A Break in the Narrative Busting

A Story and a Snack or Two

The Asylum has been mostly political primarily about COVID and this Friday is no different I thought to write today about other things that are happening.  Things domestic and enriching.  To start we are buying a new home in the country on almost 10 acres with any luck we will close and begin moving in on the 28th of October.  We just completed the inspection stage of our process and had several repair requests that were framed this way:

We want professional (maintenance) done to (system) and a final inspection after the work has been complete.

The sellers balked because inspections are the responsibility of the buyer.  So, we restated our requests this way:

We want professional (maintenance) done to (system) with a statement of condition and function after the work has been complete by the professional service company.

Other than semantics I don’t see any difference in the two requests, but the seller sure did.  As of now we haven’t reached any agreements on repairs but talks are ongoing.  It just seemed like a sticky silly point to have issues with “inspection”, but be fine with “a statement of condition and function”.

Now on to another fall favorite recipe around here.  As such also remember the disclaimer about quantity in the welcome email.

Creamy Chicken Tacos

5# chicken (boneless, skinless breasts or thighs work best)

2 32 oz bottles of salsa (whatever kind or heat level you like it is even good with green salsa [but it looks funky])

4 small or 2 large cans of whole black beans

3 blocks of cream cheese or Queso Fresco

2-5 cups instant rice (yes, I know but instant rice works best in here)

Tortillas whatever kind you like but big ones work best I think.

Put your boneless skinless chicken in a crock pot and add all your salsa

Cook on high for 4 hours or low 8-10 hours

Shred the chicken with a pair of forks while still in the pot.

Stir in your drained black beans put the lid on and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

Add your cheese and stir until fully melted and incorporated (you can cube it up first if desired)

Replace the lid and cook for 10-15 minutes

At this point it will be kind of soupy with too much liquid.

Start by adding a cup of instant rice and mixing it in cover and wait 5-10 minutes

Check it to see if most of the moisture was absorbed and if not repeat the previous step with ¼ cup of instant rice each time until most of the liquid is absorbed.  If you go over and make it too dry just heat chicken stock to a boil or near it and add it a quarter cup at a time until you get back to where you want it just slightly less wet than oat meal

Serve by spooning into your tortillas.

Seriously this is an amazing recipe that our entire family loves and the best part is it almost cooks itself.

An instapot can be used initial cooking time for salsa and chicken is meat hi for 45 minutes and subsequent cooks are soup med for 5 minutes, and rice don’t cook further just mix in and cover everything should be hot enough to get you there.

Because I love you all I am also going to provide a second recipe also for the crock\instapot

Pot roast pork with mushroom and onion gravy

1 whole pork loin 4-6# cut in half

2 large 4 small cans of cream of mushroom soup

3 boxes of Lipton onion soup mix (or onion mushroom soup mix)

2 qt chicken stock

4 cups chopped mushrooms (any kind you like)

4 table spoons of corn starch

2 large onions cut in half and then cut into half circles to make strips (or diced if you don’t want the texture)

2 tsp black pepper the fresher the better

1tsp salt

Mix your corn starch and stock until there are no more visible starch lumps

Pour starch and stock mixture into the pot

Add mushroom soup

Add all six packets of dry soup mix

Add salt and pepper

Stir it up until combined

Submerge your pork loin in the sauce and cook on high 2-3 hours or low 5-6 hours (longer than 6 is ok but you will have pork loin chunks)

Add the sliced mushrooms and onions then cook another 30-40 minutes

Remove the pork from the sauce (it should be gravy at this point) and let rest on a cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes

Cut loin into ¼ to ½ rounds.

We serve this with mashed potatoes, roasted carrots and salad.  The remaining sauce in the pot is used as you would gravy for the meat and potatoes.

This can be done in the instapot set to meat med 1.5 hours and then soup high for 15 minutes after onions and mushrooms are added.

I hope you have all enjoyed this note and if you haven’t I would encourage you all to read my series on COVID it is full of very good information and asks some critical questions about the narrative we have all been told.  You can read them here if you are a paying member (the pay wall is $1 a month get over yourselves this is really good content).