Poor man's Chicken Alfredo

For awhile now I have been slowly stocking my pantry for times that I'm unable to make it to the grocery store. Times of bad weather, injure or illness, or times that I simply do not wish to leave the house, I want things in the pantry that are easy to prepare. To stock a pantry I needed things that I could eat even as a normal meal as the item needed to be rotated out when it gets closer to it's expiration date.

I started an experiment on making the Knorr brand pasta and rice side dishes into a main meal. Some didn't do do well but the other night I hit a home run. Combining Knorr Alfredo side and a can of Tyson chicken chucks I made a simple version of chicken Alfredo, it's not as good as the Olive garden but it does taste great.

I followed the instructions on the bag of the Knorr side. I drained the juice from the can of chicken and added the chicken to the pot one I had everything boiling. I finished following the instructions and it was time to eat.

Stocking up food for emergencies doesn't have to be expensive, you can only go so far with MRE's and peaches in can.

Woodworking bench, part 2

I have been working on my bench these past couple of weeks. Unfortunately I didn't have my cell phone at the time so didn't make any pictures during the process. Really the only thing everyone missed is the layout and cutting the dado's out for all the half lapped joints that I used for the cross members and stretchers. The joints were glued and I added screws for extra strength.

I drilled the holes in the top stretchers for the carriage bolts I will be using to secure the top to the base. I wanted to be able to separate the two in case I ever had to move the bench to another location. Once the top is done the whole thing will be simply to heavy to move as one unit.

The top had holes drilled into it to mate it to the base, the top was also counter bored so the heads of the carriage bolts will sit below the surface once they are epoxied in place. the plywood top will then be laminated with the wood flooring I have saved that dad rescued from a building from the early 1900's. I thought of screws and then lag bolts coming up from underneath but decided that the threads would eventually be worn loose.

The feet were finally done, I drilled the feet to accept a 1/2" threaded coupling and used a 1/2" carriage bolt as the adjustable foot, with a hockey puck for it to stand on. For more information on this idea and to give credit to where I had gotten the idea please visit Dan's Shop bench leveler feet. I really liked this idea, my shop's floor is nowhere near level so I knew that one side of the bench would had to be shimmed up to make the work surface level. The only difference between my feet and his that I used a cross member as the foot so drilling the hole went through side grain instead of his being end grain.

I still have several things to do before the bench is finished so hope you be looking forward for part 3.

No longer in isolation

Friday I finally received my replacement phone from Straight Talk. Surprisingly with all the bad reviews they have had I received a brand new sealed in the box Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. I'm only aggravated at the fact I was never notified of the package being shipped or provided a tracking number.

Not sure of the methods that they use but when I bought my phone and had it shipped they required a signature at delivery which was a hassle for me since the FedEx driver likes showing up while I'm still asleep from working the night before. But with the replacement being the same phone and being new condition I didn't understand why it didn't have the same requirement. I didn't know the phone was on my door step until I finally got up to get ready for work. The inconsistency boggles the mind.

They also informed me that they would compensate me for the time loss due to the phones being swapped. Haven't received a card and my balance hasn't changed. Still the same service end listed. Yet another lie from these people.

Woodworking bench, part 1

I have always wanted a nice heavy woodworking bench. I have made a few and even bought a cheap one from harbor freight, all were light and they wobbled. So with the new shop being filed out I decided that it was time for a real bench. I began by laminating spruce 2x4's together to create a 3x3.5" timber. This was milled down on the jointer until all were even and squared.

Just finished cutting the tenons.

Re gluing the two 2x4's that separated near the tenon.

The feet were joined to the legs by mortise and tenon joints and the cross pieces were half lapped and screwed. I could have done mortise and tenon joints on everything but it would have been a harder project on me just beginning more traditional joining methods.

Testing the fit.

Soon I will be laminating the 1 1/4" plywood and tongue and groove flooring to create the top. Will mount the bench vise and drill a few dog holes.