Random Thoughts...Food, Firearms, and Fun

On Saturday, I cooked the Mariachi Chicken Rolls from the  Fix, Freeze, Feast cookbook. I had to venture into work for a bit, so when I got home, Mac was ready for dinner. I don't know if it was a problem with the chicken or the cheese, or what, but both Mac and I had some tummy issues on Sunday, we think as a result of this meal. It was easy enough to prepare, except that I couldn't get the chicken to stay rolled, I think due to how large the chicken breasts were. So, I simply topped them with the cheese/salsa mix. I baked it as directed. The cheese/salsa mix resembled a watery soup when we pulled this out of the oven. Mac took the roll portion of the name to mean that there were rolls or tortillas or something with it. The chicken and sauce was lacking in flavor, as the outside of the chicken had a very mild spicy flavor, but the inside of the chicken was just chicken. Mac and I discussed how to improve this, and we had a few ideas: Add the chicken and sauce together,...

This entry is written by +Amber Gontz , guest blogger. She made the Beef Barley Stew from Fix, Freeze, Feast , and since I used elk meat, is calling it Elkalope Stew. I put the block of meat in first, then the frozen veggies on top of that, and poured the water in over the veggies so the block would break up a bit. I sprinkled the barley across the top and it looked cool floating on the water like that. I made the soup in my monster crock pot, used the low setting, programmed for 10 hours, after which it goes automatically to “keep warm” and it was on that setting maybe an hour max. The meat was tender. The vegetables were not mush to my great surprise. The flavors seemed to be all cooked through everything, which was tasty. I added a small amount of ground sea salt to mine because I like a lot of salt. It was good as is, just not salty. It was a good consistency for stew, thicker than soup but not solid. I think it would have paired perfectly with homemade cast iron cornbread. It h...

I'm still exhausted, and yes, that's even after going to sleep at 9 PM last night! I'll deal though, and will muddle through with today. I may take tomorrow off though, but I'm still trying to decide that. I did stumble onto another "free" money site, Great Bridge Group . Once you join, you link your cards (debit and credit), and they reward you a percentage of what you spend, everywhere. They pay once/quarter, up to $60/quarter, via PayPal or Amazon.com gift cards. I'm up to over $27 this quarter, and they list your payout date in your account as well, so there are no surprises. The link above is a referral link--if you join using that, I receive $5, and so do you. That bonus posts once you've linked a card and have been active for 90 days. I have my Amaranth initiation tonight, and I honestly don't know how I'm not going to fall asleep on the way home from there! Depending on what time I get home from work today, I may squeeze in a shor...