Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I trust everyone has had a little bit of Mexican food today in honor of Mexico beating the French. Despite what a lot of people think this is not their independence day. I really think its just a reason for us to celebrate but that's okay with me. Who needs a reason to have enchiladas. I actually decided today I wanted to make them for dinner in honor of this day so I headed off to the store in search of decent shrimp which did not cost a fortune. I know that sounds not that hard but I  live in Arizona.

Seafood can some times be very expensive. I lucked out today. I went the seafood counter of the first grocery store and got scared when I saw a guy who obviously worked in that department sorting throught the shrimp in the case and was picking out the bad ones. Upon further inspection the shrimp had a pinkish hue to them and did not look very fresh. Dismayed, I turned around and walked right back out of the store. That's all I need to get a little bit of poisoning. I then when to a market that I knew had a good meat selection but is sometimes expensive and checked out their counter. I scored there! I was going to get the medium shrimp for $5.99/lb but the lady working the counter asked if I wanted the jumbo shrimp. I told her know because  I did not want to spend $11.99/lb. Yikes! It's not that special of occassion. It's no one's birthday or anniversary so I could not justify spending that much even though they looked delicious.:( Then, the angel asked me if I would buy them if she lowered the price to $5.99/lb. Uh, yeah. I didn't have to think twice about it. I asked her why she would do this. She just said they were getting more in and needed the space. She even let me smell and touch them so I could make sure they were rotting. I bought them of course and they were delicious. I almost felt guilty using them in enchiladas instead of shrimp cocktail or scampi in order to show how beautiful they were. I said almost. I still made enchiladas with them and they were good. The only thing I have to complain about is they kind of fell apart when I tried to pull them out of the baking dish. This made them not so pretty to look at but still taste good. I think this was due to me using flour tortillas and not corn. I also covered them in sauce and cheese. I know, I am a cheese freak!

Here is the recipe for the enchiladas. I made it up totally so some might say it isn't authentic but I say....Who cares:)

Shrimp Enchiladas

Ingredients
1 lb shrimp (at least medium size)
1/2 lb mushrooms
1 c black olives sliced
1 medium sized onion
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp oregano
2 c cheese
4 cloves garlic
6 flour tortillas
1 can green chile enchilada sauce

Directions
preheat oven to 375. Spray a 11x14 cooking dish with cooking spray and set aside. Heat a medium sized pan on the stove and add the olive oil. Add diced onion and a little bit of salt and peper and saute until it starts to soften. Next add the mushrooms and garlic with a little more salt and pepper and cook until mushrooms start to brown. Add the shrimp, black olives and oregano and saute until the shrimp turn translucent. Do not overcook. You do not want rubbery shrimp. While you saute the shrimp heat up green chile sauce. Add a little bit of sauce to the bottom of the dish. Take a flour tortilla and add filling to the middle of the tortillas add some cheese inside of it. Roll it like a burrito but don't tuck the edges in and put it in the baking dish. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas and filling. Pour green chili sauce on top of enchiladas and add remaining cheese. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Look at all that cheese!!!! Feel free to use as much or as little as you want.
I hope everyone is having a great day and please be safe if celebrating today.
Melissa