MoniKitchen
Enchiladas
I know Katie just posted a recipe for Enchiladas - but this was my new recipe for the month, so I gotta post it :) Maybe we can have an Enchilada-off
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1-16oz. can refried beans
1/2 C chopped onions
1-10oz. can Enchilada sauce
2 chopped tomatoes
1 1/2 C shredded cheese
1/4 C butter
1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 T cooking oil
1/4 tsp paprika
12 tortillas
2 C milk
3/4 C ripe olives (we don't like olives, so omitted these)
Brown beef and onion; drain
Stir in beans, salt and pepper
In another pan, heat oil, quickly dip tortillas in hot oil until soft
Place 1/3 C meat mixture on each tortilla
Top with chopped tomato and roll tightly, place seam side down in 13 x 9 pan
Melt butter, stir in flour, dash of salt and paprika
Add milk and enchilada sauce
Cook and stir until boiling - boil for 1 minute
Stir in cheese and [sliced olives], pour over tortillas
Bake at 350 for 30minutes
(Serves 6)
Will You Go Out With Me?
Eve 6 Concert at Chicago City Limits in Schaumburg
It was a Friday night. We went to Chili's first for dinner, Tim had ribs and I had fajitas!
We bought the concert tickets a few weeks ahead of time, so it was awesome to have something on the calendar to look forward to.
There were a few opening bands so we were feeling really old. Not because we were surrounded by teenie-boppers like at the Panic! At the Disco concert, but because standing for 2hrs was killing us and we got super tired being a Friday night.
But all in all we had a good time. Eve 6 played some new stuff but a lot of their old stuff, so it was a big flashback to early college. Eve 6 was Tim's favorite band in college, so it was cool to sort of "share" the experience with him!
That's Hilaarious
Road Games
On our drive up to Milwaukee to see comedian Louis C.K., we started up a new sort of road game. [We typically play the alphabet game with the billboards and freeway signs]. Our new game was coming up with City, State names after job titles. I don't remember any specific ones - but for instance: Plumber, South Dakota or Veterinarian, Florida or Gynocologist (sp?), Missouri. This derived from Tim thinking the Pennsylvania town King of Prussia is hilarious!
New Quotes
Other funny moments from the past month was the onslaught of "milk, milk, lemonade", "that's what she said", and "RI ron't RIKE remonade" - to mean "snow"- on our Iowa trip.
This continued into Katie's visit which also unveiled the true meaning behind Soulja Boi's [no, i have no idea how to spell that stupid name] "Superman" song and quotes from Tracy Morgan on SNL doing Brian Fellowes, such as "that rat needs a haircut."
Throughout the month, Tim & I said "Tim (or Monica)....C'mon" from How I Met Your Mother in the stylings of Ted Mosbey.
Good Talk
By going to Zach Vogel's funeral, it got us on the death topic. We talked about how Tim has been "lucky" having such a young family, but he's also had more deaths because he's lived with more generations in his family (pretty much all of his great-grandparents were alive when he was growing up). Whereas I had lost many family members before I was even born (I only ever knew my two grandma's and one great-grandma)...and then of course I endured a series of family deaths in college.
We've only experienced two deaths close to us since we've been together - Tim's great grandmother and Tim's stepdad's mother (so, step-grandmother). It will be interesting how we will cope together when a more detrimental loss occurs.
The Good Life
I'm starting this new section to list ways Tim & I have made our lives and marriage better. Either by luck or us making it happen!
Monica's New Job
My new job at Aspen Marketing Services is an improvement in many ways!
First, my commute has been slashed from an hour or more to 20-25min. I also received a little bump in salary which will equal over $200 extra Net per month. I went from being an Account Executive at a yellow pages agency, doing something I couldn't have cared less about to being a SENIOR Account Executive at a "real" ad agency where I work on the Qwest Retail Promotions account. So, while I don't have passionate feelings about Qwest, I'm working on big projects involving direct mail, store signage, radio spots, etc. for Qwest's store Grand Opening events - which so far seems very fun!!!
Social Events
Putting things on the calendar gives us structure and something to look forward to. our condo has felt even more like a home in the past month with all of our various guests filling it :)
Tax Return
We are getting nearly $7K (joint) in a tax return this year!!! We haven't decided for certain where it will all go, but the primary objective will be to pay off my car - which I owe about $3K on still, then toss a little to our CC's, and a little to savings!
OK! Still to come...
Month Recap and Marriage Epiphany!
The Epiphany is a long one this month...so I had to break it up ;)
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5 comments:
Oooh your enchiladas sound delicious too! You actually made a sort of béchamel sauce with the flour/butter/milk/cheese combination there! BRAVO!!
I'm really excited for you guys that things are falling into place :) I mean with your new jobs, and this little monetary boost which you could really use, etc...it just sounds like you guys are on a good path here in your first year of marriage. Of course it would be even BETTER if townhouses weren't so expensive :\
sweet tax return! how the heck do you get so much back? Just wait till you have a kid, that tacks on another $1500 to what you get back. I'm so happy for you guys, it sounds like things are really moving forward for you. Maybe we'll see you this weekend (?)
yea, I really wish I coulda made the enchiladas in John's kitchen with his huge counter! With our set-up we had to do teamwork, my station was at the stove, and Tim was at the counter! Haha, but yea - they were DELISH!
I'll have to try yours too!
Awww, we're all like grown-up women with our recipe exchanges and whatnot.
Steve wanted the Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe, so now he's part of THAT club too!
Taxes! yea, i'm not sure how we hit the jackpot so well. The differences from last year to this year are that we are married, so I guess there's a bump there. We also had a full year in the condo vs. last year when it was only 5mos so we paid a ton more mortgage interest that is a deduction.
Tim has a lot of student loans still, and I made more $$ so had more taxes taken out.
We made a ton more by filing jointly..I don't really know the difference, but when filing separately we couldn't claim Tim's student loan interest, which got us a lot back too!
between my crafty card making and exchanging recipes like this, I feel like I've aged ten years in the last two ;)
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