Recipe: Crock Pot Chicken Tacos

We made Crock Pot Chicken Tacos for dinner Friday night.  And of course, being us, we improvised a bit.  This was mostly due to the fact that we were out of salsa, Aldi didn't have any, and Kroger was packed because we did our grocery shopping the day before the huge ice storm.  Click the link for the actual recipe; here's what we did:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can of diced tomatoes
About a dozen slices of jarred jalapeno
1 large sweet onion
1 can of whole kernel corn
1 packet of taco seasoning
1/2 c of water

Mix it all up, set it on low, and go to work.  The Bastard stirred it every couple of hours since it was still too icy for him to get to work on his motorcycle, but this may have been more out of boredom than necessity.  After 8 hours, the chicken pretty much falls apart just while stirring it.  I probably didn't need to add the water as it was a little... drippy.  Also, the jalapenos might have been overkill as our stomachs didn't really appreciate the spicy bombardment the next day.  However, I thought the flavor was awesome, and I'll probably do it again using salsa.

Dinner: Pot Roast... Sort Of...

We tried the first of the crock pot recipes last night.  Here's what we did:

2 lbs (approx) stew beef
1 very large baking potato, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 16-oz. bag of baby carrots
1 sweet onion, cut into chunks
3 cups beef broth
1 cup water
Basil and parsley (to taste)

Mix all of these ingredients in a large crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours.

Verdict: It was good, but not great.  Next time, I think I'll cut out the water and add onion soup mix.  I'll let you know how it goes.  The cook time was dead on, though - the beef was done and falling apart, and the veggies weren't mushy.

Why NaturallyCaron Spa is the Worst Yarn Ever

My dad told me that for Christmas, my sister wanted a hat like my "Meret".  My sister is 8 and absolutely adorable, so how could I say no?  However, this also inspired me to knit something for my 14 year old brother, as well.  Unfortunately, I had this conversation with my dad 6 days ago.  So now I'm trying to knit some fingerless gloves for my brother and desperately trying to finish them before Christmas.

Now, I don't have a local yarn store near me.  The closest one is about 30 miles away, which means I'm pretty much stuck with online orders, Hobby Lobby, or Michael's.  I didn't have time to order anything and getting in and out of the parking lot at Michael's is a suicide mission, so Hobby Lobby it was.

When I saw the skein of NaturallyCaron Spa, I thought it was perfect for my brother.  It's 75% acrylic, 25% bamboo, and 100% soft and squishy!  I knew it would hold up to the abuse that my bro would obviously put it through while still being warm and comfortable.

And it's a great color!

Unfortunately, there's a problem.  Although it seems to be nice and tightly wound on the skein, once I started knitting with it, it became the splittiest yarn ever in the history of splitty yarns EVAR.  Also, while the shininess was part of it's appeal to me, it also seems to be very, very slippery which is seriously fucking with my tension.

This is what happens while knitting with this yarn.  This is bad.

So while I'm going to stick it out and finish the damn gloves, I am never, ever using this yarn again.  Thank the sweet, merciful Goddess that I'm almost done with the first glove as it will seriously say something for my will power if I don't melt the fucking leftovers after I'm done.

Product Review Time! Tilex Mold & Mildew

Yeah, I know, this is totally unlike me to post product reviews, but I hatehateHATE cleaning the bathroom. This just happened to be my mission for the day.

I'm a lazy bitch. I will admit this freely. I do not clean as much as I should. In fact, the Bastard is the one who does most of the cleaning in the house. However, stuff like laundry and bathroom shit usually falls to me. I'm ok with this, because he's a bit of a freak when it comes to dusting and kitchen cleanliness, and if there are 2 things I hate worse than cleaning the bathroom, it's dusting and cleaning the kitchen. Don't know why, it's just how I am.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I've decided to start doing a product review thing every know and then because I don't fall in love with products very often. My friend, the SuperJew just happened to recommend this one, so big props to her. She had told me that, upon moving into a house with her previous roommate, she found her bathroom to be a total disgusting mess. So she decided to try Tilex Mold & Mildew, as that's what she needed to get rid of the most.

And it worked. Beautifully.

So one day when I was over at her new (roommate-free) apartment, she relayed this story to me. So, I picked up a bottle on our next grocery trip, and there it sat, unused for quite a while under the bathroom sink. Today, I went to finally clean the bathroom and, upon removing the corner basket from the tub, found a mildewy mess. ICK.

I did exactly what SuperJew told me to do: I sprayed down the corner (probably more than I needed to) and left the room, making sure to turn on the fan. OMG, the fumes are horrendous! I changed the sheets on the bed, threw a load of laundry in the washer, and by the time I returned to the bathroom, the corner was almost completely bare! It was awesome! Despite what SuperJew had told me, I thought that there would at least be some scrubbing, but no, I just had to wipe down the corner and rinse it off!

I immediately wrote a letter to Tilex. Seriously. I really hardly ever do this, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time. The Tilex people will probably think I'm a psychopath getting all excited about fucking mildew remover, but I was just so excited about not having to scrub my bathtub!

So thank you, SuperJew, for the recommendation! And just in case you were wondering, no, Tilex is not paying me anything. I have probably the least-read blog in history. However, if they do want to pay me for endorsing them, they're more than welcome to!

~The RedHead