On this week’s episodes of Real Housewives of suburban North Carolina:

Follow Rachel as she travels home to Memphis and tries to fit in at the fanciest wedding to which she will ever be invited.

Like, I just did not belong rubbing elbows with Memphis’ elite.

In an attempt to blend in with the crowd, me, my mom and BFF got our hair and makeup done. My stepbrother’s husband is the most fabulous HMU artist in town and he spent literally 5 hours getting us appropriately glammed. We sat in his styling chair sipping mimosas, eating fruit, gabbing and generally just living our best lives. We legit had such a lovely time, we were late for the wedding. We raced to the venue, went through some random back door and walked in on the wedding party as they were about go down the aisle. Whoopsies. We tried to sit quietly through the ceremony but there were just so  many beautiful things to point out to each other so the likelihood our commentary is picked up on the video is high. The food was overwhelming. When they passed around vegan spring rolls I about fainted. It was really hard to stay calm when I saw the taco station and salad bar filled with topping options like quinoa and edamame. I somehow  never made it to the past bar but my skin tight dress thanked me. I tanked up so hard I looked like a busted can of biscuits the rest of the eve.

Did I mention it was a Jewish wedding and my very Christian stepfather thought he was supposed to wear a yarmulke so grabbed one on the way in and introduced himself as a pretend Jew the entire night?

 

 

Time: 2 hours (prep + cooking) | Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

• 6 New Mexico chiles, stems removed
• 4 dried arbol chiles, stems removed
• 2  white onions, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 roma tomato, diced
• 2 pieces of bread, toasted + cubed
• 1 heaping tbsp. of cocoa powder
• Juice of 1/2 an orange
• 1 tbsp. of oregano
• 1 tbsp. of sugar
• 1/4 tsp. of cinnamon
• Tiny pinch of cloves
• S+P, to taste
• 3 tbsp. of olive oil
• Whole wheat flour tortillas
• 1 can of black beans, rinsed + drained
• 4 ears of corn, shucked
• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 tbsp. of chili powder
• 1 tbsp. of cumin
• 1 tsp. of smoked paprila
• Cilantro, for serving

How to:

• Place chiles in a bowl + cover with boiling water, weigh it down + let sit for 30 minutes
• Meanwhile, cook garlic + tomato in a dry skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes
• Drain chiles + add to a food processor with 1/2 cup of the water they soaked in + garlic/tomato mix + 1 of the diced onions + bread + cocoa powder + orange juice + oregano + sugar + cinnamon + cloves + S+P, process until smooth, add more liquid if necessary
• Heat 2 tbsp. of oil in a pan over medium heat, add sauce + simmer for 30 minutes
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Meanwhile, heat remaining oil in a skillet over medium heat
• Add onion + S+P, cook 3-4 minutes
• Add peppers + S+P, cook another 3 minutes,
• Add corn + S+P, chili powder + cumin + smoked paprika, cook 3-4 minutes
• Place tortilla on a flat surface + fill with some bean mix
• Roll + place seam down in a greased baking dish
• Repeat with remaining tortillas + toppings
• Spread some mole on top
• Bake for 30 minutes
• Remove + spread with remaining mole sauce
• Serve warm with cilantro
• Since there’s some cocoa in these, wash your mole enchilada dinner down with ANOTHER mole enchilada

 

Mole adapted from here!