Beef Enchiladas = Comatose Husband

If I haven't informed the blogging world yet, I am officially down to ONE job. :) It's been the biggest blessing and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. My favorite thing that has happened is that I've been able to use my kitchen and all my fun wedding gifts! I was so busy working two jobs that I had no time to cook - which is one of my favorite things to do! I had always dreamed that when I got married, I would make dinner and have it ready for when my husband came home from work...I hadn't been able to do that more than a handful of times because of our conflicting schedules, but now it's a priority. My mom swears that the excitement of cooking every night will eventually fade...apparently almost 33 years of making meals has her a little burned out. Ha!

Last night, I made one of my (and my family's) all-time favorite meals: Beef Enchiladas. At this time I am going to give a shout-out to my Aunt Frances! She had us over for dinner one night a long time ago - she made these enchiladas and started the addiction. She gave us the recipe for them and it's one that I'll keep handy for the rest of my life! Thanks Aunt Francie - you are one of the best cook/bakers I know! (And now that I know you're reading my blog, you may get more shout outs in the future!)

This recipe is by far the BEST enchilada recipe I have ever had - and I've tried a lot. In fact, this was the first meal I ever made for Brad when we were dating - he raved about them then and he got very excited when I mentioned making them last night. :) Unfortunately, Brad ate these and then slept for over an hour - missing the better portion of the movie we rented. If you choose to make these, you may end up with a very unproductive husband for the evening. You have been warned. Ha! Well, without further ado, here's the original recipe (with a few of my personal changes in purple)...and a few pictures!

Beef Enchiladas

Ingredients

10 large or 16 small flour tortilla (8 burrito sized)

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (2 lbs - for meatier enchiladas)

4 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

3/4 cup green onion (1 cup)

3/4 cup sour cream (1 cup)

3 Tbs. parsley

1/4 tsp. pepper

24 oz. tomato sauce

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

3 Tbs. chopped green chiles (5 Tbs.)

1 Tbs. chili powder (2 Tbs.)

1/4 tsp. ground cumin (1/2 tsp.)

Directions:

Cook and stir beef until light brown; drain. Remove from heat. Stir in 2 cups cheese, onion, sour cream, parsley, and pepper. Cover and reserve. Heat remaining ingredients in medium sauce pan to boiling. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.

Spoon 1/4 cup beef mixture (I used a heaping 1/3 cup portion) onto each tortilla; roll tortilla around filling. Arrange in 12x7x2 dishes (I used one 9x13 baking dish). Pour sauce over enchiladas, then sprinkle remaining cheese (2 cups) over top. Cook uncovered in 350* oven for 20 minutes. (I left them in for 25 min)

VOILA!

 

 Hope you all get to try them sometime! They are truly delicious! Thanks, again, Aunt Francie!

Sandwich Perfection

There are 4 things in my life that make me unavoidably, incandescently happy. They go in the following order...

1) My husband.

2) My family.

3) My friends.

4) BLT sandwiches.

Really, Stacie? A blog about BLT sandwiches? I know, I know. It's a sandwich, but I love it and I made one for dinner recently and haven't gotten it off my mind. For those of you that don't know what a BLT consists of, it has 5 ingredients: toast, mayonnaise, and of course, bacon, lettuce, and tomato (hence the name BLT). Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches are pretty hard to mess up, so they are my "fallback" order when eating out at restaurants. (Note: Jason's Deli has unfortunately messed it up. Yuck.)

It's a simple sandwich, but people have tried to add other ingredients to it over the years. Everything from cheese to ranch dressing to fried eggs to peppers. The only ingredient that I have ever added and been okay with is avocado, known as the BLTA.



Even with all the crazy variations, the old traditional BLT is my favorite. Even better, is the homemade BLT with garden tomatoes and a healthy serving of mayonnaise. :) Here's a picture of my homemade BLT from the other night. It doesn't look as amazing, but it sure did taste good. Of course, there weren't garden tomatoes available, but we made do.




Call me dorky, but I did a little research on BLT's and I found out a few interesting facts. Here we go:

- The BLT is the second most popular sandwich in the United States (behind the ham sandwich) and the MOST popular sandwich in the UK.

- The first recipe for a BLT sandwich appeared in the 1903 edition of the Good Housekeeping Everyday Cookbook.

- BLT's are most popularly eaten during the summer, reducing the stockpiles of pork and causing a spike in pork prices towards the end of the season. That's a lot of bacon!

- Iceberg lettuce is the most common choice (and experts agree best choice) for the "L" part of the sandwich. It adds little flavor and lots of crunch!

- Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, named the BLT the "sandwich to unite all social classes." Talk about pressure for the BLT!

How about everyone else? Do you love BLT sandwiches? If not, what is your sandwich of choice?

Easter Weekend (Part 2)

Easter morning, Brad and I woke up and went to church. Brad got up a little earlier and headed to worship practice, since he was playing drums that morning. He really is a good drummer and continues to get better and better over time. It's interesting to me that he had never once had a professional drum lesson - completely self taught. I'll have to get some pictures of him sometime...he looks pretty cute behind a drum kit. :)

Anyways, I woke up and, truthfully, worked. Sunday mornings are like work for me - finding substitute teachers for last minute Sunday school call-ins, etc. Overall, it was a good service and I received LOTS of compliments about my "amazing husband." The people at Wildewood really appreciate him and his skills. He has even been given the nickname "Animal" by some of the church members. Recognize the Muppets character they are referring to? --->
We were blessed with the presence of Cheryl and Wayne (Brad's mom and stepdad) at the service and I know Brad was happy that they came. It was good to see them, if even for a little bit!

After church, Brad and I headed over to my parents' house for Easter lunch with my dad's side of the family. It was a lot of fun - seeing lots of family and holding lots of babies! They were all so cute! Of course, I am personally a little partial to one baby in particular. His name is Cooper and he has red hair. :) He's getting very big and starting to really focus on you when you talk to him. He's smiling and cooing...I love him.

To the right is a picture of Uncle Brad - not too excited that Cooper's going #2 while in his arms. :) Ha! Little Stinker!

Photos of the family!

Brad hung out with this little guy for quite a while. Noah is my cousin Jacquelyn's little boy - such a happy baby. You may remember seeing pictures of him from this earlier post. It's so cute to see how much he's changed in these 4 months!

Overall, our Easter weekend was very good, but exhausting in the same right. We are ready to relax! We have a few mini-adventure trips planned for May, so we're gearing up for those and looking forward to the time together!

Easter Weekend (Part 1)

To say our Easter weekend was busy is an understatement! Whoa! We had a lot going on! Friday night, we had Good Friday service at Wildewood (which I spoke at). Brad had to miss it because of work, but it worked out for him to pick up one of our favorite kids, Taiden, so he could spend the night at our house. Taiden's mom, Tara, had to work the next day and had no one to watch him, so we decided to take him. Here's Brad and Taiden on our wedding day - he was one of our ring bearers!

Friday night, we went and picked out a movie and some snacks so we could veg out in front of the TV and finish stuffing the last of the 6,000 eggs that would be spread out the next day at the annual Wildewood egg hunt! That's right....I said SIX THOUSAND EGGS. I think Brad and I got to bed around midnight and were up at 6:30. Ughh.... Not to mention, as much as we love Taiden and kids in general, we sure weren't used to being woken up 3-4 times in a night to help someone go to the bathroom, get a drink, rub their back.... :) It may have (most definitely) changed our "baby timeline" a bit. Ha!

Needless to say, we were tired when we woke up on Saturday morning. I had to be at the church by 8am to meet with volunteers who would help with the egg hunt, but Brad was nice enough to wake up and make breakfast for all of us. Taiden requested pancakes (which I was secretly excited about because I never get those anymore - Brad's blood sugar issues mean no mass carbohydrate meals if you plan on being productive). He made some eggs and sausage for us too!

 

Taiden LOVED the pancakes - he even had seconds!

 I headed off to the church to get things set up. Brad and Taiden joined me a bit later and were both really good helpers! The festivities began at 11am and were over by 11:35am. Those eggs go fast! Brad snapped a few pictures of Taiden at the egg hunt! He was a little shy - but eventually got in there and got some eggs!

After the egg hunt, the three of us went to lunch and then headed to the park to play before Taiden had to head home. It was so fun - Taiden is a total ham for the camera and kept saying "Take a picture of me over here! Look at what I'm doing! Take a picture of this!" It was a lot of fun - and with such a photogenic kid - it was even more fun!

 

After the park, Brad took Taiden home and I made 2 desserts (Coconut cake and blackberry cobbler - both were DELICIOUS if I do so say myself!) and then we took a nap! We headed to an Easter dinner with my  mom's side of the family and had a good time - I unfortunately forgot my camera and have no pictures from that event. :( Dang it! That's it for now - this post is getting pretty long! More Easter weekend news to come!

That's My King

I love Easter - definitely my favorite holiday. And I know that's really "Christian" of me to say, but I genuinely love it. I had a conversation with someone at work the other day that was very interesting. She knew what I did full time (children's minister) and had questions about my faith. I was very complimented when she said she appreciated that I didn't shove my beliefs and values down her throat. That's my goal. In fact, I hate actually referring to myself as a Christian - not because I'm ashamed of loving Christ, but simply because of the negative connotation that so many idiots have attached to the title. Anyways, she asked me if I would call myself a Christian. I responded, "I prefer to call myself a Christ Follower or a Committed Believer or a Daughter of the King." That last one caught her attention and she told me that from what she knew, Jesus didn't live in a castle and have servants and affairs, and illegitimate children - so there was no way he was a King. I talked about how Jesus was a very different kind of King. The conversation that ensued was interesting and messy and really good...somehow, with her background and my fumbling words, we still left with a mutual respect and understanding of each other.

The more I thought about it after I left, I remembered a sermon from S.M. Lockridge that I heard in college that makes me tear up every time I hear it. I searched for it on google and found a video someone made with images from The Passion of the Christ set to the words of the sermon! What a great reminder of the kind of King we worship on Easter. Enjoy!

P.S. No offense intended, but there is something about African American preachers that just get me all fired up! And what an incredible job of pairing adverbs and adjectives so well!

La Tournée de Mon Réfrigérateur

Why yes, I do speak French. And yes, the title of this blog is "The Tour of My Refrigerator." Earlier today I couldn't get the phrase "Tour de France" out of my head - I must have seen or heard it somewhere in the past few days and it was brought to the forefront of my thoughts all day. Anyways, I thought it would be funny to say "Tour de (insert word for refrigerator)." Unfortunately, when I went to find the word for refrigerator at www.freetranslation.com, I was sadly reminded translations are just not that easy. So, the aforementioned (and what would've been really awesome) blog title is history. We have instead...La Tournée de Mon Réfrigérateur. Good enough. P.S. I wonder if anyone has ever told the big wigs at "Tour de France" that their translation is all off....

Okay, so back to the actual subject of my blog - The Tour of My Refrigerator. I used to really like the show MTV cribs, particularly the part where celebrities opened the fridge and showed the world what they ate. Sometimes people had it all neat and organized and stocked for what looked like a Home & Garden Magazine shoot. Others opened it up and showed it "as is." It fascinated me what people loved and didn't love. Most rappers had a bottle of Cristal and indie chick singers had hummus and organic wine.... Pretty typical.

Anyways, I decided to share what's in my fridge - the important stuff for the Salinas Family. So, here it is, in all it's glory!
 

EGGS! We seriously go through 3-4 dozen eggs per week. Every morning, Brad eats 2-4 eggs (or egg whites) and I eat 2 eggs. Obviously, 1/3 to 1/2 of a carton is used every morning. We love our eggs - but not the price! This is one reason I am SO excited for the Farmer's Market to open - farm fresh eggs that are way cheaper and LOCAL!

 (Top Left): BEEF! Brad loves beef - he grills burgers all the time and is a fan of my homemade meatloaf! We found a  good deal for grass-fed beef at Whole Foods last Sunday and bought a lot!
(Top Right): JUICE! One of my favorite things, that Brad has recently become quite fond of. My mom used to buy this juice when I was little, so it's kind of a nostalgia thing...
(Bottom Left): BRITA SPIGOT! What would we do without our Brita UltraMax water filter??? We would be lost. End of story.
(Bottom Right): YOGURT! I love yogurt and eat about 2 cups per day. Unfortunately, I have yet to find an organic kind that I like, so for now...Archer Farms it is!

 Favorites

(Left): My personal favorite that would be very hard to live without...Pickles. No, not just any pickles - not those neon green walmart pickles. No... Trader Joe's Kosher Dill Pickles.

(Right): Brad puts ketchup on EVERYTHING. No joke. In fact, my brother actually coined the phrase "Brad it up," meaning to put ketchup on something. :)

So, what about you? What's in YOUR fridge? What can't you live without???

Puttin' Around

Sundays are always really tiring for me. And ever since Brad and I got married, I think he's began to understand how  being in ministry (or being married to someone in ministry) is physically and mentally exhausting - especially on Sunday mornings. Usually, after church, we eat lunch with my parents, or occasionally his parents, and then we go home and take a nap. When we wake up, we usually sit on our butts and do nothing. This past Sunday, we decided we wanted to do something other than take a nap and watch TV, so we headed to Boulder Creek Amusement Park! Yes, the name is far more exciting than the actual place, but it still made for a good time. We decided to putt putt 18 holes through the "Adventure Course." Both being fiercely competitive people, there was A LOT of trash talking and reveling in each other's failures. Lots of love going on at the putt putt golf course.

This picture is Brad being a dork and obviously not taking my request for a "cute picture" seriously. Boo! 

 And this is Brad's "mad face" as his ball came rolling back down the hill towards him. Stroke 2!

Honestly, it was a really close game the whole time, and we both knew it. We were VERY anxious to get done and add up our scores. Unfortunately, I was on the losing end....this time.

He won by ONE STROKE! Dang it! It was the third hole that killed me - and I was very disappointed. :( Brad, of course, was as giddy as a school girl. I smell a rematch.