Dream Dinners Review--Slow Cooked BBQ Beef with Baby Bakers
I saved the Dream Dinners Slow Cooked BBQ Beef with Baby Bakers for Saturday. I figured that I'd get it ready in the crock pot Friday night, and that Mac could turn it on once he got home from hunting on Saturday morning. I knew that Saturday, after the Dress for Success Professional Women's Group workshop, I wouldn't feel up to cooking, so I thought this was a great way to still have a nice dinner, while not going back out after getting home from the workshop.
We had a rifle shipped to Cabela's in Hamburg, and we had until Wednesday, December 5 to pick it up there. We wanted to pick it up by Tuesday, December 4, because of a coupon offer they had, where you could save $20 on a $150 purchase. We planned on heading there on Sunday morning.
Saturday morning, Mac and I went hunting, before the workshop. Yes, I went hunting in business attire, with a blaze orange coat and hat added to my outfit. Dedicated, right? I then headed to the workshop, and still managed to arrive by 7:15, earlier than anyone else. On my way to the workshop, I noticed signs indicating that the interstate we'd need to take to get to Cabela's would be closed on Sunday morning. I called Mac, and we decided to head to Cabela's after the workshop instead.
This meant that rather than the planned dinner, we'd simply pick up dinner while we were near Cabela's. I headed home after the workshop, changed clothes, and we headed to Cabela's. Their firearms purchase process is now ludicrous. You have to wait in a queue for assistance in the firearms department, via a number system. Once you select a firearm, the employee who is assisting you completes a paper, indicating the firearm you are going to purchase, and places the firearm near the firearms checkout. You are directed to take a seat at a computer, in a roped off area, and from there, an employee reviews your paper, provides you with a PA pistol form, if necessary, or directs you to complete the ATF Form 4473 via computer. Once you complete it, you then click "done," and then sit and wait at the computer for 20 minutes or so, until a Cabela's employee can be bothered to print your form that's been sitting in a queue for printing. Once they print it, the employee in the computer area reviews it with you, has you sign it, and then places it in another queue, for them to call in the background check. Only after you review it and sign it can you leave the computer area. From there, your paperwork (and driver's license), sit in a queue for the background check call. Once that is completed, that bundle moves to another queue, for them to call your cell phone, to tell you that you can proceed to the firearms checkout line, where you wait in a queue, to pay for your purchase. A process that used to take 45 minutes or so at Cabela's now takes close to 2 hours. I grew very tired of waiting to find out Mac's paperwork had been processed, so we jumped the queue a bit, as I finally asked an employee to check on it. His was sitting in the "background check complete, waiting to call" queue. I'm sure that, had I not grown tired of waiting, we'd have waited for another 30 minutes or so.
We finally made it home around 11 PM. I slept until around 8 AM, ate breakfast, then went back to sleep until 2 PM. Yikes! At 2 PM, I started the Slow Cooked BBQ Beef with Baby Bakers in the crock pot, and took the dogs outside, giving them lots of praise for not doing their thing inside. While the cooking instructions said to cook it on low, I opted to cook it on high, since I didn't want to eat dinner at 8 PM!
Around 5:30, Mac decided that he was starving and wanted to eat then. He plated the meal for both of us, although he thought it was going to be similar to pulled pork, not a solid roast. He was rather disappointed, and likened it to pot roast with a hint of BBQ sauce. That's a very appropriate description, because that's really what it was. I agree with him, in that a shredded or pulled beef version probably would've been better, and I'd have preferred a stronger BBQ taste. I doubt I'd order this again, because it really did seem to just be your standard pot roast with a hint of a BBQ flavor.
That said, it was extremely simple to prepare, and thanks to crock pot liners, extremely easy to clean up afterwards. Mac took care of all of that as well, which was wonderful.
We had a rifle shipped to Cabela's in Hamburg, and we had until Wednesday, December 5 to pick it up there. We wanted to pick it up by Tuesday, December 4, because of a coupon offer they had, where you could save $20 on a $150 purchase. We planned on heading there on Sunday morning.
Saturday morning, Mac and I went hunting, before the workshop. Yes, I went hunting in business attire, with a blaze orange coat and hat added to my outfit. Dedicated, right? I then headed to the workshop, and still managed to arrive by 7:15, earlier than anyone else. On my way to the workshop, I noticed signs indicating that the interstate we'd need to take to get to Cabela's would be closed on Sunday morning. I called Mac, and we decided to head to Cabela's after the workshop instead.
This meant that rather than the planned dinner, we'd simply pick up dinner while we were near Cabela's. I headed home after the workshop, changed clothes, and we headed to Cabela's. Their firearms purchase process is now ludicrous. You have to wait in a queue for assistance in the firearms department, via a number system. Once you select a firearm, the employee who is assisting you completes a paper, indicating the firearm you are going to purchase, and places the firearm near the firearms checkout. You are directed to take a seat at a computer, in a roped off area, and from there, an employee reviews your paper, provides you with a PA pistol form, if necessary, or directs you to complete the ATF Form 4473 via computer. Once you complete it, you then click "done," and then sit and wait at the computer for 20 minutes or so, until a Cabela's employee can be bothered to print your form that's been sitting in a queue for printing. Once they print it, the employee in the computer area reviews it with you, has you sign it, and then places it in another queue, for them to call in the background check. Only after you review it and sign it can you leave the computer area. From there, your paperwork (and driver's license), sit in a queue for the background check call. Once that is completed, that bundle moves to another queue, for them to call your cell phone, to tell you that you can proceed to the firearms checkout line, where you wait in a queue, to pay for your purchase. A process that used to take 45 minutes or so at Cabela's now takes close to 2 hours. I grew very tired of waiting to find out Mac's paperwork had been processed, so we jumped the queue a bit, as I finally asked an employee to check on it. His was sitting in the "background check complete, waiting to call" queue. I'm sure that, had I not grown tired of waiting, we'd have waited for another 30 minutes or so.
We finally made it home around 11 PM. I slept until around 8 AM, ate breakfast, then went back to sleep until 2 PM. Yikes! At 2 PM, I started the Slow Cooked BBQ Beef with Baby Bakers in the crock pot, and took the dogs outside, giving them lots of praise for not doing their thing inside. While the cooking instructions said to cook it on low, I opted to cook it on high, since I didn't want to eat dinner at 8 PM!
Around 5:30, Mac decided that he was starving and wanted to eat then. He plated the meal for both of us, although he thought it was going to be similar to pulled pork, not a solid roast. He was rather disappointed, and likened it to pot roast with a hint of BBQ sauce. That's a very appropriate description, because that's really what it was. I agree with him, in that a shredded or pulled beef version probably would've been better, and I'd have preferred a stronger BBQ taste. I doubt I'd order this again, because it really did seem to just be your standard pot roast with a hint of a BBQ flavor.
That said, it was extremely simple to prepare, and thanks to crock pot liners, extremely easy to clean up afterwards. Mac took care of all of that as well, which was wonderful.
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