Picky kids?

Feed 'em this. If you don't want to lick the pan afterward, I don't want to talk to you anymore.

* 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 T oil
* 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 4-6 garlic cloves, chopped
* 1/4 cup brown sugar
* 1/4 cup heavy cream (I use more, so I have more sauce)

Directions
1. Sprinkle the salt and pepper onto the chicken.
2. In a medium to large sized skillet (I like cast iron) heat the oil over medium-high heat until almost smoking.
3. Add the chicken breasts and garlic to the pan and brown the first side of chicken, about 5 minutes.
4. Flip the chicken and brown the other side, about 3 minutes.
5. Remove the chicken from the pan and add the brown sugar to the pan.
6. Allow the sugar to melt about half way and add the cream.
7. Bring to a bubble and add chicken back to pan
8. Simmer for 3-5 minutes and serve over butter egg noodles or rice.
9. Enjoy!

Holy crap, people

I just kicked the snot out of some spices and whipped up a fantabulous garam masala. I sauteed it with some chopped onions and butter and then threw it all into a bowl of brown basmati rice I made last night.

Oh. My god.

When the groceries come home, I'll add golden raisins and sliced almonds and a bit of salt then mix *that* all together. Oh, and peas. Gots to have peas.

Tonight I'll serve it alongside homegrown pork steaks with homemade green tomato chutney and a salad. Husband thinks we need another veg so he'll see what looks good. I'm leaning toward green beans for Szechuan beans, but I'll take what I get. Rhubarb pie and ice cream for dessert. Sort of a mish-mash, but it oughta suffice.

(This would also be really good with lamb added for a main dish. I'd pressure cook the lamb with a leetle bit of onion and garlic, then chunk it and mix with the rice.)

I used 4 c uncooked rice, so I'm prepared to feed an army. That was enough to use the entire batch of masala, though.

Garam masala (Indian spice mix)
1 T cinnamon (Penzey's Vietnamese Cassia)
1 T cardamom
1/2 t cumin
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
lots of ground pepper (didn't measure)
A handful of crushed Szechuan peppercorns

I probably should have added some corriander seeds too, but I ain't. Maybe next time. I think 1 t ground is probably enough. All the above were purchased ground, even though real garam masala is made with whole spices that you grind yourself.

Banner day

What does it take to warm the very cockles of my withered old heart? Peeing in the potty is a fantastic start.






TWICE!

Already doing something wrong

Dude's cool new Bumgenius 3.0 diapers came on Monday and he promptly pooped FOUR TIMES to break them in. Problem: despite prewash, wash, and extra rinse, they still smell. Sun? Another round of washing? I'm waiting on a bunch of PFs and covers, so if I need to switch to something without fleece I can do that, but I'd really like to be able to put these to good use.

Help!

Oh, and I've managed to lose two cloth wipes in a day. This is going great!

100 Item Challenge

I find this interesting. I was just saying to Husband, who brought an article about Dave Bruno home, "If we could categorize a few things, like books, I could do this." Even better, I think WE could do this. If each person were allowed 100 items, and necessities like diapers/underwear, weren't counted individually, I think it's entirely doable.


I may just give it a try.

Categories might be:
books (even this I could purge quite a bit)
cooking items (ditto)
pants (say a max of 10 pairs per person, dress and street combined)
shirts (same, but maybe 20 what with the spillage)
shoes (considered 1 item since we have such radical weather swings here)
movies (hard one; this could take up a big chunk of the list)
knitting (MUST be a category or I'm already done)

And do you consider personal items like deodorant? If we don't share, it's not a household item, right?

Does the tractor count as a household item even though I'm the only one who uses it? It contributes to our food since I mow the field to move the pig fence..

My GOD, the stuff we could get rid of! And I don't even need to sell 99% of it, just get it OUT of my house.

"No, Daddy,

you can't serious me. You're killing me."

WTF?