Busy Week

Sooo… I’m sorry it’s been a couple days since I’ve posted. It’s been a very busy couple days.

To start, the concert was excellent. Our seats were so-so but I can’t complain too much because they were free. Michael Franti was very entertaining and very energetic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grown man bounce for an hour straight. John Mayer is an excellent guitar player, but I don’t really understand why people find him all that attractive. He makes the strangest faces when singing; he looked like he was in pain. We wouldn’t have been able to tell what kind of faces he made from our seats, but they had an enormous screen behind him that would do close-ups on his face. All I can say is eeefft. There was also a teenage boy in front of us who was there with his mom. You’d think the kid was at a heavy metal concert instead of John Mayer. He was standing up and head-banging… to Heartbreak Warfare. Yeah… not normal. But all in all it was a very good night.

Tyler almost lost a very dear friend this week. It was touch and go for a while, but it appears his dearest friend has made a recovery and will pull through. This friend, of course, is his PS3. While in the middle of killing Nazi zombies, it just stopped. It gave a feeble hum and then blinked the yellow light of death. Tyler was frantic. He spent the better part of last week researching possible problems and solutions on the internet. The PS3 apparently has problems with overheating. When it overheats, it can cause the solder on the hard drive to melt and the hard drive to pull away from whatever it was connected to. Sony will fix the problem… for $150 plus shipping and handling. Oh and they will get it back to you within only 90 days. The thought of being without his friend for 90 days caused Tyler to do something drastic, he decided to try and fix it himself. There are, apparently, detailed videos on just how to do this on you tube. But, Tyler isn’t exactly handy… When something breaks he asks me to come and take a look at it (because I know anything about riding lawn mowers…). When I told my dad about Tyler’s plans, he offered to help. So Tyler and I headed up to mom and dad’s this weekend and they attempted to fix it. There was much sweating and stressing and talk of needing to imbibe to help with the nerves. I guess it was a very precise and delicate procedure requiring the removal of many screws. In the end, they fixed it and all seems to be back to normal. Tyler celebrated by having his friend come over with his PS3 and they set two TVs up in the living room so they could kill zombies together.

This coming week is spring break, and I am off for a week. While the thought of sleeping in and not having to deal with traffic is nice, I really hate not having anything constructive to do. Sure there are things I can do around the house, but it isn’t quite the same. I think it stems from all the time I spent unemployed after Tyler and I got married. It also doesn’t help that I’m waiting to hear about an application I put in. Keep your fingers crossed for me. As if waiting on an application weren’t enough, we’re also waiting to hear about this house we want to rent. As much as I hate packing and moving, I love changing stuff around and redecorating. I’m having daydreams about how I would position furniture and decorate. (I never said I was normal).

I do have a recipe for you. I’m going to do my best to keep recipes coming this week, mostly because there’s a whole bunch that I want to try while I’m at home and have time. I came up with this recipe because enchiladas are tasty and delicious but take waaay to much time to roll (esp. when you’re making them in bulk) and they just end up falling apart when you pull them out of the pan anyway. So I thought… why not make it in layers like a Mexican lasagna, and why not add frozen corn and black beans because you have some stray frozen corn and black beans. The result was a cheesy delicious and filing concoction that I will most definitely be making again, not just for the guys but at home as well. I would like to try it with chicken or perhaps some ground turkey.

Mexican Lasagna
Serves 25

7 lbs Ground Beef
3 cans Black Beans, drained and rinsed
3 ½ cups Frozen Corn
8-10 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
4 ½ cups Water
3 tbs Chili Powder
1 1/2 tbs Dried Oregano Leaves
1 tbs Ground Cumin
5 cans Diced Chilies
8 cloves Garlic, minced
120 oz Tomato Sauce
24-30 Corn Tortillas, 6 inches in diameter
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Brown ground beef and garlic in a large skillet over medium heat and season with salt and pepper; drain. Add frozen corn and black beans. Meanwhile in a large sauce pan, combine the tomato sauce, water, chili powder, cumin, diced chilies salt and pepper. Cover and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Spoon a small amount of sauce in the bottom of 2 baking pans. Top with a layer of corn tortillas, overlapping slightly. Top tortillas with a layer of ground beef, another layer of sauce and a layer of cheese. Repeat. Top with a final layer of tortillas, sauce and the remaining cheese. Heat, uncovered for 20 minutes or until sauce is hot and bubbly and the cheese is melty and beginning to brown. Serve with sour cream.