Rays on a budget- My (somewhat long) story w/pics

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Got a lot done on the new pool today, got the lumber, but of course, I'm gonna be short on plumbing... But at least the rubber coat will be dry and ready.

The rays that were coming in tomorrow are delyed until next week...No big deal, more preparation time is nice right now. And plus, I get to keep everyone guessing...lol.

I'll get some pics up tomorrow...earlier today, the upload wasn't working. I have my Chef hat on right now...bustin out my favorite mexican casserole type dish. I do the cooking around here... I enjoy it. I think the kids are gonna complain about it being too spicy this time. They always complain...then they get a glass of milk, and have seconds. I just have that feeling...since my fingers are burning from the preparations.

I'm getting hungry.

Since this is my own recipe...I'll share.

Fill a casserole dish with little corn shell burritos filled with cheese and meat (I used chicken breast boiled down with a little habanero). Pack them in there nice and tight, then cover with a little more cheese.

Prepare a sauce using low sodium cream of mushroom soup, a whole bunch of diced Jalapeno's, and only 1/3 the amount of water that the soup calls for. Because you aren't adding as much water, the normal soup seems a little too salty to me.

Cover the casserole with the sauce, and some more cheese. You can't have too much cheese.

That's it. Put it in the oven and bake it.

Mike
 
haha need to change the title of this thread too, "rays on a budget/ cooking for a ray keepers"
 
LOL... I'm trying to include these off-topic items to distract you from the fact that I didn't update the pictures yet...lol.

But really, there will be times that nothing changes for a while...so I'll just throw other things in to keep the interest.

Mike

PS- I am still unable to upload pictures...getting an error.
 
tscharf;4103804; said:
like youre attitude mike, keep up with it, cant wait to hear about clearwater inc worldwide
Click to expand...

Why not intergalactic? LOL.

But it would be nice, just to say I did... To export a load of Tilapia filets to China. And maybe a load of Prawns to indonesia.

I did do some research on prawns the other day. It seems they need hard water for their shells to grow properly. Also looked at "red claws", and I wonder why they are not more popular here in the USA. I was on a fancy cruise ship in the Meditteranean, and they did up this awesome buffet that I'll never experience again. I thought they were baby lobsters, but now I know what they were. They just kept piling them into the steam table like there was no end. They were awesome!!! Thinking about that cruise makes me hungry.

Mike
 
haha intergalactic works for me

in response to your recipe, any advice on how to make it a little less spicy, im thinking of surprising my girlfriends with dinner tomorrow night, oh and got an idea for a soup other than the cream of mushroom? she hats mushrooms.

When talking about red claws do you mean crawfish? if so i know of a few people who breed the marbled which produce the clones of themselves and it suppose ot be pretty easy, i just dont think its more popular cuz 1. they have claws which is a risk to the fish your feeding them too, and too people. 2. people can just got and pick them out of a stream like it aint a thing.
 
You could use cream of chicken soup.. Or change it up completely and use enchilada sauce or even something like hormel chili.

Imagination is the key to cooking!
 
One thing I noticed on the recipe... Since it's baked in the sauce, I think next time I'll only put chicken inside of the enchiladas to dry it out a bit. I never do it the same way twice... or possibly add the sauce after it's cooked?

I don't know, but we destroyed the whole dish of it last night. Everyone was moaning from being so full.

Another thing on spicy stuff...chop it fine, and take the seeds out of the peppers. Undigested peppers that don't get thoroughly cooked are what leads to the "ring of fire" the next day...lol.

Habanero is the key to making good mexican IMO...but it's hard to get the dosage correct. They have an awesome smokey/fruity flavor and aroma...but they can hurt you very bad! use them in a pot of chili that simmers for a LONG time, and don't break the peppers open at all. Once the flavor and heat level are where you want it, take them out and throw them away, or if you need more, break one open a little bit. As long as it simmers long enough, the heat of the pepper will be distributed evenly. They have an amazing ability to warm the body and soul without frying your mouth if you get it right. Hot peppers are my "drug of choice" lol...

But for starters, leave it out, and you can vary the ammount of Jalapenos that you add to the soup. You won't know it's cream of muchroom once the Jalapenos are in there, but other cream soups will work for a white sauce (cream of chicken, cream of potato, etc.).

Redclaws are a type of Australian Crawfish that gets huge. like 11"+. After looking at more pictures of them....maybe what I had on the cruise was baby lobster after all...who knows. But that's a good point on the claws being dangerous to the rays.... I almost forgot that I wasn't going to eat them all myself...lol.

Mike
 
thanks for the cooking advice guys, i appreciate it and im sure my girlfriend will too

11in crawfish, man would love to see that
 
when you get spare tanks i have heard of people breeding crawfish and using the babies as feeders. but if you are scared of the claws when they are still young you could always cut them off.
 
Hmmm...the photo upload tool is gone alltogether, so they must be working on it.

The Australian "freshwater Lobster" Cherax quadricarinatus

They look really cool! Kinda like a giant marbled electric blue crayfish...

URL link wont insert either...

But I bet that they would be tasty...especially raised in a tank instead of a mud pond.

I'm hungry again now...yesterday's Enchilada stuffing is today's chicken soft tacos.

;)

Mike
 
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