Escapes and Verde Enchiladas

Remember how I wrote a few months ago about how much I was enjoying the fact that the boys didn't have a lot of sports commitments this Fall?  Well... I'm over that and am now THOROUGHLY enjoying their basketball commitments.  It's nice to have some structure.  It spawns efficiency in that if they have practice on any given night, they know they don't want to be doing homework when they get home, so they are learning that doing it ahead of time works better for them.  Basketball is easy, isn't it?  It's no more than an hour or so - it never gets cancelled due to weather.  It's just nice and easy, in my opinion.  It's a GREAT workout for the kids - my goodness, one day last week I thought Matthew was going to throw up in my car after running so much during practice. 

At Champ's practice a few weeks ago, I got to finish the book, GONE GIRL.  I really enjoyed this book very much!  Written by Gillian Flynn, this was a bizarre book which I fully expect to see made into a movie at some point.  I really enjoyed the journey of making my way through the book.  If you need something this Christmas for someone who likes to read, I would recommend this book!  I wasn't crazy about the ending but after a story like that, I'm not sure there is an ending out there that could cap it off any better.  Anyway, I give it a double thumbs up.

 

 

 

Just as I can escape life and become totally immersed in a good book, I find that I can also find a quick escape in a good show or movie.  Several years ago, someone recommended that Matt and I watch the t.v. show, 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland.  We were hooked after the first episode.  We spent months upon months catching up on old episodes on DVD - one after the other.  I'd be on the verge of a heart attach during any given episode because of the intensity.  Some nights, we'd watch three in a row.  Sadly, that show ran its course and is no longer on t.v.  If you haven't seen 24, I recommend that you look into watching it - either through DVD or Netflix. 

 

My current t.v. obsession is Homeland.  Oh my goodness - I can't get enough!  It comes on Showtime and I've been hearing the hype for a few months now.  Wow - now that we've made our way through Season 1, I totally get the hype.  Intense, suspenseful, interesting... it tickles all of your taste buds, so to speak.  I love it and highly recommend it.  Don't have Showtime?  Worry not - just call your cable provider and request that they give you a free trial run.  It doesn't disappoint - just be willing to put up with some language and adult content from time to time - and a lot of fear, trembling, wonder, confusion, awe... 

 

 

It has become a pass time for Matt and me.  We have to watch the episodes together - sort of an unspoken rule.  We plop ourselves on the sofa with a glass of wine - Sandy, our lab, curled between us, and we enjoy that hour so much! 

 

Enchiladas.  I love them every which way.  Beef. Chicken. Corn Tortilla.  Bean.  Flour Tortilla.  Spicy.  And recently I made verde enchiladas.  Verde means green in Spanish.  (Just call me Fancy Nancy).  I made some really yummy enchiladas the other night and they were so good!  I'm telling you - they're the way to go when you have some leftover meat that you need to use.  I had some leftover beef from my drip beef recipe.

 

Anyway - here's the deal. I used green enchilada sauce this time and corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas. 

 

I laid out my corn tortillas and started piling on the yumminess.  If my family members were blessed with adventuresome pallets, I would have made them with roasted red peppers, goat cheese, and navy beans - or beef with sauteed mushrooms... but they don't so I used beef, black beans, shredded Mexican cheese, and salsa. 

 

I poured the green enchilada sauce over them all, topped with cheese and baked at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  They were wonderful!  It's a little hard to get the tortillas out of the pan because they fall apart pretty easily - but that's okay - they were delicious!! 

I served them with a salad and there was our meal!  Quick, easy and ready to serve to my hungry crowd.

In this busy month, we need all the help we can get - so go on, put a piece of meat in your crock pot - and then turn around and put the tender meat in a different meal later in the week. Make it easy on yourself!

Elfcapades... Lewis arrived this year in typical Lewis fashion.  He rolled our front steps/door area with toilette paper and we found him inside the roll peeking inside the house.  This is his first year in our house so he's got a lot of exploring to do!  Last night we found him in our little computer nook high up on a ledge eating some Rolo's.  There was even a little bitty elf bite taken out of one of them.  ( I ended up polishing it off a little later).

He's got a long month ahead of him so we fully expect his wild tendencies to come out this year yet...