Random Thoughts...Food, Firearms, and Fun

On July 4th, one of the sponsored posts that popped up in my Facebook news feed was for SummersPaw.com. It advertised a free bag of Fromm dog treats for liking the post and sending your address via PM. I was a bit skeptical, but figured why not? I was reassured by the response to my PM, and I shared their post and tagged a few friends with dogs to share the fun! I wasn't expecting the treats to arrive this week, and had, to some extent, forgotten about it. It was a rough weekend last weekend, and it's not been a good week, thanks to poison ivy and a sinus infection. Mac and I went to our standard Saturday breakfast, and when we got home, the mail had already been delivered. Cobaka and Geno received a USPS Priority Mail box from Summer's Paw. I was a bit confused, and said to Mac, "I don't remember ordering anything from there." When I opened it, I realized that it was the free treats! There were two bags of Fromm treats: Lamb with Cranberry and Parmesan Ch...

It's been so long since I've found the time to write a blog entry! I apologize, but lately, I've been so exhausted that the thought of adding one more thing to my to do list causes me to shudder! My mother is coming to visit this weekend, for the Best Kept Secrets of Berks County Tour. I feel like the house is a disaster (it isn't, but it isn't as clean as I'd like it for company), I'm sure I forgot something when packing my bags for tonight, and I know I'm running on less sleep than I'd like for having to drive and be awake until 10 or 11 tonight! I guess this is where coffee will be welcome! I'm looking forward to having my mother visit, even if I'm stressing about the house! It'll be nice for her to have a weekend away from home, and we'll have a blast! We're staying in Reading tonight, so we can get an early start tomorrow without having to wake up at some horribly early hour! We'll head back home tomorrow, after shopp...

This one for those last-minute graduation gifts! http://voices.yahoo.com/help-last-minute-graduation-gifters-12667114.html

We had an adventure packed weekend. I worked a bit late on Friday, so when I got home, I immediately started lunch. We had knishes that we picked up when we were last at Costco. They were very good, although they'd have been better with sauerkraut. I napped after lunch, while Mac cut the grass. I wanted to go to a semi-local BBQ restaurant, but by the time Mac showered and was ready to go, we wouldn't have made it there until after they closed. So, instead, we hit our local Qdoba, and then did a bit of grocery shopping. Mac always teases me about my choices for veggies for dinners, so I left it up to him to select veggies! On Saturday, we were going to have the Dream Dinners Crispy Salsa Ranch Chicken for dinner, but I had a few mystery shops to do, so we decided to push those until later in the day, and then check out a different BBQ restaurant for dinner. The BBQ restaurant was very good, and their dry rub was incredible, but neither Mac nor I were enamored with their sauces...

I recently discovered a cheese shop called September Farm Cheese . It's located in Honey Brook, PA, but they do ship their products if you aren't local. Their cheeses are very yummy, and if you are remotely local, I highly suggest you swing by there! If you like what you taste, and plan on frequenting their store occasionally, I also suggest purchasing one of their reusable shopping bags for $1.50. You'll receive a pin each time you return with the bag and make a purchase, and once you have 5 pins, you'll receive an 8 oz. bar of cheese for free. The bars range in price from $5-$7, so it's a deal. I discovered the store when my mother and I were running around Lancaster County a few weekends ago, and brought a few bars of cheese home for Mac to try. Mac and I returned this past weekend, and picked up another 5 or 6 bars of cheese! Between the two trips, we purchased: Extra Sharp Cheddar Extra, Extra Sharp Cheddar Pepperoni Augusto Jack (3 bars total) Garlic an...

After work yesterday, I picked up the veggies and such that I needed for the freezer cookbook meals. I opted to take a short cut there, and all of the onion, celery, garlic, and ginger was already chopped, diced, minced, etc. This saved me a lot of hassle and time. As such, I was able to prepare four meals last night, in addition to dinner. I prepared: Beef Barley Soup Dave's Swamp Blues Barbecued Chicken Mariachi Chicken Rolls Caribbean Pork Tenderloin* I started with the Caribbean Pork Tenderloin, but to simplify things, I opted to change it into a pork roast. As such, I added to the marinade. We'll see how that turns out when we try it! The recipe was very easy to follow, although I will admit, I made a giant mess with splattering the soy sauce all over the table. From there, I moved to the Barbecued Chicken. I started the sauce, which smelled and tasted yummy, although I had to make a small substitute, so I think it'll have a bit of a sweeter flavor than intende...

Dinner last night was the Layered Ravioli Bake from Dream Dinners. While I'd have preferred to try something else, necessity dictated that we try this meal, as it was the only one that could be baked from frozen. Yes, I forgot to thaw anything over the weekend, so we were left with what could be baked from frozen. I love that it was easy enough to prepare--toss it in the oven for 90 minutes, then remove the cover, and bake for another 15 minutes. The sauce had a bit more of a kick than we thought it would, but I was very pleased with this meal. It was tasty, filling, and the sausage and mushrooms were a nice touch. It is always a plus when the meal is prepared in a foil pan that can simply be thrown away once we pack up the leftovers! We both decided that, while we wouldn't order more of the Layered Ravioli Bake this month, we'd order it again the next time it appears on the menu, but I'll try to remember to scale back the spice a bit. I actually have leftovers fo...

I volunteered to monitor a rescue transport this weekend, after finding out that I didn't need to sit at home to do it. I thought they needed me to sit at home, while really, as long as I could use my phone to send emails, I could be wherever! Mac was thrilled that I didn't need to be at home. It allowed us to go have breakfast, do a few mystery shops, and run a few errands. We did a grocery store mystery shop and a restaurant mystery shop, and stopped by another grocery store to see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Yes, I'm a little kid like that. Oscar Mayer Wienermobile We also picked up the chicken and pork that I need for my first foray into freezer cookbook meals. The grocery store hosting the Wienermobile always has the freshest meats, and typically has the best prices on them as well. So, I picked up 12 pounds of chicken and 3 pork roasts. I'm going to pick up the rest of the items I need today, and will package those tonight. I'm not sure what we're ...

Two of the three freezer cookbooks are here: Don't Panic-Dinner's in the Freezer and Fix, Freeze, Feast. In looking at Don't Panic-Dinner's in the Freezer, it calls for you to cook meats and such and basically, devote a day to cooking the meals to go in the freezer. It's also written more for people who are going to each prepare a few meals and trade with each other. I guess, if I could find a few people who also wanted to participate, that might be a nice option to supplement Dream Dinners. Fix, Freeze, Feast is written more in the style of Dream Dinners, except that you typically prepare 3 meals worth of food for each recipe. This too would work well if others wanted to trade with each other. I've not spent enough time looking at the recipes to decide which ones I want to try, but I'll work on that tomorrow.

I'm big into trying to snag extra cash any possible way. After all, extra cash is always good, right? For quite a while now, I've been a member of Grodo. You join, register your credit/debit cards, and they automatically track your spending at certain grocery stores, pharmacies, and gas stations. If you spend more than your typical monthly spending at one of those, you get a percentage of that back. The only negatives are that their participating merchants are limited, and that you need a minimum of $100 before they'll send you a check. In my area, the participating merchants are Weis, Rite-Aid, and Sunoco. It does encourage me to spend more at Weis and less at Giant, but all within reason. If you care to join, you can click here . Fair warning, if you use the link to join, I receive a percentage of what you spend as well, but that doesn't affect what you earn. If you earn points, miles, or cash from your credit/debit cards that you already use, Grodo does not impac...

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 arriv...

Mac and I packed up the dogs last Wednesday and headed off to visit my parents for the Thanksgiving holiday. Since I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner, I purchased most of the groceries here, and we hauled those out to their house as well. They picked up a few odds and ends, primarily things that I figured wouldn't travel well. Mac and I headed out around 4 AM on Thanksgiving to try to snag a TV at Kmart. We didn't make it more than an hour in line, before we found out that they'd run out of vouchers for the TV we wanted. We headed back to my parents' house, and napped. I got up around 8:30 and prepared the stuffing, then got the turkey into the oven around 9 AM, so we could eat around 1 or 1:30 PM. I then mixed everything for green bean casserole and cut the red-skinned potatoes so we could have mashed potatoes. My mother prepared the hash brown casserole, while I prepared a dill dip from a local small business. Once the potatoes were ready, Mac prepared the mashed...

On Saturday, Tiff and I ran around Berks County, participating in the Berk's County Best Kept Secrets Tour. We had lots of fun, and when I got home, I decided to tackle the Dream Dinners Old Fashioned Meatloaf with Twice Baked Potatoes. I mixed in the oatmeal mixture with the ground meat, and then placed it into one of my meatloaf pans. It filled the entire pan, almost overflowing, so in the future, I'd use a rectangular baker pan. I then prepared the potatoes, filling the shells with the potato mixture. The meatloaf did not cook in an hour, like the directions said, so it went back in the oven for another 20 minutes. Not a big deal, since we had a late dinner anyway, and didn't have to be up for work the next day. I'm not sure if this was because it filled the entire meatloaf pan, but I was a bit grumpy about that. The meatloaf did have a very nice tangy flavor, and once it was cooked through, it was very enjoyable. The potatoes would have benefited from extra ch...