For the love of tinkering: Easy spinach enchiladas

It’s Friday the 13^th! Eep! Fortunately, good eats are always a good idea, even for the most superstitious black cats on the block. These easy peasy enchiladas were whipped up in a flash this week, which was a good deal considering all we had going on. Work, school, baby doc appointment … (shots for the poor baby Bean; talk about wishing you could pull a Freaky Friday). We were stretched pretty thin while our tummies dreamed of a world beyond sandwiches.

Although I was a champion direction-follower all through my childhood (perhaps I should rephrase that: I was a champion direction-follower all through my childhood while at school), I’m becoming a bit more lax as of late. As a general rule, I typically follow a recipe nearly to a tee the first time out of the gate so I know what I’d like to change (or keep perfectly the same) the next time around. Lately, however, I’ve found myself tinkering more from the get go. It’s worked out wonderfully in some cases, not so wonderfully in others. These spinach enchiladas, adapted from January’s Real Simple, were a happy mismatching of too much of this and too much of that. I switched the frozen spinach for fresh, upped the cheese, corn, chilies and cream (to account for all that spinach) and tweaked the cooking time/temperature a bit. Luckily, our taste buds were pleased. It’s always nice when the tinkering pays off.

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Spinach Enchiladas
Adapted from Real Simple (January 2012)

• 8 ounces fresh baby spinach, chopped
• 2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 7-ounce cans of green chilies
• 2 cups frozen corn
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 12 corn tortillas

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together spinach, 1 ½ cups of the cheddar, one can of the chilies and the frozen corn in a large bowl and set aside. In a smaller bowl (one with a pouring spout works well), mix the heavy cream, second can of chilies, salt and pepper.

Divide the spinach/cheese mixture evenly among the tortillas (about ½ cup to ¾ cup each), rolling the mixture inside and placing the tortillas seam-side down. Pour the cream sauce over the rolled enchiladas, then top with the remaining ½ cup of cheese.

Bake enchiladas at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes, until they’re bubbling. Then, up the temperature to 425 and bake for another 10 to 15, until the cheese turns a pretty golden color.

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Have you done any recipe tinkering lately? Was it a glowing success? A crazy disaster? Do tell!

XO,
Katrina