Chicken Lettuce Wraps:

Ingredients:

4 chicken breast halves or 10-12 chicken breast tenders 
5 chopped cloves of garlic
1/2 chopped onion
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon ginger
dash of allspice
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Chop up chicken into small pieces and put into crockpot. Chop up the onions and garlic. Put into crockpot on top of the meat. In a mixing bowl, mix the liquid and spices and then pour over top of the meat.

Cover and cook for 4-6 hours on high, 6-8 on low.

Serve over lettuce leaves.

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Every day is pretty much the same. I wake up in the morning, eat some breakfast, play with my friend Sadie, eat some dinner and go to bed. The only thing that sometimes changes is what games Sadie and I play. We love to play pirates. It’s fun to swish a sword around and say “argh”. It’s also fun to play tag. Sometimes we play that if Rorschach comes over to visit. He lives in an apartment nearby but likes to come out and hang out with all of us by the school.

Today seems different though. I woke up, ate breakfast, and played with Sadie, but when I went to eat dinner, it wasn’t sitting out like it usually is. Sadie and I looked and looked, but we couldn’t find it. It was so weird! Then, after Sadie had given up and gone to lay down, I decided to look one more time. I knew I smelled it, but I just couldn’t see it. Then, I rounded the corner of a bush and there it was! I thought about going to get Sadie, but she was probably asleep, so I decided to have dinner and then go and let her know where it was.

Except, when I walked up to the bowl, something strange happened. First, I heard a snap noise and then something came down behind me. I turned around quickly, but instead of the bush, I saw a wall. It was so weird, guys. I could see the bush through the spaces between the bars, but no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get past it. I was stuck!

Then, a hand reached in and took away the food bowl. I thought for sure that they were going to let me out, but nope! They removed the bowl and then walked away. A few minutes later, they came back and suddenly I was floating. I wondered if this is what a leaf felt like when the wind picked it up and carried it.

I wasn’t scared. I know I should have been, but I wasn’t. I was more curious. I was wondering what was happening, who was carrying me, and where we were going. I didn’t have very long to wonder because it seemed like I had just been picked up when whoever it was set me down again. I peeked through the crate’s door and there was my friend, Kim. She smiled at me and told me that she would feed me again as soon as we got to where we were going.

I nodded and she closed the door to the car. Oooh, I forgot to tell you, she put the crate on the backseat of her car. Then, we were off! I couldn’t really see where we were going, but from the way that I swayed, I could tell that we took a few turns. I’d sway to the left, sway to the right, and then finally I just curled up before I fell over. The ride must have been pretty relaxing because I woke up when the car stopped.

The door opened and within moments after that, another door opened, and we walked into a well-lit laundry room. The crate door was opened, and Kim invited me to come out. “Sorry to scare you, Mittens, but I needed a safe way to bring you here.”

“Here? Where is here?” I meowed.

“I’m hoping that you’ll like it here and decide to live here from now on. I promise that you’ll be well taken care of. You’ll have delicious food, water, and lots of toys.”

I blinked up at her. Home? I was in a home? I had dreamed about living in a home, but I didn’t think that it would ever happen. I decided right there that I would give this home a try. I noticed that Kim seemed nervous, so I smiled up at her and gave her a hug.

That night, I had a cozy bed made of blankets to sleep in. Kim fed me the best food I had ever tasted. It looked and smelled just like the food that I ate all the time, but somehow it tasted better. There was always fresh water whenever I looked. It never had dirt or leaves in it. It was getting late, so I decided to get some sleep before I checked out these toys that she had mentioned. I had never really had anything other than sticks and my imagination for toys before.

The next morning, I woke up early and explored the house. It seemed nice, but it was really quiet. I was used to the noise of being outside and other cats being around me. That reminded me…what about Sadie? Was she okay? Did she know where I was? I had to talk to Kim immediately so I jumped up on the bed where she was and started nudging her with my paw.

“Well, good morning, Mittens. What can I do for you?”

“What about Sadie? She’s my best friend. Does she know what happened?”

“Sadie knows. I made sure that she knew about it. I even asked her if she wanted to come along too, but she said she’s an outdoor adventuring cat, but that she knows this is your dream. I hope she was right. I’d really like for you to stay.”

I nodded, thinking about my best friend. It would be just like her to want this for me while she followed a different adventure. I hoped that she had an amazing adventure and that I would hear about it.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll hear from her. She said she’d send you postcards and letters.”

I smiled and hopped back down off the bed. It was time for breakfast, and I was ready to eat and then check out those toys. Guess what, guys! Toys are awesome! Kim had bought me balls and things to chase and even a great big tower for me to climb.

It took me a few days of thinking about it, but, in the end, I decided to stay with Kim and to have a home of my own. I even convinced her to get a kitten since I missed Sadie. I thought the best thing to do was to give another kitten a home so that neither of us would be alone. After all, I had plenty of toys to share. 

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20-40 Clove Garlic Chicken:

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds chicken breasts or thighs
1 large onion, sliced
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon pepper
20-40 garlic cloves, peeled, but intact

The Directions.

Place onion slices on the bottom of the crockpot. In a large mixing bowl, toss chicken parts with olive oil, salt, paprika, pepper, and all of the garlic cloves. Pour into slow cooker on top of the onion.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-6. 

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Rotisserie Style Chicken:

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (4-5 pounds)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of chili pepper (optional)
4 whole garlic cloves (optional)
1 yellow onion, quartered (optional)

Directions:

In a bowl, combine all of dried spices. Rub the spice mixture all over the bird, inside and out. Place the bird breast-side down into the crockpot. If desired, shove 4 whole garlic cloves and a quartered onion inside the bird.

Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 8. 

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Moroccan Chicken:

Ingredients:

4 Frozen chicken breasts

1 cup salsa

1/4 cup chicken broth

2 teaspoons hot sauce

1/3 cup toasted almonds

5 cloves smashed and chopped garlic

1/3 cup golden raisins

2 teaspoons honey

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads

 

Directions:

Put the frozen chicken into your crockpot. Mix the spices, salsa, and broth in a separate bowl and pour evenly over the chicken. Add the raisins and almonds.

Cover and cook on low for 4-8 hours.

Serve over couscous or quinoa.

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Indian Curry:

Ingredients:

 1 13.5 oz can of coconut milk

 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
 4-6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken thighs 
 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
 2 Tablespoons curry powder
 1 teaspoon ground coriander
 1 teaspoon ground cumin
 1 inch peeled and grated ginger
 few dashes of hot sauce
 1 yellow onion. chopped
 2 or 3 cloves of smashed and chopped garlic
 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
 1/2 of an eggplant, chopped (no need to peel)
-1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped

Directions:

Assemble all of your spices, coconut milk, hot sauce, and tomato paste. Combine the sauce ingredients in the bottom of your crockpot. The sauce will be a lovely yellow. Add the chicken, flipping it over a few times to coat it nicely. Pour in the garbanzo beans. Wash and chop all of the vegetables, and then add to the Crockpot.

Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours, or on high for 4-6. Stir carefully to mix flavors. If you stir too rough, the sweet potato will fall apart.

Serve over rice.

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If you've been around me very much, you know that I love a few different things when it comes to backing Kickstarter campaigns. I've already showed you our first set of stickers and today I'm going to show you one of my other loves...pins! 

Ropa Vieja:

Ingredients:

3 lbs meat – whatever you can find on sale is perfect!
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 large red onion, chopped
2 red bell peppers, chopped
2 med yellow apples, grated
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 cloves smashed and chopped garlic
1/2 cup cilantro leaves

Directions:

Combine all of the dry spices in a bowl. Rub the spices all over the meat you are using. Put the meat into your crockpot. Dump any extra spice on top.

Coarsely chop the vegetables and add to the pot. Smash the garlic, remove the leaves off the cilantro stems, and add. Peel the apples, and grate them into the pot with a cheese grater. Add the chicken broth and vinegar.

Cover and cook on low for at least 10 hours and at least 7 hours on high, checking about 2 hours before serving to see if you can shred the meat with forks. If you can't shred the meat, cook for longer, or remove the meat and cut in long slices, then return to the pot.

Serve over brown or white rice, with a ladle full of broth.

You did it! We now have 50 followers on the campaign. I'm so excited. It felt like a huge goal, but y'all knocked it out of the park a good two weeks before we go live. Now the ball is back in my court. Now the the cover is in, I'm blessed to have Eric Cockrell working on the final graphics for the campaign. He says that I have to record my own audio for the video though. This is my first time creating a Kickstarter video so I'm pretty nervous! 

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So far, I've shown you sneak peeks of stories from Cobalt's Castaways and even early art that will be a stretch goal (something everyone gets if we reach a certain dollar goal). I hope that they're getting you as excited about this book as I am to share it with you. Today, I want to share another stretch goal with you...stickers! If you're anything like me, you love stickers. 




Aren't they great? If the campaign raises at least $1750, everyone will get a selection from these stickers. I'm in love with them and I can't wait to be able to give them to everyone. If you'd like to be notified when the campaign goes live, head on over to Kickstarter and click the notify me on launch button.

Hickory Smoked Brisket:

3-4 pounds beef brisket, or chuck roast 
2 Tablespoons hickory liquid smoke 
1/4 cup A-1 steak sauce
1/2 Tablespoon celery salt
1/2 Tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper 

Directions:

Put the meat in your crockpot, add spices to all sides of it. Add A-1 and liquid smoke. 

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or on high for 4-6. Slow and low is better, the meat will shred nicely when cooked for a long period of time.

Super tasty served over mashed potatoes or polenta. 

I have the best thing to share with all of you today! It's art that's going to be used for the Kickstarter and is done by the amazing Martha Schwartz. She's a wonderful artist and I'm honestly honored that she agreed to do this piece for me and the campaign. When I gave her Mac's story to base her drawing on, I never imagined she'd come back with something this awesome. Heck, it's not even done yet...this is just a sneak peek for me that I'm passing on to you! 

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There isn’t a time in my life that I can remember where I wasn’t playing a sport. From the time I was little, my dad and I would go into the backyard and either throw a football or a baseball back and forth. Sometimes we would kick a soccer ball. It was a lot of fun and as I grew older, I got to play things like kickball in gym class. If it involved a ball, I wanted to play. That hasn’t changed, even though I’m an adult now.

I played football and baseball when I was in high school. I was pretty good at both of them. During the summer, I played soccer with my friends. It seemed like if I wasn’t doing homework or in school, I was on a field somewhere. I loved it.

Then, I went to college and had to decide which sport I wanted to play. I couldn’t play football, baseball, and soccer anymore. There just wasn’t enough time with classes, homework, and hanging out with my friends. In the end, I decided that I wanted to play baseball. It was my dad’s favorite sport and one that I had always loved. I wanted to make sure that he was proud of me.

I did pretty good in college. So good, that after I graduated, a professional baseball team wanted me to come and play for them! I couldn’t believe it. Instead of managing teams, I was going to get to keep playing for one!

I remember my very first game. My family and friends were in the crowd, and I was really nervous. What if I struck out? What if I hit the ball, but tripped and fell while I was running? Before I knew it, it was my turn at bat. I’d been so worried about what might happen that I didn’t even notice that the batters in front of me had all gotten onto base and it was now bases loaded.

I swallowed hard and made my way to the batter’s box. I could hear my family cheering me on. I closed my eyes for a second and then stepped forward to show that I was ready. I took another deep breath and waited for the first pitch. When it came, I swung at it, but missed. The same thing happened with the second pitch.

I stepped back for a moment and adjusted my hat. The crowd had gotten really quiet. I glanced up and saw my dad sitting in the stands. He nodded at me, and it reminded me of all the times we had played catch in the backyard. I smiled and stepped back up to the plate.

This time, when the ball came, I was ready for it. I took a deep breath, swung my bat, and heard the crack of the ball as it hit it. I watched as it went soaring and my teammates started running. I started running too and before I had made it to first base, I heard the announcer yell, “Home run! Salem has hit a grand slam at his first time at bat!”

As I rounded third base, I looked up into the stands and there stood my father, yelling and cheering with the rest of the fans in the crowd. His eyes met mine and he smiled. He was proud of me, and you know what? I was proud of me too. I had done something that some players only dream about and even if it never happens again, it happened to me that time. 

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Kickstarter is this really cool platform where you can pre-order my book, along with other goodies, and get it up to six months before it will be available on Amazon. The goodies may be available at shows, but are of a limited quantity and won't be available places like Amazon. You pledge the amount that you want and no money is charged to your card until the end of the campaign and only if enough money is raised. In this case, I'm looking to raise at least $1000. That money goes to pay for the printing of the books and to pay the amazing artists that I work with. 

A long time ago, I used to live with a lot of other cats in a place they called “the schoolyard.” It just never really felt like the place for me though. Don’t get me wrong. I really loved the other cats that lived there. My best friend’s name was Mittens. She was so much fun. We used to hang out together and play all sorts of games together. One of my favorite games was to pretend that we were swashbuckling pirates. We’d talk in fake pirate voices and swing our sticks around, pretending that they were swords.

Then, one day, someone took Mittens to live somewhere else. I was so sad to see her leave, but happy that she’d always have a warm bed to sleep in and yummy food whenever she wanted it. Living in a nice, warm house was Mittens’ dream and it was coming true.

After she left, I sulked around. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I didn’t even come out when the man came who fed us. After a while, everyone thought that I had left. Then, one day, I was thinking about how Mittens’ dream came true, and I decided that it was time to help make my own dream come true. I would become a real life pirate.  I would find my own ship and I would sail the seas.

Finding a ship shouldn’t be hard. I lived in Florida which is surrounded by a lot of water. There had to be boats somewhere. The next morning, I packed up my few things and headed out towards the closest water that I knew of. When I got there, I followed a man who looked like he might be a sailor. I was right! He led me right to the biggest boats that I had ever seen.

I walked up the dock. The further I walked, the bigger the boats became. Some of them were big enough to have entire cities on them! I wasn’t interested in a boat that big. I wanted a smaller boat, one where I wouldn’t get lost every time I tried my paw at swashbuckling.

I decided that I had better head back the way that I had come. Sure enough, the boats kept getting smaller, but they were all pretty big. I was about to give up by the time that I got to the end of the dock. All of the ships were just too big for this pirate cat. Then, right there, at the very end of the dock was the perfect pirate ship! As I stood there watching, they even lowered a gangplank. This was the ship for me.

Keeping my eyes on the gangplank, I slowly approached the boat. This was the part that I wasn’t sure about. I couldn’t just take over their ship. That would be like the bad pirates that I had heard about. I didn’t want to be one of those. I wanted to be the kind that swished swords as they sang sea shanties. That kind didn’t seem like they would just take over a ship. I guessed it was time to talk to the captain.

I had perfect timing. As soon as I got to the end of the gangplank, the captain appeared at the top. He was a tall man with a big, bushy beard that was as white as the ocean spray. His face looked like it had been in the sun for days, but he had a twinkle in his eyes that gave me the confidence to walk up the gangplank towards him.

When I reached the top, he smiled down at me while I saluted him.

“Why are you saluting me?” he asked.

“You’re the captain of this fine ship, aren’t you?”

“Yes, yes I am.”

“Then you deserve the respect of a simple salute.”

Sadie could have sworn that the man blushed beneath his rugged tan.

“Well then, Miss, what can I do for you?”

“I would like to officially join your crew as a pirate. I will swab the decks, swashbuckle, sing sea shanties, and wear a fancy hat. I would prefer not to wear an eyepatch though. Those are hard to see through.”

“Have you ever been to sea? It can be a rough life.”

“I have not, but my life up until now hasn’t been easy.”

Sadie told the captain about her life in the schoolyard and how her friend, Mittens, had followed her dreams and now it was time for her to do the same. The captain nodded often, listening to her tale.

“That does sound rough. Well, Miss…I’m sorry, what is your name?”

“Sadie, sir.”

The captain smiled. “Well, Miss Sadie, if you’re sure you want to do this, we would be happy to have you. Come aboard.”

Sadie smiled and picked up her bag. She took one last look around and then marched up the gangplank, ready to start her life as a pirate. 

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I'm so excited to be able to say that Cobalt's Castaways is done! I not only finished the final story last night, but I also did an initial formatting. I'm just waiting for the art for the book. Maxx is rocking it, I'm sure. She's such a talented and skilled artist. It wouldn't surprise me if I have the art within a week or two. 

Guys, I am the absolute worst about keeping this updated. I wish I knew why. I have the best of intentions but then life gets busy and I totally forget. I hope y'all can forgive me.