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!