Here’s a great quick-fix dish that takes the hassle out of chiles relleños. Combining beef with the chorizo helps cut down on the fat content, while still give the dish that delicious chorizo flavor. Enjoy this cheesy and delicious casserole! This makes a ginormous meal.

(Sorry I didn’t get pictures of the inside before it was all gobbled up!)

You will need:

1/2 pound of Chorizo (a Mexican sausage flavored with garlic and chiles), mild or hot – either is fine
1/2 pound of lean ground beef or 3/4 pound of a fattier ground beef
2 small cans of diced green chiles (found in the hispanic foods section)
1 1/2 cups of Quesadilla melting cheese, shredded (available near the butter and cream cheese in the grocery store)
1 cup of Mexican blend cheese, shredded (or plain cheddar will work)
1/2 of a medium-sized onion, chopped
4 eggs
1/3 cup of milk
1/4 cup of Bisquick
2-3 green onions (scallions), chopped
a few dollops of sour cream
pinch of chili powder
salt
pepper

Crumble the chorizo and ground beef into a skillet for browning. Add the onion. Add a pinch of chili powder, salt, and pepper for flavor. You can also add a chopped garlic clove or garlic salt.

Meanwhile, drain one can of the green chiles and spread them on the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish. Once the meat has browned and the onions are translucent, drain the meat mixture and spread it evenly on top of the chiles. Drain the other can of chiles and spread them on top of the meat mixture. Sprinkle the Quesadilla cheese on top of that.

Add the Bisquick to the milk and whisk until smooth. Add the milk mixture into the eggs and beat lightly. Pour the mixture over the top of the layers in the casserole dish. Sprinkle with the Mexican blend or cheddar cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes – until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve topped with a dollop of sour cream, a few chopped green onions, or some salsa verde. Enjoy!

…is covered in baby spit-up. For whatever odd reason, (maybe it’s the bouncy, up-and-down movement?) my 6-month-old barfs on the stairs every time we come down from her room. This happens regardless of whether or not she’s just eaten. Every time. Barf. All over the carpet on my stairs.

I try, ever-so-carefully, to keep her still as we’re going down the stairs. Still, she barfs. Is this an indication that she’ll have motion sickness later in life? Her Gram certainly has motion sickness. Is it hereditary? I have no idea. I just know that the carpet on my stairs will have to be replaced once my child has had her way with it. Ugh.

Why is it that Dave from Duct Cleaning decided to call me, not once but twice, right in the middle of when I was making dinner for my husband and 2 kids? And why does Dave call me “the home owner” rather than Shari, which is my name? I’ll tell you why….it’s because Dave doesn’t care about me. And neither does his employer, Duct Cleaning. If Dave really cared about me, THE CONSUMER , he wouldn’t be calling me at dinner time and he wouldn’t be calling me “the home owner”.

In all fairness to Dave, he’s just doing his job. But, he’s not doing it well. And that’s the problem with telemarketers in general. I blame that on the companies who these people represent. The companies don’t train their staff very well in the art of customer service.  In fact, I doubt they train them at all. I score them a big ZERO on the customer happiness scale.  Not a great way to get sales in my opinion.

In all the years that telemarketing has been legal, (and I really wish it wasn’t) I have only ever encountered a handful of callers who actually cared about me enough to at least acknowledge that dinner time wasn’t the best time to be calling and could they call me back at a more convenient time. But not Dave. No, Dave continued his spiel even though I told him that I was making dinner. Dave made me hang up on him.  Not a great way to forge a long lasting customer relationship Dave.

So much for the Do Not Call List in Canada because it really is a joke.  I get that telemarketing companies are in business to make money. But there are better ways to market a business.  How about investing some of your hard earned cash in some honest to goodness inbound marketing. You know, the kind that doesn’t infringe on people’s privacy? The kind that lets me, the consumer, decide when to buy your products and services. I bet you’ll make A LOT more sales that way.

So guess what’s going to happen the next time I need my ducts cleaned? (that kinda sounds disgusting but lets not go there right now)  I won’t be calling Duct Cleaning and Dave won’t be making any commission off me! See how well telemarketing works.

To the telemarketers of the world, let me just say this: stop it. Stop it right now. Give me back my dinner hour with my family. Stop taking it from us. It’s not yours and you can’t have it. If you really want my money then you’re going about it the wrong way.

I’ll just ask you this – who is doing all the shopping for the holiday season even as I write this post? Moms. Mothers. Madres. That’s right. Mamas are hot in the marketing world right now, as more and more companies are taking note of the purchasing power of mothers.

One company in particular is targeting moms in a new, exciting, and beneficial way. Vocalpoint, which is owned by Proctor and Gamble’s word-of-mouth marketing company called Tremor, takes a unique approach to finding out what consumers really think about products, while using moms to do most of the marketing. Who knew one mom’s voice could be considered so powerful?

Tremor’s branding encompasses movement, like waves, tremors, etc. by word-of-mouth marketing. They use Vocalpoint to get their clients’ products in front of over 500,000 mothers who have selected their interests via their Vocalpoint profile. This helps them target specific groups even more. The goal is to sign up mothers who spend time online. Moms who are online are generally interested in news, products, and sharing their experiences. Tremor and Vocalpoint capitalize on those aspects.

Vocalpoint signs moms up with the promise of recieving samples and being able to review the products they sample. And boy, do they deliver! I’ve received samples of Kashi cereal, granola bars, and countless coupons for Del Monte fruit and other food products. I’ve even written a few reviews.

The most recent piece I received in the mail is what caused me to write this article. It’s an incredible marketing piece, designed to look like a DVD (but not in a plastic case). Here’s a sampling of the printed piece’s design. You have to see it in person to get the full effect, but this link is a start.

A small, lift up flap made to look like a clapper board from a movie set contains valuable coupons for Del Monte fruit. Clever. Who wouldn’t want to open a piece of mail that looks so tempting? But that’s not all. Inside, where the DVD would reside, was a rubber-gripped jar opener, designed to look like a DVD. It’s in my utility drawer in my kitchen right now. Every time I look at it, I see Del Monte fruit. Talk about brand resonance!

All that being said, I think Proctor and Gamble, Tremor and Vocalpoint have discovered the valuable and unlimited power that moms and their word-of-mouth recommendations can bring. More companies should harness this power. The possibilities are literally endless.

Ah, a fresh, clean slate. Everyone always uses their first post to tell you all about where they want their blog to go and why they started blogging in the first place. That stuff is kind of boring, and we have lots of time to tell you all about who we are! I think we’ll just say a quick hello in this first post and then cut immediately to the good stuff.

I’m Brianna (I go by Bri, pronounced like the cheese) and my co-blogger is Shari. Don’t call her Sharita; she hates that. We come from two different worlds – as different as Burlington, Ontario and Tulsa, Oklahoma can be. We both started businesses from home because we wanted to bring home some bacon in a real way and still be at home with our kids. (No, we don’t sell Mary Kay or Pampered Chef.) We began working together on various virtual business projects, and quickly discovered we have more in common than just working from home.

We decided that sharing our adventures in motherhood and business ownership would be fun – for us and for our like-minded, crazy, work-at-home counterparts out there. So, Applesauce and Email is where it all comes together – a mish-mash of stories, recipes, business advice, tips and whatever else we think you might want to read about. It’s the collision of motherhood and business, right here for all the world to see. You can cover your eyes for the scary parts.