Pork Chops and Rice

8 thin cut pork chops
4 cups of rice (or so)
1 can of huntz (cheapest spaghetti sauce)
2 cups of water
1/2 stick butter

italian seasoning
garlic powder
lemon pepper

Frying pan
Casserole dish
preheat oven at 350

Put rice in the casserole dish
dump sauce on rice
dump water on sauce
mix up in casserole dish

Fry the meat in the butter with seasoning to taste but don't over cook, actually, leave it a bit rare
bury the porkchops in the rice mix
pour butter over top of rice mix and chops
cover with tinfoil
bake in oven at 350 for about half an hour

take out, let set for about 5-10 min to cool a bit
eat.

Spaghetti Bake

I know it's been a while since I added anything to this blog, but I loved my spaghetti bake I made lately...

frying pan
soup pot to boil spaghetti
casserole dish (any that will hold about 2 quarts or so, as long as it's big enough so cheese doesn't melt off the sides and into the oven, then... well, that will make your cooking experience even more thrilling and smoke-filled)

one box of thin spaghetti
1 to 2 pounds of ground meat (beef is my friend, but if you want turkey, or buffalo, or sausage, be my guest)
1 can of huntz (cheapest kind of spaghetti sauce you can get) or make it yourself, however you want
2lbs  or so of fine grated cheese, or any kind of cheese you want to put on top..

boil the spaghetti until it is cooked with just a teensy bit of aldente'. (that means a bit of hard in the center, but not too much, then it will be crunchy in the casserole. egh.

while it's boiling, cook up the ground meat until all the way done, don't leave ANY pink in any of it. seriously, it could harbour any little bad wigglies.
add the spaghetti sauce (and use any kind, it's all nummie)
stir it up, take off heat.

drain spaghetti
mix spaghetti and sauce in the original soup pot. make sure it's all coated with sauce and fairly well mixed with meat.
dump into casserole dish.
spread the cheese on top. add or take out as much as you want, hell, it's your dinner. have fun with it.

bake in the oven at 350 or so until cheese is melted all the way across the pan.
take out of oven, let set for about 15 min or so.
cut into four inch by four inch sections, or as big or small sections as you want, it's your food.
let set just a bit longer, then scoop out as many sections as you want to eat. it's just easier to scoop when you cut into sections.

tadaa!

AH... the joy of icy hills, an anecdote.

One morning in December, I was woken by "Zorchsnapplesnapplecrackzorchpop" and a bit of glittery light out the northern window.
this was about 5:30am.
I stumbled around a bit, thinking, 'my, isn't it awefully quiet in here. is the electricity off?' and looking at my printer. there was no light on the printer. I flicked the switch on in the room, no light. piss.. i say to myself.
knock on Linc's door, 'Linc, a power line must have fallen. there's no electricity.'
a mumbling curse comes from his room. I go to the southern window, and it is sheeted over with Ice so thick, you can't see out.
well, there's the problem right there.
No electricity, no computer .... hey! Cell phone!
I go to facebook, and state we may have to eat the cat... the power had been down for only 15 minutes. BUAHAHAA. Linc didn't take too kindly to that post. I laughed.
BHP (black hills power) was called, and about 20 min later they were at the southern base of the hill. I watched from the apartment's door, and while watching, they tried to send up a bucket truck.
well. this is where it was truly interesting. During this time, about 6 or 8 of the workers were Icecapading across the intersection and up the hill. a few even fell.. poor guys!
Well, the bucket truck makes it about half way up the hill, slides sideways, then takes out two cars parked on the side of the hill.. "Merry Christmas, you get a new car, thanks to BHP."
The truck comes to a stop at the intersection where the men are now hand tossing salt and sand onto the road so they can walk without killing themselves.
They get a large sand truck out there finally, and THAT tries to go up the hill. Ain't happenin'. IT gets halfway up, and slides backwards back down. SO, it has to turn around, and BACK UP THE HILL so it can scatter sand and salt so IT can get a path to the downed power line. So far, it's been about an hour / hour and a half.
The sand truck says 'screw this, you got enough here for a truck to get up.' and goes back out to sand and salt the main streets.
well, it IS a path just big enough for a regular bhp truck, but not a bucket truck. so one guy drives up the hill, finds the downed line, and walks back to the truck. he's looking up at the pole that the line was connected to, and back to the truck, then back to the pole and then to the truck (insert old spice commercial here), like he's trying to figure out how the HELL he was gonna fix it.
well, he comes out of the truck holding a 4 or 5 foot, orange pole. I'm like, wtf? is he going to HIT the damn thing and get it to work?
but no.
it seems this pole is Retractable. He extends it about 20 feet up to where the line is broken, and FIXES THE GORRAM LINE!! WITH A FRIGGIN RETRACTABLE POLE! I was duely impressed.
The electricity comes back on, and we don't have to eat the cat.
however, neither Linc nor myself can make it to work that day, there was a no travel advisory put out by the police.

Update

I'm sorry I haven't posted lately. I have been sticking to packaged soups as of late, when my Dad had given me some for Christmas. But I used them as bases for a richer soup that I add veggies and meats to. So a simple bag, whisked into a pot of 8 cups of water turns into a nearly full meal (fruit being left out of the equasion there..)

I've been wiping out our tea supply as well. Right now my favorite is Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice. It's so strong, one bag for me makes a small pot of like 3 or 4 cups.

I'm thinking of making lasagna again tonight.. but I'm outta cheese and tomatoes. So off to the grocery store for those, and some more of those soup mixes! NOM NOM NOM.

Roast Beef Roll

Well, This is pretty easy:

deli sliced roast beef
1 Can of pillsbury crescent rolls
shredded cheese

Cookie Sheet

Roll out the crescent rolls (two flat out)
place 3 pieces of roast beef on the rolled out rolls
sprinkle with cheese
roll back up, pinching shut the ends and diagonal slice

1 can has 3 of these worth in it.

bake at 350 until dark brown all the way around

pull out of oven, and let set so insides finish cooking

you can store them, and nuke them if you like.

Not a food thing... but

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16752786?utm_medium=facebook

Sorry ...

I haven't written much in the way of recipes lately, been busy at work, no time to try new mish-mashes.

but I did find a new bunch of songs I love! go and play this playlist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMUu43Q2IO8&list=PLECD1FAEC72019D79&index=3&shuffle=31&playnext=4

CHRISTMAS.....2000

I was living with Judy at the time in Hainsway apartments. I was working at Spiegel, and life was ... mediocre. Well, we couldn't really top the previous thanksgiving, since a lot of our peeps decided to make differant choices than ones *I* would have made, and more than half of our group had other things going on.

SO, we decided to go to my dad's farm in Nebraska (about 2 hours away) and stop at the Wakpamni Bed and Breakfast ( http://www.wakpamni.com/ ) , where our other friend, Laurie's family lived. Well, Judi and I took her Dynasty car down to the off-the-beaten-path get away, and there was noone home.. this was about 5 or 8 pm Christmas Eve.
So we just toodled on down the rest of the way to the farm. We had a good dinner and exciting breakfast with present openings and carols.. we each got a blanket, hats and gloves and scarves from my dad, and a few other things that only Dad would have thought of for both me and Judy. We gave him a few spiffy things as well, and my son was there too, enjoying the festive christmas with his mother.
I had to work the next day, so we took off around 4pm to go back up to Rapid City, by way of once again, Wakpamni B&B. Well, the Swicks were home, and ALL of them were home. Raleigh, Andrew, Adam, Laurie... And they had a new dog, one that looked a bit like Spuds Mackinzie. He had a collar made with jingle bells, and was all butt-wigglie because he had one of those thin tails that really wasn't a swishy waggy tail, just whippy waggie..

ANYWAY, Mr and Mrs Swick talked me and Judy into staying for dinner.. so we did. and we helped fix it too. WELL, Raleigh and Andrew went hunting for a goose for dinner, and a couple pheasants as well. We were listening to christmas music, peeling potatoes, getting brussel sprouts washed off, and having a good time. The boys came back in, and were all excited, as was the dog, wuffing and wagging and jingling the whole time.

Raleigh says "Look what we got!" and pulls a huge goose out of his bag, and hands it to Andrew.
the bird is still bleeding! all over the floor. of a very very nice bed and breakfast. light color carpet.
"RALEIGH! GET THAT THING OUTTA HERE!" Mrs Swick yells at them in her southern belle accent, "IT'S BLEEDIN' ON THE FLOOR!"
Andrew hoofs it over to the sink, where in one side are dirty dishes in water, and the other side, our fresh Brussel sprouts. He opted to dump the bleeding bird onto the vegetables. they could be washed off.
While he's doing this, Raleigh pulls out another 'bagged bird', a lovely pheasant rooster! I looked over from where I was helping Mr Swick peel garlic cloves, and something just didn't seem right....

"Oh you got a Pheasant! How Lovely!" Mrs Swick says, and smiles.... then it happened

The pheasant TOOK OFF! It hadn't been killed! It flapped around the room, spraying blood all over the walls and stair railings! Mrs Swick started yelling at the boys, the dog was barking and attacking the bird, Judy was at a loss for words as was I... Laurie was chasing down the bird, trying to corner it in the bathroom, which by this time looked like it was used on the set of Psycho.
Mr Swick just sat in his chair, next to me, and peeled garlic, chuckling the whole time.

Well, now that freddy kreuger visited the bed and breakfast, and the bird was caught and neck wrung, Mrs Swick made the boys take the birds to the garage to clean them.

Laurie, Judy and I set to work washing the walls and trying to soap out the carpet.... to the sound of the dog jingling around outside, terrorizing the cats. hehehehe.

The dinner went well, and we headed home....

NOW you remember where I said dad had given us blankets etc? well, we needed every stitch of those gifts.

The car had no heater.
no defrost.
it was nearly 10 pm when we left the B&B
and this was christmas in SD/NE.

the temperature was way below 0
we had to scrape the windshield from the inside to see outside
and
only one headlight.
for 2 hours
back home.

Thanksgiving... 1999

a few years back, before 2001, when I had met Dan, Friends of mine and I did a thanksgiving to remember.....

We had just done the Rocky Horror Picture Show in the Alex Johnson Ballroom, Halloween was a kick that year... That was the year I met Travis (that is a story within itself), and was introduced to Vampire the Masquerade. We played the Table Top with dice at first, then we upgraded to LARP (Live Action Role Play). We all had our own little quirks and costumes.. it was a Hoot! ( except mass combat.. another long story )

Well, quite a few of us had no other way to do thanksgiving with family, so I agreed to cook dinner and everyone brought something else to the table. It was a lovely idea.

Well, We had turkey breast, ham, potatoes, beans, chips, dip, and wine... remember, we had wine.. and dragon's breath.. remember this. we were intoxicated.

while food was cooking, and people were showing up:
Nate
Travis
Jamie
Lincoln
Brian
and Me.

Well, while food was cooking, Travis brought the ingredients to Dragon's Breath:
5 fifths of clear alcohol (rum, vodka etc)
5 packets of black cherry koolaid
7 cups of sugar (white refined)
3 habeneros (peppers)
1 large bottle of tobasco

pour all the alcohol into a large pot, and simmer on low, adding sugar, koolaid, and tobasco.
use some of the alcohol to blend the habeneros to a fine puree
then simmer the peppers along with the rest for about half an hour

filter out all of the peppers with a fine mesh filter/funnel
put all the alcohol into containers, and chill

Brian comes over, and I hand him a large mug:
"Brian, taste this!"
"what is it?"
"Koolaid"
*sniff sniff, Gulp*
.
.
.
"FUCK ME GENTLY WITH A CHAINSAW!!!"
*cough hack wheeze, spit into sink*

Now, The dinner saw all of us dressed up as we were for halloween or just in some outfit:
Me: Irish garb from SCA
Travis: Dominatrix
Neight: Nosveratu Vampire (with the scar)
Brian: Viking Lad
Jamie: Gay Geisha Chef
Lincoln: Al Boreland (he said he wasn't going to dress up for thanksgiving, but showed up in nice pants, and a red plaid shirt.. he was also sporting a fairly full beard, and looked just like Al Boreland from Home Improvement.)

otherwise, the food was great...

well, dinner went great, and afterward, we were sitting, drinking, watching something on tv. I was sitting in a plastic chair, and looked over at Lincoln on the arm of the sofa. He happend to be drinking wine from a champaign flute, and had put the full top of it in his mouth and was going 'ahlaalaa' with his tongue, trying to lap the wine... I about wet myself.
I started to laugh and basquaw *Loud and fully hearty laughter*, then fell out of my chair, onto the floor.

NOW, earlier that evening, I had wrenched my thumb on a stair railing.. don't ask me how, i don't remember how, i just remember it hurt.

Neight comes up and offers his hand, to help me up. I take his hand and scream because it pulled on my thumb... well then he thought it would be amusing to stand over me, one foot on either side, and bend over, to help me up by PICKING me up... well, he ended up breadbasketing me with stiff fingers to my ribs..

NOW.. I am a VERY VERY ticklish person. and when I say VERY i mean you could pull the phantom "tickle tickle" from a phone call and i'd freak out.

Well, I freaked out, for he was indeed tickling me in the ribs. so naturally, I kicked. strait up, like opening a scissors... NOW REMEMBER: He was straddling me, standing over me, and well, his Groin was RIGHT THERE.

The crack as my foot connected to Neight's Groin was what made Travis (who was in the bathroom at the time) poke his head around the corner and ask "What the fuck was that??!"

Neight doubled over, and was giggling like a ninny, tears gushing from his eyes in pain, but still, giggling like a ninny.. I felt sooooo bad!!! but we were all laughing and giggling.. for you do remember, we were Inebriated.

We finally calmed down, and were sobering up a smidge, enough to clean up the table and put away leftovers for my then roommates to eat if they came back in a timely manner....

SIDE STORY:
    I would NEVER lock the door to the apartment when I left, because normally there was one or both other roommates in the apartment when I left. both roomies were male, (had no romantic connection to either, both were taken), so i would think, hell, if someone broke in, they could handle the problem.
WELL: That night of thanksgiving, I left, and one roommate had just come home, however, he had gone to the apartment's swimming pool. He wanted to go have some fun while the place was empty. (that whole roommate thing is ANOTHER story altogether.)
So I left, and LOCKED the door.
I came home after a few hours, we had gone Somewhere to either a bar or a movie, or perkins... we loved perkins. sometimes still do.
When we came back, there was the roomie, mad as hell, but not technically AT me.. I was only a portion of what he was mad about....

When he left to go swimming, he FORGOT TO TAKE HIS KEY. Assuming *I* had once again, left the door unlocked. His story:

"I went swimming, and came back to the apartment. the door was LOCKED! I was so mad, because YOU NEVER LOCK THE DOOR! THE ONE TIME YOU DECIDE TO LOCK THE DOOR, I don't take a key with me! So, There were no neighbors home, they had gone elsewhere for Thanksgiving. So I took the fire escape to the roof.. TO THE ROOF.. soaked to the bone, with just swim trunks and a towel and soaked shirt.  NO SHOES, NO DRY CLOTHING. I walked across the roof in bare feet, picking up tar and pebbles in my feet. "
NOW REMEMBER, this is THANKSGIVING in SOUTH DAKOTA. The temperature was nearly below freezing, and it had snowed a little a few days prior.
"I climbed down the wall to a Neighbor's Patio, and crawled across the divider rail to OUR patio. YOU DIDN'T LOCK THE SLIDING GLASS DOOR!!"

Needless to say, even 11 years old, this story is stuck in my mind for EVER!!

Not a recipe, but....

PRESBYTERIAN: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
BEST IN PRAYER 



ASTRONOMER: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
MOON STARER 



DESPERATION: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
A ROPE ENDS IT 



THE EYES: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
THEY SEE 



GEORGE BUSH: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
HE BUGS GORE 



THE MORSE CODE: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
HERE COME DOTS 


DORMITORY: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
DIRTY ROOM 

SLOT MACHINES: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
CASH LOST IN ME 



ANIMOSITY: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
IS NO AMITY 



ELECTION RESULTS: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
LIES - LET'S RECOUNT 



SNOOZE ALARMS: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S 



A DECIMAL POINT: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
I'M A DOT IN PLACE 



THE EARTHQUAKES: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
THAT QUEER SHAKE 



ELEVEN PLUS TWO: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
TWELVE PLUS ONE 




AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE: 


MOTHER-IN-LAW: 
When you rearrange the letters: 
WOMAN HITLER 

Little Reprieve...

Just saying... 
there is a time and place for a lot of things, and not everything needs to be the same time and place.
voting is overrated in most circumstances...it's underrated in a lot of others.
play
make friends
be true to yourself if you can't be to others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxrd_jZJxkg
"if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with"
Sing ... anywhere anytime ... or hum, or thrum your fingers, or tap your feet..
enjoy your small guilty pleasures... like bodice ripper books, or teeny bopper pop music in differant genres...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4&p=71FD9C82CE71C88C&index=14&playnext=11
Look out your window. Think what the other people would be doing at the same time you are looking out that window.
Enjoy the Clouds, and horizons. 
Never be afraid of thunder, it's the lightning that kills you.
thank a serviceman.
Do a cross stitch. 
Watch an Animae
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1-0upQXykI&p=71FD9C82CE71C88C&index=15&feature=BF
Watch Ninja Warrior.
read a book on theology. on demonology. on astrology. on anthropology. on archaeology. on theory. on mathematics and chaos theory.
twitter your dreams
talk to a stranger about their shoes.
do silly dances in your kitchen while wearing  your significant other's socks
tell silly jokes about cats and dogs
laugh
laugh
laugh.

Casserole .. thing

Roasting pan
pot
stirring utensils

rice (about 3 cups)
6 cups of water
(make rice as you normally do)

1lb hamburger and spices.
bake hamburger like an uber thin meatloaf

dump the rice on the hamburger
pour a can of cream of soup (mixed with a can of milk)  over the rice
top with about 3/4 lb of mozzerella cheese.
bake until little brown on top

take out, let set
eat

Hot Cocoa with Cinnamon

Well, I don't make it by scratch, I like to  use those cheapie packets from the store. while making this, listen to this list: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0lsBdPjUME&feature=&p=CF21B6BA711F06C0&index=0&playnext=1

you'll need
coffee (either brewed or instant)
Cinnamon candy (the little discs or candy canes that are cinnamon)
Cocoa packets (ones with the marshmallows are good too)
heavy whipping cream
Largish Mugs or whatever you put your hot drinks in
spoons

fill a mug 2/3 full of brewed coffee or hot water
add 1 packet of cocoa
add 2 full tbsp of coffee if you don't have brewed already
drop in one cinnamon disc.
stir
add heavy whipping cream until happy with consistency
stir

sip

listen to the playlist, read a book.

Enjoy the winter coming upon us.

Breakfast quick and easy .... ISH

two cans of those cheap flakey biscuits from the store, pillsbury if you want, and not the big ones, the little ones
two cans of cream of mushroom soup (unless you are a no no on mushrooms, then use cream of chicken)
one can of milk
one ham steak
spices
PREHEAT OVEN TO 350

Soup pot (small)
small roaster (one 8x11 one 8x8)

heat up cream of soup in pot with milk
spice with pepper (about 2-3 tbsp maybe less)
and salt (about 2-3 tbsp maybe less)
spice to taste basically

put the two cans of biscuits in the larger roaster
sprinkle spices in bottom of small roaster
put ham in small roaster and spice top of ham
put both in oven until biscuits are done
leave ham in for about 5 minutes more

take all out
cut ham into chuncks
break biscuits onto plate
put chunks of ham on biscuits
smother with hot cream of soup mix (aka GRAVY)

EAT

Simple Tasty Hamburgers

Baking pan/Roasting pan
tinfoil

about 2lbs hamburger
onion soup mix

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350

mix together hamburger and soup mix.
form hamburgers
top hamburgers with turkey bacon (cut in half and X across)
bake for about 20 min

TURN OFF STOVE!
remove hamburgers

put on buns
add various toppings/condiments

EAT

A little Interlude

I Think you all get the idea I like to cook with cheese and Meat. #1: because it is cheaper and fills up hollow legs faster than fancy vegetables and fruits, however, we do have those on our menu on occasion. I am planning on getting a little heavy whipping cream to dribble on some of the Fruit Salad I have in the cupboard. *I can always use more canned fruits for the boys*

I am going to have to lay off a lot of the meats and cheeses though. I have been scheduled for a chest x-ray on Wednesday, the doctors need to determine if it is my lungs or my heart. I hope that if anything it's just asthma. I can take care of that. If not, they will be putting me on Nitro. 

My Grandma on my dad's side had Heart failure. As soon as they said "We may put you on nitro because it could be an issue with your heart".... ALL I could think of was seeing my Grandma's feet from behind her bed when we came back from running errands. I was 12. 

SO...yeah. I just hope it's asthma.

Bread Lasagna

ROASTING PAN
stew pot or some kind of pot.
Stirring spoon
colander

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350
Spray roasting pan with non stick spray
in soup pot, brown hamburger with Italian seasoning, garlic powder and pepper
drain in colander.
brown a bit longer till it's crispy
add one small can of spaghetti sauce
add one small can of Sloppy Joe Mix
(sloppy joe, a slop sloppy joe uh huh)

stir and bubble boil for a bit

TURN OFF HEAT UNDER POT

spoon the meat sauce over one layer of bread in the roaster pan.
sprinkle cheese (about 1/2 lb) over sauce
put another layer of bread on top
pour rest of sauce over that second layer of bread
dump about 1 1/2 lbs of cheese on that, spread it out evenly

bake for about 25 min or until cheese on top is melty if not toasty gold

TURN OFF STOVE

pull out of oven and let set for a while, then

EAT!!!!!

Take on Diced Ham recipe below

PREHEAT OVEN AT 350

Use those thin pork chops. dice up, fry in a pot with a 1/2 stick of butter salt, Italian seasoning, onion powder or whatever spices you want.
spray down little roasting pan (8x8) with butter spray
this time add a little more milk to the egg mix
put about 1/4 cup of RICE in with the egg mix
pour the egg mix in the roaster
put the chopped up chops in egg mix. pour the left over butter on top of that
cover with about 1lb of cheese.

bake for about 20 min until cheese is light golden

TURN OFF STOVE!!!
pull out the little roaster
let cool
EAT!

Diced Ham and Egg Scramble with toast and pancakes

Frying pan

Roaster

Spatula

Dice up a Ham Steak

Fry in frying pan with 1/2 stick of butter, not that margarine crap, and add spices to it (whatever you would like, from my Italian seasoning to jalapeños and Tabasco.. add garlic, always, and some onion powder

Scramble as many eggs as you want with milk in the frying pan using the spatula

Line a roaster with tin foil

dump in the ham and spread it out

cover with the scrambled eggs

add cheese to top.

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350

put the roaster in the oven for about 15 min or so, making sure the cheese is melty.

I've frozen pancakes from the freezer section of the store, they were cheap and easy to nuke

Nuke up as many pancakes you want.

toast as much bread as you want

TURN OFF STOVE

pull out the scrambled stuffs

top the toast with the scrambled stuffs

put the pancakes on a separate plate and eat those however you want.

SLOPPY JOES

This is just to let anyone out there reading this that I made Sloppy Joes tonight. 1 1/2 lbs hamburger, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning.
browned the hamburger to a crisp,
added one can o' SJ sauce...
stirred really well
put on buns.

Pretty easy to make sloppy joes :)

BUT
I ran out of sloppy joe stuffs, so i made pancakes.