This week's try-it...Mock-i-yaki

So, I'm trying to get back into the swing of bloggin again...be patient. For this week's try-it I wanted to share a mock teriyaki sauce with you. This recipe started from a guy I was engaged to eons ago and his dad's BBQ. Jerry (the dad) would BBQ lots throughout the summers. One of his best was pork steaks marinated in nothing but soy sauce and honey. It was the best pork I ever had. I no longer eat pork, but knowing how well those two flavors went together was inspiration for this recipe! This recipe is not a "follow to the teaspoon" kind of recipe. If you like it saltier...less honey. If you like more kick then add more garlic. It will surprise you, however, how much it does taste like teriyaki sauce! (minus the msg...) So here goes...

Neisha's Orange-Ginger Mock-i-yaki

1/3 c lite soy sauce
1/4 c oj
1 clove garlic minced
1tsp ground ginger
honey, agave, maple syrup to taste

Whisk ingredients together. (wow...that was hard.)

Now for the fun stuff...what to do with it? If you are doing a marinade, simply put it in a ziplock with your meat for 30min or more. I actually like to freeze my meat in the marinade...saves me a step! If you want to use this as a sauce, add 1tsp cornstarch to the oj and simmer until thickened. This is a good sauce to have on hand in the fridge. It is also a simple and tasty sauce to whip up in a hurry with simple stuff you probably already have!

Life continues to go on here in GA. My belly gets bigger everyday. The baby not the chicken mock-i-yaki! It's spring here and that means POLLEN! I wish I had been more diligent with the kids' pollen drops...I wasn't now we have some stuffy noses. We battled a case of lice for a week...that I am not looking forward to ever again. And as the weather gets warmer and stuff gets greener, I itch to get out and grow something! I have big aspirations to save my allowance and start a bag-garden. Yes...you plant stuff right in the bag of potting soil. Someone must have cursed this yard long ago, but I claim freedom! Until then, I will fight it's deficiencies. Even if it's only a few bags, I'd love to have 8-10 plants. Tomatoes, leeks, beans, peppers, strawberries, cukes and a cantaloupe if I'm feeling sassy. We'll see... I find that one of my growing frustrations with life is that my life now is so far removed from how I grew up! There is something about how we live our lives that rubs the inside of me raw. I rarely ate fast food until I was a teen. If I was bored, I went out to the garden and picked strawberries! Then I'd pretend to be Daisy Duke and the boredom was all gone! My kids have never fished, and maybe only once camped. ??WHAT??

As for now, I'll continue on. I am more and more needing to seek God and focus on him. Everything else makes me mad, sad or disappointed. I am starting to want to find purpose for being here...now. I had been just wallowing in misery wanting to go back. I see my tantrum has not brought that about. Instead, I'm just more miserable. I hope this year will be the year I see the change I have longed for deep in my heart. (PS- that statement has NOTHING to do w/Obama...don't get me started)

For now...enjoy some mock teriyaki and I'll post again soon!

Been a while?

Holy guacamole Batman! It's beena while since I have been on. My whole reason for getting on today was to share a recipe for those of you who come here looking for new ideas (or old ones you forgot about). I am realizing just how long it's been and thinking that I need a little less Facebook time and a bit more blogtime! I do have quite a few new recipes to get down on here, but today only one will make the cut. Years ago in a cooking mag that came out post-Thanksgiving, there was a section of what to do with all that leftover turkey! I have since found this recipe not only works with leftover turkey but chicken as well. It also is a good way to get all those sides of steamed veggies gone from your fridge. Everyone...meet my improved Chicken Ranch Pasta!

Chicken Ranch Pasta

left over chicken / 2 chicken breasts - cut up or shredded (omit if you want to go veg!)
1 box elbows or rotini (use different varieties for allergies...spelt, br rice, millet, etc)
1 sm bag frozen mix veg OR the leftover veggies in your fridge
1envelope ranch seasoning
1.5 sticks butter/marg/alternative (it's butter, not crack...stop freaking out...this makes a ton!)

Boil and drain pasta, meanwhile in the pan melt butter and add veggies, ranch and chicken. Cook on med-hi for 3-4 minutes til frozen veg are cooked through (but before they are mush...capiche?) Stir the whole lot together and serve with parm cheese over. This will make alot, so prepare to freeze, share or eat it tomorrow!

This is a great meal for a quick and easy clean out of the fridge. It's also very flexible to be a vegetarian dish using more veggies and beans as well. (black or garbanzo)

Feeling blue? I have your cure...

OK, so last night we got on YouTube to show our kids what clogging was. So this morning I was bored and eating my lunch and decided to go on You Tube and look around. I did a search and put in 'babies'. One of the things it brought up was 'babies laughing'. I could have watched that all day! It was hillarious!!!! The best one was a mom with quadruplets, and her husband was making them all crack up at one time. HOLY COW! If you are down or having an Eeyore day, try thins cure. Reminds us that it's the simple stuff that counts.

There is yellow dust, all over the world tonight....

So the pollen has begun! (did you catch the oldies reference?) It's really gross. It's everywhere. The pollen count is so high that I think the little computer that counts the pollen blew up and has just lost count! No one in the state of Georgia has a normal voice at the moment. Everyone is either suffering, sounding like jazz singers or snuffaluffagus....or enjoying a nice benedryl high.

This morning was an amazing sunrise! That is the kind of thing you see when you get up before humanly necessary. I was leaving Lowe's at 7AM (sick I know) and was stopped in my tracks by the illuminated sky. Indigo fading in and out of turquoise and aqua. Blazing pink and peach cirrus striping the heavens, occasionally a bold orange. And in a moment is was gone. The moment of breathtaking boldness began to fade to pretty pastel. God was done showing off for now. It's good to see he's still got it!

Back by Popular Demand- or- One of "Those" People...you choose

Alright fine, so it's been awhile. Sheesh! Let's recap before we get our game face on...

Beginning of March Jairus got teeth (note: today...he bit "me"). Two to be precise. Went to the Midwest on a whirlwind tour. Sister Rachel gets hitched (fanfare!) and I drive myself and three kids to Memphis. Wow...that's a drive only few should attempt. But, to relieve the pain I take the kids to Lambert's! (you know... 'Home of the Throwed Rolls'? You watch TV right?) It is there that I am grossly aware of the obesity problem in America. My meatloaf, as it was called, was really a meat log. My soda was a semi-tanker truck with a straw and Pepsi in it. The rolls were the size of my baby's head and the sweet potato was a size only few women hear tell about. ;)

So this food frenzy stacked nicely in my mind on top of the fact that my cousin tells me that she, and some of my friends in STL are going to run the Chicago Marathon. Welllllll....... so I stew on this for the loooonnng drive home.

Fast forward to last Monday. I decide to join the gym. I get an amazing deal, pay it all upfront as to avoid the annoying bank drafts. And last week I became one of those people. You know ...one of those people who get up at an inhumane hour just to zombie their way to a gym and on to a treadmill. Yes! I am one of those. But, it is to avoid being one of those people whom I was surrounded by at Lambert's. I said that at thirty I wanted to run a marathon. I was pregnant last year, nix that. I am now thirty-one ( a fact I frequently forget, no lie) and I am not pregnant. So I will run/walk the Chicago Marathon October 12, 2008. I haven't paid for the registration yet. They actually make you pay $110 US dollars to torture your body beyond measure. Huh...

Anyhoo, today's highlight was the baby saying "da-da". CAN"T JUST ONE OF THEM SAY "MA-MA" FIRST? (enter Rodney Dangerfeild joke here)

Snow Day!

This morning I woke sleepily to the baby crying. I went to start nursing him, then I remembered...the snow! I went to go check the news for school closings. I had done this very same thing many times every year as a kid. Where I grew up there was snow, not like here. We have lived in Atlanta for almost three years and this is the second time we have seen snow. I watched the ticker at the bottom of the screen all the time saying, "please be closed, pleased be closed..." in the hopes that I didn't have to get dressed and take anyone anywhere. As fate would have it, school is closed! It's almost 8:30AM and my daughter is still in bed! The other is on the couch waiting for the cinnamon rolls that are in the oven.

So today my inner child rejoices in the small victory of a snow day! Too bad it doesn't include homeschooling!

Is this human?

I'm sure that it is not human to have been up since 5:30AM! I have accomplished alot this morning though. Went to the grocery store, cleaned dirty kitchen (from successful bread making venture last night), cleaned bathroom, washed one load of laundry, drank coffee, swept hall/bathroom/kitchen, drank more coffee, and mopped above said floors.

Ted had his third Jujitsu last night. He came home barely moving! It took about 2 hours for him to recover. He'll have to curb his Mountain Dew obsession and increase his water. We will probably put Jai in these classes when he gets old enough. Besides the exercise part of it, the whole thing revolves around respect and discipline. They do not allow foul language on the mats. You have to bow in respect before coming on the mats. Your teachers are always answered "Yes Sir" or "No Sir". Senior students are due a certain amount of respect for their accomplishments. Even last night during drills, Ted's teacher Mr. Juan said "It's ok to get frustrated. You're working hard and getting tired. You'll make mistakes. It's ok to be frustrated but not angry. Not angry, not here". That's great! What is all young people were trained to think in this line?

As we were laying talking, I told Ted I really had been thinking about adopting again. He about croaked. I guess the 4 month old baby sleeping in the other room had something to do with that. It led to talking about the girls and school. (* which by the way...my 4 year old read a book yesterday!) I said it's hard because I know I'll never have this time with my girls again. To let them be kids. I also want to instill a heart for homemaking and mothering in them before the world comes in and bombards them with $$$$$$$. I also am very aware that I have been unable thus far to balance my 'Mom' relationships with them, teach(all aspects) and keep the house up.

So this blog comes full circle...I guess it is human to get up at 5:30AM! It's the only way to get anything done around here!