Staff Writer

Crawfish Porcini Fettuccini Alfredo

| February 1, 2022
Crawfish Porcini Fettuccini Alfredo
Photo Credit: Keith Knoxsville
A Hen and a Drake Green Teal on the truck bed. Not a limit on anything, but a fun morning out.

We made a Crawfish Porcini Fettuccini Alfredo out of the unique ingredients the eastern sierra mountains have to offer. Our recipe makes use of fresh crawfish meat, and wild-harvested porcini mushrooms, but you could substitute another shellfish and any other varieties of mushrooms that are more available in your area. In addition to the ingredients for fresh pasta and alfredo sauce, you will want fresh parsley and cracked black pepper for garnishing.

While our version requires a significant amount of effort, from catching crawfish to cooking and peeling crawfish, harvesting mushrooms, and making pasta from scratch, the level of effort can be simplified by substitution and using already made pasta.

Preparation Time

~1 hour

Cooking Time

~30 minutes

Total Time

1.5 to 2 hours

Servings

4 to 8 servings

Fresh Pasta

Freshly Made Fettuccini Pasta

Freshly made fettuccini pasta ready to cook.

Ingredients

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
3 Eggs
1 Tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ Tsp Sea Salt

Directions

  1. Make a well in a mound of flour on a clean countertop.
  2. Add eggs, EVOO, and salt to the well.
  3. Using a fork, slowly whisk wet ingredients. Try to maintain the integrity of the well. Slowly incorporate the flour until you have a shaggy dough.
  4. Knead the dough for 5 to 6 minutes
  5. Cover dough with a towel, let sit for 30 minutes.
  6. Roll out dough
  7. Let sit for 10 mintues
  8. Cut to desired pasta size
  9. Boil until cooked ~10 minutes

Porcini Mushrooms

Foraged Porcinis in a Lodge Cast Iron

Foraged wild Porcini mushrooms sauteing in a 12 inch Lodge cast iron, with a little butter.

Ingredients

¾ – 1 lb Porcini Mushrooms
3 tbsp butter

Directions

  1. Slice mushrooms into small pieces
  2. Sautee mushrooms until cooked, and soft
  3. Optionally increase heat and crisp outside of mushrooms for a stronger texture later.

Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients

½ cup butter
1 ½ cups cream
½ tsp Salt
¼ tsp black pepper
2 cups grated parmesan
2-3 tsp minced garlic
½ -¾ lbs. crawfish meat
Fresh Crawfish Meat

Fresh crawfish meat, ready to be mixed into an alfredo sauce.

Directions

  1. Simmer butter and cream for 2 minutes.
  2. Add salt, black pepper, and garlic.
  3. Simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes.
  4. While stirring constantly, add Parmesan cheese.
  5. Continue stirring for 5 to 6 minutes, or until sauce has slightly thickened.
  6. Pour sauce over pasta and mix until pasta is evenly coated.
  7. Add crawfish meat and porcini mushrooms, gently mix so that distribution is even.
  8. Serve Immediately.
  9. Garnish individual servings with chopped parsley and freshly cracked black pepper.

Notes

Garnish with parsley and fresh cracked black pepper, enjoy with a glass of great wine. We recommend a crisp dry white, something with good minerality, or a rosé.

Plate of Crawfish Porcini Fettuccini Alfredo

A fresh plate of Crawfish Porcini Fettuccini Alfredo, garnished with parsely and fresh cracked black pepper.

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Garden Pesto

| August 23, 2021
Garden Pesto Ready to Eat
Photo Credit: Keith Knoxsville
A Hen and a Drake Green Teal on the truck bed. Not a limit on anything, but a fun morning out.

A garden pesto is a great way to use greens from a garden of mixed greens, herbs, or maybe some overgrown tomatoes. It’s also simple and can use the waste produced from pruning your plants. Making a garden pesto takes about 10 minutes, and is great on pasta or as an addition to a cheese plate. It can be added as a flavoring to hummus, or can even be eaten alone with crackers or pita chips.

The greens can be mixed and matched with whatever you have on hand, or from whatever you can harvest in the garden. It’s also a great use for carrot tops, radish greens, or tomato trimmings that you may not normally use.

If you had always heard tomato leaves, or the leaves of anything in the nightshade family are toxic, and this pesto sounds like a no-no, well fear not because we had the same fears. There are alkaloids present in your everyday veggies, but you could never eat enough of them in one sitting for the alkaloids to be harmful. When it comes to the alkaloids present in tomato leaves, you would need to eat about a pound of tomato leaves to feel any of the toxic effects. Although it will take more than what you’ll ever consume in a single sitting, you can skip the tomato leaves if you are wary, and stick to other greens.

Our recipe uses 2 1/2 cups of greens total, so you can adjust your volumes of greens to exclude tomato leaves if you prefer. The recipe makes about 1 cup of green gold. We use a Cuisinart Stick Blender, but the Ninja BL610 Professional Countertop Blender is also a great option for making a smooth and creamy pesto.

Disclaimer: We can’t guess whether you have an allergy to an ingredient, especially nut or ragweed allergies, or maybe you are actually extra sensitive to a specific alkaloid, so we’ve included a disclaimer. Eat at your own risk, we aren’t responsible for allergic or adverse reactions, injuries, or death occurring from the preparation or consumption of our recipe.

Preparation Time

10 minutes

Cooking Time

0 minutes

Total Time

10 minutes

Servings

1 cup

Garden Pesto

Garden Pesto ingredients ready to be blended together.

Ingredients

1/4 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 cup grated parmasean cheese
3 garlic cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup basil
1/2 cup radish greens
1/2 cup tomato greens
1 cup kale

Directions

  1. Grating 1/2 cup parmasean cheese
  2. Chop greens small enough to fit in a food processor
  3. Use a food processor to blend all ingredients until smooth.

Notes

It tastes great, it looks great, and it reduces vegetable scraps and garden waste. Let us know what you think of it.

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ASC 10rd Magazines

| April 13, 2020
asc stamped aluminum
Photo Credit: Keith Knoxsville
A Hen and a Drake Green Teal on the truck bed. Not a limit on anything, but a fun morning out.

These ASC 10rd magazines are a great running magazine, they work without issues, and lock the bolt open on empty every time. I have zero feed issues, no fitment issues, and at 10 rounds are perfect for restricted states.

The construction is solid aluminum, and is nicely coated. I’m not sure if its anodized or painted, but it seems to be wearing well, and operates without issues.

asc 10 round
ASC follower

There isn’t a whole lot to say about a 10 round magazine. It’s not a mag you would use in a free state, and not one that any major magazine pouch, belts, or vest or carrier designs for. However, until California wins assault weapon and magazine capacity lawsuits, and thank God we are close, these work, are reliable, and affordable.

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NBS Free Float M-LOK Handguard

| April 12, 2020
NBS M-LOK Handguard
Photo Credit: Keith Knoxsville
A Hen and a Drake Green Teal on the truck bed. Not a limit on anything, but a fun morning out.

NBS M-LOK Handguard

Barrel Nut | Included
Material | 6061-T6 Aluminium
Coating | Type 3 Hard Coat Anodizing
Inner Diameter | 1.35 inches
Installed Weight | 7 inches – 7.3oz, 12 inches – 10.9oz, 15 inches – 12.9oz
MFG Location | Made in the USA
Warranty | Backed by the NBS Limited Lifetime Warranty

The NBS Free Float M-LOK Handguard is an American Made handguard. It features a monolithic rail machined from a 6061-T6 extrusion. The finish is a type 3 hard coat anodizing.

The handguard is relatively slim, feels pretty good in the hand. It fit cleanly over a standard low-profile gas block and features 7 sides of versatile M-LOK attachment slots. The handguard also included a barrel nut, which required no indexing! It makes it easy to properly torque the nut and even easier to install the handguard over it.

Field Tests

After installing the NBS Free Float M-LOK Handguard, we took our AR-15 to the range. Handling with the 12″ handguard was good. The rail is slim enough to get an okay C-grip. Instead of blasting a few thousand rounds of ammo through the AR, we dealt with some reload issues. We discovered that our .223 reloads had slight deformations under the shoulder, causing bad chamberings and feeds. The handguard got a beating while we tried to chamber and extract the rounds.

After changing out ammo, we spent time shooting with the NBS Free Float M-LOK Handguard. It worked well, felt good, and never moved on us. Even after the abuse.

Critical Observations

We really couldn’t find any issues with the NBS. It’s manufactured well, has a nice finish, it did its job, did not move, and was more than we expected from a budget handguard. It’s not a premium handguard, but it is also a fraction of the price of a more premium handguard.

Conclusion

The NBS Free Float M-LOK Handguard is a great value, backed by a lifetime warranty, Made in America, and uses a non-indexing barrel nut. It is a good handguard for the price. It looks decent, and we’d recommend the NBS Free Float M-LOK Handguard for budget AR builds, but if you are willing to step up in price, you can buy a vastly superior Aero Precision Atlas S-One.

Available in 4″, 7″, 12″ and 15″ lengths.

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Fat Comp 2

| April 12, 2020
Strike Industries Fat Comp 2
Photo Credit: Keith Knoxsville
A Hen and a Drake Green Teal on the truck bed. Not a limit on anything, but a fun morning out.
Length | 2 inches
Weight | 7.8oz
Outer Diameter | 1.5 inches
Inner Diameter | 0.254 inches
Thread Pitch | 1/2x28
Caliber | .223/5.56
Recoil Reduction | 34%
Price | $35.00

The Fat Comp 2 by Strike Industries, is 1 of 4 compensators in the Fat Comp line of compensators.

They are meant to work with Strike Industries Cobra Dummy Suppressors, and will fit inside most free float handguard rail systems, as well as directly attach to any AR barrel with a 1/2″x28 thread pitch. They are machined from steel, and feature a mate black finish.

First impressions were good. It’s matte finish is nice, and the quality of the machined steel is very good. Installation onto my AR barrel was straight forward, and the fitment very good. The price of a Fat Comp, is a fraction of other higher priced compensators for very comparable performance. I also managed to achieve the look I wanted.

The Fat Comp reduces recoil by 34% in addition to controlling muzzle flip. If you are interested in reading about the performance data, check out the article at the truth about guns.

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