Random Thoughts...Food, Firearms, and Fun

Mac and I prepared the Dream Dinners Canadian Bacon Stuffed French Bread for dinner last night. I used the programmed bake feature on my stove, so that it cooked it while we were on our way home. This was the first I've tried that, and I was a bit nervous. It worked well, other than we were delayed about 10 minutes in getting home, so it wasn't quite as hot as I'd hoped. It was very enjoyable, especially the butter and cream cheese spread. To me, the sausage distracted from the taste, so next time, I'd probably omit the sausage, and perhaps ask about adding extra Canadian bacon and/or cream cheese spread. I would have liked to have added the cream cheese spread to both sides of the bread. Mac was also very thrilled with it, and we'll definitely order it again, sans sausage.

I had my July Dream Dinners session on Saturday, and even though everything fit in my freezer, I decided I'd pull out a few meals: Charhouse Chicken Sandwich on a Pretzel Bun, Grilled Bruschetta Chicken, and Canadian Bacon Stuffed French Bread. We cooked the Charhouse Chicken Sandwiches for dinner on Saturday. We knew we didn't need leftovers for his lunches for the early part of the week, so sandwiches made sense. I opted to broil them, so it didn't take long at all to cook them. I topped them with the cheese blend, allowed it to melt, and then served them. I liked that the pretzel rolls were pre-sliced, as I didn't need to fuss with that. The mayo was very similar to the sauce for the Outlaw Chicken Sliders. It may be the same sauce, although the menu didn't specify that it was the same.Neither Mac nor I really was thrilled with this meal, in part because the sauce was too much like the sauce for the Outlaw Chicken Sliders. I think this could have been improved by...

I prepared the Savory Grilled Chicken with Sesame Honey Butter last week, and it was uninspiring. I didn't care for the taste at all, and Mac was less than impressed with it. I think it was too bland for his tastes. He did eat the rest of it for lunch and dinner later in the week, but really, I think that's only because he hates to see food go to waste! This is one of those meals where I'm not too upset that we ordered it, but we definitely won't order it again!

Since we were out for much of the day, I figured yesterday was a good day for the Dream Dinners Slow Cooked BBQ Pork Loin. I followed the directions, cutting it into pieces and searing it, then placing it into the crock pot. I cooked it on low while we were out, and when we arrived home, the house smelled lovely. I served it with rice and broccoli, although when we packaged up the leftovers, we packaged up the broccoli separately, and used the corn from lunch as the vegetable for our lunches. We'll use the broccoli as our vegetable for lunch tomorrow. The pork was extremely tender, and was falling apart as I removed it from the crock pot. Mac was not impressed, as he said it tasted too much like pot roast. To me, the sauce had far too much of a tomato flavor and not enough of a BBQ flavor. Had the sauce been a straight BBQ sauce, I'd probably have been raving about how it was a great pulled pork meal. We won't order this again. In other news, I did increase my Dream D...

We had a fairly crazy weekend. On Saturday, I monitored a rescue transport, which went well. Mac and I went grocery shopping, and tried out a restaurant a bit south of us. It specializes in pit beef, ham, turkey, and pulled pork. It was good, but it was rather expensive. There's another "smokehouse" that's on the way from the vet, and it's about the same distance. We decided that we prefer that one. When we did our grocery shopping, the cashier didn't scan 2 coupons, so I had to visit the customer service desk to receive those. Today, I monitored the second day of the transport, and drove the next to last leg of it. There were no problems, except on our leg, when one of the three dogs decided she wanted to chew anything--her leash, her harness, another dog's collar or leash, or another dog's leg! We took Cobaka and Geno to our local dog park this morning. They enjoyed running around, and Cobaka especially enjoyed frolicking with another dog who arr...

I didn't get home from Miami until 7:30 on Sunday evening, and then we stopped for dinner, so I really didn't get home until after 10 PM. I was too tired to consider pulling out anything for dinner on Monday. On Monday morning, before I left to head in to work, I grabbed the BBQ Chip Chicken Tenders with Dipping Sauce and left that in the sink to thaw. When Mac was on his way home from work, he asked what I wanted him to pull out to thaw, and I mentioned that I already had dinner thawing. When I let him know once I was headed home, he looked at the directions and turned the oven to the right temperature to preheat. I came home and, after reading the directions, noticed that it said to place the BBQ chips on a plate and then place each chicken tender on there, coating each with chips. I opted for a slightly different method, dumping the chips into a gallon-size Ziploc bag, adding the tenders, and shaking. It worked, and it kept us from having an extra plate to wash! This w...

Last week was rather crazy for me. I had a few deadlines at work and then I also had to prepare for the Dress for Success Professional Women's Group Success Summit. That was this past weekend, in Miami. We stayed at EPIC - A Kimpton Hotel, and it was amazing! Due to how crazy my week was going to be, I opted for very quick and easy meals last week for dinner. One of those was the Savannah Grill Chicken with Sweet Potato Fries. Mac is not a fan of sweet potatoes, so I knew the fries might not appeal to him, but I figured we'd try the chicken anyway. It was very easy to prepare, as I simply cooked the chicken in a skillet, then added the sauce, and baked the fries. I really enjoyed the flavor of the chicken and sauce, and I didn't mind the sweet potato fries. Mac said the fries were edible, although we both found that they were more enjoyable if we added a bit of the sauce to them. We did discuss that, with side items like that included with the entree, it would be nice...

At my last Dream Dinners visit, they were offering a special--one could buy a 3-serving of the St. Louis Smokehouse Ribs, Seasoned Fries, and Caramel Apple Blossoms for $25. They billed it as a father's day special I picked up one of those packages and took it home for my parents. My parents prepared the ribs and the fries a week or so ago, so my father typed up his opinions on the meal, and I'm sharing them here. The ribs were good (with BBQ sauce).  The fries, not so much.  Had they been plain, they would have been decent french fries.  The seasoning actually detracted from the fries.  I kept waiting for some kind of flavor from the seasoning and there was nothing there.  You're better off buying a bag of seasoned fries from Wal-Mart (Great Value brand) and doing them.

I prepared the Dream Dinners Chicken Soft Tacos with Key Lime Corn meal on Tuesday night. Monday night, we went out to dinner, and then headed to bed, because we were both exhausted. The chicken soft tacos were very easy to prepare. I simply cooked the chicken and carrots in a skillet, added the sauce, and then allowed most of it to cook off before serving. I heated the tortillas in the oven while that was cooking, and and sauteed the corn and sauce. I served the corn on the tacos, and it gave it a very nice lime flavor. The carrots weren't noticeable, so if you have kids, it's a great way to sneak them into a meal. There were 8 tortillas in the foil packages, which just always strikes me as an odd number for a 6-serving meal. Mac took the leftovers for lunch the next day. We packaged it in the mini crock pot, and then he simply took the container and the tortillas. It was extremely enjoyable, and we'll definitely order it again.

I prepared the California Chicken with Fettuccine the other week, and for some reason, I really thought we'd had this before, but I guess not. This was another easy to prepare meal, although it required two pans, one for the chicken, one for the fettuccine. I coated the chicken in flour, cooked it on both sides, then added the sauce, while the fettuccine was cooking. The sauce smelled amazing! It was very nice and very flavorful, and I really enjoyed the mushrooms. The sauce had a garlic cream smell and feel to it. I served it over the fettuccine, and it was a very nice combination. I would definitely order this one again, as it was simple to prepare and very tasty.

Gettysburg Stories: John Pickel, from Chancellorsville to Gettysburg and Beyond I guess I'm building up a decent portfolio of articles...

This was a crazy weekend for us. I worked late on Friday, as I had a submittal that had to go on Friday, via email. Mac was at the range when I got home, and we ate leftovers and napped quite a bit. I ate California Chicken with Fettuccine leftovers, and I guess I still owe a blog entry about that meal! On Saturday, we both were up early and headed to the gun show. I was going to drop him off and head in to work, but he said, "Why don't you come with me, and we'll walk around and then leave after that?" So, we both went to the gun show. He found a steal of a deal--a No. 1 Mk. 5 Enfield in gorgeous condition (one of 20,000 ever produced) for $200. That was the good for Saturday. The bad for Saturday was that as we were leaving, someone flagged us down and told us that we had a flat tire. The left rear tire was flat, and when we started to change it, well, let me clarify... When Mac started to change it, he discovered that one of the lug nuts was a larger size than ...