Loppet or Lump it.

This weekend I went snowshoeing on frozen Lake of the Isles with a bunch of friends for a birthday party.

There were ice luminaries all around the lake - it was really beautiful. There were also people juggling fire. Always a good time.  It's not something I would have done, or even known about, really, without these awesome friends, as I live in the suburbs and my fate is more directed toward carpools and soccer and chain-store shopping. After typing that I have made a vow to myself to get out more.

Ahem..  Anyway, after walking on water, we went to Amazing Thailand in uptown.  I had the Duck Curry and now I want to eat nothing but that forever.   

Photo From Yelp via B

I've made a few curries before, but nothing like this. It was perfection: meat, tomatoes, pineapple, grapes, basil, lots of sauce, the perfect spice.  Looks like I need some curry recipes. Got any?

Obligatory Super Bowl Food

We're having Leftovers Shmorgesboard Night. But I thought I'd at
least throw some drummies in the oven. (For the record: Packers! Woooo!) Sent from my iPhone. Please forgive typos.

Transformations.

Twice last week I had beautiful pans of vegetables that started out looking like this:

Turn into garbage down the disposal that looked like this:

Because my oven went to 550 on its own accord. And filled the house with smoke.  Twice.

The second time, dinner turned from whole pork tenderloin with roasted vegetables into pork medallions with mustard sauce, creamed spinach and Trader Joe's frozen brown rice:

Happily, yesterday my oven turned from this:

Into this:

Best.  Landlord.  Ever.

Beautiful

I see a lot of blogs that post beautiful things they see in shops and boutiques in the cities they live and travel to.  I have two small children and traveling (and, let's face it, leaving the house in winter) are not really in my wheelhouse at this point in my life.  I took a tour of my office and my bedroom and took some shots of a few things that make me happy that I already have.

Monkey Lamp on my desk

My Monkey likes fezes.  Sometimes.

I've had this little box since I can remember.

I wear this every day.
I bought it about 15 years ago when I was reading The Belgariad.
It reminded me of Beldarin's necklace that Polgara gives to Ce'Nedra.
It was one of those days where I woke up and decided I needed a tree necklace, I went to Patina, and there it was in the case waiting for me.
Following are what I take it off for.

The stone from my mom's engagement ring.

Malachite.

Lapis.

Alice.
Don't judge.

Dutch Birth Tile.
4/11/1974  5 lbs. 0 oz. 2:08pm
My children have their own, too.

Malachite
Corn stalk design.
Bought in Santa Fe for my 21st birthday while visiting our family friend, Lucia di Medici.*
One of my favorite trips of my whole life.
Lucia introduced me to Neutrogena Light Sesame Body Oil and I still think about that trip every time I use it  - like, this morning.

*not her real name ;)

Charm Bracelets.
Left: Age 30 on.  Right birth to age 18.

Aquamarine.
I designed this ring myself - it was for my first Mother's Day and has since taken residence above my wedding band.

My Grandparents' dresser.
The top of the drawers were worn and my grandfather cut pieces of wood grain patterned enamel
and put them on the facade.
Beautiful work.

Crock Pot Orange Chicken

More chicken!  Yay!  This one's all about the thighs, my favorite part of the chicken.  Usually I say leave the skin on when cooking chicken, but in the crock pot, it just gets oily and rubbery in there and it's not good.  So start with skinless thighs - either packaged boneless, skinless, or just cut the skin off  the regular package and leave the bones in.  I am a fan of meat on the bone, myself.

INGREDIENTS

Chicken:

6 skinless chicken thighs

3 TBS flour

1/2 tsp salt

Sauce:

1/2 cup orange marmalade (I used low sugar)

1/2 cup ketchup

3 TBS soy sauce

2 TBS orange juice

1 TBS brown sugar

1/2 tsp ground ginger

To Finish Sauce:

2 TBS orange marmalade

1 TBS cornstarch

Place chicken, flour and salt in a crock pot and toss to coat.

Turn on high.

Combine Sauce ingredients (marmalade, ketchup, soy sauce, orange juice, brown sugar, ground ginger) in a bowl and pour over chicken, stirring to coat all the pieces.

Cook on high for 3 - 4 hours (mine took 3 hours)

Remove chicken to a plate.

Combine remaining orange marmalade and cornstarch in a small bowl.

Stir into sauce 1/3 at a time until sauce is thickened according to your preference.

I served this with 1/2 cup of sushi rice and steamed sugar snap peas, garnished with scallion greens (they really make a difference). 

This is how I steam a lot of vegetables in my house (broccoli, asparagus, snap peas) - Put them in a bowl with a little water, cover with a plate and microwave on high for 1 minute. Drain, add a little butter, microwave again, uncovered, for 15 - 20 seconds.

Honey Mustard Chicken

For some reason I bought a LOT of chicken this week.  So here is the first of many posts about chicken. I will try to include other posts about things I made before it was snowing that have been sitting in my photo file so you are not as sick of chicken as I am in a few days.

This first one involves a whole, cut up chicken.  Or, if you can find it, a Best o' Fryer which, I think, doesn't include the wings that no one eats anyway, and has been known to include three breasts and three thighs. Mmmmmm mutant chicken.

Anyway -

Preheat oven to 400

Mix together

3 TBS honey

3 TBS mustard (I used one each of Dijon, Grainy, and Stone Ground)

1 TBS vegetable or canola oil

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp corriander 1/2 tsp salt

Baste on both sides of chicken pieces (whole cut up or best o' fryer)

Place chicken on oiled rack over a sheet pan - or use your broiler pan, that's what I do. Just make sure you oil it first.

Baste every 10 minutes with the remaining glaze for a total of 35 - 40 minutes.

I served it with cooked carrots.
I sauteed them in butter, a shake of maple pepper, then added maple syrup and honey.  They were too sweet.  Next time I'll leave out the honey.

I also served them with Trader Joe's frozen Brown Rice (one of the most genius inventions ever - perfect brown rice in 3 minutes?  I'm staying!) and a sprinkling of scallions.

Found this awesome Ginger Beer in the liquor store.  It's made with pure cane sugar and is full of awesome.  It was on this night that I discovered the Kentucky Mule (see yesterday's post).

More chicken recipes to come!  What are some of your favorites?

Hello, February.

As you may know, I live in the Minnesotan portion of the Arctic Tundra.  I have lived here for most of my life, and have just recently come to the realization that not everyone in the United States currently has a mountain of shoveled snow from their driveway taller than they are.  I have also come to the realization that I hate February.  This is possibly because I live in Minnesota.  February has the promise of being the shortest month, and when you live in Minnesota any month in the winter that is a few days shorter than the other days in the winter must be a good thing. Right?  Except it isn't.  It's still really cold.  And it's still really cold for 28 days.  Which, granted, isn't as long as 30 or 31 days, but is still really cold.  And I resent that because it's not as short as it promises to be, and it's still really cold.

ANYWAY -

In order to make the time go quicker, I'm going to DO something.  I tell my kids this all the time.  "That thing is taking too long for you to wait through?  Go do something.  The time will go quicker if you clean up/play/do your homework/make some art."  So this February I'm going to post something on this blog every single day.  Be warned, it might not be AWESOME EVERY DAY. It might just be a picture emailed to the site from my iPhone with a caption.  But then again, it might be an awesome picture.  And really, it might be awesome every day.  We'll just have to see together.

So as we start out on this journey together, let me share with you some things that I'm sure will help me through February.

Ginger Lemon Drop:

2 oz ginger infused vodka

1/2 oz lemon juice

1oz Triple Sec

1 tsp superfine sugar

Shake it.

Rim glass with lemon juice and superfine sugar

Hot Toddy:

1-2 oz whiskey - I use Scoresby, because that's what my Grampy drank. 

He was a New York City Firefighter during WWII.  Slainte.

Juice of 1/2 a Lemon (leave it in the cup)

1 TBS Honey

1 Cinnamon Stick

3 Cloves

Top off with boiling water

Kentucky Mule (thanks to Slackmistress)

2 oz Bourbon

1 oz Lime Juice

Finish with Ginger Beer

CHEERS!

See you tomorrow!