Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Another day off?

Several readers of this blog know me well. To them, this story will not surprise them in the least, to the rest, take this as a window into my life.

I was finishing dinner tonight. As I was getting up to take my empty plate to the kitchen, I spilled my water all over my wood floor. Not a crisis but I wanted to get it up off the floor right away. Knowing it was almost time for my PJs, I went ahead and sat in the liquid while someone else got a towel. I figured that my clothes would absorb much of the liquid before it ran all over the floor and I would be changing soon anyway. What harm could the water do? It was then that I realized that it was white grape juice. What a mess.

It was another great day off today. I spent most of the day relaxing at the house. I did a bit of yard work but nothing sever until I decided to pull the trigger on my new hot air popcorn popper. When I mentioned the sadness of the popcorn loss the other day I got many responses letting me know some great stove top options. As a kid, my father and I would often make popcorn on the stove top. It was a great time and one of my first culinary experiences. On a side note, my father was a chef for several years. Now I prefer air popped.

While I was out and about, I decided to stop and get some spray paint for my new thrift store frames. I ended up leaving with 2 large bags of organic soil, several seeded organic herbs and a packet of beet seeds. It was time to garden.

I got all of the seeded planted in the ground, two cilantro plants, 2 yellow summer squash plants, 1 red pepper plant, 1 yellow pepper plant, 1 basil plant, and 1 mint plant. As the sunlight was dwindling, I made a few quick rows and got 12 beet seeds into the soil. Great stuff. I love beets. I must confess that much of desire for beets is very juvenile. Purple poop is funny.

The soil has not grown anything in years., if ever. I dug deep, mixed the organic fertilizer with the actual dug up soil and will give it as much care as I can. I hope for the best.

For dinner I made a stir fry with some of the sketchy mock meat that I got from the equally sketchy christian natural food store. It was decent but nothing to use often. Honestly though, you can make or break a stir fry with the sauce. Everyone has their sauce, here is mine.


Stir Fry Sauce

1 cup of hoisin sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce
2 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of shredded ginger
1 teaspoon of garlic chili sauce
1/2 teaspoon of sugar

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Pour over the stir fry at the end of the cooking process and stir well. Let fry on high heat for an additional 5 minutes.


Popcorn is back!

7 comments:

Mihl said...

Sorry about the grape juice!

What a pretty stir fry that is!

Jes said...

At least it wasn't purple grape juice :) But I like your quick thinking--I would have never thought to have sat in the liquid to soak it up quick. And good luck with the garden!!

jessy said...

i'm with Jes, at least it wasn't purple grape juice. what a sticky mess though. purple poo is kinda fun; cracks me up that beets do that. i think your mixing in the organic soil with the stuff in the ground will work great. that's what we do, too. every couple of weeks i'll "top fertilize" the garden with some organic soil from our compost pile - our plants seems to love that, too. a good sauce does make the stir-fry, and i'm gonna have to print out yours to try. also - huzzah for popcorn. yay!

p.s. - i have The Box in my netflix queue because i was interested in it due to the fact that it's the Donnie Darko guy. i'm gonna go through with watching it, but i'm going to keep in mind that it's pretty damn terrible. ah ha ha!

miss v said...

i'm a klutz - i have major spilling catastrophes all.the.time.

i'm totally with you on the stir fry sauce. i've never written mine down a recipe, so each time it's a gamble on how tasty (or thick) it's going to turn out.

Anonymous said...

i am clearly way behind on reading all your blog stuff. its kinda funny that i just asked you if you gardened the other day, when you had probably posted this already. how can i expect you to answer questions in person that i would already know if i had just been reading your blog more? tsk tsk to me.

i would know if i read the previous entry... but you have a new air popper? i wasnt sure if the trigger thing meant you started using it or threw it away... but it looks like you have popcorn anyway. i like air poppers. we've had one since i was little but just started using it again more recently.

ame

Anonymous said...

hey, just wanted to say, I have made stir fry with your stir fry sauce twice now. The first time, I messed up the stir fry because I still didn't have the right technique for making stir fry (the sauce actually saved it just because it tasted good). But last night I made stir fry again, using your sauce, and evidently nailed it because my BF ate it up for dinner last night, then took it for lunch today and sent me a text: "this stirfry is amazing." So thanks for the sauce recipe. :-)

Vic Robinson said...

Awesome! Glad to hear it! I wish you had left your name so I knew who you were! :)