We Hate Steak!

I used to complain about my mom always making chicken or steak for dinner when I was growing up. “It’s always chicken or steak! I hate steak! We had chicken the other day!” I wonder how many of the below conversations my mom had with me about the menu.

“Mom, what’s for dinner?”

“Pot roast and mashed potatoes but they won’t be ready for a few hours.”

“URGHHH. Why do you keep making stuff I don’t want?!”

“Well, what would you want?”

“We had steak yesterday. And. You know I hate steak.”

“You love steak. What would you like to eat?”

“You are always making stuff that I don’t like!”

“Well, what would you like to eat?”

“What is there?”

“Pot roast but it won’t be ready for a few hours.”

“URGH…”

“I can make what you like to eat tomorrow. What would you like?”

“I’m ordering food from Golden Crust.”

“If you want to waste your money, then fine. But, what would you like for dinner tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I don’t want to waste my money. Can I get a sandwich at Wawa?”

“No, I’m not spending money. I made pot roast. You’ll like it. It’s good. What would you like tomorrow?!”

{he orders fries and mozzarella sticks; then eats dinner with us anyway}

“This is really good and I love the potatoes! It’s like roast beef!”

“That’s what pot roast is. Did you decide what you want tomorrow?”

“…”

***

“Mom, what’s for dinner?”

“Sandwiches from Wawa.”

“URGHH! You said it was my turn to pick!”

“You never answered me and I’m not going to the market now.”

“But I want hamburgers!”

I was one of four kids. Did my sister, brothers, or dad gave her lip about what she was cooking, too? How she didn’t give up making dinner every night of week, I’ll never know. She must have wanted to strangle me.

I’m sorry for being such a brat, Mom. I hope it brings a smile to your face knowing that karma has come back two-fold to bite me in my ass.

Related articles

• Maw Maw’s Country-Style Steak (lynnettestestkitchen.wordpress.com)
• Pot Roast Recipe (shanestevenslink.wordpress.com)
• Steak and Wine (bustychef.wordpress.com)
• Chicken Fried Steak (sistersofspice.wordpress.com)

Live Blogging From Our Kitchen: He Don’t Need No Stinkin Recipe!

Tonight I’ve decided to try something different.. Live blogging, from the kitchen, while BF makes a yummy dinner.

He’s trying something new tonight and so far I’m loving the ingredients..

Asiago and Romano

Butter

Riccotta, mint, rosemary and thyme

Riccotta

Super cool picture 😉

Snap peas

Carrots

These are the babysitters while we work..

They won’t change no stinkin diaper!

So what BF has done so far was finely chop mint, thyme, and rosemary and added them to a small container of riccota and then stirred in a palm-full of each Romano and Asiago cheese.

And I’ve been summoned to change poop…

Be right back!

False alarm! He just wants to eat. How awkward.

Now back to the food!!

Then he washed and rough cut carrots and snap peas — why, I don’t know yet..

While I was gone he :

• pounded down some chicken breasts (with a rolling pin, need that meat tenderizer)
• rolled some of the cheese mixture up into the breasts and tied with twine
• poured some butter over each (need that pastry brush)
• ground black pepper and fancy pink Himalayan salt (OOOh lala) over chicken

And I took a few more pictures but the battery on my camera died.

So, we will just let that charge

while the chicken bakes
at 400 degrees
for about 25ish minutes.

 Okay! Camera is back! Here is the chicken before it went in the oven:

And here are the mysterious snap peas and carrots:

He just sauteed them with garlic, butter, salt and pepper.

Isaac is home in time to eat!

It smells so good in here! Yay! Chicken is done!

This was such a great meal and a lot of fun to do!

Beef Lo Mein

Last year one of BF’s co-workers had made Beef Lo Mein for a company potluck party. He loved it so much that he asked her to share the recipe — and then he asked me to make it. Now, I’m always up for a cooking challenge, but with this one, I admit that I was a little intimidated. My intimidation wasn’t because the recipe looked complicated,  it was because I had never cooked Chinese food before.

After making this Lo Mein for the first time, I’ve made it on many more occasions. Not only is this recipe a family pleaser, it’s also super easy! So easy, in fact, that for those of you who aren’t all that confident in the kitchen, I am willing to bet that this recipe would build your confidence quickly. If you like Beef Lo Mein, I suggest you try this. It is delicious and like I’ve said — very simple.

Beef Lo Mein

Ingredients:
1 lb Fresh Chinese egg noodles – (medium width)*
1/2 lb Beef flank steak*
2 TBS Oyster sauce
2 TBS Dark soy sauce
1 TBS Light soy sauce
1/2 cup Chicken broth
2 tsp Sesame oil
2 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp White pepper
4 TBS Peanut oil
2 slice Fresh peeled ginger — bruised
2 Garlic cloves — bruised
1 tsp Salt
1/2 lb Fresh bean sprouts – tails removed, patted dry*
1 cup Chinese garlic chives-Green onions-Cut into 2-in lengths

Beef Marinade:
1/2 TBS Soy sauce
2 TBS Rice wine or dry sherry
1/2 tsp Sugar
1/2 TBS Cornstarch
1 tsp Sesame oil

Method:
Cut meat against the grain in 1/4-inch thick slices. Mix beef marinade. Add beef strips and let stand for at least 15 minutes.

ADD NOODLES TO A LARGE POT of boiling salted water. Stir and when it reaches a second boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 1 minute longer. Drain. Rinse with cold water. Drain thoroughly.

In a medium bowl, mix together oyster sauce, dark and light soy sauces, chicken broth, sesame oil, sugar, and white pepper.

Preheat a wok.*

Add 2 tablespoons of peanut oil, 1 slice of ginger and garlic, and half of the salt; sauté until fragrant. Increase to high heat, add beef; stir-fry until browned, about 2 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Heat remaining peanut oil in the wok over medium heat. Add the remaining ginger, garlic and salt. Pour in sauce mixture, stir and bring to a boil.

Add noodles and toss to coat with the sauce. Add the bean sprouts, chives and return the beef; stir-fry.

Pick out and discard ginger and garlic.

*Helpful Notes:

• A large sautee’ pan can be used in place of a wok, just add half of the noodles and toss before adding the rest. Using tongs when using a sautee’ pan will make this very easy.

• Bagged egg noodles work well if you can’t find fresh. Just be sure to cook them per package directions, then rinse with cool water and drain thoroughly.

• Spaghetti or small linguine also work well in a pinch, but will not absorb as much of the sauce so your lo mein will be a little saucier. Follow package directions for cooking, rinse with cool water and drain thoroughly.

• Canned bean sprouts may be used in place of fresh. The tails are already removed! Drain and pat dry with paper towels.

• Sliced mushrooms and baby corn would make delightful additions. I haven’t tried this yet, but I will next time by adding 1 cup of each. Make sure they are dry before adding them to the pan.

• Check your grocery store for pre-cut stir fry strips. Our market has these right in the fresh meat section and it makes life much easier! These packs usually come in higher weights than 1/2 pound but the rest can be freezed for another lo mein night, cooked up with eggs, or to make steak tacos/fajitas.

A Constant Wish and Clarity

I’ve been stuck, deep in thought this morning over specific conversations I’ve had in the past with the one person in this world who knows me best. We’ve had a ton of arguments over the years and tend to be overly honest with one another, probably due to the longevity of our friendship. Throughout the years I became defensive and outright unreachable when I felt he had overstepped the boundaries or completely crossed the line. Some of our arguments pissed one or both of us off enough to not speak for days, weeks, and sometimes even months. I have felt hurt and betrayed by some of the things has said to me and there have been times he caused me to completely shut down; I often refused to give his words any thought or weight and easily swore to him and myself that he was just trying to hurt and control me.

One of the most painful things he said was that I was living like a battered house wife and would stay in the same spot unless I woke the hell up or ended up severely hurt. I thought the only reason he would say such a mean thing was because he was mad that I wasn’t crumbling at his lines. I proclaimed that I wasn’t battered, that Huz loved me and he had no reason to say such terrible things. We didn’t speak for weeks and when I was throughly convinced that he was insane and spoke with him again we didn’t talk about it much. By then, after I knew how to respond I just blew off any mention of the conversation and stopped crying to him about the problems at home. We finally did talk about it seriously years later though… Once the protective order was in place he offered to sleep on my couch with his gun, just so he would know the kids and I would feel safe. When I refused he tried to insist that we come stay with him, cat and all. I thanked him for the concern, quietly pushed him away and still didn’t fully acknowledge how well he knew me.

Something else he said to me recently was that my medication wasn’t safe and that he didn’t want me to take it because of the horrible side effects. He said I wasn’t mentally stable and throwing the possibility of suicidal tendencies into the mix wasn’t to anyone’s benefit.  I had already confessed to him one night, only a few months before, that I had almost killed myself in March when Huz wouldn’t lay off of me. It was the night before I wrote my Tale of Two Cakey’s post but after the post had gained recognition, I focused on the feeling of success and pushed away the fact that I was so depressed and desperate to get out of the situation I was in that I could do such a thing. I told him I did it just to get Huz to shut up and off of my back during an argument. I tried my best to convince him not to worry about me but knows better. When we were at dinner one night, I accidentally brought up that my pills were making me woozy and he immediately asked me if I was taking the ones he told me not to take. I know he was angry that I didn’t listen to him so I quickly changed the subject, mad at myself for bringing it up. He let it go verbally but the look on his face has since been stuck in my head; it was one of pure concern and disbelief. In my mind, I told myself that he had no idea what he was talking about. He’s a software engineer, not a doctor and surely he was trying to control me. I finally admitted to him two nights ago that he was right, I need to get off of these pills, they are messing with my mind the way he said they would. I tried to ease his mind with my action plans for when such thoughts arise and I promised to wean myself of the pills.

The last thing he “accused” me of was an eating disorder. I swore to him and myself, again, that he was purposely trying to hurt me after he called me underweight and unhealthy. It was a few days after the medication incident, when he brought it up that I had clearly lost more weight since he last saw me the month before when I was already too thin. I convinced myself he said this because I had just told him that I had run into and spoken with Huz for the first time since the incident and we that we were on civil terms. Within minutes he was talking about my weight and for some reason these comments hurt me the worst of all. I felt like he was attacking me and my appearance, my body, of which I felt I had no control. The look on his face from a few nights before when we talked about my choice to take the medications flashed into my mind and I became fully convinced that he was trying to control me, the way Huz had done for so long. I didn’t speak to him for 6 weeks. We didn’t talk about it again until I brought it up the other night, when I told him the realization I faced last week.

There have been a million other discussions and fights about things throughout the years. Truthful accusations that I refused to own up to, some things I don’t remember, and some things I don’t want to disclose. And through all of this time, after all of these years, I believed he was trying to hurt me with each of the “mean” things he’d accuse me of. I pushed him away as far as I could over the years, but I suppose I might have only made him stronger. He is the only one who knows me so well, inside and out, the good and all of the bad. He’s tried so hard to help me all along and never flinched once when I tried to push him away. He has stuck by me in a way no one else could have and I finally see that it’s because he cares and hoped that eventually I’d come to grips with the sad truths I so hated to hear.

I concider myself lucky to have that kind of friend; everyone should be so lucky. I’m grateful for him being around for all of these years, listening to me go back and forth. Listening to me cry in pain and heartache, taking all of my insanity and anger that I projected onto him. Even after I accused him of so many terrible things throughout the years, and outright and openly never trusted him or his intentions. He never gave up on me, even when I made it such an easy thing to do. He could have easily thrown his hands to the sky and left me to my misery, but he never did, not for long anyhow. I really wish I would have listened to what he was really telling me during all of this time. I really wish I could tell him how sorry I am for being such a stubborn wreck and for not trusting him. I really wish that I could explain to him that I have finally realized his unconditional love and thank him for it because it’s so much better than I ever wished it to be.

Fibro-Friendly Bacon and Asparagus Quiche – Great for Days When You’re Fatigued or Hurting Bad

Before I get started with a really yummy, super easy,  fatigue friendly and pain free recipe, I just want to say that I am offically crossing off the list “be kind to a stranger.”

I’ve been told by 3 three people now that I am worthy of crossing it off, so I figure it is about dang time!

Yay!

Thanks Toffee, Holly and Charlotte! You girls have all made me very happy 😀

Also on my list, I had written “make a pie from scratch.” I originally pictured myself making a banana cream pie and I would still like to but who knows if I will get around to it. I need to cross things off when I get the chance.  That being said, I made a quiche from scratch a few weeks ago and since it has a crust I concider it a pie.

Loophole!!

While the homemade crust was okay, it really hurt my arms to cut up the butter and flour to form the dough and it totally wasn’t worth the pain. Since I did like the recipe (in general) I’ve altered it quite a bit to fit my low calorie wants, my easiness desire and the need for a pain free dinner.

This recipe is great to make on days when you are too exhausted to stand in the kitchen for 30 minutes or if your in the midst of a train wrecked body day.

If you have energy and strength just remove all of the breaks I’ve added in.

To make this a complete meal throw a quick salad together (either from a bag or step by step taking breaks) and chill it in the fridge until the quiche is done baking. At the end of the day you will be left with a quick, easy  and balanced meal that everyone will be happy to eat. The best part is that if you are feeling terrible you will be proud of yourself for accomplishing at least something on one of your worst days!

Ingredients:

1 pound asparagus, trimed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (check your grocers freezer – they might have it – no cutting!)

10 slices reduced sodium bacon or turkey bacon

1 (9 inch) ready made (refriderated unbaked) pie crust

3 egg whites, slightly beaten

1 egg

1 cup fat-free half & half

nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste

1 bag (about 1 & 1/4 cups) pre-shredded swiss cheese

Method:

Preheat oven 400° (or wait to do this when you are ready to assemble the pie)

Place asparagus in a double broiler and steam for about 2-6 minutes, it should be tender but still firm. Alternatly, follow directions on frozen veggie package.

Drain and set aside.

Take a break as long as you need (it could be hours, that’s fine, just cover it) OR continue to next step.

Cook bacon in a large skillet until evenly brown, drain on paper towels and set aside.

Take a break as long as you need (it could be hours, that’s fine, just cover it) OR continue to next step.

If you haven’t pre-heated oven yet, now it is time.

Place pie crust into 9 inch pie dish and if you have the energy try to make the edges look pretty, if you don’t just make sure its in the dish evenly and no crust is over hanging.

Crumble the bacon and spread it into the dish evenly, then layer on the asparagus, and cheese.

Brush the edges of the crust with some of the egg whites then add to the whites the remaining egg, half and half, nutmeg salt and pepper and mix.

Pour egg mixture on top of cheese.

Place foil just around the edges and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil (or ask someone to do it for you) and let it bake another 15 minutes.

Bring to room tempature and mangia!

Versatile Blogger Awards – Tons of Linky Love!

     

The first time I was awarded a Versatile Blogger Award from the very lovely and talented Sawsan, aka The Food Doctor, I was dead smack in the beginning of  what has turned into the most difficult time in my life. My brain certianly wasn’t function correctly and I never properly accepted the award and passed it along to other bloggers.

For this I always felt guilty but didn’t want to just bring it up weeks or months later… That would be odd. So yesterday, when another one of my favorite bloggers, Blogject announced that she was awarding me with the versatile blogger award I figured that this was the opportunity I could take to redeem myself and accept them both at the same time.

Before I get started with a lot of linky love and  14 unknown things about me I just want to send out my thanks Sawsan and the girl who writes the Blogject 😉 The both of you have provided me with a great deal of support and love over the past two months and it means so very much to me. I look forward to reading each of your blogs every single day.

Sawsan, your recipes make me so hungry and inspire me to (someday) get back to the stove top. I will have no need to reference any of my cookbooks when I finally do start cooking again because I want to make every single recipe you have ever posted! I love that you share tidbits of your life with lovely stories of your children before each wonderful recipe and the way you interact with all of your readers. You are a truly wonderful person and a great blogging friend, I am so lucky to have found you and I thank the universe for bringing you into my life!

The Girl who writes the Blogject, I cannot tell you how sweet you are! I enjoy your blog so much and the way you share with your readers your life’s ups and downs. Your positive attitude towards the good and bad is so refreshing and I smile every time I read your posts. I love that you are so honest and are clearly a very hard worker who is dedicated to making the best of life. Also, I am so glad it is finally Thursgay because I’ve been waiting 7 whole (long) days for part 2 of your Coming Out series!! I thank the universe for allowing me to meet you, whether you know it or not you have provided me with strength and a lot of smiles and  a sudden urge to move to the UK because it just sounds like a great place to live!

This brings me to the fun part:

Rules of Accepting the Award:

This award comes with two conditions, share 7 things you didn’t know about yours truly and pass on the award to other wonderful bloggers.

Since I am officially accepting 2 awards I am going to share with you a lot of linky love and random facts about myself.

I am a regular at sharing my favorite bloggers with you and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to some of my new favorite blogs, as well as, some that I am sure you will recognize. I’ve been blog stalking a lot of these unfamiliar blogs for quite a few weeks now and have just recently subscribed to each and every one because it is so much easier than tracking them down! If you are a regular reader and don’t see your name on this list, please don’t feel upset with me, this award has been passed around more than a few times and I want to make sure my whole community has received one, I’d also like to get the word out about some fabulous bloggers that you may not have heard of yet.

To help make it easy on everyone to find some new reads, I am going to break these into catagories as I am listing 14, yes 14 of old and new favorite blogs:

Life:

MotherAwesome

Yerttle’s Blog

Jenna’s Everything Blog

The Pleasure Monger

Entirely Adequate

goldilockshares

German American Abroad

Don’t Make that Face

Crusin’ with Serendipity

Food:

Sweet Caroline’s Cooking

Savoring Every Bite

Sweet and Crumby

Home:

Vieques Dream House Diary

The Yvestown Blog

Challenge:

thirtythreeandcounting

My Life’s List

Sylvia Morice’s Blog

Okay, so I cheated, I added 17 instead of 14 but it was really hard to pick just 14! I have a feeling you won’t mind because I know you just can’t resist links to great reads, so indulge!

And if you are still here after all of super those great links and want to know some random things about me here you go:

1. I hate scary and gory movies but love the HBO Series True Blood, which is both scary and gory.
2. I am addicted to reality shows on Bravo, Real House Wives of NJ and NY being my favorites, Millionaire Matchmaker being my third.
3. I daydream 24/7
4. I believe myself to be the black sheep of my family
5. I think I am beautiful but don’t want to be vain so I have never admitted it. I do not look in mirrors when other people are present but do it a lot when I am alone.
6. I had a 3 year addiction to Craigslist Missed Connections. It didn’t matter what city or state, I just loved reading about desperate pleas of unrequited love
7. I plan on moving overseas once my children are settled in their adult lives
8. My biggest dream that I plan on accomplishing is to be a writer and have a book (or two or three) published by the time I am 50
9. I wear the same size clothes as my 13 year old daughter and couldn’t be happier about it
10. I love tube tops. I know a lot of people hate them but I dont.
11. I want to get a boob job
12. If I could be anything in the world I’d choose to be an actress. I think I’d be great at it but never had the confidence to give it a go.
13. I love art, any type of art, though modern is the least favorite
14. My name is not really Ginger Couturier, I figured if Dr. Seuss could have a pen name then so could I. I came up with the name by finding adjectives that meant thrifty and fashion. I love the name Ginger and think it suits me well. I could not pronounce Couturier (Coo-ter-ey-err) for months which made it hard for me to tell people the name of my blog and often had to look for the spelling of it. I have no plans on changing my pen name. I love it.

One Little Piggy Had None

Miracle diet really works!

This sweet little piggy lost $132.63 today. Cha-ching, badda bing, another number crossed off…

And with that being said, I am so happy to report that I am finally crossing off of the list (upon completion of this silly little sentence) #105: Complete 1/4 of list (91 things)!

Dang, it feels good to get that one off of there. I’m only like 30 days behind, not too shabby! 

I’m also super excited about a post that I will be putting up a few days from now and I’d do it tonight but it is a special surprise 😉

Okay, well, I am off to have a tiny glass of wine and make some super yummy burgers for the babes. We deserve a good meaty meal; we had our first court date today, and it went really well, for everyone.

Simple Roasted Chicken and Peppers with Orzo: Ginger Style

Normally, when I prepare chicken breasts I do the following:

• pound them down to 1/4 inch
• coat them in flour mixed with a few dried herbs
• give them an egg bath
• coat them in Italian flavored panko
• pan fry them in a bit of canola oil over medium heat
• lay them on some paper towels to absorb the grease
• squeeze some fresh lemon juice over and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Super yummy and extremely easy. 

This time, however, I decided to prepare them differently.

For the following recipe, I used a very scientific method for picking my flavors of the dish and it proved well.

I held each ingredient to my nose and if it smelled good with each of the other ingredients it was included.

That’s Mad Skill.

This dish certainly wasn’t the best I’ve ever produced but it did turn out well enough to share. Roasting everything together is very easy and the recipe is easily adaptable to your tastes.

It takes quite a while for the marinading and roasting but if you have laundry to do or other booooooring chores this will easily fit in to your schedule.

A big plus is that the clean up is a breeze as you only use a roasting pan, a cutting board, a pot for pasta and a bowl to toss the orzo in. If there are any leftovers just store them in the pan and bowl you’ve prepared them in. The leftovers also make for a wonderful lunch wrap by shredding the chicken and adding some lettuce or fresh spinach in a tortilla.

As I’ve said above, this recipe is very adaptable.

Don’t be scared, take a chance and switch up your spices and your veggies according to your taste buds.

I just used what I had on hand but I think some other good combos would be:

• lemon slices, garlic and artichokes
• tomatoes, zucchini, garlic and asparagus
• eggplant, onions and tomatoes
• zucchini, eggplant, garlic, peppers and tomatoes

Add as many veggies as your pan will fit with the chicken and the herbs are totally up to your imagination.

Also, for other deeee-lish recipes on chicken (and everything else your taste buds could possibly desire) please take a moment to check out my new friend, the food doctor at Chef in Disguise. I promise that if you love food and beautiful pictures you were certainly love this wonderful blog as much as I do.

If you do make this dish with your own combination please share by adding a link in the comments section; I’d love to see and share with other readers what you’ve created!

Huz Luv: Asparagus, Plum Tomato and Lump Crab Tossed in Lemon Garlic Wine Sauce (with a side of patience for me and my new toy)

 

Huz Luv: Makes My Favorite Dinner