About Stone County, MO

I was chatting about how good the dinner my wife made the other night and another agent asked for the recipe.

Well I figured there were some others out there that might enjoy it too, so here is the copy of the email she sent my cyber friend Kappy:

Hey Kappy ~ My husband, Ozarksagent (Steve), asked me to send you the recipe I used for the Veni-Ladas I made the other nite. Sorry for taking so long, I've just been up to my eyeballs in making Christmas gifts... but have a few minutes here AND a brain at the same time!

I actually do this all in one frying pan, then bake in a casserole dish.... First I put a little oil in the skillet, and cooked corn tortillas, just till they puff a little bit. I don't like them hard, but want to cook them in the oil to seal the corn together... otherwise they fall apart when you bake them. Drain them on paper towels or paper sacks.

Then, in that same pan, I took about 1-1/2 lbs of ground venison ... what a great, versitile meat! I browned it with chopped garlic, chopped onion, and some cumin, chili powder, and salt & pepper to taste. I cooked it till the meat was done... then put it in a bowl I open the enchilada sauce cans and pour them in that skillet, with the fire off. It heats it up just enough! My favorite brand for the red sauce is GREAT VALUE RED SAUCE ... you find it at Walmart. Great taste! So I spray the casserole dish with non-cooking spray... helps with the clean-up Taking tongs, I dip a tortilla in the red sauce, then lay it on the bottom of the casserole dish.

Do this till the whole bottom is covered. I then layer some meat, top it with grated cheddar cheese and spoon a little sauce on the top. Then I do another layer, laying the tortillas on top of the first layer of meat & cheese, then put meat, cheese, a little sauce. I then finish it off with a layer of tortillas, cheese, the rest of the red sauce, and I like to top it with a little chopped onion and sliced black olives. I cover it with foil, then bake @ 350 for about 30 minutes... then remove foil and continue baking till it bubbles...about 15-20 mins.

Hope you enjoy! By the way, works really well in chili, lasagna, and goulash too!!!

Made a trip to the license office yesterday and bought a replacement plate for my boat trailer. Not because it was expired, but because it was gone. When I discovered it missing I started looking around and found an old one with the stickers torn off of it lying nearby. Started me thinking, maybe someone wanted a plate with up to date stickers on it and decided to take mine and save themselves a trip to the bureau office. No way, no one in the Ozarks would do such a thing is my first response, but after talking to the friendly clerks at the Nixa office, it seems that happens more than I thought. So now what do I do? I thought about locking it in the cab of my truck while I am out fishing but that seems like a lot of thrash every time I want to go fishing just to keep from shelling out another $13.50 for a lost plate. So I came up with a better idea, next time the lake is too high or too low to launch safely where I am, I will go where it is safer and my trailer will not drop off the end of the ramp and knock my plate off. It could have happened you know, with the lake so high I couldn't tell where the ramp was in Cape Fair and dropped it off the side of it at least twice into Table Rock Lake. Or maybe it was that time by Galena when I put into the James River and it was so high there I lauched from the parking lot and no telling where the trailer went after it disappeared out of my rear view window that time the white bass were running. I guess I really don't know when I lost that tag but I would like to believe it was due to my eagerness to go fishing rather than some lazy expired tag owner. Truth be known, I probably won't launch in a safer place next time the bass are biting and will probably just try to figure out a better way of attach this one and hope it lasts longer.

I noticed the James River was looking normal again, about 40 feet lower than it was last spring and I decided to get the boat and head for the Corps of Engineers launch ramp in Cape Fair. Last time I was there I was driving in the edge of the lake to get to the area where the launch ramp used to be. This time it was back to normal and everything went great. Only one other boat trailer in the parking area and a very quiet lake to fish. Caught a couple nice ones and had a quiet afternoon all alone in a secluded cove that left me refreshed and happy I went. I know a lot of folks are wondering if they can get their boats in the water again and is it safe to boat again so my opinion is yes. I did not see any floating logs or pic-nic tables like I did a few months ago and the levels are good and the fishing is improving. Never to late to get in one more trip to the lake and Table Rock Lake is always worth the drive to me. Of course it is just 20 minutes to the launch from Galena and that makes it quick and easy for a short fishing trip.