THREE new recipes today! Oh joy!

Sorry I haven't blogged since last week -- we've been all over the place lately! I took an extra day off after Labor Day so that I could have a four-day weekend, and it was a much-needed mini-vacation! Patrick and I even made an impromptu trip to Athens to see some of my family up there, including my too-adorable baby cousin Sophie.

She's not even 18 months and she's already almost three feet tall! Before she was born, Trey was the youngest of the cousins ... and he's 16 now. It's been a while since there's been a new kid to spoil, so she's pretty much the apple of everybody's eye. And she has the toys to prove it. It's been an awesome weekend. And, of course, Auburn won, which makes it even MORE awesome. We'll be at AU this weekend to hopefully see win #2.

OK, now to recipes. 

Last week, I made three different things for two meals, and they were all pretty easy to make. Two (baked rice and steak enchiladas) are ridiculously easy to make, while one (the steak stir-fry) takes a little more work. But they're all worth it. 

First meal: Steak Enchiladas. These take maybe 15 minutes, if that long, to put together and then 25 minutes to bake. 

Ingredients: 

1 10-oz can enchilada sauce

2 6-oz packages refrigerated fully-cooked steak strips (I used Tyson's)

4 8-inch flour tortillas

One bag shredded Mexican cheese blend (could also use Colby-Monterey Jack)

One package of your favorite cheese dip (I use Gordo's)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spread half of enchilada sauce in 9x13 baking dish. 

2. Place 3 oz steak down center of each tortilla. (Note: This will make four enchiladas.) Top with two tablespoons cheese dip (I heated it up first so I could drizzle it over the steak.) Roll up tortillas and place seam side down in baking dish.

3. Pour remaining enchilada sauce over tortillas, sprinkle with cheese. Bake 20-25 minutes. 

You could easily serve this with some salsa and chips for a quick but yummy meal. :)

Second meal: Steak stir-fry with baked rice. The baked rice is some of the best (and easiest) stuff I make -- I use it with almost any meal that requires rice as a bed or a side dish. You can have the baked rice in the oven while you're working on the stir-fry.

Baked rice ingredients:

1 stick butter or margarine

1 cup rice

1 can Campbell's beef consomme soup

1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. Melt butter or margarine. Add all ingredients in baking dish; stir. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake 1 hour. 

Steak stir-fry ingredients:

1 boneless beef top sirloin steak (about 1 pound)

1/2 cup teriyaki marinade, divided into 2

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided into 3

1 medium onion, sliced

2 cups frozen green beans, rinsed and drained

Directions:

1. Cut beef length-wise in half, then crosswise into small strips. Combine beef and half the marinade in medium bowl and set aside. 

2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet or wok over medium-high heat until hot. Add onion and stir-fry 4 minutes. Remove into another medium bowl. 

3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil and stir-fry beans 4 minutes. Drain off any excess water and add beans to onions. 

4. Heat remaining tablespoon oil and add half of the beef. Stir-fry for 2 minutes until almost completely cooked, then put into bowl with beans and onions. Repeat process with other half of beef. Return beef, onion and bean mixture to skillet and pour in the rest of the marinade. Cook for a couple minutes until heated through. Serve on top of the baked rice. 

Hope you guys enjoy those! I'll have another recipe or two for you in a few days, I'm sure. 

OK, I know, I suck.

OK, I know I totally suck. Sorry it's been, like, two months since I updated last. But maybe I'll have a lot to say, right? :)

First of all, I now have a Twitter account. If any of you have Twitter and want to follow me or just want to check it out, my handle is amyjones17. It's mostly just a micro-blog that I update a few times a day. I don't know, Tweeting is a lot easier than blogging ... especially since I can do it from my cell phone and can only write, maybe, two or three sentences. PERFECT!

We are so excited about Momma Goldberg's Deli opening soon!! Patrick and I plan on going out there whenever we can, especially to support Hal and Maghan! We're looking forward to quite a few Core Group gatherings!!

As I'm sure you all know, Patrick and I thoroughly enjoyed Jessa's surprise 30th birthday party/funeral. :) It was so great to meet all the other Core Groupies and more people from the church. The more Patrick and I get involved with Homewood Church of Christ, the more comfortable we feel there. We are so excited to have found what we believe will be a great church home for us and a group where we feel like family. 

This next weekend will be great, because my little (BIG) bro is staying with us for a night! He's coming Saturday for plenty of July 4 fun. We'll eat good and play video games, stay up late, etc. It should be great fun. And I am SO EXCITED for it to be a three-day weekend ... you just don't even know. 

On to more important things, such as Harry Potter ... two weeks until the movie!! Patrick and I are already planning to see it at least four times. Once right when it comes out, probably once again with friends, once in IMAX to see it in 3-D and once with my little bro at the closed-captioned theater in Trussville. It's going to be AWESOME. We've seen a couple of movies so far this summer -- "Star Trek," "Transformers 2" -- but I expect "Harry Potter" to be the best of the bunch. Although I have to say, "Star Trek" did blow my mind. It was a fantastic flick and one I really, really recommend to anybody. And I am NOT a Star Trek fan. All of my girlfriends that have seen the movie absolutely loved it. 

Meanwhile, I would recommend only seeing "Transformers 2" if you really, really liked the first one. The second one was a lot of fun, but there were definitely some jokes that were not really intended for girls. For example, the audience is treated to a big, swinging set of bronze cojones on one of the Decepticons (bad robots) ... and then the joke is "Hey, I'm under the robot scrotum!" -- Exactly. Hilarious.

Other than that, we've just been moving along. I've been learning a few new songs; of note are "Take It On the Run" by REO Speedwagon and "Foreplay/Long Time" by Boston. Playing some Rock Band, watching "Boston Legal" and "The X-Files." You know how it is. 

OK, so update: officially over. I will try to update more often, especially, as things happen. But I do love you all, and I hope I find you again in good health and happy times!!

Frustrating day

RIP BEA ... WE HARDLY KNEW YE

Yeah, so it's been a really frustrating day. A few highlights (or lowlights):

1. Drove four hours, round-trip, to get me added on to some of Patrick's insurance. Why did we drive four hours? Because we had made two prior home appointments, but the insurance agents forgot to show up.

2. Patrick's computer had some major problems this morning and is pretty close to death, so we ended up buying an entire new desktop computer today. Which is fine, since we planned to buy it next month anyways, but still. Not expected.

3. Our house's A/C is out. This is probably the worst development of the day, especially since the rental company said they weren't sure if someone would make it out to the house tomorrow or not. Fun. We did go to Wal-Mart and buy a box fan, so we're protected against the heat somewhat. 

4. Since our house's A/C is out, we can't do anything tomorrow until they call and let us know if they're coming or not. Stuck in a sauna-like prison of a home all day? Sweet!

5. I burned the baby back ribs that I spent four hours cooking. While this wasn't a huge deal, this is what finally made me cry.

6. Bea Arthur (Dorothy from Golden Girls) died today. R.I.P. Bea, you will forever be remembered for being a friend.

However, some good things that happened today:

1. We got our new computer! :) It is pretty awesome. It's a Gateway "gaming supercomputer," whatever that means, and it looks all futuristic and such. It completes our new home office very well. 

2. We got to see my mother-in-law, Pam. She is awesome. 

3. We get to see Dad and Trey (my little bro) tomorrow!! And they're treating us to lunch at Baumhauer's! Double yay!

4. Sen'Derrick Marks, an Auburn defensive lineman, got drafted in the second round of the NFL draft today. Seeing as how I am a major nerd, I love the NFL draft, and I love it when Auburn players get drafted.

Prayer requests:

Please pray that someone will come out and fix our A/C ... no A/C in Alabama can be a bad situation. And please pray that Patrick and I will be able to enjoy tomorrow, 'cause we sure haven't enjoyed today that much.