Oven Baked ChickenVegs, Couscous and Risotto Lentils

I spent my time off on Monday creating dinner, in which I used in all reality scraps from the pantry and fridge.

I had a chicken breast, some non cooked couscous and lentils, celery, green onion, and some broccoli and 3 mushrooms. What to make? I went to the web and used 3 recipes that were close and came up with my own; Oven Baked Chicken and Vegetables with Couscous and Risotto Lentils.

I totally underestimated how long it takes to cook lentils via risotto method, constantly stirring and adding broth. That process took over 75 minutes.

I used some Turkey/Mushroom end caps Broth for the Couscous and Lentils, and added some cooking white wine to the lentils in the beginning. I made way more than necessary for one dinner, so there would be ample left over for lunch the next day.

Not too shabby...for a caveman.

M

End of Season: Lions, Cowboys, Different Directions

I never thought I would read a negative story about WR Calvin Johnson from a Detroit Newspaper Columnist. Calvin is a load of talent, but up until now he seems to defied any negative analysis of his play. More times than not, he could use injuries as a crutch to any lackluster play. Terry Foster of the Detroit News came out swinging after yesterday's game and took a haymaker towards CJ.

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/terryfosterblog/index.php?blogid=1877



What is this Year 3 of Calvin Johnson? He is leaps better than Mike Williams, Charles Rogers, and "Dropped Pass" Roy Williams. I have hopes that he can gel next year with Stafford while having alternative players bring their effort/talent/playmaking/energy up. Stafford & CJ have to lead this team from the doldrums, if not them..then who?

Oh and by the way, Roy Williams. I caught 5 minutes of the Cowboy Game yesterday, and saw a classic play by Roy. Roy had 5 yards of buffer on his CB and the ball hit him right in the numbers while Roy turned his head upfield, ending result: Dropped Ball. What does he do? He smiles, laughs, that got really old in Detroit. (how bout you catch the darn ball??) I wonder how long in Dallas that behavior will be tolerated in big D. The Cowboys had made the Playoffs this year, but face a huge game this weekend to end the season against the Philadelphia Eagles for the Division Title, and a chance to hold a playoff game. Sunday Jan 3, Eagles-Cowboys, it looks to be a must watch game for next weekend. McNabb,Vick, Romo, Williams, Austin, it should be fun.

M

Hybridwoofers hit the snow running

Christmas Blizzard

Christmas Eve, we got hit by a "Blizzard". It was pretty good, 4 to 8 inches hit the area while we stayed in the safety of the ManCave. During the evening, we were kept from danger by opening some presents and the good company of the Xbox 360. As sun broke, the hybridwoofers were hungry for the adventure of the snow. They took to the barren land of the backyard to find snow up to their armpits. Thankfully our heros were able to safety return to the ManCave. Here are their heroic action shots.

Lions batting 3 for 38

Lions lost their 35th game out of the last 38.

Lions lost by a touchdown today to the Cardinals, yes I remember the days when the Lions were a ton better than the Cardinals...not so anymore.

Chris Wells of the Cardinals who destroyed Michigan and Michigan State for years in the Big Ten as a member of the Ohio State Buckeyes, added the Lions to his mantle of destruction.

2 More Lion Games? Get the antacid ready.

Draft 2010 here we come...

Movie Review: It's Complicated

This movie is a "holiday" comedy. A "holiday" movie based on infidelity, awesome, happy holidays. I am not saying it was not a funny movie, but seriously releasing this during the holidays? I thought it was a bit odd, but hey when every magazine has the best athlete in the decade sleeping with not one,two, three, four, eight, ten, thirteen? women?, okay...maybe it was the ideal time to release this flick.

Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin were a pretty good acting trifecta.

Normally, I can't really stand to watch Alec Baldwin outside of his SNL appearances, but his effort was tolerable and funny.

Steve Martin played his role greatly, but if I was his agent, I would of wanted more lines.

Meryl Streep was pretty good, certainly not as serious as her role in Doubt.

Movie Rating: 8.4/10.0 B

M

Braveheart Wall Man Cave

The poster arrived today and next to the long sword, it looks great. The long sword was a gift from my good friend for standing in his wedding this fall. The man cave is turning wall by wall into a entertainment movieplex!

'Freeeedoooooooommmm"

~M

Mussels in White Wine

Tonight we tried our hand at making mussels. Mussels are part of the clam family and can be found in both salt and freshwater. These were cooked with onion, garlic and white wine. They need to be cooked with a eye on the mussels themselves. If cooked incorrectly they can be spoiled, so they must be given your full attention. They turned out great and tasted very close to a 14 dollar plate at one of our favorite restaurants here in town. I love to eat seafood, at times I wished we lived on the east coast to have fresh, cheap choices when it comes to seafood!

M

Fantastic Mr. Fox

The movie Fantastic Mr. Fox is a stop-motion picture. It took several minutes to get normalized to the animation, but once ten minutes into the movie it was very easy to watch. The movie may not be for young children, as most in the audience did not follow along at our theater. George Clooney plays the role of the suave Mr. Fox, always looking to use his instincts of chicken stealing and tomfoolery. Many people don't care for Wes Anderson, but his quirkiness makes his films stand out against most of the cookie cutter movies from Hollywood. We found the movie Fantastic and worth buying on DVD when available.

Star Rating: 9.5/10.0

Death at a Funeral

Death at a Funeral,

This is comedy was surprising well done. From the beginning of the movie to the end it was a laugher with a great mix of non-A list stars. The movie is an "english" movie and is being remade for the US in 2010 or 2011. I don't know why it is being re-made, the version is very funny. Maybe they will use a more mainstream cast. This movie is certainly worthy of checking out.

9.1/10.0 Stars

Basement Paint Done

The Basement is done with painting. It took 6 gallons of paint, but it was well worth it. No more banana yellow for us. As you can tell the dogs always enjoy the basement.

Movie Review: Whatever Works

Whatever Works, written, directed by Woody Allen. I had big hopes for this, as one of my favorite series Curb Your Enthusiasm star: Larry David would be the lead. Overall it was a typical left comedy that ripped on the christian right continually. I can't recall actually watching a previous Woody Allen film, nor after watching this would have much interest in watching any of his previous work. I can handle making cracks at both sides of the political prism but a one sided affair is quite annoying. And the whole 'talking to the camera bit' like The Office was fairly lame too.

Rating: 5.4/10.0

Homemade Curtain

H created a new curtain for our basement.

It is a bit bigger than our window and has a new design. The curtain has two colors fabrics that match our walls.

M

Breakfast Souffle

Since Panera Bread has started to sell souffles for breakfast, we have become fans. They are a light fluffy crust with egg and random vegetables or breakfast meats inside.

This morning attempted to make our own.

What we used were Pillsbury Croissants, Egg Whites, Extra Sharp Cheese, Artichoke Hearts, A half tomato, and 2 large mushrooms.

First we cooked the croissants in the oven for 12 minutes:

Then cooked the egg mixture on the stove top and seasoned.

Then added the egg mixture to the croissants with cheese and back into the oven for 6 more minutes.

Then bingo-bamo, breakfast without having to leave the house! Booyah!

Total Cost:

Pillsbury: 2.50

Artichokes 1/4 of a can: .50

Tomato: .50

2 Mushrooms: .25

EggWhite: 1.25

Cheese: .50

Total Cost: 5.50

Total Cost by going out to Restaurant: 3.50 per X 3, 10.50 + Tax= 11.50

Total Savings: 6 bucks!

M&H

Movie Review: Defiance

This movie is an Action/Drama based on a true story during the Nazi Germany engagement. Daniel Craig best known as James Bond plays a Jewish settler who with the help of his brothers keep other Jews safe during the time of crisis. It is fairly action packed and well written screenplay. This movie is much better than Tom Cruise's Valkrie which is based during the same time period. If you are a fan of world war movies, then this should be in your queue.

More Awesomeness, Less Filler Rating: 8.8 Stars

Movie Review: King Corn

This is a documentary.

2 College Age Kids leave their cocoon of the northeast and head to Iowa to grow an Acre of Corn. They don't have any prior knowledge on what it takes to do this deed, but they learn after a little education that it won't take much effort. Most of the film is them wasting time until the corn is harvested. They do determine that most if not all the corn grown in Iowa is not for actual consumption but for use as byproducts. Their dna findings from their hair samples found that corn was a large part of who they actually were. This is the interesting part, every processed chip, fast-food burger, french fry, non-grain fed animal and soda pop leaves is made by part of corn. Cows, Chickens that are grained fed eat corn, which are plump when the butcher is a calling, hence showing up to your local fast-food resort.

I found their results to be fairly disturbing about our fast-food nation and processed food in general. In all their movie was decent, and worth watching. Surprisingly, it was not politically slanted ripping on the republican party, a first for most documentaries that I have watched. They do bring up the fact that ethanol uses a large percent of the corn grown in Iowa, which helps fuel an industry, pardon the pun.

More Awesomeness, Less Filler Rating: 7.0/10.0 Stars

M

Movie Review Time

I have realized that I watch alot of movies, maybe 4 a week? Mostly it is due to the fact that we don't have cable television, so to fill in our time exercising on the treadmill or on bad weekday television nights (which would be M, T, W, F, Saturday), something must be watched. So I figured it may be time to do some reviewing of my movie ventures.

So I will do my review on a 10 star rating system, most movies are either rated on 4 or 5 stars or as Roger Ebert does a Thumb. I will do 10 stars, as it will be twice as awesome then a normal 5 star review or 2.5X better than a 4 star rating.

My movie review claim will be: More Awesomeness, Less Filler

Halloween

Saturday night was Halloween Night. It seems odd, but I can't recall a Halloween on a Saturday. We set up the house so that we could sit on the porch and hand out candy since the temperature was in the high 50s and low 60s.

The best costume I saw was: a kid in a Rubiks Cube

Baked Goods Weekend

H made a delicious Pumpkin Cake. She used all natural ingredients, which is hard to do these days will all the crap that is sold. It was pretty, pretty good.

She continued her kitchen dominance with some homemade fresh blueberry muffins.

After eating, both were delicious

Belgian Sheepdog

After 3 years of wondering what our Rescue Dog actually was, we think we have finally solved the question. Answer: Belgian Sheepdog!

According to the American Kennel Association, the Belgian Sheepdog is Elegant and proud, the Belgian Sheepdog is strong, but not bulky. During WWI, Belgian Sheepdogs distinguished themselves on the battlefields, serving as message carriers, ambulance dogs, and even pulling machine guns. It is no wonder that today this breed performs well in sports like obedience, herding, and tracking. They are also excellent workers, and work as search and rescue dogs, guide dogs, and therapy dogs. This breed is completely black, or may be black with white, although there are limitations to their white markings.

The Belgian Sheepdog should reflect the qualities of intelligence, courage, alertness and devotion to master. To his inherent aptitude as a guardian of flocks should be added protectiveness of the person and property of his master. He should be watchful, attentive, and always in motion when not under command. In his relationship with humans, he should be observant and vigilant with strangers, but not apprehensive. He should not show fear or shyness. He should not show viciousness by unwarranted or unprovoked attack. With those he knows well, he is most affectionate and friendly, zealous of their attention, and very possessive. Viciousness is a disqualification.

http://www.akc.org/breeds/belgian_sheepdog/index.cfm

Now our dog is very protective of his house, he will bark at anyone or anything that walks in front of our house. He also herds clothing, which may seem odd, but he gathers loose articles and places them in one pile under his eye. If he decides to move to another room, he gathers all the clothes and drags them to another room. (Sheep=Wool=Clothing, Following my logic) If H upstairs and I am downstairs, he will sit halfway in the middle keeping an eye and ear on us. I never really thought too much about his personality traits, but he is really vigilant more often than our labradoodle and childhood Golden Retriever. And he does know commands, "upstairs", "downstairs", "outside", "inside", and "sit" are his commands. Also he seems to be watching what you say with an inquisitive look, maybe awaiting his next command. He also loves to eat Belgian Waffles for breakfast or anytime of day, so we are totally certain that this is his lineage.

M

Winner, Winner, Movie Pass Winner

Someone was a winner this week at work, H, won gift basket part of a major fundraiser( it rhymes with (Vinited Say)) . It is called Girls Night Out, a 40 dollar movie gift certificate, cosmo mixer with sugar, a photoframe, 3 types of chocolate, hotpink (pashmina) and a nice decorative box (white and black zebra print). Just so happens, we might check out the movie this weekend, "The Invention of Lying" thanks to the giftcard. If the movie doesn't stink, it might get a review on here, and if it does really stink, it may as well.

Way to go H!

Apple Pie

Someone made some homemade michigan apple pie last saturday. It was pretty, pretty good.

Back to the Grind

The Woofers are powered back up. After a last few weeks of action packed shenanigans, hybrid woofers is back in business.

There was a Wedding I stood in a couple weeks ago(which was a great time), did some more basement painting, running the dogs around town before our trip and watching some very entertaining movies. Hopefully we can give you a better update.

Christmas in October II

This is what the Fascia looked like once it was placed. After waiting the day the pup was ready to with his coat for his walk!

Christmas in October

Last Saturday we took part with 6,000 other metro volunteers and worked in the inner city for Christmas in October. It is an event that covered over 400 homes that are need of dire repair for those who met the organizations criteria. Criteria seemed to be based upon age, income, and highly needed improvements.

The home we worked on was a small bungalow that needed a ceiling to be replaced in a bedroom, stairs to be enforced with bracing, basement windows needed repair, mortar repaired in basement, fascia to be placed on sides of house, tree trimmed, some plumbing replaced, a replaced shower head, and lastly the placement of a handle and lock on a door.

My main contribution was the placement of a door handle and lock. If you look at the original photo, the owner only had a pad lock as her side door lock! A pad lock! So I had to bore a large hole for the handle, then use a drill to make room for the trigger lock (*which was tough since the door was old and thin-making sure not to do any damage to it), then we had to replace the side paneling from the dry rot that was originally oriented along the side of the door frame. When I gave the keys to the homeowner she was thrilled that she had a real lock and key to that door, I am uncertain at how many years she lived at the house with a padlock. The pad lock was kept on the door as extra security if she felt that it was necessary.

H painted the fascia a gray color and placed extra supports under the stairwell that led to the basement.

Much more work could of been done, but given the volunteer force of 20, we accomplished quite a bit of handy-work. The team was quite thrilled to check off all items on the to-do list.

Tigers 1 and Done

"Warm up the bus(for them), cool down the beer(for us)" is what the Minnesota Twin Fans should be chanting tonight after the game.

The Tigers picked the worst time to go on a cold spell to match the recent temperatures. They lost in 12 innings to the Twins tonight. There needs to be some accountability, the team hits the skids in the last two weeks after being ahead in the standings by 7 games. With 4 games left in the year, they were up 3, and ended up tied with the Twins. Awful! No team ever has had such a let down!!

Between the ineptitude that the Detroit Lions have showed over the past 8 years, and the constant choking of the Tigers the last two seasons, where did it go right?

The Tigers have spent huge money on players that didn't even have any input on this season, it was a wasted gamble. The GM and his scouts should take a deep look at what they do from here forward, they can't afford to drop 15 million bucks on players that are consistently injured or plainly mediocre.

Will Leyland stay his contract out? Or will he walk away like he did in Colorado?

Will Bonderman be back at 100 percent next year?

Will the Tigers sign Polanco and Rodney from free agency?

Will the Tigers cut line with Dontrelle Willis and eat the rest of his contract?

So many questions, very little answers. The Tigers head back home tonight empty handed, ashamed, embarassed and licking their wounds.

And Miguel Cabrera, who is the teams biggest star, got so drunk a few nights ago, he ended in a domestic 911 phone call at 6 am over the weekend with his wife! Seriously, you got so trashed with the a friend or two from the opponents team on the biggest weekend of the year for your team? And how much they are paying you a year, 15, 20 million a year?!? Seriously?

This is one of the biggest let downs in Detroit Sports since Rasheed Wallace left Robert Horry Open for the game winning 3 vs. the Spurs in the 2005 NBA Finals. Or when the Pistons totally blew up against Cleveland that Rasheed was thrown out of the final game. Or when the Lions went 0-16 last year...or when the Tigers finished in 4th place last year in their own division after going to the World Series...or last sunday when the Detroit Lions were outscored 24-3 in the second half to the Chicago Bears. Or the Gary Sheffield Experiment.

All those great memories!

Basement Painted

Take a look at our newly painted basement aka, "the man cave".

By the way...whose tail is that in that photo?

Dog Park Video I

Cider Mill Video II

The Donut Manufacturing!

Cider Mill Photos