No Man's Lemon Bars

Ingredients:
1) 2 cups Flour
2) 1/2 cup Sugar
3) 1/4 teaspoon Salt
4) 2 sticks (1 Cup) Salted Butter, Cut Into Small Cubes
5) Filling
6) 1-1/2 cup Sugar
7) 1/4 cup Flour
8) 4 whole Large Eggs
9) Zest And Juice Of 4 Medium-sized Lemons
10) Powdered Sugar, For Sifting

Directions:

1. For the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan with butter.

2. Stir together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter to the bowl and use a pastry cutter to cut it all together until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Press into the prepared pan and bake until golden around the edges, about 20 minutes.

3. For the filling: Stir together the sugar and flour. Crack in the eggs and whisk to combine. Add the lemon zest and juice and mix until combined. Pour over the crust and bake about 20 minutes.

4. Allow to cool in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours, then sift powdered sugar over the top before cutting into squares.

(Use an 8 x 10 pan if you'd like the layers to be a little thicker.)

Renlay's secret recipe

3 lb pork roast – uncooked

1 lb dry pinto beans.  Sort and soak overnight.  Drain and rinse well.

7 cups water

½ cup chopped onion

2 – 4 cloves garlic – minced

1Tbsp Salt

2 – 3 Tbsp Chili Powder

1 – 2 Tbsp Cumin

1-2 tsp oregano

7 ounce can chopped green chilis

Toss together, bring to a boil.  Reduce to simmer.  Cook for 5 hours

Shred meat

Serve over fritos.

Serve with:

chopped tomotoes

avacado

green onion

lettuce

cheese

olives

taco sauce (red or green)

Perfect White Bread

This recipe is based solely off my own baking experience and others' may differ as conditions change. All directions are based around using a stand-mixer with a dough hook. During the rising process,  I used my oven with a bowl of water inserted, warmed to the lowest setting it had and let to cool slightly before inserting the dough. 

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (110° F)
• 2 cups milk (Scalded)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 cups all purpose flour

1. Combine yeast and water, let soften
2. Combine Milk, Sugar, Salt, and Butter. Cool to lukewarm
3. Add 2 cups flour; beat well
4. Add softened yeast, mix
5. Add enough of remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough, mix for 8-10 minutes
6. With floured hands, shape into a ball and place in lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease entire surface.
7. Cover and let rise until double (Approx 1 hr) in warm place
8. Punch down, split dough into 2 equal portions. Shape into loaf and place in pans. Let rise again until double.
9. Heat oven to 375° and cook for 25 minutes (covering pans lightly with foil after the first 10 minutes)

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Whole Wheat Cranberry Walnut Muffin Recipe

Here is the link to the original recipe I found: CLICK ME!

I made these originally with some added orange zest, but when I made them the second time I accidentally left out the zest, cinnamon, and nutmeg and they were still REALLY tasty.

Below is the simplified recipe:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 TBSP baking powder
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2/3 cup dried cranberries
• 2/3 cup chopped walnuts

1. Heat oven to 400 °F (200 °C). Grease bottoms only of 12 muffin cups.
2. In a small bowl, combine milk, apple sauce and egg; blend well.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flours, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking powder and salt; mix well.
4. Add dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.
5. Fold in walnuts and cranberries.
6. Fill cups 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Cool for 1 minute before removing from pan.

Cookie Butter Brownies

1 Cup milk chocolate chips (melted)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Cup Butter
1.5 cup sugar
4 eggs
.5 cup flour
.5 Cup Cocoa Powder
.5 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
16 Biscoff Cookies (chopped)
1 cup Cookie Butter

1) Preheat the oven to 350°. 

2) Melt the .5 cup Chocolate and leave to cool slightly whilst the rest is made.

3) Beat the butter & sugar thoroughly until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and continue to mix well (if it looks like its starting to curdle/split add a few spoonfuls of the flour)

4) Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, melted chocolate and salt and fold together – fold in the chocolate chips and Lotus biscuits in and pour into the pan. – Make sure you do NOT overmix the mixture as it will not bake correctly, and might ruin the taste!!

5) Put the Cookie Butter into a heatproof bowl/jug and microwave for 20-30 seconds until liquidy – pour over the Brownies and then swirl through the mixture with the end of a cake skewer.

6) Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean, and leave to cool fully in the pan. Since I modified an existing recipe, the cook time may be wrong. Please watch your brownies as they cook.

So I'm being laid off

Yesterday I was given my 30 day notice at work that they're laying me off. My entire department is being relocated to another state and everyone I work with is out of a job right before Christmas. There is no relocation option for us, there is no being transferred to another department. If we wanted to stay with the company, we'd have to apply for jobs just like every other person out there. Sure we might get special consideration and be fast-tracked through the application process, but there was no guarantee.
Now me, I'm not too worried, I've always been one to just go with the flow. I have faith that things will work out ok, at least for the near future. I'll be "working" until December 19th. After that I get 10 weeks of severance pay. Beyond that, I've got money available from my father's estate. It's not the ideal situation, but with cost cutting and creative money management, I'll be ok for a while.
I do plan on looking for another job, but I gotta stick with it here till the end to make sure I get that severance money. Of course, while I'm getting severance pay, I won't be able to collect unemployment. It makes sense, I'm still getting income. At the same time, I'll be unemployed.
I've got a friend who says his company is hiring. It sounds like a pretty decent gig, but it pays less than I'm making now.  I think I could live on a smaller budget, especially once I get my last credit card paid off. It would be a significant drop in pay. Of course, I can't be sure that I'd even get that job.
So what's my plan? For now, I'm just gonna ride this out, till Thanksgiving. After that, I'll shoot my resume off to my friend, post it up around the job sites, network, etc. Then I'll hope for the best. I'll start applying to other jobs as well, but really, what company is going to hire someone right before Christmas?
Once my 30 days (29 as of me writing this!) is up and I'm not working, I'll be focusing on YouTube again, increase my daily gaming videos. I may also start a daily vlog talking about my job search and such.  Outside of that, there's a lot of resources out there that can help me earn some small amounts of cash. I could setup something on Fiverr, maybe start turking, and could always pick up some temp work on Craigslist.
Course, what I'd love to have happen is finding my way in the YouTube world. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to earn a living from making content people love to watch. I have ideas and plans on what I can do to improve. I have new series I want to start, as well as some old stuff I'd like to pick back up. There's a lot of games I have yet to play that have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for me to have time to play them.
And now comes the time when beg and plead for your help. Nah, I'm not gonna do that. I'll make it. If I have to I'll work two or even three jobs. I'm not going down without a fight! But, with saying that, I'm not one to turn down a helping hand. So, let me just drop you this link. . . . Munchmo on Patreon