Sunday, June 12, 2011

Michael’s Famous - Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

8 Boneless Chicken Breasts

2 Packages Philadelphia Cream Cheese

1 Container Sour Cream (24oz)

1 Cup Chicken Broth

16 Flour Tortillas

1 Package Monterey Jack Cheese

2 Pace Picante Salsa Medium (24oz)

Set Chicken Package out so it reaches room temperature. ( about 1 to 2 hours) Remove from package and pat dry with paper towels. Completely coat Chicken with Michael’s Famous Rub. Let Chicken Breasts rest for 30 minutes.

Setup crock pot in a convenient location and place Chicken Breasts side by side in crock pot. In a saucepan bring Chicken Broth to boil and carefully add to crock pot and Chicken. Do not pour directly on Breasts but slowly pour on one side of crock pot. Cover and put crock pot on High for 2 hours and after 2 hours reduce heat to Low. Cook for 6 more hours.

Once cooked turn crock pot off and let rest till Chicken is completely cooled. Once cooled shred Chicken and mix into broth until well blended. Cover and set aside.

In large bowl cream Philadelphia Cream Cheese until smooth and creamy. Add Sour Cream and blend together till creamy. Remove any excess liquid from shredded Chicken Breast meat and add to bowl and carefully blend Cream and Chicken .

Butter a couple of 9x13 Baking Pans and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat tortillas one at a time and spoon chicken mixture onto tortilla, roll and set in Baking Pan one at a time side by side. Continue until all chicken mixture is used up and pans are filled.

Put Pace Picante Sauce in a blender and mix until all peppers and onions have been mixed into salsa. Pour 8 to 10 ounces of salsa on each batch in Baking Pans and spread until even with spatula. Grate Monterey Jack Cheese and cover both pans of enchiladas. Place Baking Pans in oven for 30 minutes uncovered in 350 degree oven. Enjoy!

PS-Let Enchiladas cool 20 to 30 minutes and serve. Refrigerate leftovers.

Michael’s Fire & Rice

2 Cups Rice

4 Cups Water

1 Tomato Medium

1 Onion Small

1 Jalapeno Large

4 Teaspoons Chicken Bullion

2 Tablespoons Cooking Oil

Put Cooking Oil in Large Saucepan and put on medium heat. While heating cut up Onion into very small pieces. (diced small) Cut up Jalapeno into very fine small pieces and cut up Tomato into small chunks.

When oil is hot add onion and begin to caramelize. When it is starting to caramelize add Jalapeno and mix into onion. Stir occasionally so it caramelizes evenly. When evenly caramelized add rice and turn heat up to medium high. Stir occasionally and brown rice evenly. When rice has browned evenly add Tomato and continue to stir until tomato has started to condense.

Add water and stir until mixture is well blended. When water begins to get hot add Chicken Bullion and stir until blended. Bring mixture to rapid boil stirring occasionally to avoid clumping of rice.

When mixture is at a rapid boil cover and reduce heat to Low. ( I move my pan to another burner that has been preheated to a little over Low heat) Cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Check to make sure all water has been absorbed by rice. After checking if rice is ready return cover and let sit on a cool burner for 5 minutes. Remove cover and slowly mix rice so well blended.

Let rice cool just a bit before serving and refrigerate leftover rice when cool. Enjoy!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Self Defense Tools To Carry!


My wife and I are walking out to our car following a movie one evening. As we enter the parking garage I pull up short -- there are five guys sitting on and leaning against my car. I'm not armed with anything. Oh yeah, I do have my car keys. I could put them between my fingers and scratch these guys. I bet I could even break the skin on one before they stomped me.One of the guys notices me stiffly standing there pondering my options. He juts his chin towards me and says, "This your car?" Uh-oh, here we go.I start looking for an escape route, then for the biggest one to fight while I send my wife off to get help. The guy looks at me again and says, "Sorry". They jump off the car and walk off, continuing their previous conversation. Whew.

You never know when it's going to happen. So you need to be prepared, because no one has as much a vested interest in your safety as you do. Unfortunately, most people don't have the will or the skill to help you much and the cops are at least two to three minutes away (in some jurisdictions it might be more like 20 to 40 minutes). Remember the acronym YOYO -- it means "you're on your own".

That means you will need to carry -- or have access -- to lifesaving and life-preserving self-defense tools. For operators and officers, this will invariably be some of the same tools you carry on-duty. For the prepared and safety-minded civilian, some of these tools will be new, but you should consider nonetheless.

Cops, operators, bodyguards and other professionals carry a staggering amount of "stuff". Many of these pros have what they call a "battle bag" which they can transfer in and out of their vehicles. I've seen these bags carry virtually an entire SWAT team member kit. I've also seen them packed with various tools for emergency auto repair, socks for the gym and old forms from the office. So the contents can be widely disparate.

But here's what most professionals carry:

Firearm

We are invariably talking handguns here. Secondary weapon (after a suitable handgun) that should be carried in your car is a shotgun filled with slugs. The slugs provide superior stopping power and penetration in the typical urban and vehicle environment. Others like buckshot in their 12 gauges.

I would also contend that the .380 you have in your pocket is vastly superior to the .357 you left at home. Don't be afraid to look at .38 Special snub nose revolvers as well as the smaller .380 and .32 automatics. The point is, when you need a gun, you desperately need a gun.

Knife

A knife has a prime role in your self-defense kit. It can be used for combat or for any one of the crazy scenarios you can come up with for a cutting tool.

A knife does not necessarily have to a combat folder. There are hooked knifes designed specifically for safely cutting seat belts. There are many Knives designed for police and rescue personnel with different blade and a windshield punch for freeing trapped car accident victims.

Flashlight

Mostly I'm talking about the small, personal flashlights. Most professionals don't carry a gun without carrying a flashlight since most shootings happen in reduced light situations.

Besides illuminating your target, light can be used to temporarily blind or disorient an attacker. If you are forced to fight, a small personal flashlight makes a great weapon. You use the crown of the light to hit attackers vital targets while it is firmly clenched in your fist. A larger C or D-cell flashlight like the MagLite also makes a great baton. When the power goes off and you're forced to evacuate from the 87th floor, you'll be thankful that you have your flashlight.

Pepper Spray

Off-duty officers need to carry pepper (OC) spray for the same reasons they carry it on duty. If you have to defend yourself, the court will want to know why you didn't have an intermediate force tool available instead of just deadly force weapons. For many civilians in certain regions of the country, pepper spray might be one of the only weapons they are allowed to carry.

If I would have had my canister of pepper spray with me I would have been in a much better position to deal with the five guys sitting on my car.

The bigger canisters provide more reach, more duration and more chemical, but you'll never carry one. I don't have a problem with recommending you carry one of the smaller canisters that fit on your key ring or your belt. The rule is to have one with you.

Cell Phone

You shouldn't go anywhere without your cell phone. Soon most 911 systems will be able to track your cell phone to within a 100 yards should you not be able to give police dispatchers your location. I've also seen some remarkable retreats by bad guys when they see their intended "victim" dialing a cell phone -- presumably to the police. By having a cell phone and letting the bad guys see you talking on it, you've tapped into their second biggest fear: the fear of getting caught. Your cell phone is a top priority piece of equipment.

Note Pad

You need it to write down license plate numbers, descriptions, phone numbers; anything important. When you are under stress important information tends to evaporate quickly from your memory. You get on the phone to the police and you suddenly cannot remember anything. Write it down before you call.

If you don't want to write it down on an old-fashioned pad, I've found two new methods that work great. One is to dictate the details to yourself. Besides any of the plentiful models of pocket tape recorders, you can now do this on many MP3 players and even some cell phones. The second method that works well is to scribble the notes on your PDA. Some of them, like the Palm, have an option that lets you write freehand on the screen. Some PDAs also have a dictation option as well. Dictating the information seems to work the best for me as I can continue to drive without having to jot down the info. In a jam I've even used my cell phone to call my own voice mail and dictated the info quickly knowing that I could retrieve it later if need.

Gloves

You will encounter more medical emergencies on a daily basis than violent acts that need to be stopped as you watch them unfold. If you help, you will need to "defend" yourself against potentially harmful blood borne pathogens. Gloves help protect you from contact with someone else's fluids and they help protect the patient as well from any bacteria you might have on your hands.

Other Items

Another item which is often recommended that I can only put down here as a secondary item is handcuffs. Some pros carry their regular handcuffs and some carry the plastic flex-cuffs that look like giant zip ties. If you are in a position that entails holding someone for a long time before authorities arrive, then you might consider them. If you are a flight crew member and you need to subdue and detain a passenger until the plane can land, then you need handcuffs or similar restraining devices. If you are a loss prevention officer taking shoplifters into custody for a long period of time, you need them.

However, if you are the average guy on the street, there are very few scenarios where you actually want to detain someone. Most of the time you want distance from the bad guy. Drive him off, let him go.

Carrying all your stuff

Figure out a way to carry the most essential items conveniently so that you will make a habit of it.

Ever notice how you only get a flat tire when you don't have a spare? The same goes with your self-defense and safety tools. Most likely you'll never need them when you have them -- the balloon will probably go up when you decide to leave them at home because it is too much of a hassle to carry them or put them in your car.

Some people keep all their stuff in one place. Others spread it around.

Fanny packs and safari-type vests allow you to carry all your tools in "one" place. You can pick up your pack or your vest, put it on and you're set. You'll find yourself stashing your pack or your vest in your trunk as you go in and out of places where it is not legal to be armed like courthouses, schools and airports.

Spreading your tools around usually entails having some sort of holster for your firearm, pockets for other items and putting your spray on your key ring.

Your system

There is no one method that seems to work for everyone.

You'll probably find, as most of us have, that you'll switch back and forth to a couple of different modes of carrying all your tools depending on your dress and your circumstances. The key is to get serious and find a way that is fairly consistent so you will always have your tools with you.

God forbid you'll ever need them. But better to have them with no need, than to need them and not have.


Monday, August 24, 2009

History of the Pocket Knife

The pocketknife is obviously a recent invention, right? After all, the technological skill required to craft a workable fold-up knife must be a product of the industrial age. Besides, what need would men have had for a pocketknife in the days before pockets? Well, don't be surprised if you come across a rusty, time-worn pocketknife among the display cases of a museum, a tool, say, 2,000 years old!

Knives themselves, of course, have been with us since the Stone Age. Primitive man used cutting tools and weapons made from stone and flint, and later, from bronze and iron. The ancient Romans were skilled metalworkers, spreading their craft throughout their Empire, and the Romans left us the world's first known fold-up pocketknives.

The Roman implements were about three inches long when shut, fashioned without a spring or "nail nick", the groove used to open the blade. The handles were often elaborately carved. One pocketknife surviving from the first century features an ivory handle skillfully carved into the shape of an armored gladiator. Another Roman knife, now in the British Museum, had the carver's name scratched into the handle.

Table knives did not exist in the Middle Ages, each diner was expected to bring his own knife which between meals, doubled as a dagger. Nor did innkeepers provide table cutlery. Affluent travelers often carried sets of elegant tableware among their baggage. Obviously, the pocketknife would have been an ideal all-purpose tool for the medieval European, but few pocketknives were in existence at the time. Most men preferred an unfolding knife in a scabbard to a pocketknife, owing either to the lack of good spring knives or to the shortage of pockets.

Until the eighteenth century, the only kind of pocketknife generally available was the jackknife, a heavy tool with one blade that closed into a groove in the handle. Then cutlerers began using springs to secure the blade in both the open and closed positions, providing a safer, firmer tool. From that time on, pocketknife manufacture became known as spring knife cutlery.

As the craft improved, multi-bladed tools began to appear, the penknife by far the most important. No, penknife, is not, strictly speaking, interchangeable with pocketknife. A penknife was a specialized pocketknife with one-blade opening at each end of the handle. The smaller of the two blades was used to trim and sharpen quill pens.

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, anyone who wrote had to own a penknife, and spring knife cutlery became a major industry in Europe and the United States. The penknife was the premiere product of the cutlerer's craft, for the fitting of a spring knife demands highly skilled work. The blades were made from high-grade steel, tempered slightly harder than table knives. The more expensive models were finished by jewelers, with handles fashioned from silver, ivory, pearl, horn, ebony, and tortoise shell. An American cutlery catalogue from 1893 lists some 1,500 pocketknife models, which might suggest both the size of the industry and the variety of product available at the time.

Since at least the fourteenth century, the English cutlery industry had been centered around the city of Sheffield, while German knife makers from Solingen have long excelled at their craft. It was nineteenth-century Sheffield cutlerers who began fitting pocketknives with various other tools, among them buttonhooks, files, leather borers, tweezers, gimlets, saws, and implements curiously known as "castrating blades." One interesting Sheffield creation sported both a pistol and a dagger.

The jack-of-all-trades knife, often known as the sporting knife, is today the most popular kind of pocketknife, fitted with nail files, clippers, scissors, corkscrews, forks, spoons, you name it. Special sporting models have been designed for fishermen, engineers, and campers, some combining a tool chest of implements into one handy pocketknife.

The Norfolk Sportman's Knife, manufactured in 1851, was fitted with seventy-five blades, and took two full years to manufacture. But the award for pocketknife-blade proliferation surely goes to the Year Knife, made, like the Norfolk, by the world's oldest cutlery firm, Joseph Rodgers and Sons Ltd. of Sheffield. This knife was introduced in 1822 contained 1,822 blades, and the firm has added one blade to the knife each year since. By now, of course, it's far from a "pocket" knife. In 1977, this one-of-a-kind tool was fitted with its 1,977th blade, and the number will continue to match the year until 2000 A.D., when there will be no further room for blades in this gargantuan tool.

Though we have little need for the penknife today, pocketknives are still widely manufactured. In the recent past, young boys often carried pocketknives for whittling, or for games like mumblypeg; but after the teenagers of the 50's took to carrying switchblade and pushbutton knives for less savory purposes, we no longer look kindly upon knife-wielding youths. Laws have been passed in some states stipulating the maximum length for a pocketknife blade, a longer blade is considered a deadly weapon.

If you number yourself among the ranks of pocketknife owners, take note: pocketknife manufacturers warn that their products demand constant attention. The spring joints of each blade should always be kept well oiled. And most important, a pocketknife blade should never be used as a screwdriver or lever. The blades are made from special steels tempered to maintain an edge, but not to withstand the strains of bending. If you need a screwdriver, you'll have no trouble finding a pocketknife fitted with one.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Self Defense Pepper Spray

Sabre Defense Sprays

For over thirty years (30), Security Equipment Corporation (SEC) has been a leading worldwide manufacturer of self defense sprays. SEC’s product line consists of:

If purchasing the best self defense spray, pepper spray, or bear spray product possible is your goal, you have come to the right place! SEC is one of only two defense spray manufacturers worldwide which is both an Environmental Projection Agency (EPA) and Health Canada Establishment and has obtained ISO 9001:2000 Certification.

SABRE Civilian Defense Sprays, Pepper Spray, and Bear Spray were determined to be “The Most Potent Defense Sprays by the P.G.R.A. FRONTIERSMAN Bear Spray and Bear Attack Deterrent contains the industry’s greatest range and the maximum strength spray allowed by both the EPA and Health Canada. SABRE Law Enforcement Aerosol Projectors were determined to be “The Best Tactical Spray” and are used by the following prestigious police agencies:

  • US Department of Defense
  • US Customs & Border Protection
  • US Marshals
  • US Federal Bureau of Prisons
  • New York Police Department
  • California Department of Corrections
  • Scandinavian Police Forces (Denmark, Finland, Norway & Sweden)
  • Netherlands National Police (KLPD)
  • Israeli Ministry of Defense
  • New Zealand National Police

SABRE Pepper Sprays– Making Grown Men Cry Since 1975!

SABRE Civilian Pepper Spray and Self Defense Sprays

SABRE provides the safest, most effective and highest quality defense sprays in the industry. As result of the independent testing, Security Equipment Corporation recently received an award from the Professional Gun retailers Association for being "Manufacturer of the Most Potent Defense Pepper Spray". The attached thermometer highlights the result of the independent testing which confirms that many defense sprays overstate their heat levels. SABRE Red® ranges from 8% to 86% hotter than the competition.

Since 1975, Security Equipment Corporation has committed itself to producing the most effective defense spray possible. Give yourself the protection you deserve. Choose a pepper spray and bear spray industry leader. Choose SABRE .

SABRE's, Advanced 3-in-1 Formulation, contains Red Pepper, CS Military Tear Gas and an Ultraviolet Marking Dye to aid in suspect identification. SABRE, our most popular formulation, combines the inflammatory effects of Red Pepper with the severe facial irritation produced by CS Tear Gas to produce an effect which is superior to any single ingredient defense spray.

SABRE's, Advanced 3-in-1 Formulation, contains Red Pepper, CS Military Tear Gas and an Ultraviolet Marking Dye to aid in suspect identification.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

History, Materials and construction

History

The earliest knives were shaped by knapping (percussive flaking) of rock, particularly harder rocks such as obsidian and flint. During the Paleolithic era Homo habilis likely made similar tools out of wood, bone, and similar perishable materials that have not survived. As recent as five thousand years ago, as advances in metallurgy progressed, stone, wood, and bone blades were gradually succeeded by copper, bronze, iron, and eventually steel. The first metal (copper) knives were symmetrical double edged daggers, which copied the earlier flint daggers. In Europe the first single edged knives appeared during the middle bronze age. Modern knives may be made from many different materials such as alloy tool steels, carbon fiber, ceramics, and titanium.


Materials and construction

Today, knives come in many forms but can be generally categorized between two broad types: fixed blade knives and folding or pocket knives.


Characteristic Parts of the Knife

Modern knives consist of a blade (1) and handle (2). The blade edge can be plain or serrated or a combination of both. The handle, used to grip and manipulate the blade safely, may include the tang, a portion of the blade that extends into the handle. Knives are made with partial (extending part way into the handle, known as a "Stick Tang") and full (extending the full length of the handle, often visible on top and bottom) tangs. The handle can also include a bolster, which is a piece of material used to balance the knife, usually brass or other metal, at the front of the handle where it meets the blade. The blade consists of the point (3), the end of the knife used for piercing, the edge (4), the cutting surface of the knife extending from the point to the heel, the grind (5), the cross-section shape of the blade, the spine, (6), the top, thicker portion of the blade, the fuller (7), the groove added to lighted the blade, and the ricasso (8), the thick portion of the blade joining the blade and the handle. The guard (9) is a barrier between the blade and the handle which protects the hand from an opponent, or the blade of the knife itself. A choil, where the blade is unsharpened and possibly indented as it meets the handle, may be used to prevent scratches to the handle when sharpening or as a forward-finger grip. The end of the handle, or butt (10), may allow a lanyard (11), used to secure the knife to the wrist, or a portion of the tang to protrude as a striking surface for pounding or glass breaking.


Blade

Knife blades can be manufactured from a variety of materials, each of which has advantages and disadvantages. Carbon steel, an alloy of iron and carbon, can be very sharp, hold its edge well, and remain easy to sharpen, but is vulnerable to rust and stains. Stainless steel is an alloy of iron, chromium, possibly nickel, and molybdenum, with only a small amount of carbon. It is not able to take quite as sharp and edge as carbon steel, but is highly resistant to corrosion. High carbon stainless steel is stainless steel with a higher amount of carbon, intended to incorporate the better attributes of carbon steel and stainless steel. High carbon stainless steel blades do not discolor or stain, and maintain a sharp edge. Laminate blades use multiple metals to create a layered sandwich, combining the attributes of both. For example, a harder, more brittle steel may be sandwiched between an outer layer of softer, tougher, stainless steel to reduce vulnerability to corrosion. In this case, however, the part most affected by corrosion, the edge, is still vulnerable. Pattern-welding is similar to lamimate construction. Layers of different steel types are welded together, but then the stock is manipulated to create patterns in the steel. Titanium is metal that has a better strength-to-weight ratio, is more wear resistant, and more flexible than steel. Although less hard and unable to take as sharp an edge, carbides in the titanium alloy allow them to be heat-treated to a sufficient hardness. Ceramic blades are hard, and brittle, and lightweight: they may maintain a sharp edge for years with no maintenance at all. They are immune to common corrosion, and can only be sharpened on silicon carbide sandpaper and some grinding wheels. Plastic blades are not especially sharp and typically serrated. They are often disposable.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Kershaw "Speed Safe" Assisted Opening Knives

(DISP-SMBANNER)
Custom knifemaker, Ken Onion, began his quest to design the perfect knife as a Marine machinist. After years of R&D he created his first Speed Safe knife. Today, Ken Designs a custom selection of knives for Kershaw both with the patented Speed Safe torsion bar system for assisted opening and without. His personal involvement ensures each Onion meets his high standard for quality.

What is Speed Safe? It is the patented, assisted opening system built into many of Kershaw's best selling Ken Onion knives. Speed Safe assists the user to smoothly open the knife with a manual push on the blade's thumb stud or Index open system. The Index Open uses a protruding portion of the blade's finger guard to give the uses an alternate to the thumb stud. The user manually pulls back on the protrusion with the index finger to open the blade.

The heart of the Speed Safe system is its torsion bar. Closed, the torsion bar helps keep the knife closed, Preventing it from being opened by gravity. In order to open the knife, the user must apply manual pressure to the thumb stud to overcome the resistance of the torsion bar. After the blade is out of the handle, the torsion bar moves along its half moon track and takes over. The blade opens smoothly and locks into position.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Buck Knives grew from great ideas!

Buck
A young Kansas blacksmith named Hoyt Buck was looking for a better way to temper steel so it would hold an edge longer. His unique approach produced the first Buck Knives in 1902. Hoyt made each knife by hand, using worn-out file blades as raw material. His handy work was greatly appreciated during World War II. After the war, Hoyt and his son Al moved to San Diego and set up shop as H.H. Buck & Son in 1947. Al Buck revolutionized the knife industry in 1964 with the Model 110 Folding Hunter. The folding "lockblade" knife made Buck a leader.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

SharpPockets

We offer our customers a wide variety of Pocket Knives, Folding Knives and Knives for Hunting, Fishing, Armed Forces and more. SharpPockets also offers items for Self Defense and Law Enforcement. Our site is located on the web at SharpPockets.com. Please visit our site and let us know what you think. All feedback received will help us to build our site so it will be more user friendly and will be greatly appreciated.

At SharpPockets Customer Satisfaction is our number one goal!

Sincerely,
Michael V Foright