I was on vacation in Seattle recently (the first vacation in a year and my first trip to the West Coast!) and I came away from the trip a little wiser than I was when I hopped on the plane here in Virginia. Okay, maybe wiser isn’t quite the word…that would insinuate that actual learning took place.

Here’s a lengthy list of thoughts about my vacation. Some of these thoughts are silly but a few of them could actually be relevant to other people. Especially other people planning their own summer trip to the Pacific Northwest.

1. There is no need to bring 5 pairs of shoes on an 8 day trip. In fact, 5 pairs is 3 pairs too many. All I really wore all week were my Keen sandals.
2. If you’re in a park and the sign says that the loop trail is 2.8 miles long, the sign lies.
3. Even though Starbucks was born in Seattle, my iced toffee nut latte does not taste any better there than it does here.
4. Vacationing in the Pacific Northwest in August? Bring jeans. Lots of jeans. And a couple of sweatshirts. Do not bring 3 pairs of shorts. You will not wear them.
5. On that same note, if you’re staying with family, don’t pack so many clothes. You will inevitably do laundry and not end up wearing 60% of what you packed. All you’ll wear are the same 2 pairs of jeans.
6. Top Pot Doughnuts are incredible. The best doughnuts I’ve ever had. If you visit Seattle, you must have at least one.
7. If I lived in Seattle, I would be a cow because of Top Pot Doughnuts.



8. Small children do not need toys. They are perfectly happy to play with wooden meat tenderizers, laundry baskets and light switches. Save your money.
9. Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon (yes, we took a side trip to Oregon) is the most awesome bookstore ever. Followed closely by The Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle. They don’t make independent bookstores like that where I live.
10. Farmer’s Markets in Virginia are terrible compared to Seattle. Even the neighborhood market there was far superior to a citywide market here. Fruits and vegetables are also prettier and cheaper there.



11. If you want to visit a chocolate factory (Theo Chocolate), you should make your tour reservation before your trip. If you don’t, you won’t get to take the factory tour.
12. Coconut cream pie tastes even better when there is coconut baked into the crust.
13. Trolls really do live under bridges.



14. I’d really like to live in a town where you could walk to small stores and restaurants. It was nice to walk down the block for coffee in the morning.
15. Even if my Toyota Camry is getting a little old, it’s still a wonderfully quiet ride. Unlike the Nissan Versa we rented for the week. That thing was obnoxiously loud.
16. Smoked pork barbecue tastes just as good in Seattle as it does in Virginia.
17. The Atlanta airport is too busy. There are too many people there are any given time. Too many scary people.
18. Blackberries are a weed out there. A delicious weed that I would love to have growing out of control in my yard.



19. If there hadn’t been a Jim Henson exhibit at the Experience Music Project, I would have wanted my $15 admission fee back. Fortunately a few Muppets made it worth the expense.
20. Parking in a city is not cheap. Correction: Parking in a city is not cheap if you’re lazy and unmotivated. It was so much easier to feed the meter than to drive in circles looking for a parking space.
21. I don’t know how to drive in hilly, steep places.
22. Poison ivy spreads. Despite your best efforts to contain it.
23. It’s a long drive from Portland to Seattle via the Oregon Coast. Possibly too long…fortunately it was a beautiful drive.



24. Sockeye salmon tastes particularly good when it’s just off the boat and really fresh.
25. There don’t seem to be a lot of redheads in Seattle. Is there a reason for this?
26. Mt. Rainier is not so easy to see. I didn’t get a view of it until we were on the airplane heading home. Fortunately that was a great view.
27. Not eating before a cross-country flight is not a good idea. Two cookies and a bag of pretzels are not dinner.
28. If I ever move to a big city, I should open a bakery. The prices they get away with charging are criminal and I’d like to be the criminal in that situation.
29. Libraries can make you dizzy. And not from reading.



30. Going to Seattle in August when you live in Virginia is kind of like going to Florida in February when you live in Maine. The weather on your vacation totally spoils you and you’re miserable when you get home.
31. Rainier cherries might just be my favorite fruit. Too bad they’re almost too expensive to buy here in Virginia.



If you’ve made it to the end of this post and would still like to see more pictures, visit my Flickr page.

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These are chicken enchiladas with corn, black beans, onions, and cheese baked in a green chile enchilada sauce. The enchiladas are enjoying their view of the Atlantic Ocean from the eighth story balcony of a rental condo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Just because I’m on vacation, doesn’t mean I’m totally off the hook from cooking. My reputation preceeded me and the boyfriend’s family wondered if I was interested in cooking at all while we’re here with them at the beach. Since I do happen to like cooking, it didn’t take much arm twisting for me to relent. Too bad I wasn’t really expecting to cook and didn’t plan some easy and delicious meals to cook in a kitchen not so well stocked as my own. Next time I’ll be better prepared and armed with ingredients.

After a too lengthy shopping expedition for a bathing suit, we stopped at Target for some random things and tried to figure out what we wanted for dinner. I suggested that I could make enchiladas as Target carries the green enchilada sauce I prefer to use. Of course, this particular Target didn’t carry it. Off to the grocery store we went…and they didn’t carry it. I gave up on the green sauce and we bought the red sauce as well as all of the other ingredients needed for dinner.

I don’t like the red sauce. It’s too much. It overpowers the rest of the dish…but I got it anyway as I didn’t feel like thinking about an entirely different dinner after the mind-numbing experience of finding a new bathing suit.

When we got back to the rental condo, I decided to venture out on my own to try to find the green enchilada sauce. I found it…but it did require selling my soul to the worst place on earth…Walmart. I really try to avoid Walmart whenever possible. This time I didn’t. I’m in a foreign town and wasn’t quite sure where else to look. I knew that Walmart carried the green sauce so I gave in and bought it from my least favorite place in the world. Okay, maybe I’m slightly exaggerating…but I do dislike Walmart. A lot.

Back to dinner…I cooked it, it was wonderful and now I’m posting the recipe here for posterity.

Sadly, this recipe uses a little more prepared food than I regularly use when cooking dinner at home. I could make the enchilada sauce from scratch but it would probably take some time to get the recipe right. I could also make the corn tortillas…how much do tortilla presses cost?

Despite the prepared sauce and store-bought tortillas, these are delicious. They taste just as good (if not better) the next day. I like mine topped with sour cream and sometimes salsa. We served them last night with rice and refried beans. I usually eat them as a stand-alone dish.

The idea for these enchilada comes from my aunt and uncle in Michigan. They made very similar enchiladas for us a few years ago and I immediately decided I would add these to the list of things I make semi-regularly. They’re that good.

The filling recipe will make way more filling than needed for 12 enchiladas…freeze the rest for future use or make a second batch the next day.

Chicken Enchiladas with Corn, Black Beans & Sweet Onions

Yields 12 enchiladas

Ingredients

• 1 package small corn tortillas
• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped/shredded
• 1 can corn (or approximately same amount fresh or frozen corn), drained
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 sweet onion, diced and cooked until soft
• 2-3 cups shredded Colby Jack cheese (use more or less cheese depending on personal taste)
• 3 cans green chile enchilada sauce (I use Old El Paso or Target’s Market Pantry brand)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. To make approximately 12 enchiladas, lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking pan. If you’d like to bake more than 12 enchiladas, lightly oil a second slightly smaller pan.
3. Pour 1 can of enchilada sauce into bottom of pan and spread evenly.
4. Mix another can of enchilada sauce with chicken, corn, black beans, and onions. Stir until well combined.
5. Using a skillet, lightly heat a corn tortilla. They’re not very flexible cold or at room temperature. If not heat, they will break during enchilada assembly.
6. Spoon approximately 2 tablespoons chicken mixture down middle of tortilla shell. Sprinkle with small amount of shredded cheese. Roll one side of tortilla towards the middle. Roll the other side and then carefully transfer the enchilada to baking pan with the seam side down.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until pan is full.
8. Evenly pour the third can of enchilada sauce over the enchiladas in the pan. Top with remaining shredded cheese.
9. Bake for approximately 30 minutes until sauce is bubbly. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

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This brown sugar and walnut shortbread is adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours book. The original recipe called for pecans…I used walnuts. Other than that, I don’t think I changed a single thing. They were pretty delicious and kept well for days.

Because we’re getting ready to move and take a vacation, I might not be on the web much for a week or two. I’ll still be checking my email at least daily but I might not post quite as much to Flickr or to this site. Don’t be alarmed. I will return as soon as I can. In the meantime, I do have a number of food and dessert items that I’ll blog about when I have the opportunity.

The new house isn’t ready yet and we’re not particularly sure when it will be…but the boyfriend had to move out of his apartment anyway. We’ve squished some of his stuff into my apartment and put far more stuff in a storage unit and now all we can do is wait…for an unknown period of time.

But why won’t I be on the web much? Because my internet connection has always been in his apartment and it’s totally not worth it to get it connected here since it could be just a couple of weeks until the house is ready.

The good news is that I’ll still be cooking and baking and taking pictures. When I return, I should have loads of pictures to post and lots of things to write about.

Not too much else to report from here. All I’ve done lately is pack boxes and move stuff….in the stifling July and August heat and humidity. I’m kind of tired and glad that we don’t have to do it again for at least two weeks.

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