Lately I’ve been craving enchiladas, but without all the cheesey goodness. I’ve already given in to the temptations of Don’s Donuts several times in the last few weeks, so a classic plate of cheese ‘n’ red sauce isn’t exactly what my belly needs at the moment.

Flipping through my cookbooks I remembered some recent trip home where Sue had made the very ambitious Whole Enchilada Casserole from VWFC. I remember it being very time consuming– so much that the authors recommend you make some of the ingredients the day before!

Well, I wanted none of that, not to mention how expensive it is if you follow the recipe to a ‘T.’ So, naturally, I did some modifying and came up with my own version! I will go ahead and say that, despite cutting down on a lot of the work, it’s still a very time consuming recipe to make. Totally worth it, though!

Ingredients
12 large Corn Tortillas
1 can Minced olives
1 can Enchilada sauce
Oil, for frying

Ingredients (Filling)
1 medium White onion, chopped
1 Green bell pepper, chopped
1 Jalapeno, seeded and minced
10 oz. Extra firm tofu, crumbled
1 1/2 cups Refrigerated salsa
1 can Black beans, drained
1 can Refried beans
3 Tbl Tahini
2 1/2 Tbl Soy sauce
1 Tbl Nutritional yeast
1 1/2 tsp. Chili powder
1 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Red pepper flakes
Cilantro, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste

Ingredients (Nut Cheez)
2 cups Cashews
1 cup Water
1 Red bell pepper, chopped
2 Scallions, chopped
1 tsp Soy sauce
Cilantro, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste

Directions
- Prepare the nut cheez by combining the cashews and water in a food processor and blending until extremely smooth. Let sit in a warm place, covered, over night or for several hours. I let it sit in the oven at 170 degrees while I prepared the rest of the meal. Then, place it in a small mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients.

- For the filling: place a small amount of oil, onion, green bell pepper, jalapeno and garlic powder in a medium skillet and saute for 5-8 minutes. Add crumbled tofu and saute for another 10 or so minutes, until the tofu begins to brown a bit.

- In a medium sized pot, heat refried beans over medium-low heat. Slowly add the rest of the filling ingredients, stirring as you go along. Finally, add the tofu mixture. Remove from heat and set aside.

- In a lightly oiled 9×13″ casserole dish, layer 4 corn tortillas so that they cover as much of the surface as possible. Generously spread enchilada sauce over them with a ladle or other large spoon. Spread half the nut cheez over the the top, and then half the filling. Repeat these steps by laying down another 4 corn tortillas, enchilada sauce, the rest of the nut cheez and then the rest of the filling. Lay down the last 4 corn tortillas and yet another serving of enchilada sauce.

- Lastly, top the dish with minced olives and cover with aluminum foil. In a preheated oven set to 350 F, cook for 15 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and cook for another 20. Allow to cook for 10-15 minutes before serving and you’re (finally) done!

I really enjoy eating mine with a slice of lime and some soy yogurt mixed with lime juice, but that’s just me being crazy for lime!

The other day I rode to the beach– what else is new, right? :) This time I rode with Charissa and she took me on a route I’d never been on before! Normally, I ride up Alliance, over Spear and then cross over to Upper Bay Road. But since Charissa hadn’t been on a bike in over a year she was terrified of riding through that much city traffic, so we went straight through 11th to Jane’s Road.

There were lots of sights to see that I didn’t even know existed. Most notably this very creepy ‘abandoned’ Victorian home. There was a good deal of crusty looking furniture, plus a guitar and Casio keyboard hooked up in the living room. We assumed someone had turned it into a college house.

I wanted to take loads more photos of the place, but my imagination started going wild and I became very creeped out, very fast! Everytime I held the viewfinder to my eye I thought I’d see some decrepit zombie-woman with a widow’s peak and dusty old 17th century dress peering out of the window.

One thing I love about riding out to the Bottoms is how most everything is so time-ravaged. I’m sad that, being a girl, I went through the typical “take photos of your feet” phase while all the boys were taking their cameras through the “explore abandoned buildings” phase. I’m trying to make up for lost time, but I am a total, utter chicken, so it will be a long time before I get shots of anything remotely interior!

When we finally got to the beach we locked our bikes up to some sign posts. I’ve been leaving my shoes in the basket of my bike and relying on good faith that no one will steal them. Charissa, on the other hand, looped her bike lock through her shoes! In her defense, they were extremely cute.

I’m not sure how long we were at the beach, but it was definitely long enough for me to get some color on my legs! I should’ve worn shorter shorts, though, because my jean bermudas left a line that makes me look like I’m wearing sunburn-colored knee highs. VERY classy, hah!

It was a pretty leisurely afternoon, digging our feet into the sand and watching the tide come in. Charissa played some tunes on her ukelele and I took photos of everything in sight (natch). We certainly enjoyed ourselves– and others, as it was pretty crowded. To be expected on such a gorgeous day! There was also this bee that wouldn’t leave us alone. It wasn’t a mean bee, though, and Charissa seemed to develop quite the friendship with it!

When it was time to go home we swung by the boat dock to use the restrooms. I talked to a guy who was letting his dogs run up and down the ramp into the river– he had a golden retriever that was 110 lbs! Incredibly huge pup. Unfortunately, they were too excited by the prospect of guzzling river water and getting their owner drenched to get any good shots of them.

And, if you can believe it, I actually toned this post down a bit. There are at least eleventy million other photos of this particular bike adventure at my Flickr!

Arcata is funny in the sense that it is filled to the brim with people whom you’d least expect to celebrate a holiday like the 4th of July. But they do, and they do it well. Despite the fog that rolled in around 6:00 PM, I had a great day just relaxing with friends and thinking about every time South Park has ever made fun of a patriotic redneck.

I kicked things off with a morning of leisure before getting a surprise call from Allyson, whom I adore. We went to Big Blue Cafe and managed to get the outside table, so we could watch people in the Plaza be drunk and crazy while we ate our scrumptious sandos. The weather started off beautifully, but slowly turned cold and windy (as documented above by the flippy-ness of my hair).

Afterwards we walked to Willow & Rags, which I’ve been to way too many times in the last two weeks. I did, however, find a precious lavender turtleneck for $7. If there’s one thing I l-o-v-e, it’s turtlenecks. Oddly enough, I’m not usually one for purple, but I’ve been eating it up this summer.

Of course, it wouldn’t be 4th of July without baseball! The Humboldt Crabs had games all weekend, and they were packed full of people decked out in red/blue attire. It was hard to tell who was being patriotic, and who just really liked the Humboldt Crabs. Or both.

After we stamped out the competition, everyone darted out of the bleachers and into the ballpark, where the stadium lights were turned off for the fireworks show. Unfortunately, thanks to said fog, it was pretty hard to see much of anything except an eerie colored-sky and some sparks here or there. They also took down the flag halfway through the show, which I cursed them for.

All in all, a wonderful day. I hope everyone else in the States had a great Fourth, as well!