Crock Pot Disaster

So, yesterday I blogged about our new crock pot and how dinner was simmering all day in it. Dinner was awful. I used a recipe that was printed on the side of the box and sounded good-just chicken, rice, mushroom soup, onion soup, and white wine all simmered together all day. Nothing wrong or weird about those ingredients, right? Everything was wrong with those ingredients. Rice simmered all day in soup and wine does not taste good. Chicken simmered in this concoction all day does not taste good. Don't try this recipe. It did not taste good. I had a peanut butter sandwich for dinner last night. And, the crock pot was NOT that easy to clean, I had to soak it for hours before all the junk stuck to the bottom of it would come clean. Ugh.

And, here is the latest installment of 'Only in Bakersfield':

Jail Accidentally Releases Son Instead of Father.

Jaime Garcia Jr and Sr were both in jail, having been arrested at the same time, dad for harboring his son, who was wanted on warrants, and son for assault with a deadly weapon and burglary charges and being a parolee at large. Both father and son have served jail time for various felonies. The father was supposed to be released on bail, but the son was released instead because somebody didn't check fingerprints before releasing him. So, now authorities are looking for daddy's boy and ask you to call if you've seen him.

We first heard this story on the news last night and, like many of the odd things that happen in Bakersfield, this story had us looking at each other in total amazement. Where else but in Bakersfield do family members celebrate their bonds by going to jail together? Like father, like son, I guess. The family that jails together stays together!

Easiest Beef Stew Ever

I made beef stew last night-yay! an actual home cooked meal!! Never mind that it was still in the 100's yesterday and I had the oven on for 2 hours, we had a delicious home cooked dinner that was pretty darn easy to make.

Whenever round steak or london broil is on sale at the grocery store, it's time to make beef stew. I'm really picky about meat, any fatty meats just gross me out, so round steak or london broil is about the only meat that I buy, no precut stew meat for me, it's just too icky.

This recipe is just so easy, you just cut everything up and put it in a casserole pan, no browning the meat or any of that nonsense. All you do is:

Cut up your steak, removing all nasty fatty parts of course-the recipe calls for 2 lbs, but I just use one round steak or london broil.
Cut up an onion-I use sweet onions because the regular ones make me cry and give me indigestion.
Cut up some potatoes-the recipe calls for 4, but I used 2 big ones.
Cut up some carrots-2 or 3 or 4 or however many you want.
Oh, spray the pan with cooking spray first-for easy clean up and easy scooping out of the stew.
As you are cutting, you can arrange all the stuff in the pan so it's mixed together to insure you get steak, potatoes, carrots, and onion in your bowl instead of just a bowl of carrots because all the meat is on the other side of the pan.
See how the ingredients are neatly arranged in the pan, saving you from mixing anything together.

And make sure you have adequate supervision in the kitchen.
Then, after everything is all arranged in a pleasing manner in the pan, you mix together (in a bowl)
2 cups tomato juice-you could probably try V-8 for a different taste sensation here.
1 cup water
3 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca-for those of you who didn't grow up in the 60's, tapioca is most commonly used for pudding, but it works as a thickener in this stew. It comes in a little red box that looks like a minute rice box, but much smaller. This recipe is the only thing I've ever used tapioca for, so the little box lasts a very very long time.
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

After this is all mixed together in the bowl, you just pour it over the beef stew in the pan, tightly cover the pan with aluminum foil and stick the whole thing into a 350 degree oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
Again, make sure your dish is approved for appearance.

Then, after the 2 to 2 1/2 hours have passed by and your house smells like beef stew (as long as you remembered to turn on the oven, anyway), take the pan out of the oven-be sure to use oven mitts cause it's hot!-remove the foil and dinner is ready. Some bread or something is good with this stew because the gravy it makes tastes really good when you dunk your bread into it. Or you could have a green salad or something. Or both bread and green salad. Whatever, this stew is really good and easy enough for a lazy person like me to make.
Be sure to put it in bowls and let it cool off a little. Remember it's been in the oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours and it's hot! As Keith found out when he stuck a spoon in this for a taste test.
Dinner's ready!

We Should Just Eat Out Every Night

So, I went up to the store to get ingredients for a nice cool summery green salad for dinner tonight. Lettuce, carrots, red pepper, radishes, tomatoes, bacon bits, dressing, and a bag of those crunchy tortilla strips-oops, forgot shredded cheese-and some frozen texas toast (no, I'm NOT going to make my own Texas Toast) and it came to $17.00 and some change.

We could go out and get salads for about $25.00 for the entire meal (with free cookies at Spencers).

Hmmmm.....make it myself, or eat out, make it myself, or eat out?

But, we will probably get two actual salad dinners out of all the ingredients provided we still feel like eating salad tomorrow night and all the leftovers don't just get thrown out at the end of the week.

I really hate figuring out what to eat sometimes. If I didn't get excruciatingly hungry and could find a magic pill that would fill me up and give me all my nutritional needs I'd be happy. Eating is just getting kind of boring and a chore, especially the cooking and cleaning and shopping parts. Much easier to just go to a restaurant where you don't have to do anything but sit there, order, eat, and then pay for it and leave. And somebody else has to do the cooking and cleaning part.

Christians

Invaded Bakersfield yesterday.

We went across town last night to go have dinner at Mimi's Cafe which is conveniently located next to Barnes and Noble-makes for a nice dinner out when you can stop in at the bookstore after your meal. Well, the line at Mimi's was out the door with all kinds of well dressed churchy looking people waiting for a table, all wearing some sort of name tags. I didn't want to stare directly at people's chests trying to figure out what the name tags said, so I used my peripheral vision to try and make them out, and it was something about Church and Jesus. I guess there was a Christian convention going on somewhere nearby.

We didn't want to wait for a table at Mimi's, being the impatient people that we are, so we walked over to Marie Callenders which is conveniently located on the other side of Barnes and Noble, and it was the same thing-well dressed Christians waiting for a table. We didn't want to wait there either.

So, we went into Barnes and Noble for a few minutes, then down the street to El Torito, where the Christian invasion hadn't happened yet, and were able to get a table. As we ate, Christians began to fill up the nearby tables.

Seated nearby was a very large very well endowed young woman in a spaghetti strap dress with a Superman tattoo on her left breast-something about her told me that she was not with the rest of the Christians.

Dinner tasted funny to me and so did the iced tea-I think it was mango iced tea or something, and I prefer my iced tea to be just plain iced tea. I think El Torito is trying to be more continental or upscale because they are just getting a little too fancy with their food and sorry, it just all tasted odd. Even the fried ice cream had chipotle chocolate sauce on it-which tasted funny. Don't mess with chocolate sauce, it's fine just as it is!

And now, Keith has just left for his trip to Salt Lake, so I'm home alone until Wednesday night. Feels strange to be here by myself. He almost took a cat or two with him, they were trying to stow away in his luggage.


I wanna go too, Dad!!

You Know You're Really Getting Old When

You find that you are enjoying the quiet music that they play at Coco's restaurant.

We eat there a lot, it's just around the corner from the house and we've never had a bad meal or service there. My favorite is the fried chicken salad with honey mustard dressing. They bring hot bread for starters and if you order a regular dinner, even the vegetables are good. For breakfast you can get one of their muffins instead of toast, and the honey bran is so good, they warm it up and put butter on it that melts down inside. It looks kind of like a little bundt cake with that center hole and the butter gets down inside that center hole and it's just so delicious, plus it's bran so it helps you go poo.

I'm hungry. No, we are not going to Coco's tonight, darn it, I'm actually going to cook some chicken.

Okay Something Happier

Yay! I just hit 4000 sales in my supply shop!!

We did go out to dinner Monday night to celebrate the 2000 sales in the jewelry shop. We went to The Roadhouse which we like for the peanuts. I had salad, which they make with lots of tomatoes, bacon, and cheese on top, and the tri tip with some kind of bourbon sauce, and the baked sweet potato with cinnamon and brown sugar and lots of butter on top.
It was good. And the leftovers for lunch the next day were good, too. And they serve hot homemade rolls with honey butter. MMMM!
Okay, now I'm hungry!