Just felt like sharing with you a couple of dishes I have adjusted to my taste and lifestyle health choices.

Ronnie’s Brown Chili

I came up with this out of what was, apparently, an overactive imagination. When I was a teenager, I said to my mom, “Could you make that chili you used to make that I loved so much?” She says, “Sure!” So she browns and drains the ground beef (a good start), then adds tomato sauce, kidney beans, chili powder and other spices. She’s made a proper chili.

“No, the OTHER chili you used to make,” I said. She had no idea what I was talking about. So I set off to make what I assume I’d never actually eaten before. It was actually my first try that came up with this extremely simple recipe.

1 lb. Ground Beef (I don’t think you can substitute turkey here. I wouldn’t.)
1 can Baked Beans [28 oz] (In my experience Van Camp’s original has been the best flavor for this dish.)

1) Brown the beef in a medium-sized skillet or saucepan.
2) Drain the grease (save this and make gravy!)
3) Add beans and heat to perfection. (Excessive stirring on the stovetop can quickly lead to mushy beans. I would recommend microwaving, but it can make ground beef tough)

The flavor of the beef and beans together is just something I’ve really enjoyed.

Big Boy Beans & Franks

I love beans and franks, but I don’t like the wieners they use in Beanee Weenee, and Pork & Beans don’t really suit my tastes. So I came up with this.

1 can 28oz Baked Beans (Same as above: Van Camp’s Original is best, in my opinion.)
1 12 oz Pack Hot Dog Wieners (Bar S isn’t the best brand, but it does pretty well for this particular dish.)

1) Chop the wieners. Err on the side of small.
2) Boil the wieners until they have swollen.
3) Mix the wieners and beans in a microwave safe dish and microwave them until they’re hot. This is a good way to prevent the mushiness of stovetop beans, plus it’s faster and cleaner.

A simple but delicious recipe. Also fairly inexpensive!

Chicken Breading for Professionals and Hobbyists

This is just a technique I like to use when preparing and breading chicken for deep frying.

When deep frying, you should cut the chicken breasts to smaller sizes so they cook evenly and quickly. I like big thin strips, but small cube-like chunks is also good.

The technique is Flour -> Wet -> Flour -> Freeze -> Wet -> Flour -> Fry. Basically just flour your chicken chunk, then put drop it in a water/egg mixture, then back in the flour, then onto a greased pan. Freeze those chunks, then wet and flour them again just before frying. You get a nice imitation chicken skin that’s less gross than having to think about how you’re actually eating the skin of a chicken.

(When flouring and wetting stuff, remember to use one hand to touch dry stuff and one for wet stuff. It takes some practice, but your hands will be much less messy afterwards.)

That’s about all, I suppose. Mainly I just wanted to share my love of the versatility Van Camp’s Baked Beans. Someone make them to give me money for promoting them. Or beans. Yeah, just beans will be fine.

Hey ladies and also fellas! The full-color second volume of “Whomp!” is now in the store, and a new shipment of the black & white volume 1 is in stock as well.

GO NUTS!

Hey guys! I’m working on Volume 2 of Whomp! right now and wanted to let you know. It will be full-color with over 100 pages of comics (every comic that wasn’t in Volume 1).

Also, I’ll place an order for a new shipment of Volume 1 at the same time as Volume 2, so new people can get both at the same time.

People have asked if it’s possible to get the Volume 1 comics in color, and that’s not on the plate yet, but maybe somewhere down the line I’ll release separate editions. It will be a long while, I think.

I’ll let you know more about Volume 2 as it comes closer to release.

Have a good one!