I Love the Smell of Carnitas in the Morning

Today is our day to bring Anna and Brian dinner (they just had a baby boy), so I'm making tofu and collard greens enchiladas. Enchiladas are such an adaptable dish, you can pretty much throw anything inside and they taste spectacular. In addition to the enchiladas, I'm going to make a Mexican tomato rice and a "Sharon salad," which consists of just about any vegetable that you would care to finely chop with a little olive oil, vinegar, and pepper. I think tonight's salad will be what I consider a traditional "Sharon Salad" -- tomatoes, hearts of palm, onion, celery, some parsley and maybe a little crumbled cheese. You let the salad marinade for a little while for all of the flavors to meld and voila! Delicious!

After breakfast I chopped up the collards and did some prep work for the enchilada sauce. While digging around in the fridge, I spotted the pork that I salted and chopped yesterday, but never cooked. (Instead of wasting the day yesterday inside braising meat, Jesse and I decided to go and explore a few neighborhoods in SE Portland that are potential spots for our next apartment or house.) So while the collard greens were cooking down this morning, I decided to go ahead and fire up the oven to get a start on the carnitas as well.

I'm not sure if there's anything better smelling than braising pork. This particular recipe has just a bit of chili powder, cumin, and a cinnamon stick. The spices are not overwhelming, letting the pork flavor shine though. The meat is so tender that it just falls apart to the touch (I guess that's the point of braising for nearly 3 hours). MMMM, I can't wait to give it a try. I have to admit that while the tofu chard enchiladas will be delicious, a little pork would make them heavenly!