Archive for the ‘personal’ Category

Recipe: Ultimate Goop Stuff

Posted: January 31, 2010 by datechguy in hobbies, personal
Tags: ,

This is what I cooked for dinner tonight:

What you need:

  • Two Frying Pans
  • 1 Whole Pork Tenderloin
  • 1 Sirloin Tip
  • 1/2 of one Chicken Breast boneless
  • 1 Large Onion
  • 1 Green Pepper medium-large
  • 1 pkg McCormick Taco seasoning (mild/regular or hot per your taste) 1.25 oz.
  • Garlic Pepper
  • Onion powder
  • 10 oz Shredded Mexican and/or Mozzarella cheese
  • A 6 oz jar of your favorite brand of Salsa
  • 1 pkg soft Tortilla wraps medium (16 wraps)
  • One Tablespoon minced Garlic (fresh if possible bottled is ok)
  • Olive oil

Prep work:

  1. Heat both frying pans to medium heat add olive oil to coat each pan
  2. Slice Chicken Breast into strips 1/4″ width and 1 1/2-3 ” long
    Slice Pork Tenderloin into 1/2 inch disks and then half the disks.
    Slice Sirloin Tip in 1/2 cubes and then half the cubes
  3. Dice the Whole Onion and Pepper

Directions:

  1. Add Sliced Chicken to 1st Frying pan
  2. add onion powder, garlic pepper and 1/8 pkg McCormick Taco spice (.15 oz if you want to be exact)
  3. Pan Fry 10 min stirring regularly
  4. While Chicken is frying add Peppers and Onions  and Garlic to 2nd frying pan
  5. Add onion power, garlic pepper and 1/4 pkg of the remaining McCormick Taco Spice
  6. Pan fry on medium/medium low heat stirring frequently
  7. Add Pork to Chicken Mixture
  8. Repeat garlic pepper, onion power, McCormick per step 2
  9. pan fry additional 10 min stirring regularly
  10. Add Sirloin tips to meat mixture
  11. Repeat garlic pepper, onion power, McCormick per steps 2/8
  12. Pan fry 15 minutes mixing regularly
  13. Empty pan with Vegetable mixture into the pan with the cooking meat, Add Salsa
  14. Pan fry 10 min
  15. Add Cheese to the top of the Mixture
  16. Take now empty Frying pan and invert it over primary cooking pan until cheese melts into mixture (like goop)
  17. Microwave Soft Tortilla shells 1 min
  18. Remove pan and scoop mixture into Tortilla shells as desired

Serve with Rice Pilaf  Yield 16 servings

Variations:

Frozen Chicken strips can be substituted if this is the case then add the chicken to the mixture last.

If you have “fussy” eaters the veg and meat can be kept apart, prepare a small 3rd frypan and add enough meat and veggies to the pan to satisfy the non-fussy eaters and cook as above, simply skip the salsa & cheese steps and let the “fussy” eaters add their own cold to the mix

If you live anywhere near the Border Grille & Bar, or the Southside Grille & Margareta factory — Border specialty sauce may be substituted for Salsa if you like it hot.

I’ve never cared for Spanish Rice but if you prefer it you can use it instead of the Pilaf.

If you perfer a single meat then remove any of the meat(s) listed and adjust cooking times accordingly.

…I think i’d notice it, but apparently my Oldest got a .25 cent raise a month and a half ago and never noticed it until this evening.

Hey even having a job is an accomplishment these days. Getting a raise of any size certainly doesn’t hurt.

Meanwhile I continue to get my own “raise” as several people have kicked into the CPAC/I’ll do it myself Tucker fund. To all who have gotten me over 8% of the way there already, my shock is only exceeded by my gratitude.

Meanwhile my shock continues as Dan Collins of POWIP also bangs the drum for more Fedoras at CPAC while Ruby slippers links to my Planned Parenthood in Fitchburg post.

Update: The shock continues as this blog is a featured blog on Pundit & Pundette.

…when they saw American Glob’s post in response to Stacy McCain’s and Smitty’s pleas to send me to CPAC. If they were anywhere near my laptop it would be shorted out and finally give up the ghost as it’s been threatening to do for months.

I’m flattered by the attention, but Made of Awesomeness? It’s almost as big a complement as being called a terrific gentlemen by the charming Roxeanne.

When I put up the “I’ll do it myself Tucker fund” it was an experiment to see if I could support myself though readership, basically a card to play as the countdown continues. CPAC was not on my mind When Stacy suggested it while I was here I confess I didn’t take it very seriously.

But a few people have already hit the jar with the express purpose of sending me to CPAC so what can I say?

I don’t do much traveling, Stacy does. He says $1600 will do the trick. If that can happen (and my wife is rolling her eyes at the possibility) then I will certainly go and do my best to be worthy of your support.

If enough is not raised I will of course refund any person who gave with the intent of sending me.

Either way I thank all of you for your support of the blog, financial or otherwise.

Update: American Gobs’ link to the “I’ll do it myself Tucker Fund” produces an error as did the link above which I have pulled.

However the links from the “Tucker” Page continues to work. I have tested it with the following browsers and versions:

Firefox 3.0.17, Internet Explorer 7.0.6000 16945, Safari 4.0.4 531.21.10,
Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.5, Maxthon 1.5.07 (build 82) and Mozilla 1.7.3

Until I can resolve the issue go here and follow the links there.

This is a good time to mention that you should ALWAYS have a least two different browsers on your system as a simple control. Is a web site failing? Is your connection failing? A secondary browser helps determine these things. I’m also a big fan of the idea that you can assign different functions to different browsers to make things easier.

The countdown to June 6th begins

Posted: January 26, 2010 by datechguy in employment, personal
Tags:

Got back from the Unemployment office a little bit ago. Arrived there at 8:15 and got out a little after 10 a.m. (First rule of Government queues, always bring a book!)

It appears for the next three weeks I’m going to be getting “live checks” vs the direct deposit that I had set up and then I begin my last extension. Barring any new legislation I have until the first week of June to find something. Ironically the 66th anniversary of D-Day is my D-Day.

I have another interview on Thursday (oddly for a job I applied for two months ago) but the time has come to go long on frugality, come up with a brilliant business idea or take whatever might turn up. If I can manage 67% of my last pay I can meet my bills (barring crisis) without going into debt.

However the woman I talked to at unemployment was telling me that her kid is in her 2nd year at WPI. From what she was saying only 1 of the class that just graduated that she knows has a job so it doesn’t bode well. Then again a commentator here clearly is doing worse that me and both of us are living like kings compared to the poor souls in Port au Prince.

In the end its all moot. No more of the expectations game, I have 18 weeks warning. If this problem is going to be solved it’s going to require less philosophy and more initiative. So I’d better get on the ball before I end up behind the 8 ball.