Random Thoughts...Food, Firearms, and Fun

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...

Disclaimer : I received free samples of Secret Clinical Strength to review, but I was provided with no compensation for this review. All opinions are mine. I hosted a House Party for new Secret Clinical Strength, and as part of that, tried the gel version. I've not yet tried the solid version, although I have a sample of that as well. I was prepared to hate this. I've never had much luck with Secret products, and I figured this was going to be similar. I expected it to not work well. I was wrong!!! I LOVE this! It is amazing, and it is supposed to work for up to 48 hours. I shower every day, so I've not tried it for 48 hours, but for 24, it keeps me dry and odor-free. I will definitely buy this when it hits the market in January 2014! It has a pleasant scent, isn't sticky, like a lot of gels are, and is great!

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...