You can probably get by with only 2 chicken breasts… but it is so good that I like having leftovers. We have done this for just the family or for a backyard BBQ with friends. It is always popular.

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Mary's Chicken Fajitas

A tasty way to make this Tex-Mex favorite dish - Chicken Fajitas

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican, Tex-Mex

Keyword chicken, fajitas, onion, peppers, tortillas

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Marinating Time 2 hours hours

Servings 4 people

Equipment

• George Foreman Grill or BBQ Grill

Ingredients

• 6 chicken tenders (or 3 breasts)

Marinate

• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup orange or lemon juice
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey

Grill

• 1/2 large onion
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1/2 yellow pepper

Serve

• 8 small torillas
• Mexican shredded cheese
• sour cream
• guacamole
• salasa
• Spanish Rice

Instructions

• Combine marinade ingredients, thaw chicken and set to marinate for at least one hour or as long as overnight
• Cut onions and peppers into thin strips
• One half hour before serving time, cook onion in oil. When onion is starting to get soft, add peppers and cook until soft
• Remove chicken from marinade and cook on outdoor or indoor grill. We use a George Foreman Grill https://amzn.to/39fO3RE.
• Serve with tortillas, cheese, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and Spanish rice

Combine marinade ingredients, thaw chicken if needed, and set to marinate for at least one hour or as long as overnight.

Grill the chicken until golden brown and cooked through. The chicken should still be moist inside because of the marinade.

Grill the onions with a little oil until they start to get brown and soft.

While the chicken is grilling and the onions are cooking, cut the peppers and add to the onions.

I add a splash of water when cooking the onions and peppers together.

Serve with tortillas, cheese, salsa, sour cream to taste. We love a side of Spanish Rice and chips and salsa.

The post Mary’s Chicken Fajitas Recipe appeared first on Inside Chris's Head.

• created different 5 podcasts
• published 1,800 podcast episodes which were downloaded more than 25 million times
• won travel journalism awards for my podcasting including being named the “best independent travel journalist” by Travel+Leissure magazine

Here are the slides for this presentation on SlideShare.

The post Creating your Own Podcast appeared first on Inside Chris's Head.

These newer games were heavily influenced by games like Catan (or Settlers of Catan) which was published in Germany in 1995. This game and ones like it provide some of the great strategies I liked in the games I played in high school but can usually be played in less time than Monopoly or Risk.

The problem with board games is that you need to find someone else to play with you. That got even trickier in the midst of the 2020 pandemic, but a great solution can be versions of these games available on the iPad. Here are some of my favorite games like Catan that are also available in a version for the iPad.
[toc]

• Solo Play, Network Play or Pass and Play
• Catan HD
• Puerto Rico HD
• Agricola
• Roll for the Galaxy
• Ticket to Ride
• Pandemic
• 7 Wonders
• Carcassonne
• Lords of Waterdeep
• Conclusion

[/toc]

Solo Play, Network Play or Pass and Play

All the games below can be played in solo mode against computer AI opponents or can be played against real humans through the internet. Some of these games also support a pass and play option for people who are in the same room. In pass and play you take your turn and then pass the iPad to someone else.

It is surprising that even with the pass and play that playing the computer version can often be quicker than playing the actual board game version. If you have played one of these games then you will understand that setting up and taking down the game can take some time, but the computer game simplifies that significantly.

Catan HD

Before we talk about games like Catan that are available for the iPad we should mention that Catan itself is available. I have the Catan HD app which is a very good computer version of Settlers of Catan.

For those of you not familiar with Catan, the game takes place on an island (or islands in the variants) where different players place their original two settlements. Each settlement is near one or more hexes and each hex will produce one of five different resources: wood, stone, brick, wheat, and sheep. Each turn the player rolls the dice and if it is a 9, for instance, then anyone with a settlement next to a hex with a 9 on it gets one of that resource and anyone with a city next to that hex gets 2 of that resource.

You can build a road with one wood and one brick. In the Sailors of Catan version, you can build a ship with one sheep and one wood. You can build a new settlement with one wood, brick, sheep, and wheat. You can upgrade a settlement to a city with 3 stone and 2 wheat. You can buy one of a series of resource cards with a wheat, a sheep, and a stone. That’s it. 5 resources and 5 different things you can build. You expand your holdings on the island until you take over enough of it to get a certain number of points. It does not take long to learn and it does not take long to play.

You can trade resources with other players (human or computer). Certain places on the board are ports that can be quite important as you can trade a specific resource more efficiently at a port. So if you have a wood port, for instance, you can trade any 2 wood for any other resource. So combine wood port and a great supply of wood and your path to domination is bright.

Catan HD has a number of different scenarios built-in and others that you can unlock with in-game purchases. Catan is a turn-based game (only one player is playing at a time) so you can play this one pass and play.

Catan Board Game | Catan HD iPad Game

Puerto Rico HD

Puerto Rico is a game where the players control plantations in the colony of old San Juan. They can plant fields of coffee, indigo, sugar, and corn. They can buy various buildings which give them different benefits. For instance, most crops (except corn) require a building to process them. So if you want to make money from planting sugar you also have to build a sugar mill. You have colonists to place to work your fields and buildings and you have doubloons to spend to build your economic empire.

Each turn a player chooses one of 6 roles: Builder, Captain, Craftsman, Mayor, Settler, and Trader. Each role has certain advantages depending on what you are trying to accomplish. The builder can build a building cheaper, the Mayor receives an extra new colonist, etc. For each role that a player chooses you will do that phase, but if no player chooses a particular role that means that all players will not perform the corresponding action in this turn. A doubloon is added to unused roles to give you the incentive to perform that role in a later turn.

I like the gameplay for Puerto Rico, the board game, but this is the only one of the iPad games that I don’t like the interface and think that the board game is easier to play than the iPad game. Playing the tutorial definitely helps but this game needs some work.

Puerto Rico Board Game | Puerto Rico HD app

Agricola

Agricola is a game where you are building up your family farm and trying not to starve while you plant your fields, raise your livestock, and grow your family. Each round players take turns claiming one of the action spaces. Some of these spaces give you some of the resources in the game: wood, brick, stone, and reeds. Some enable you to plant your fields with wheat or vegetables or to get sheep, cows, and pigs.

You start with two people in your family and therefore get two actions. You also start with no fields and no enclosures for animals. Over time you can improve and expand your house. When you expand your house you can expand your family. When you have more family members then you can play more actions in a round.

You can choose different occupations that will help you and can buy major and minor improvements. If you get an oven, for instance, you can turn wheat into more food for your family.

The trouble with Agricola is that those other players are going to get in your way. What choices you make early on will determine whether you will be a subsistence farmer or you and your family will thrive. The game has a fixed number of turns with harvest happening every four turns. In the harvest, your crops grow and your animals reproduce.

Agricola requires some strategy and I will admit that I bought this as one of the first of these strategy games for the iPad in part because I wanted to be able to play better against my son-in-law the next time I faced him. One of the advantages this game has over an iPad game like Peurto Rico is that they decided that not everything has to fit on the screen at the same time. That left a clean implementation that lets you concentrate on the game.

Agricola board game | Agricola App

Roll for the Galaxy

Roll for the Galaxy is a dice-based board game. You have a certain number of different color dice that will determine what you can do in a given turn. You are building your interstellar empire. You have 5 different actions you might be able to take in any given turn: explore (eye), develop a technology (diamond), colonize a planet (circle), produce goods (cylinder), and ship goods (spaceship).

You start the game with 2 planets and one technology. As you colonize planets or developed technologies you add them to your tableau. Most planets let you produce a certain type of good. When you ship goods you earn victory points or money. You need money to be able to buy back dice you used so that you can use them again. Planets and technologies also provide a certain number of victory points that is often the same as the cost to buy them.

Each turn you roll the dice in your cup and place them on the 5 actions. In general, the symbol on the face of the die determines which phase you can accomplish, but different technologies will give you more flexibility. You can designate one and only one phase that you will definitely do this turn. Like San Juan, you will play only the phases that are chosen by one of the players. You may have dice on all 5 phases as above but if you have 3 players, you will only play 1-3 of them depending on what players choose.

I like the board game for Roll for the Galaxy but my wife finds the instructions a bit cryptic with all the symbols that the game uses for various cards, especially technologies.  For that reason, the iPad version plays much faster as you can automatically assign dice with one click and then adjust them. I have been playing the beta version of the iPad game which will be releasing soon.

Roll for the Galaxy Board Game | Roll for the Galaxy iPad (coming soon)

Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride is probably the simplest of these games and a great board game for kids. You are trying to build your railroad empire by completing certain routes while the other players are trying to do the same and are getting in your way either intentionally or not. You can draw new trains, complete a segment, or draw new routes on any given turn. Most segments have a color and you have to complete them with trains of that color (which oddly enough is not how railroads work in the real world).

The iPad version of this game is a clean interface and is well laid out. Of course, it does not come with cute plastic trains like the real game. The standard games is included and you can use in-app purchases to buy some of the other variants of the game like Ticket to Ride Switzerland or Ticket to Ride Europe.

Ticket to Ride Board Game | Ticket to Ride App

Pandemic

If you are looking for a fun game to play during this or any other pandemic then how about the cooperative game Pandemic. Unlike most strategy games, in Pandemic all the players win or all the players lose. It’s us against the viruses and I can’t win without you (just like in the real world).

In the game, there are 4 different viruses that have infected the earth and we are racing to develop 4 different vaccines. Every turn there will be new outbreaks of disease and we will be racing around the world to treat the outbreaks before they get out of hand as we try and buy enough time to develop a vaccine (sound familiar?). This game is played with cards where most of the cards are specific countries. You can use a card to move your player or you can a collection of 4 blue cards and a research station to develop a vaccine for the blue virus.

Different players will have different special abilities. One can develop a vaccine with fewer cards, one can treat the outbreaks more efficiently, one can suppress new outbreaks near them, and so on. Choose your team wisely because time is running out and things can easily get out of control.

The iPad version of this is a great rendition of the game and does not have the risk that your cat will jump on the board and scatter all the small cubes in the board game.

Pandemic Board Game | Pandemic App

7 Wonders

7 Wonders may be the quickest of the board games in this article. You play in 3 rounds. Each round starts with every player holding a deck of 7 cards. Each player chooses one card that they can acquire for their tableau and then passes the rest of the cards to the next player. You are generally working on your own empire but can frustrate the plans of others by what cards you choose not to pass.

The cards include raw materials (brown), manufactured goods (grey), military structures (red), scientific structures (green), civilian structures (blue), commercial structures (yellow), and guilds (purple). You are trying to amass victory points by building structures, including your wonder of the world which has 3-4 parts. You need raw materials and manufactured goods and gold to build buildings. You can use your resources or those of your neighbors (at a price).

With the board game, you can easily play a game in less than half an hour, faster with a group that knows what they are doing. With the app version, I can easily lose in 5 minutes. The app version is so fast that it took me 3 games to take the screenshot above. I kept getting sucked into the game and forgetting why I was there. 7 Wonders is for 3 or more players but there is a version of the board game called 7 Wonders Duel for 2 people.

7 Wonders Board Game | 7 Wonders Duel Board Game | 7 Wonders App

Carcassonne

Carcassonne is both a beautiful walled town in southern France and a popular board game with tiles. In the board game, you draw a tile and place it in a fashion that makes sense with the growing game map. You can place your tokens on the tile you place as you lay it down to claim a specific town, road, monastery, or city. You can’t claim a feature that is already claimed.

As the game continues if a road completes then the player (or players if two or more roads or fields or cities merged) who controls that feature will score points based on the type of the feature (1 per length of the road, 2 per square of a city and so on) and they will get their token back to use in the future. At the end, points are also scored for partially completed features.  This is another pretty quick game.

This app version is very attractive and the gameplay is quick and easy. Although, I do wonder why it appears we are playing on the floor.

Carcassonne Board Game | Carcassonne App | Visiting the city of Carcassonne

Lords of Waterdeep

Lords of Waterdeep is one of my current favorite board games. Like Agricola above, the players take turns placing their tokens on the different buildings on the map to claim resources or take actions. In the board game, there are 5 resources. The resources include gold and 4 types of adventurers (cubes): rogues (black), priests (white), fighters (orange), and wizards (purple). Each player is collecting these resources to complete a series of quests.

Each player has a secret identity card that determines which of the 5 different types of quests (Arcana,
Commerce, Piety, Skullduggery, and Warfare) will give them bonus points at the end of the game. The game is played in 8 rounds. In the first 4 rounds, you have 2 tokens and in the last 4, you have 3 tokens.

There are a series of intrigue cards that will give you special opportunities or advantages or will help you attack another player. An attack may be as simple as taking an adventurer from them or it might be assigning them a mandatory quest that they must complete before they do anything else.

Over the course of the game, additional buildings will be purchased by the players and put into play as places where you can place your tokens.

Lords of Waterdeep is one of my current favorites of this type of strategy game and that also includes the iPad version. The version has a great UI and advantages over the board game such as highlighting which places to play will work for your turn.

There are two different expansion packs for the board game: Scoundrels of Skullport and Undermountain (out of print). Both are available in the iPad version via in-app purchases.

Lords of Waterdeep Board Game | Lords of Waterdeep App

Conclusion

Whether you buy one of these games to play your favorite board game via the internet or play solo so you can beat your son-in-law next time, each of these will give you hours of entertainment

The post Best Board Games like Catan (Also Available on the iPad ) appeared first on Inside Chris's Head.

You basically cook chicken in olive oil and spices and cook rice in the liquid that is left from cooking the chicken so that the rice picks up a lot of that flavor. While it is cooking you throw together a yogurt sauce and then top with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese. Yum!

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Instant Pot Greek Chicken and Rice

One of our favorite instant pot recipes. Easy and tasty Greek chicken and rice.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Greek, Mediterranean

Keyword chicken, greek, Mediterranean, rice

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 4 servings

Author chris2x

Equipment

• Instant Pot

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• pinch red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3-6 cloves garlic minced or crushed
• 3 breasts chicken
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 grind pepper
• 2 cups rice
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/2 - 1 lemon juiced
• 1 cucumber chopped
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup feta cheese crumbled
• 1/2 tsp dried dill

Instructions

• In a mixing bowl or the instant pot, whisk together the spices (oregano, paprika, red pepper, pepper, and salt ), olive oil, 2/3 of the garlic, and 1/2 cup of water.
  
• Cube the chicken (if you are using frozen chicken, then thaw the chicken first)
  
• Add the chicken and the contents of the mixing bowl to the instant pot.
  
• Lock the instant pot and pressure cook for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes do a quick release of the pressure.
  
• Take the chicken out of the pot and set aside in a bowl, leaving the liquid in the instant pot. You will be using this liquid to cook the rice.
  
• Add 2 cups of rice and 1 1/2 cups of water. Set the instant pot to the rice setting and cook (about 12 minutes).
• While the rice is cooking mix together the yogurt, lemon juice, the rest of the garlic, dill, and 2 tbsp of water in a bowl.
  
• This yogurt sauce will be what we top the chicken and rice with.
  
• Cut up the cucumber and quarter the cherry tomatoes.
  
• When the rice is finished cooking, allow the instant pot to depressurize naturally for 10 minutes and then do a quick release if necessary.
  
• OK, we have all the pieces. Serve the rice, chicken, vegetables, yogurt sauce along with crumbled feta cheese. We also serve with pita and hummus.
  

Notes

Use one whole lemon or only half the juice of a lemon to taste. 

We put in 6 cloves of garlic, but we tend to double whatever the recipe calls for. You might want to try with only 3 cloves at first.

The post Instant Pot Greek Chicken and Rice appeared first on Inside Chris's Head.

I live in Silicon Valley in California and we were the first region in America that was ordered to “shelter in place”. Starting March 16th only “essential” businesses were to stay open. Much of the rest of the country followed later and, as you know, many people are not out of work or furloughed from work.

Businesses Pitching In

But what I wanted to highlight in this article are some of the people who are adapting to this new business environment. A lot of people have started to pitch in to see how they can help in the pandemic. It might be a friend who has a sewing machine who is making face masks (Joann fabric has a free guide to making and donating masks) or the other friend who has a 3D printer who is printing face shields (templates for 3D printed face shields).

Other companies big and small are contributing. Did you know that new ventilator designs have already been produced by Virgin Orbit that launches satellites and James Dyson the inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner?

I even heard from RushOrderTees.com who I have used as a supplier for trip t-shirts for Amateur Traveler trips that they are now making cloth face masks. So in the photo above, I am wearing both a t-shirt I designed and bought through them as well as one of their new masks made, no surprise here, out of t-shirt fabric.

Businesses Adapting

Other businesses are just adapting to changes. For some like zoom and Amazon, it has been a bonanza. But, who knew that it would lead to a run on backyard trampolines?

But what do you do if you make your living as a tour guide, hairstylist, or hotel worker?

This week the Planet Money podcast featured a story about an animal sanctuary called Sweet Farm which could no longer welcome visitors. What could they do? They started a service called Goat to Meeting where they will bring their animals into your corporate latest zoom meeting. For now, they had so many requests the needed to bring in other animal sanctuaries as well.

Our daughter had a side business (writelizwrite.com) doing signs for weddings at a time when all the weddings are being canceled. Is that discouraging? You bet, but she is using the opportunity to diversify and added her first fashion item on her Etsy store. One thing for sure, the girl’s got gumption.

Did you know you can do a virtual wine tasting kit from a number of vineyards? You pay for some bottles of wine and then get on zoom with their wine experts at an appointed time.

People Just Being Cool

Actor John Kraskinski has not only started a good news youtube show but even put on a virtual prom for high school seniors stuck at home that featured acts like the Jonas Brothers and Billie Eilish.

Free For First Responders During the Pandemic

Those who are at the front-line of this fight deserve a bit more love right now. They are putting their lives on the line to save lives and some companies are trying to say thanks:

• McDonald’s – “In appreciation for the healthcare workers, police officers, firefighters and paramedics who are committed to our health and safety, McDonald’s will offer free Thank You Meals, between Wednesday, April 22 and Tuesday, May 5, as a token of appreciation for their selfless service”
• Starbucks – Free coffee to any healthcare worker, paramedic, police officer, or firefighter through May 3
• Red Roof Inn – Free room at Red Roof Inn through May 31
• AirBnb – AirBnb is waiving their fees for stays for healthcare workers and is looking for people to participate in helping to house them

Deals for Everyone During the Pandemic

As bad as things are now, there are also opportunities. Here are some things that are free now but were not free before the pandemic:

• Microsoft is offering a free six-month free trial of Microsoft Teams’
• New York’s Metropolitan Opera is streaming free shows
• Amazon has made a library of kids programs free
• Amazon will give you a $5 Amazon gift card if you donate blood through the American Red Cross
• 15 Broadway Shows are now streaming for free
• Scholastic has opened a “Scholastic Learn at Home” site as a resource for parents

The post The Mother of Invention – Creativity in Crises appeared first on Inside Chris's Head.

Enter Instant Pot Carnitas. This is not a fast recipe. It will take a bit over an hour. You will sauté, pressure cook, and broil the pork before you are done, but it is worth the effort.

One serving suggestion is to serve with beans, rice or Spanish rice, tortillas, shredded cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, and perhaps a cerveza.

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Instant Pot Carnitas

Wonderful home-made carnitas. Not quick, but good!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword meat, pork

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Equipment

• Instant Pot

Ingredients

• 2 lbs pork shoulder roast
• 3/8 cup chicken broth
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 3/8 cup orange juice
• 1/2 tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp oregeno
• 3/4 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• salt
• pepper
• 1/2 large onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 medium jalipeno diced
• 1/2 cup water

Instructions

• In a mixing bowl mix chicken broth, lime juice, orange juice, chili powder, oregano, cumin, paprika
  
• Dice onions, I like using the Pampered Chef food chopper to dice onions.
• Mince the garlic or crush with a garlic press
• Mince jalapeno
• Salt and pepper pork to taste
• Cut pork into smaller pieces to cook faster
  
• Set the Instant Pot for sauté
• Add 1 tbsp oil to Instant Pot, and part of the pork, brown the pork 2 minutes per side and remove
  
• Repeat with the rest of the pork, add the onions and garlic with the second batch of pork
• Return the rest of the pork to the Instant Pot, pour in the liquid, add 1/2 cup of water
  
• Add the lid, set the steam release to sealing, and program the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 30 minutes
  
• Let the Instant Pot do a natural release for 20 minutes and then do a quick release if needed.
• Shred the pork with 2 forks into small pieces
• Place the pork on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil
• Drizzle some of the liquid (1/4 cup) from the Instant Pot over the pork and broil in the oven for 5 minutes 10 inches under the broiler
  
• Remove from the oven, drizzle over more of the liquid, toss the meat and return to the oven. You can do this twice or repeat until the meat carmelizes

Notes

One serving suggestion is to serve with beans, rice or Spanish rice, sour cream, tortillas, shredded cheese, salsa and guacamole.

The post Instant Pot Carnitas Recipe appeared first on Inside Chris's Head.

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Instant Pot Chicken Pad Thai

A great and easy recipe for Chicken Pad Thai that only gets one pan and one mixing bowl dirty.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian

Keyword asian, chicken, dairy free, gluten free, noodles, peanuts, thai, thailand

Prep Time 2 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Equipment

• Instant Pot
• garlic press

Ingredients

• 3 Chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup Green onions chopped
• 4 Carrots cut into matchsticks
• 1/2 cup Soy sauce
• 3 Tbls Hoisin Sauce
• 2 Tbls Seasame Oil
• 2 Tbls Rice Vinegar
• 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 3 Tbls Peanut Butter natural, creamy
• 1/4 tsp Crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 cup Chicken broth
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 1 Tbls Fresh Ginger minced (or 1tsp powdered ginger)
• 8 oz Rice noodles
• 1/4 cup Cilantro chopped (optional)
• 1/2 cup Peanuts (chopped)
• 1 Lime (juiced)

Instructions

• Thaw chicken breasts if necessary
• Combine soy sauce, Hoisin sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar, peanut butter, red pepper flakes, and chicken broth into a small mixing bowl
  
• mince garlic or press with a garlic press and add to mixing bowl
  
• mince ginger and add to mixing bowl, stir
  
• Dice green onions. Set aside about a tablespoon of the onion for topping.
  
• Cut carrots into match stick sized pieces
• Cube chicken
  
• Add chicken, onions and carrots to the Instant Pot
  
• Add ingredients of mixing bowl to Instant Pot, stir contents of the Instant Pot
  
• Put the lid on the Instant Pot, and turn on Pressure cook for 7 minutes
  
• When the timer goes off do a quick release and remove lid
• Add in rice noodles, replace the lid and leave for 12 minutes on keep warm. Check if the noodles are tender. If the noodles are still not tender then give it more time.
  
• Served topped with cilantro (if desired), green onions and chopped peanuts. We usually let each person top with onions and peanuts as they desire.
  

Notes

We have a couple of recipes for Pad Thai. This recipe tastes about the same as our recipe that is cooked on the stove but the prep for this recipe is a bit simpler and it does not get as many dishes dirty. 

As with any Instant Pot recipe, don't let the 7 minute cooking time confuse you. 7 minutes is after the Instant Pot has gotten to pressure. The cooking time I have put here is the actual elapsed time. 

The post Instant Pot Chicken Pad Thai Recipe appeared first on Inside Chris's Head.

 

Print

Bacon Chicken Crescent Roll Ring

A great family favorite made from chicen, cheese, bacon and crescent rolls

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword easy

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author chris2x

Ingredients

• 1 tube refrigerated crecsent rolls
• 1 1/2 breast chicken
• 3/8 cup sour cream
• 3/8 cup mayonaise
• 1/2 cup finely chopped sweet red pepper
• 1/4 cup finally chopped onion sauted
• 6 strips bacon cooked & crumbled
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard can substitute brown mustard
• 2 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Instructions

• Grease a cookie sheet or pizza pan.
• Unroll the crescent rolls in an 8 pointed star pattern on the pan with a hole in the center and the long point of the dough pointing outward. (see video)
• Fry the bacon until crisp. Set aside to cool.
  
• Microwave the chicken until cooked.
• Dice the onion and sautée until soft.
• In a large mixing bowl add the onion red pepper, and the chicken (cut or shred the chicken into smaller pieces).
  
• Crumble bacon into the mixing bowl
  
• Add cheese and remaning ingredients. Mix.
  
• Top the crescent roll star with mixure and fold over.
• Bake at 375º for 20-25 minutes.
  

Notes

We find it easy to make two of these at a time. You can then refrigerate or freeze the second one after baking. The flavor is still good as leftovers although the texture of the crescent rolls is better when fresh. 

Combine with a nice green salad for a great Sunday night dinner. 

The post Bacon Chicken Crescent Roll Ring appeared first on Inside Chris's Head.

Have a schedule

Just because you’re able to skip your commute, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep to a regular schedule. I am currently working as a remote engineer for a small start-up company with no physical location. We started each day with a standup meeting at 8 am on Google meetings. It’s a good way to stay in touch, coordinate our work, and also for me on the west coast, define when my day starts.

Stay in Touch

I have coworkers in Portland Oregon, Boston, and the south of France. We don’t work at the same hours for obvious reasons so some of our coordination has to happen through email, our issue tracking system (Jira) or Slack which we use for our chat. See my previous article on managing a remote team.

Ditch the PJs

Right now much of the country is working at home because of a global pandemic. I was surprised to read that some companies like Walmart are selling more shirts and fewer pants than they normally do. This leads me to wonder if people are not wearing pants on their video calls. You can certainly get away with that, but my philosophy is that I am still at work so I still dressed for work. I still shave. I still shower. Of course, since I’m an engineer, dressing for work for me means a clean shirt and jeans.

Have a dedicated workspace… If you can

I remember the first year I worked for my second start-up, which was LiveWorld, I was working at home because we didn’t have an office yet. We had not added onto our house and so much of the work I was doing was while sitting in the family room which I shared with our two school-age kids. While I love spending time with them, it wasn’t the most conducive for getting work done. If you don’t have a dedicated workspace you might think about a signal that you’re working. It might be literally putting on your work hat or putting on your noise-canceling headphones to signal to your family that you’re working.

If you can, make a dedicated workspace so you are still commuting to your work, albeit with much less traffic. I currently have three different spots in the house where I work on a regular basis. Two of these are in a dedicated office.

I have a desk in my office with an external monitor that I can plug into my laptop for those times when I need screen real estate. That is also where are my backup drives are that I can plug-in and my microphone for when I’m recording podcasts. Half the time when I am in my office I am working from a futon with my feet up and my laptop on my lap.

I also have added a new work spot which is a cycle desk. I spend 1-2 hours a day during the workweek sitting and pedaling while I get work done. This is a new addition in the last 6 months and I am surprised how well it works for me. It is in front of the TV in the family room so Joan may hop on it at night while she watches her shows.

Between FOMO and Out of the Loop

Working remotely it can be easy to feel out of the loop. Many people will miss the personal interaction you get in the office. There is FOMO, Fear of Missing Out. A chat system like Slack or regular video calls can help a lot with that. But that can come at a cost as a group working on Slack may be a constant source of interruption. If you are using a system like Slack you may want to configure the notifications so that it does not beep when anyone in any channel says anything.

Figure out which conversations you need to be notified when something new is happening and which ones you can ignore completely or check when you have time. Slack will let you set notifications by channel. It will also let you specify if you will receive an audible notification, will have quiet periods when you are not notified or whether you will be notified only if someone “at mentions” you. My handle in the chat room is @chris. If someone uses that they are trying to get my attention. I want to be alerted of that.

Similarly, your workgroup should decide how often people will check email. I used to tell engineers I managed that I only needed them to check email every couple hours. If I had something more important I would text them, catch them on chat or call them.

Gear

All I really need to get work done is my laptop, a place to sit, a place to plug-in and wi-fi, but I do have more gear that that in my office.

I am rocking a MacBook Air with USB C ports so all of those get plugged in via a small portable USB dock which is actually physically taped to my desk.

Also on my desk is a tea station with an electric hot water kettle. This lets me get more caffeine in my system without going down to the kitchen, which inevitably leads to unneeded snacking calories and distraction. I also have a small electric mug warmer on the edge of the desk that keeps my Amateur Traveler mug warm.

Next to the futon, I have a surge protector where I can plug in my laptop and also a Travel Power Strip Surge Protector with 4 Smart USB Charging Port. This has USB ports so that I can plug in my phone, tablet or my  Apple AirPods (earbuds). When I travel, both the USB dock and the travel power strip are small enough to take with me.

Feeling Alone

I am an introvert so I can work at home for days or weeks at a time but your tolerance may be shorter. Even I need to get some face time with old friends or co-workers. During those periods when I am working for myself I have no co-workers so I try and schedule a periodic lunch with old friends. At times like this when I can’t go out I can do the same thing by arranging time to FaceTime the kids or old friends.

The post Working at Home – Tips from 2 Decades at Home appeared first on Inside Chris's Head.

Ingredients:

• Bread
• Shredded Cheese – Mexican Style 4 Cheese Blend
• Soft Cheese like Brie I have been using a Goat cheese from Marin French Cheese
• Goulden’s brown mustard (optional)
• Harry & David’s Chunky Mango Relish

Preparation:

1. Spread the soft cheese on one slice of bread
2. Spread the relish on the second slice
3. If you want mustard, spread that on as well (I love it with mustard but my wife skipped that)

4. Throw a hand full of shredded cheese in the sandwich
5. Throw a handful of cheese in a non-stick pan, no need for butter or oil
6. Heat until the cheese is partially melted
7. throw another handful of cheese in the pan and flip the sandwich

8. Cook until done on both sides

We have started experimenting with other spreads like Harry & David’s Relish Charred Pineapple which also worked well.

Total prep time is under 10 minutes.

The post Easy Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipe appeared first on Inside Chris's Head.