Yay Outside

Took the first outdoors run of the year. It wasn’t that warm, but warm enough. Ended up doing a 5K in 33:12; not bad for the first “real” run of the year. On the treadmill, I’ve been rolling between 4.8-5.2 mph, or 12ish min/mile with a decent incline. So, it was a pleasant surprise that I was 3 min. faster than my treadmill pace.

Hopefully I’ll be under 30min by the time it gets real warm.

More importantly, I ’should’ have an all new Ace and Dutch for you tomorrow.

Cockflavored Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

FOR CHICKEN
-1/2 bottle hot sauce
-4 chicken breasts

FOR ENCHILADA SAUCE
-5 tablespoons vegetable oil
-5 tablespoons flour
-4 cups chicken stock
-1/4 cup chili powder (at least)
-other spices

OTHER
-1/2 lb Monterrey Jack Cheese
-15 (at least) corn tortillas
-cooking oil

OK, I’m going to tell you my secret enchilada recipe. I’m not real sure what is exactly secret about it, but it’s sure better than most shit you make. We start with a slow cook of the chicken; I use a crock-pot for this. I throw the chicken in with about 1/2 bottle of hot sauce, and some typical mexican spices (cayenne, chili pwdr, cumin, etc). On high, this takes about 3 hours.

While the chicken is cooking, we can work on other things. Most importantly is the enchilada sauce. For one casserole dish (~20ish enchiladas) I make 4 cups, yes an entire quart of the sauce, and I use almost all of it.

We start with a simply roux. A roux is equal parts fat and starch. For this roux, I heat up vegetable oil, then add regular all purpose flour. Typically 1 tablespoon of each will thicken a cup of liquid, depending on how thick you want it. I want a little thicker, so I use 5 tablespoons of each.

Mix thoroughly until you get what’s called a blonde roux. It’s blonde because, well it looks blonde. This is the point where it has it’s most thickening power, so we need to use it right away (in cajun cooking, you typically cook until it gets brick colored). Anyways, put in your 4 cups of chicken stock. Now, all we have now is basically chicken gravy. What enchilada sauce is, is basically chili powder. So add a crapload of chili powder. I’m talking like at least 1/4 cup. Probably more, I’m not sure how much I added.

There is a lot of discussion on whether or not to put tomatos in the sauce; I personally do NOT like tomatos in my enchilada sauce, but to each his own. Anyways, let the sauce come to a boil, the immediately reduce to a simmer and add your typical mexican spices to taste.

Next comes the most tedious part, chicken shredding. I usually just use a fork and knife, and pull with the grain to get nice small shreds of chicken.

When you’re done put in a pot with 1/2 medium sized onion, chopped. Also, put about two large ladles in of the enchilada sauce, just to keep it nice and moist.

We’re almost there. Next find out how many you’re making. My casserole pan fits about 16 or 17 depending on how much I stuff them. In a small skillet, heat up some vegetable oil to medium, medium-high. When the oil is hot, fry the corn tortillas for about 5 seconds on each side. This will soften them, and make them less prone to crack when we roll them.

Before assembling, I throw about a ladle-full of sauce on the bottom of the casserole pan. This will prevent the enchiladas from sticking, as well as add deliciousness. Now set up an assembly line. I take a tortilla, spread a little more sauce on it, then a spoonful of chicken. Then a good amount of Monterrey Jack cheese, and fold. Place, seam side down in the pan. Rinse and repeat until full. Top with lots more sauce and cheese. I bake at 350° until the cheese just begins to bubble, maybe 10 minutes.

Serve with mexican rice and beans. Garnish with avocado slices (not shown because they were fucking $2 a PIECE), and maybe a lettuce/tomato salad on top (also not shown, too lazy, wanted to eat).

Sorry about the crappy last picture, was in a hurry

btw, had I used a flour tortilla, it would be a burrito. Had that flour tortilla been deep-fried, it would be a chimichanga. Had this been deep-fried, it would make it a taquito.

Show Some Pride in Your Ride

Today’s edition comes from the parking lot of the Kroger. As much as I like UFC, is it doing that bad that they need people advertising for it?

Oooo, look that guys’ a fan, I guess I will spend $60 to see the fights.

St. Patrick’s Day 2008

So, here is a mildly accurate video presentation of my St. Pattys day. You will hear me say, “It’s officially St. Patrick’s Day….” a few times throughout. This is because no one was celebrating. It’s like fuck the Pope, we don’t give a shit what he says about Catholic holidays.

Anyways, I didn’t get a video from all the places, so here is a list of the places we attended in order:

• Doc Watsons – $3 pitchers bitches. The start of all of our St. Pattys day festivities.
• Jakes – Not sure why we went here. $1 domestic drafts, lame.
• Chucks – Ah we love Chucks. However, the reason we love it, the shot “More than a Mouthful” isn’t available. The only person who knows how to make it doesn’t work there anymore, in fact, he’s out of state. Fuck. Super lame for as late we were there.
• Home – Just for dinner and a few beers
• Frogtown Johnnies – It’s close, and it’s not bad. It’s always hopping on a Saturday night, but wasn’t especially hopping like we were hoping it to be. Met a few friends who I haven’t seen in a while. Good times had by all.

Guess I won’t know how much I spent for a few days. Anyways, below is the video. Don’t expect much.

Movie Review – Hitman (2007)

Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Olga Kurylenko

Runtime: 100min (few more for unrated)

Overall: C+ 

Hitman as the previews show, follows a trained gun around, as he’s whacking people. We find out that Agent 47 (Olyphant) was raised from birth in a training ground for killers. During a particular mission, he’s set up, and the movie follows him trying to get back at the guys who fucked him over.

The only beef I have with this movie is that’s its really already been done, exactly. If you’ve seen the Bourne Identity, then there’s not really much need to watch this.

Both movies start with trained assassins, the only difference is that Bourne can’t remember his training. Then, in the middle of some serious shit, they find and fall in love with a girl who they try and protect. In both movies, the other trained killers try and kill them and their women, only to fail in both.

Other than the fact that I’ve already watched this movie, and it’s two sequels, the movie did deliver in a mind-numbingly way. There are great action, and best of all, hot chick titties. Don’t let the name Olga confuse you, she’s hot, and get gets nekkid.

Had this movie came out years ago, I would have no problem giving it a B, unfortunately, you cannot simply follow a tried and true formula, with negligible change, and feel like you put out a good film. However, if you’re looking for one of those movies that you don’t need to think about, a movie that you can just sit back and watch explosion, boobs and lots of guns, then this is for you.

Attention Black Athletes

Not trying to be racist or anything, but what does this mean:

Usually the fingers are spread, but I’m not that good of an artist. I see black NFL players do it a lot, but I’ve seen basketball players do it as well, and I’m just curious. Is it in a rap video or something?

My guess would be their trying to get a strobe light effect by using their fingers. I have no clue.

Ace and Dutch – Episode 4

The party’s over. Let the walk of shame begin…..

Bring on the Gas Prices!

Yes, the gas prices suck; I have to pay them too you know. However, there are many positive things we can take from the increase in gas.

Now, do NOT take me to be a tree hugger. In fact, I burn baby seals in my grill to cook my chipotle marinated albino rhino. But, we should cut back on the consumption of fossil fuels. There is no reason that we shouldn’t rely more on solar, wind, and nuclear energy. Solar and wind energy are essentially free. You invest the money once, and you have free energy.

The United States consumes more nuclear power than any other country; in fact 20% of the electricity we use is from nuclear energy. But we haven’t built a new plant in over 12 years.

Anyways, what the hell am I getting to. Well the problem is that people oppose change (unless you’re a democratic presidential candidate, then that’s ALL you talk about). There’s no reason to change unless we have problems with the current setup. Someone is more likely to change their job because they’re unhappy with the their current job than if they think they have a better opportunity.

What I’m try to say is that people are FINALLY starting to make changes regarding gas. In 2001, I remember buying gas for less than a buck. When it went up to $2, people were furious, but the sale of Hummers, Escalades and other gas-guzzling vehicles were at an all-time high.

It’s just NOW, that people are finally starting to buy electric-powered cars, and other high MPG hybrids.

Let me make one point very clear here though. Buying an electric hybrid car right now is NOT saving the environment. The only thing it’s saving is you a few bucks at the gas pump. The problem with electricity is that it’s still being created by burning coal and gas (remember only 20% nuclear here in the U.S.). Furthermore, biodiesel, is very much cheese-also. Sure, it burns cleaner than gas, but how do you think they got the shit in the first place? Yes, they had to run some sort of manufacturing plant to create it. That plant used a shitload of electricity, and cheese-also.

In the end it comes down to the fact that the high prices are finally starting to drive innovation. At $2 a gallon, it was still cheaper to do everything through gas because other technology wasn’t being invested in. Now, more and more money is being directed towards alternative, and renewable energies, and that’s driving the costs down. As the costs go down, more and more people will then have things like solar panels on their roofs, maybe even wind turbines in their back yards.

Yea, the price of gas sucks now, but 100 years from now, it will be for the better.

Show Some Pride in Your Ride

We have a double version for you today. The first car I seen outside school. It’s a delivery guys’ car with an enormous muffler, and stickers a plenty. You can’t see it, but on the windshield is a huge ass sticker of whatever I guess his favorite performance company is.

Seen the next one at the grocery store. Who needs a Hummer?

Arraignment!!!

So, if anyone is following me and my friends legal problems, we were arraigned yesterday. For those of you not familiar with the legal system, the first step is arraignment. This is where you enter your plea. Of course we entered “Not Guilty.”

However, there was quite a surprise that I found out. You see, I was charged with Disorderly Conduct while Intoxicated. This can be either a minor or 4th degree misdemeanor. I was given my ticket as a minor misdemeanor. I had signed it, which says that I received it, and then was given my copy.

After I was given my copy, the officer changed the charge to a 4th degree. Big deal? Well, a minor misdemeanor has a maximum penalty the same as a speeding ticket. Basically, $150 + court costs. Maximum. A M4 (fourth degree misdemeanor) carries a maximum of 30 days in jail, plus a hefty fine. Certainly quite different. Now, we wouldn’t receive jail time, but this just goes to show how much a difference that makes.

Anyways, this is all bullshit. The next step is the pretrial. This is where all the deals get made. This is the point where my attorney will say, “You guys are full of shit.” Then they will say, “Ok, well if he pays court costs (~$70) then we’ll dismiss the charge.”

I don’t know, I have a month before that, but it really chaps my ass that a police officer would do that. Did he think I was just going to throw away the ticket or what? It clearly has the M circled indicating minor, but on the court’s copy, that circle is crossed out and 4 is circled. BULLSHIT!

Anyways, just keeping you folks updated.