Random Thoughts...Food, Firearms, and Fun

They just about admitted it, since I bothered to point out that none of the newer employees have ever taken the time to introduce themselves, and since I admitted to my quirks... Wendy, I stand by my staff and I am very proud of the excellent customer service they provide to every guest that walks through our doors. I can only conclude from your emails that you are not happy at our store and no longer wish to continue as a guest. I will go ahead and cancel your October order. Respectfully, Dorothy Kolmer Manager dreamdinners.com Dream Dinners Lancaster P. 717-509-4530 F. 717-509-4531 lancasterpa@dreamdinners.com 1577 Manheim Pike Lancaster, PA 17601 From: Wendy Lunko Sent: Sunday, October 2, 2016 10:23 AM To: Lancaster Dream Dinners Subject: Re: cancel my order   Dorothy, Sorry for not replying sooner, but as I explained, my schedule was crazy other than ...

I’ve been a Dream Dinners customer in Lancaster, PA for a few years, and have even blogged about my experiences. After last night, I may not be a customer much longer. I received a call yesterday afternoon, indicating that I was the only person in the 6:45 session, and asking if I could come in early. Calls like that are bad business practice. This isn’t the first time I’ve been asked to reschedule or arrive early, because I’m the only person in a session. The last time, I rearranged by schedule to arrive early, but it meant adding a lot of driving to my day. This time, I simply could not arrive early. Calls asking customers or guests to arrive early or reschedule are bad. Many of us opt for Dream Dinners because we’re very busy. Asking us to rearrange our schedule just adds additional stress, and part of what Dream Dinners offers is a reduction in stress. When I returned the call, I indicated that I would be there when I could be there. I also said that if it was easi...

Wow, it's been ages since I took time to write! I started a new job a few months ago. It's at another engineering firm, but it's only a few minutes from Mac's job, so that will be nice when we find a new house. It has changed where we are house-hunting a bit. I'm still selling Pampered Chef on the side, and if anyone wants to place an order for anything, I have a fundraiser for Mended Hearts Rescue right now. The link for that is: http://www.pamperedchef.com/pws/wendylunko/guest-landing/8908395822235;jsessionid=C5723B2FD4543152EE0CE5B6A7DEA0BB Mauser is getting along quite nicely with the rest of the pack. Geno gets very possessive of me, but it's usually more that he'll insist on pushing his way in and climbing onto me if Mauser is nearby. Mauser has a good amount of energy for a 10-year-old dog, although in the past few days, it's been obvious that his arthritis is acting up, as he's not wanted to do much but hold down the furniture. He's comf...

I'm always looking for ways to pick up a little extra spending or saving money, so as of this week, I've become a Pampered Chef consultant. If you want to order anything from Pampered Chef, please drop me an email through the contact form, and I'll let you know how to place your order. Before I decided to do this, I participated in a Pampered Chef Freezer Cooking Workshop at a friend's house. I figured it would give me some meal options that I wouldn't have through Dream Dinners, as Mac and I usually order duplicates of some of the Dream Dinners meals. The concept of the Pampered Chef Freezer Cooking Workshop is similar to Dream Dinners, but it is designed to give the consultant some sales, and give everyone who attends a chance to try out some of the Pampered Chef products. The consultant gives you a total for the Pampered Chef Pantry items you'll need to order, and then she handles placing the order. She then also sends you an email listing all of the ingr...

I’m venturing out on my first Central PA Bloggers event in mid-May, and I’m quite excited. In honor of National Beef Month, which happens to be May, we’ll be visiting a local farm, feedlot, and retail market. We’ll also have lunch with the Agriculture Secretary and a panel discussion with those in the business of raising cattle for food. We eat a fair amount of beef, so I’m interested in really learning how beef goes from standing in a farm field to our table! We hunt, so I know how a deer ends up on our table from the woods, but that’s a little different. We can’t control what a deer eats, nor can we control how old it is when harvested, etc. We can’t control the temperature at which the meat is kept during processing, nor before it reaches our house, whereas I would guess much of that is controlled with beef. Obviously, they can’t control how the beef is handled once it leaves the store, but controlling most aspects of its handling prior to that would make sense. I’m assumin...

I know I don’t spend enough time praising Mac, or thanking him, as in the day-to-day efforts of being DINKS, maintaining the house, taking care of the dogs, and doing rescue transports, things like saying thank you often fall to the wayside. I try to always thank him, but I know I can do better. Likewise, I know far too often, I don’t sing his praises!  He starts his workday before I start mine, as he works four, ten-hour days, yet since we’ve been married, I’ll wake up with him, and I’ll take care of getting coffee ready and packing his lunch. I’m a light sleeper, so it’s not a huge issue that I take care of the coffee and his lunch. I feel like I’m sending him off with a solid meal and his daily coffee, and I know he appreciates it. He routinely thanks me, but lately, he’s taken to cleaning out the coffeemaker before bed, rinsing it out, throwing out the old coffee, and placing a new filter into the basket. He never tells me that he took care of it, so it’s always a ...

It's been raining since early yesterday morning, and it's going to continue raining until at least this evening. Our yard looks like a mud pit, and the dogs are refusing to venture outside! We were supposed to meet a friend in Breezewood to walk the Abandoned Turnpike today, but opted not to do that in this weather. After a Dream Dinners Bacon Breakfast Frittata and coffee, Mac helped me fold the clean laundry, and I started the first load of dirty laundry. That's now in the dryer, and the next load of laundry is in the washing machine. I hate laundry, and as such, it always piles up because I keep delaying doing it. We're having beef barley soup for dinner, along with beer bread. I'm also going to whip up a batch of brownies, although I think those will be taken in to work tomorrow, as a gift to my coworkers. Today is a good day to hunker down and bake. The beef barley soup is from the freezer. I prepared a few batches a few months ago, and this is the last bag...

Since I've been frequenting Dream Dinners for almost two years, I can now easily explain exactly why I love Dream Dinners. I first visited Dream Dinners at the suggestion of a friend, when I inquired about once a month cooking. I was concerned about the logistics of once-a-month cooking, including the logistics of the prep work, doing a large grocery shopping, and storing the food before prepping it. I love cooking, and I love taking care of Mac, knowing that I'm preparing healthy meals, but I hate the prep work, and with our kitchen being so small, I hate the clean-up. If I did the prep work at home, I'd fill both sinks before I'd finished the prep work, and would then need to wash dishes at least once before finishing the prep work. Our rule has always been that if I cook, Mac takes care of the dishes, and if I he cooks, I take care of the dishes. When he and I discussed once-a-month cooking, he was not happy about the thought of all of the cleaning! A friend me...

Yesterday, we picked up Rolly, a senior black lab, who needed a place to bed down for the night on his way to a rescue in New England. He then had to be north of Harrisburg by 7 AM. His ride was finishing breakfast when we arrived, so he was on the road a few minutes early. I came home, napped for a bit, and then Mac's phone rang at 9 AM. I've been up since then. My transport to Hamburg was about 30 minutes early, so it was good that I was ready to go! Mac was at some meeting at the Masonic Center, so I was on my own, which wasn't too bad. The pups left Hamburg about 35 minutes ahead of schedule, so I had a few minutes to shop. Shortly after heading back, I received a text message that tonight's overnights (two Australian Shepherd mixes) were going to be about 30 minutes late, which meant that I could've spent a bit more time at Cabela's, but I was rather happy to leave! I'm now home with both overnighters and my two, and I'm ready for a nap!

I had my Dream Dinners session tonight. Mac was going to come with me, and then we were going to do some shopping nearby. We arrived, and there were so many people there that Mac opted to do the shopping while I prepared the Dream Dinners order. It was really busy, but I was only preparing four meals, although I was preparing two each of two of them (Chicken and Pasta with Lemon and Artichoke Sauce and Southwest Pork Carnitas with Chipotle Maple Corn) and three each of two of them (Cattleman's Pie and Creamy Chicken Florentine Tortellini). My other two were Fast Lane meals (Central Park Garlic Chicken with Roasted Heirloom Potatoes and Sage and Parmesan Boneless Pork Chops with Toasted Onion Potato Wedges). In preparing the Cattleman's Pie, one adds the onions and carrots in one bag, and the peas and parsley in another. However, the peas and carrots are next to each other in the back, and the onions are in front of the peas, with the parsley in front of the carrots. To me, ...

We currently have about 14 inches of snow since last night, and we are expecting another 3-5 according to the latest weather report. Mac knew by 4 PM yesterday that he'd be home today. My employer first sent an email at 6:15 reporting that we'd have a 2 hour delay, and then at 7:45 sent an email telling everyone to stay home. I've been up since about 7:30, and Mac and I enjoyed a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and coffee, after the dogs enjoyed a frolic outside. Well, Cobaka enjoyed a frolic outside, while Geno ran out, took care of business, and immediately high-tailed it back to the porch. Not a surprise, as Geno loves snuggling in blankets while Cobaka loves colder spots in the house! Around noon, I started working on the Hatch Valley Green Chili with Chicken that's our dinner tonight. I chopped up the chicken and tossed it in the crock pot with the chili starter. We're just having grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for lunch. It's perfect winter weather com...

It's been ages since I've posted, and I apologize, but things have been rather interesting, in a good way! In October, shortly before I left for my first real vacation in 3 years, I decided it was time to look for a new job. I posted my resume on October 14, and had an interview before I left for vacation on October 17. I returned from vacation on October 25, and on October 28, agreed to an interview with another company. I interviewed on November 1, and received a job offer on November 4. I accepted, and started my new position on November 18! I'm loving it!!! I am working longer hours, but I'm loving it, so I don't mind. However, it's why I've not posted an update in ages. I'm still attending Dream Dinners and enjoying it. My January session was yesterday, and I'm anxious to try some of the new meals. My February and March orders are scheduled, and in March, my Eastern Star chapter is hosting a Dream Taste event. I'm so excited to share it wi...

Since the end of August, I've really been trying to follow Weight Watchers online. I've had some rough weekends, but lately, have been pretty good about sticking to it. Weekends have always been tough, because I don't have a set plan and schedule most weekends, but trying to empty out the freezer has helped, because I know the nutritional information for my Dream Dinners meals. I'd set an unofficial goal of wanting to lose 20 pounds by the middle of October, and assuming I can keep at it, I only need to lose another 2.4 pounds to hit that. I'm hoping that I can then lose another 10 pounds by the end of the year! I'd love to start next year a few sizes and 30 pounds down! I wanted to share this somewhere, so why not here?!?

Yesterday was a hellish day, between a lot of things at work, plus 4 different phone calls with the vet. We think Geno has another UTI, and I'd made an appointment with the vet tech for Friday to get a specimen, only to realize that I needed to reschedule. I moved the appointment to last night, which resulted in a phone call from one of the employees to let me know that our regular vet was out of town, and to reassure me about the fill-in vet. I inquired a bit and balked, because well, Geno doesn't do well with new people, and she called me back to reassure me about the vet's qualifications. In the end, we didn't even see the vet, and we won't know until Friday or Saturday if he has a UTI. We go back to the vet on the 9th, so if nothing else, we'll see our normal vet then." As I'd thought I'd be home to make dinner, I'd planned on cooking the Dream Dinners Pub Style Chicken with Mashed Potatoes. I was in the mood for comfort food after a rough ...

For dinner on Wednesday, we tried the Dream Dinners Fully Loaded Chicken & Potato Soup with Breadsticks. This week has been crazy at work, and looking at the cooking instructions, I knew the soup wouldn’t take long to prepare. I simply preheated the oven to bake the breadsticks, heated the bacon until it was crisp, tossed the soup base (mashed potatoes and other yummy things) into a stock pot, allowed that to boil, then added the chicken and potatoes and allowed those to heat. Once it was ready, I topped it with cheese and bacon, and dinner was served! I did add some black pepper to the soup as it was cooking, and Mac added a bit more once he’d tasted it. This was great comfort food, and it was so easy to prepare! I’m hoping this makes it back to the menu in December or January, so I can pick up a few orders of it. It would be great for a snowy day, especially if I had time to allow it to simmer for a while. Dinner last night was the Old Fashioned Meatloaf with Twice Baked Potato...

My test recipe was the Sicilian Cheese Stuffed Turkey Burgers, served on pretzel rolls. I prepared this for dinner last night, and took the requested survey after we cleaned up from dinner, so that everything was fresh in my mind. Mac and I were underwhelmed, and without changes, wouldn't order this as it currently is prepared. Preparation: The ground turkey was actually individual patties, but when it thawed, they congealed together. This worked just fine, I guess, except that it was rather messy, because I needed to place the meat and spice mixture into a bowl, mix it, then form patties, add the cheese, reform patties, and then cook the burgers. While I realize it would take a bit of time at the store, I'd rather bag each patty individually, add the spices and cheese, and then be able to mix that patty in the bag, so I'd not need a mixing bowl. I'd also not get cheese all over, trying to stuff it into patties. When mixing and forming the patties, my hands became cov...

Mac came with me to my Dream Dinners session on Friday. We had other errands to run out that way, so he agreed to join me. We arrived at 9 AM, which was the start time for the flex session. Mac jumped into preparing the Cattleman's Pie, while I prepared the Crispy French Onion Chicken. As we discussed later, we should have swapped meals! While we were preparing the cooking instructions cards and getting our drawer and freezer space, I was asked if I wanted to try a test recipe. Mac agreed that we should try it, so that was placed on our shelf. I won't spill on that quite yet, as I'll wait until we try it! I love the test recipes, as they are so unexpected, and it really made my day! We'll have that next week, once Mac is back in town. Preparing the meals was easy, as usual, and the session wasn't very busy, so it was nice. Mac and I could work together to prepare the meals. I love that he'll be working on assembling part of a recipe while I'll be working o...

I've been volunteering with an organization for years, and have enjoyed it quite a bit, although at times, my volunteer and work activities seem to clash. I've been swamped at work. I've been working overtime and on weekends, and quite frankly, am looking forward to only having two rescue transports, a wine tasting and pig roast, rehearsal for Eastern Star, and lunch with a friend this weekend. I should add that I'm taking Friday off, as I needed to try to squeeze in Dream Dinners at some point and I simply could not find the time in the next week or so to do that without taking Friday off from work! I'd expressed my schedule to those in charge at the volunteer organization, and had been assured that they understood that work was my first priority. Unfortunately, no one there seems to recognize this, as they keep asking me to do things, and then only after I've completed it and pointed out that I've been swamped, have I received the response of, "Oh, ...

I decided to try the Dream Dinners Asian Barbecue Braised Ribs for dinner on Thursday. They were easy to prepare, as I simply placed them on foil, doused them with pineapple juice, foiled the foil over, and then baked them for a while. After baking them for 50 minutes, I removed them from the oven, opened the foil, and added the sauce, then allowed them to broil for a few minutes. The result was lousy. The sauce was very odd, did not go well with the pineapple flavor, and was in no way, shape, or form, reminiscent of barbecue. As I took care of ordering pizza for dinner, Mac deboned the ribs, rinsed off the sauce, and packed them in a storage container. We're hoping that we can add some standard BBQ sauce and salvage them for dinner tonight.

I stumbled onto plated.com, a website that offers a service very similar to Dream Dinners, except that it's a weekly menu, and rather than have to go to a store, they ship the food directly to you. It does cost more per serving, but because I found a promo code, I figured I'd try it. I do like that the price/serving is the same, whether you order chicken, shrimp, fish, or steak. I ordered four plates of shrimp tacos with grilled Mexican corn. My order should arrive next Tuesday, and I think I'm simply going to cook it for dinner Tuesday night. Should you want to try it, you can use my referral link https://www.plated.com/invites/c7178b to receive 2 free plates (pay $10 for shipping), and you can try to stack it with the promo code of FIRSTPLATED for 4 free plates.