Barbara Larsen’s Enchiladas

Camping is great fun, and so is hanging out with nine-year olds, but it is tiring! Then it’s back to what’s piled up in the meantime. The garden is flourishing:

I made enchiladas entirely from garden produce except for the meat and tortillas. This was a takeoff on a turkey enchilada recipe of Barbara Larson’s who is no longer with us. Here it is in her own hand. I’ve made this recipe many times, and usig what came from the garden, put it together from memory.  It took pretty far off now that I look at the recipe.

 

Still, her recipe was the inspiration. Barbara let me make copies of some of her recipes years ago, and they are all good.

Barbara’s husband, Jim, has for years turned out reliably marvelous food at The Restaurant in Fort Bragg (a must visit if you’re on the Mendocino Coast). He now cooks there with his wife Susan. A patron of the arts, Jim for years had a soup and sandwich lunch for under $5 that let those of us who were low on funds and high on longing for good food savor something delicious in a n elegant atmosphere. I think the lunch is an artifact of the past, but I’ve never been disappointed in one of Jim’s meals in the 30+ years I’ve eaten there.

In any case, it was fun to make a variant of Barbara’s old recipe, even more fun to eat them, and it’s good to be home. I was too hungry to photograph the enchiladas as they came out of the oven, but here are the three that were left.