicated to my sweet baby Luna. A few weeks ago she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. Well..we noticed that she was having difficulty when I returned from vacation and the diagnosis went on for a while and finally after an x-ray it was determined that she had Hip Dysplasia. After a couple of weeks of thinking about my options, I have decided to move forward with her surgery. She will go into surgery on Tuesday, September 7th.

What exactly is Hip Dyslpasia you ask? When a dog has dysplasia, it has an abnormal development of the ball-in-socket join that makes up the hip. In a dysplasic hip, the ball (the head of the femur, or thighbone) and the socket (the acetabulum, a portion of the pelvis), do not fit together snugly. The result is a painful and damaging friction. When a dog bears its weight on the joint, the friction strains the joint capsule, which is a fibrous tissue that surrounds the joint and produces joint fluid. The straining then damages the cartilage and leads to the release of inflammatory proteins within the joint. Thus begins the cycle of cartilage destruction, inflammation, and pain the symptoms we associate with arthritis.

At this point, Luna has no cartilage left and is basically looks to me a dis-located hip. I can definitely see now how painful it is getting for her within the past few weeks. She's been a real trooper through this and sometimes the way she acts jumping around, mainly when we are going out, then it makes me wonder.

So..for today I'm posting just about Luna and hoping that everyone reading this blog will keep Luna in their thoughts and prayers on Tuesday. Oh..and a little thought for me will be appreciated too because I know I will most likely be an emotional mess on Tuesday as well. :)

So...Here we go with just a few pictures of my sweet little baby!!

Adoption Day (May 14, 2009):

1st Summer away from her for Vacation (July 2009):

This April during our CRAZY Spring - She was literally another Member of our Team.

One of her favorite Spots - outside on the patio.

Take a few weeks ago - hangin out with Joe, Camila & I at the office.

Another one of her favorite spots - my area rug. Lately (obviously because of the heat), I've caught her laying around like this. TOOO FUNNY!

One morning when I got up for work - I headed back into my room to make my bed and she had curled up. How can I be mad at a face like that!! Gosh I love her sooo much!!!

Last Summer 2009:

1st Birthday:

Last Summer - September 2009:

Luna being adorable:

Look at how little she was!

That's my walk down the Luna memory Lane. Love to you all!!!