Howdy folks! Chris here.

Made some enchiladas last night (a la Suecia) with Laurel for Marianne, Lars-Erik, their daughter Hanna, Thomas (a student they house) and our friend Viktor. Here’s the breakdown:

• Pico de gallo without cilantro, without jalapeños (but with some other unique, tasty and spicy chili)

• No mole of any kind, no dried chilis available. We used a sort of green tomatillo salsa which seemed to have sugar as a primary constituent, but still real tasty (and I added some sauteed onions and bell peppers to it to counter the sweetness)

• No corn tortillas to make enchiladas; we used the only ones available. Flour.

• No pinto beans to be found; we used some cans of mixed beans: kidney, white and some other pinto-ish looking bean.

• No carne asada; though there were similar cuts of steak, we used ground beef.

• Potato, bell pepper & yellow squash filling for the vegetarian enchiladas.

• Primary seasonings used: ancho chile powder we found (with chilis from Cali!), ground cilantro seed (aka corriander), whole cumin, black pepper, and a herb seasoned salt which is popular here.

Servied with salad; apple & orange slices a la Mexicana (with lime juice dripped onto them and chili powder close at hand to top them with); whole radishes & various kinds of Swedish and American beer (thank you, System Bolaget!)

The meal was a success! Even I was surprised at the outcome of such a bastardization of Mexican food, but mmm, it was good!

Btw, I took some shots of the “taco” aisle in one of Sweden’s larger grocery chains, called “coop.” http://www.flickr.com/photos/38151753@N02/sets/72157624687160939/