Seafood Enchiladas with a Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce

Never would I have ever have guessed that the autumn of 2024 would see most of our mountain home on fire. I’ve lived here in the mountains of southern California my whole life. Every year we see our mountain home being trashed by visitors more and more. Dirty diapers and broken sleds litter our mountain highways year-round. People camping in the forests are constantly setting illegal campfires even when new have fall days with wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour. This right here is why I have to shove Seafood Enchiladas at my face. Comfort food helps with life stress, damn it!

We all knew the big one, no not earthquake, but wildfire was going to happen in our foreseeable future. The question wasn’t if, it was when.

-September 5th, 2024.

Our precious mountain communities had survived a holiday weekend without a major wildfire. Mountain residents all bid a sigh of relief. Until the black clouds of smoke began to show down Highway 330. The air quality was getting worse by the minute. Before local sheriffs could arrest an arsonist for starting this 47,000-acre wildfire five hundred families and mountain residents were evacuated from their homes. The entire town of Running Springs was sprayed top to bottom with rust-red phosphate. Over one thousand firefighters from around the country were doing all they could to save our communities during this early autumn heatwave.

We didn’t expect autumn to begin with our family being evacuated. We didn’t expect to be living in our motorhome. We are so incredibly blessed we have our 34-foot motorhome to be our home away from home in these kinds of emergency situations. We were lucky to be riding out the smoky skies in Central California by the beach. The whole time we wondered just what the hell was happening back at home. Would our communities be safe? How much national forest would be left for us to eventually return to?

The second week of September we returned home to Big Bear Lake. Some days were still incredibly smoky. The entire national forest was closed to recreating as emergency personnel worked on the fire. Fire helicopters and water-dropping planes flying over our house were normal every fifteen minutes. The water-carrying helicopters (Long Dicks) sucked water out of the lake to shower on hot spots behind our house. Everywhere we went in Big Bear Lake there were no tourists. Most of our mountain highways were closed. Many mountain businesses like mine had to close down due to the forest closure order. Our economy was struggling big time. One asshole starting this massive blaze has led to one fucked up autumn of no income for a lot of mountain households.

However, we do love it here. Even though life is stressful the weather did eventually start to cool down from record highs and the fall colors began. The fall colors of the wilderness started to bring some joy back to our hearts as firefighters began to get an upper hand on the Line Fire.

It’s hard to keep an upbeat attitude when wilderness areas where I had created so many memories burned to ash last week. These areas will never look the same in my lifetime. Our local mountain highway, the 330 has taken 83 million dollars worth of damage. We all hope and pray Highway 330 will be open by the winter months when the tourists return for snow play and skiing.

With the national forest being closed there is really nothing for this nature lover to do but hike on private land and take selfies with the dog. Who knows when I will be able to work again? Our tourism industry is suffering big time. Autumn is usually a very busy season with our Oktoberfest and all the leaf peepers waltzing through the forest. Not this year. As much as we say we are annoyed by the tourists here in our resort town, our economy needs them to survive. With nothing else to do I have been baking up a storm. Okay, maybe this whole dumpster fire has led to some stress eating. Seafood Enchiladas are great comfort food to shove at your face in stressful times!

One of the best parts of the autumn season is I’m no longer afraid to turn on my oven. I can cook chili on the stovetop again! I can turn on the oven to bake Seafood Enchiladas! Here in Big Bear Lake, California we hope and pray the LIne Fire will be put out as soon as possible. And in the meantime, I’ll be back home in my mountain kitchen stirring up some Tomatillo Seafood Enchiladas Sauce!

Seafood Enchiladas with a Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce

1 cup Argentine shrimp, cleaned, tail cut off and chopped in half

1 cup of medium-sized scallops

2 teaspoons of butter

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2 cup of sour cream

1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend

1 package of corn tortillas

1 ear of fresh grilled corn

4 teaspoons canola oil

In a saucepan place your butter and the seafood. Add the garlic just until it is cooked and set aside. Cut the corn off of the cob while the seafood is cooking. When you are ready to prepare the Sefood Enchiladas, brown each tortilla just a bit in a little canola oil, on both sides. Set aside.

After your tortillas are cooked, warm and pliable scoop some seafood and corn into each tortilla and roll up. Layer in a baking dish. Scoop some sour cream on tp and then pour on the Tomatillo Green Seafood Enchilada Sauce. Sprinkle the Mexican cheese blend on top. Bake the Seafood Enchiladas at 375 for 25 minutes.

Tomatillo Green Seafood Enchilada Sauce

3 Tomatillos

1/4 cup of a bunch of fresh cilantro

1 ripe avocado

1 teaspoon of salt

1 jalapeno

1 Fresno Chile

1/2 cup of green onions

Combine all these ingredients in the blender and set aside until you are ready to build your Seafood Enchiladas.