Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Mexican Rice Bowls with Shredded Beef

We tried out a new recipe for shredded beef and used the meat to make Mexican rice bowls. We gave this meal a two thumbs up. Give it a try!



Shredded Beef

3-4 lb chuck roast
1/3 cup vinegar
1/4 cup lime juice
1 can Rotel tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons cumin
2 teaspoons oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup chicken broth

Place roast in crockpot

Combine all ingredients except teh chicken broth into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

Pour sauce over roast and then add the chicken broth.

Cook on high for 6 hours or on low for 8-10 hours. Once meat is tender, shred with two forks right into the sauce in the crockpot.

To make the rice bowl:
Layer -
Prepared Mexican rice (we used Rice a Roni)
Black beans - heated through
Shredded beef
Shredded cheese
Lettuce
Salsa
Sour cream

Enjoy!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Half Way Through

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - Day 65

We are officially half way done with house. The walls are starting to get closed in, they started the drywall!





Chicken Noodle Soup

Carl made this soup for dinner and it is the best chicken noodle soup I've ever had. Delicious!



1 tablespoon butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
5 (14.5oz) cans chicken broth
1 lb chopped cooked chicken breast
2 cups egg noodles
1 cup sliced carrots
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Cook onion and celery in butter until just tender. Add in chicken, noodles, carrots, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Bricks and Insulation Finished

Friday, April 15, 2011 - Day 61

The builders finished off the week by finishing the bricks out front and finishing up the fiberglass insulation.  The house is all ready for the drywall crew to get started next week.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Siding and Sealing

Wednesday, April 13, 2011 - Day 59

We've had a flurry of activity out at the Ranch in the last few days.  They showed up with drywall on Monday.  It rained that day, so not much else got accomplished outside, but they got some framing done around the pipes and vents in the basement. 

It was about 85 degrees and sunny on Tuesday and the Amish crew started on the siding. 

The weather was warm again today and they got a lot done.  The transom window for above the front door finally showed up.  They finished the siding and got some more brick work done.  There's a slight problem with the siding though.  There are supposed to be boards framing the windows and doors in the back that the workers forgot.  We'll post some updated pictures once they fix that issue. 

Finally, the insulation guys came today and started spraying the walls with insulating foam.

And without further adieu, here are the pictures:

Drywall piles in every room!

Framework in the basement.


Sealing up the walls with foam.


A view from the back. They got all the siding on.  We are supposed to have wood frames around all of the windows and the patio door.  Ooopsie daisy.  Sucks to be the guys who have to redo all this work!

They made some progress on the bricks and got the shakes installed above the garage door.

Finally, they got the siding around the entry finished and nailed the wood around the front columns.  We've been waiting on that transom window for a couple of weeks now.  Someone forgot to order it...

Well that's all for now. We'll be back in a few days with some more updates!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

One Brick at a Time!

Sunday, April 10, 2011 - Day 56

The builders were able to get alot done last week. They finished the plumbing, HVAC and electrical work. They were also able to get started on the bricks.  The siding was delivered and they will start on that this week.

Here's some master bath plumbing.


We have a large pile of vinyl siding in the garage!


The bricklayers started on Friday, setting up scaffolding and starting the front bricks.


Over the weekend, Carl completed a home audio project.  He routed speaker wires to 8 different areas of the house, including surround sound for the TV viewing areas.  We may not use all the wires, but they're in place now if we want them.  Here's a picture of tools and materials just as Carl was getting started wiring.


 Here's Carl pulling some speaker wire.


And Lindsey was a big help with the wiring too...sort of.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

A House Webbed with Wires

Sunday, April 3, 2011 - Day 49

We stopped out at the house today to check out the progress from last week.  Well, when we arrived, we realized that we forgot the house key back at home....  So, after driving back to get the key and driving back out, here's what we have now:

The bricks for the front have arrived!  They should be starting those soon.


They ran all of the electrical wiring and TV wires on Friday, so now there are wires running all over the house.  They should be finishing up the electric this coming week.

As a result, we have a huge bundle of wires in the garage ready to be connected to the breaker box.


The builders are starting the plumbing tomorrow, so we should have a lot more to post later on this week.