RoseRed Homestead and Trail Grazers

RoseRed Homestead is a YouTube channel dedicated to three themes: emergency preparedness, food security, and self-reliance. It also boasts a second channel called Trail Grazers, which is dedicated to helping viewers prepare meals while out on a trail.

The primary face of the two channels is Pam Cantrell, who previously worked as the associate provost for academic and budget planning at Utah Tech University. I met her on several occasions when I was a journalist for the university newspaper. Her husband Jim is also prominent on the channel.

Cantrell guides people through the steps of cooking, preparing food storage, and setting up equipment and gadgets, among other things. She also taps into her science background in the way that she explains the steps, logic, and measurements.

Her personality really shines through, and I could see her competing with the best of them if she had her own Food Network show, which isn't really surprising after seeing her in action at Utah Tech.

Sometimes, like in the video above about making apple pie from scratch, the camera work is a bit shaky, but I think that adds to the charm of the channel. And clearly a lot of people agree since RoseRed Homestead has 277k subscribers and Trail Grazers has 16.2k subscribers as of writing this.

Another great thing about the two channels is that they connect back to a website that includes free recipes, links to buy the products used in videos, and a place to buy books that Cantrell has written.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, I suggest checking the two channels out.

Release the Texas Roadhouse call hold in high streaming quality

Texas Roadhouse logo (Texas Roadhouse).

Updated 11/16/2023: There was originally a YouTube video here that showcased the song, but that video was deleted and no equivalent replacement could be found.

I've never set foot in a Texas Roadhouse, but the theme song that plays when you're on hold, as heard in the video above, has to be one of the best call hold songs I've ever heard.

When I used to work as a captioning agent at a call center, I had to listen to this Texas Roadhouse theme song for 30 minutes once, and it was honestly one of the highlights of my call center existence.

Aside from giving me a paid 30-minute break from my regular captioning duties, the song is also super catchy, and I consider it one of my top two favorite call hold songs. The other one is in the TikTok video below.

@ryzehendricksmusic

That on hold music do be a vibe tho 😆

♬ original sound - RockTheBells

The fact that this Texas Roadhouse theme song isn't available in better quality somewhere on the internet is a crime against humanity. I would literally pay to have this available on iTunes, YouTube, or Spotify.

The chorus in particular is great: "They got killer ribs, hearty steak / Bread just as good as your grandma makes. / There ain't nothin' like it, for miles around. / So come on down (come on down) to Texas Roadhouse."

It also makes me hungry and I'm genuinely considering going to my local location soon just because of this song. If someone from Texas Roadhouse sees this, it would be a big marketing move to make the song available to stream. Please.

Recipe: My dad's twist on chili verde

When you're looking to make a meal for a family of five and money's tight, sometimes you just have to use whatever you can find around the house.

Fortunately, my dad has a lot of kitchen experience and creativity, which led to his twist on chili verde becoming a staple even during times of good fortune.

Traditionally, chili verde features things like slow-cooked meat, garlic, green tomatillos, and green chili. My dad's take is a little different since he used whatever he could find around the house, and it's more red than green, so it should probably be called chili rojo.

Ingredients

Photo of canned ingredients used in the chili verde.

The ingredients tend to change a little bit every time we cook, but the most recent batch of chili verde was made with the following ingredients:

Two (2) cans of mild Las Palmas green chile enchilada sauce, 28 oz each.

Two (2) cans of diced tomatoes, 28 oz each.

Four (4) cans of chunk chicken breast, 12.5 oz each.

Three (3) cans of kidney beans, 15.5 oz each.

Normally, I'd suggest cooking the diced tomatoes as they are, but since my sister is sensitive to texture with certain fruits and vegetables, we blended them first. You can also swap out the chicken and kidney beans for whatever your personal meat and bean preference is.

And while onions weren't included in the most recent batch of chili verde, an average sized onion adds to the flavor profile.

We also cooked rice in our rice cooker with a ratio of two (2) cups of rice to four (4) cups of water. The water can also be swapped out in favor of chicken broth.

There ends up being a lot of chili verde left over even after the rice is gone with these measurements, but that's fine since the chili verde can be eaten on its own.

Cooking

Photo of a ladle held over the pot of chili verde.

The ingredients can all be added to the pot at the same time since the process of slowly cooking everything together is what really brings out the flavor. Likewise, you can choose whether you want to include the juices from each ingredient's can or not. Personally, I think it adds to the flavor.

There's no specific, consistent time frame for this recipe. The key is to heat the chili verde to your desired temperature at your preferred heat level. I admittedly tend to cook things on high to make the process faster, but I'm sure it tastes better when cooked on medium or low.

Likewise, things like this tend to be at their best when they've reached the point where they're bubbling, but that isn't expressly required if you prefer a slightly lower but still warm temperature.

And I definitely don't claim to be an expert on cooking rice. I've always just trusted my rice cooker, and I've never really figured out how long the rice cooker goes on average.

Serving

Photo of a spoon held over a bowl of the chili verde mixed with rice.

Once the chili verde and rice have finished cooking, we usually scoop the rice and ladle the chili verde at our own discretion rather than mixing the two together in one pot. I always thoroughly mix them together in my bowl though.

And that's really it. You can add other things like shredded cheese, sour cream, tortillas, tortilla chips, bread, and whatever else you might want at your own discretion.

I always enjoy eating this take on chili verde, and I made this most recent batch myself after consulting my dad about the ingredients and portion sizes. It's not exactly authentic or restaurant quality, but it's good and I hope anyone who uses this recipe enjoys it.

The food of 'Gilmore Girls'

Besides being a cozy fall show with a plot revolving around its titular characters, "Gilmore Girls" has another theme woven throughout its seven-season run: a love of food and lots of it.

For one thing, many episodes take place at the uncomfortable but all-important Friday night dinners at the Gilmore mansion hosted by Lorelai's (Lauren Graham) parents Richard and Emily (Edward Herrmann and Kelly Bishop).

These usually consist of fancier dishes that are a bit hit or miss with Lorelai and her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel), ranging from the always comfortable spaghetti to the acquired taste of escargot.

Sometimes the food is symbolic, like how Lorelai and Rory apparently tend to end up in petty debates when they eat spaghetti, while other times the food is merely a backdrop to help move the plot along.

Likewise, it's sort of a running gag that Lorelai and Rory love eating a lot of food at once, particularly when they eat takeout together. Sometimes they'll even order six different kinds of food, meaning they'll have a grand total of 12 or more servings for just two people.

That running gag is exemplified well in the above video where Lorelai's best friend Sookie St. James (Melissa McCarthy) assumes that a large catering order Lorelai made was just for her and Rory.

And in fact, Sookie is actually a large part of the show's running themes with food. Sookie is a chef who co-owns an inn with Lorelai, so many of the plots involving Sookie revolve around food in some fashion. Sookie even met her husband (Jackson Douglas) because he was her vegetable supplier.

Even when Sookie isn't actively describing yet another mouth-watering culinary concoction, many scenes with her take place in the inn's kitchen where there always seems to be a cornucopia of fresh food laid out on the central counter.

And of course, another big player in the food related narratives in "Gilmore Girls" is Luke Danes (Scott Patterson), a diner owner who's one of Lorelai's love interests. Many episodes feature Lorelai and Rory getting breakfast and making very specific orders of food alongside their precious coffee.

Between the takeout, Friday night dinners, chef best friend, and diner owner boyfriend, you really can't remove food or its importance from "Gilmore Girls."

'Ratatouille' inspired culinary creativity

You know, "Ratatouille" has never really been one of my "favorite" Disney/Pixar movies, but I do have to acknowledge the impact it's had on me and others.

The story of a rat puppeteering a famous chef's son to help them both live out their restaurant-related dreams is wild and whimsical on its own, plus there's the sense of care and attention to detail in the way Pixar animates the movie, especially where the food is concerned.

I legitimately wanted to try all the food in the movie after watching "Ratatouille" for the first time. I wasn't even disappointed to discover that despite appearances, ratatouille is made with tomatoes and not pepperoni.

I also think a lot of scenes fit a warm, cozy fall vibe, particularly the one in the video above that features the food critic reliving a seasonally appropriate memory from his childhood after he takes a bite of the ratatouille.

Likewise, I even went through a phase of experimenting with food after watching the movie. In one prime example, I added Goldfish crackers to my grilled cheese sandwiches—which actually isn't bad, by the way, but I never really figured out the proper ratio of Goldfish to add to each sandwich.

And apparently, the movie is still reasonably popular.

When I had a movie day planned for my class, I asked my students to suggest movie ideas based on which streaming services I had access to, one of which was Disney+. "Ratatouille" was a genuine contender before getting beaten out by "Ice Age."

I was teaching a college English class, by the way, so these were options picked by people in their late teens and early 20s. Plus one nontraditional student who was probably around 40.

But I think that really speaks to the timelessness and overall popularity of "Ratatouille." If it managed to get me into an experimental cooking phase, I can only imagine how many real chefs the movie probably inspired.