Momma's Asian Pork

Foodie doesn't began to describe our family.  We are all so in love with food that most restaurants can't match what we cook at home. Just to show the extent of our food tastes; my daughter's favorite cheese is Maytag Blue Cheese and she turns her nose up at cheddar.

My husband and I are constantly cooking up something new in the kitchen, so I've decided to share some of the wonders that come from our kitchen on this blog.  I will give tips for general cooking and recipes from time to time.

Below is my latest creation called Momma's Asian Pork:

Momma's Asian Pork Ingredients 

• 1/4 c  Soy Sauce
• 1/8 c  Hoison Sauce
• 1/8 c  Rice Vinegar
• 1/4 tsp  Ginger (minced)
• 1/2 tsp Garlic (minced)
• 1/2 tsp Chinese Five Spice Powder 
• Pork (any kind you have, I used pork tenderloin because it was on sale)
• 1 c  Chicken Broth
• 1 tsp  Cornstarch

Mix all ingredients, except pork, chicken broth and cornstarch, together in a bowl.  Place pork into a slow cooker and pour the bowl of ingredients over it.  Cook pork on low for 3 hours then add the chicken broth and cook another 3 hours. Remove pork and cover to maintain heat.  Add cornstarch to sauce and let thicken while stirring occasionally for 15 minutes or until desired thickness is achieved.

Serving Suggestions:

• Udon Noodles and Veggies
• This is my favorite way because I love veggies. Although my husband says the veggies take away the yummy goodness of the meat.
• On the side with Au Jus
• You can eat the meat with au jus or put it on a bun which my kids and husband love.

Bon Appetit!

  

Cooking Tip - Minced Ginger

Ginger is very hard to mince. Below is a quick way to create mince ginger that will last for awhile. 

1. Buy a piece of ginger root.
2. Peel the skin with a potato peeler.
3. Roughly chop it and throw it into a food processor.



4. Pulse food processor until ginger is minced.
5. Add enough olive oil to coat all of the ginger (~2 tbsp).

6.   Place mixture into a sealable container. I use mason jars, they are my favorite.

7.   Label and place into refrigerator.


Now you can have ready made minced ginger for any dish and any time!
This cost me $1.50 for the ginger root and in the store this pre-made mixture is $5.99.


Loving Life Mom

Sweetie Honey

I recently walked into my 4 year old daughter's bedroom to find her goldfish "Sweetie Honey" floating sideways on top of the tank. At first glance, I thought the fish was a goner. I instantly started thinking, "What am I going to tell my poor little girl? She will be so devastated". I was so worried for her.

She is old enough to grasp the fact that death means not coming back. We have only had the fish for two weeks and have done everything I can think of to take care of her. I lean in closer to the tank and find the goldfish still breathing.

I started to panic, "What is wrong with this fish? Is death near (obviously)?" I run to my computer (thank you Google world) and type in "sideways floating fish that is still breathing" and wha-la, responses galore. The responses are anywhere from comforting to tear shedding.  Some people are just plan mean responding to desperate pleas of help by stating "put floaty wings on it". As I read on I feel the panic of the moms and dads that posted the same question, in hope of saving their child's newest loved pet.

Now armed with what I think is the cure to my diagnosis as "swim bladder disease", I go back to the tank and start about my curing of Sweetie Honey. (Supermom can now add veterinarian under job tasks!)

Meanwhile, my daughter is playing happily in the other room.

I clean the tank, change part of the water, gently squeeze the fish and try to feed it some soft shelled peas.  After about an hour the fish keeps trying to swim to the bottom but still floats back up. I take this as a good sign, some movement (cross my fingers). I continue to do all the things listed to "cure" Sweetie Honey for the next five days, including calling the store where I got the fish for advice as well. The employee from the store simply states, "Sometimes goldfish just die, just bring the dead one in and we will replace it".

It's agonizing to look at Sweetie Honey everyday and see her floating with death hanging over her.  Around the third day, I explain to my daughter that her fish "might" die but that mommy is trying everything to "cure" her. I'm desperate. After my explanation of what's happening, my daughter simply states, "That's okay, we can get another one." I'm instantly crushed that she can so easily throw aside the death of her fish. Here I am trying at all costs to save this fish and she just can easily replace it.

Sweetie Honey died the fifth day and I shed a tear.  The next day we went to the store to replace Sweetie Honey with a more robust goldfish named Sweetie Honey Sweetie (by my daughter). As I'm talking to the employee, I hear my desperation about not wanting to see another goldfish die that way at which point I see him blankly stare back and me thinking, "It's just a fish, lady."

What have I learned? As a mom, I feel that I have to make my kid's world safe, fun, happy and loving and sometimes that includes acting like a looney toon over a fish.

R.I.P -Sweetie Honey

Valentine's Day 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

What a busy and lovely day.  I decided to use these heart boxes I bought at the local Arc Thrift store to create a Valentine's gift for the kids.

Painted the top with chalkboard paint.

Then painted the sides the kids favorite colors. Pink, of course, for Ari and green for Oli.

Trimmed the top box with a little ribbon. Then conditioned the chalkboard and wrote their names on them. 

Meanwhile, the "artist" was busy working on her own Valentine's present. Shhhh, this one is for daddy.

I filled the Valentine's Day boxes with Pez dispensers, Hershey Kisses, fish food and a craft for each kid.

Of course, Ari was stumped about the fish food, until I told her to look in her room.

  

Happy Valentine's Day Ari and Oli!

Ari named the fish, Honey.

Now on to dinner.

Heart shaped roasted potatoes with carrots.

Heart shaped cheeseburgers - Daddy's favorite.

Valentine's Dinner.

Now to top off the night with the best beer in town -Daddy's homebrew. Ahhhhh!

Arts and Crafts Week

It was a cold dreary week in Colorado last week. So, the kids and I decided to have an arts and crafts week. I forgot how fun it is to just play and make crafts all day long. Thank you cold weather. Below are the activities we did:

Activity #1:  
Homemade play dough. Recipe from Canida at instructables.com.  This recipe feels exactly like the real deal.

 Basic ingredient ratios:2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 cup salt
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar (optional for improved elasticity)

Food Coloring

Mix all of the ingredients together over low heat. Stir occasionally until dough thickens.
When the dough pulls away from the sides and clumps in the center, remove from heat and cool enough to handle.

Knead the dough until smooth and elastic. Remind anyone of making bread?

Flatten dough and add food coloring to the middle. Then fold over and over again until mixed well.

This was my kids favorite part.

 

 Final Product

Activity #2:

Science and Art Together at Last courtesy of http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2011/08/preschool-science-cool-ice-art-for.html.

We filled water balloons and placed them in the freezer overnight.

We took out the frozen balloons the next day. Ari was amazed that they were a block of ice now.

Ari and Oli sprinkled a ton of salt all over. They were in awe of all the crackling an popping the ice make from the salt addition.

Once the craters in the ice formed from the salt, they generously placed food coloring all over the ice block. 

Final Product -they were amazing to watch the next couple of hours as they melted.

Side note: Since they used so much salt they melted very quickly -next time less will be more.

 Activity #3:

Finger Painting and more.....with our good friends.

Two Peas in a Pod

Ari is finger painting while Sydney is using a toilet paper roll as a heart stamp (idea found on pinterest).

The adorable, Meredith, getting into the groove of things.

One of Ari's final products. This was all on her own.

Ari (below) and Oli's (above) hungry caterpillar finger painting courtesy of http://pinterest.com/mrsayala/.

Activity #4:
Jellyfish.  

After the kids finished painting, I felt bad having to throw their palates (paper plates) away since they still had plenty of left over color. So I spread the colors around the plate and let them dry. Once dried, I punched holes all along the outside and tied ribbon in each hole.

I hung the jellyfish from the ceiling.

Final Product

Our beautiful model, Ari.

Simply Disastrous!

My husband and I have the worst record with all customer service.  Be the department store, grocery store, restaurants, etc.; it doesn't matter, we get the worst service.  So last night we ordered food via delivery and thus our reign of the worst delivery drivers out did itself.

First I placed the order which was a challenge in itself. The person on the other line barely spoke English and I am a soft talker but at last I prevailed and our food was on the way; 30 minutes to be exact.

An hour went by, we were not surprised considering our luck. Then I received a phone call from the place where we ordered; it was the delivery driver. "What's your address?" is the first words out of his mouth. I state my address and which point he states "that address doesn't exist" angrily. Now I am perplexed because I am standing in my house in which I have lived for 6 years thinking "YES it does exist". I politely reply "it does just follow  ___road to ___ and turn right, we are the fourth house down on the right". He says, now aggressively "I was just there and that address does not exist!". I breathe in to remain calm and state "I"m sorry you are having trouble finding our address but it is just down ____road to ____ turn right and we are the fourth house on the right; the house numbers are illuminated by the porch light."  "Well I will try again but you better be out on your front porch when I call you from ___road!" he replies vehemently and hangs up.  At this point, I am thinking why didn't he call us from his cell phone when he was lost and "what the hell".  My husband says "This is ridiculous we should just cancel the order". I agree but say we should just forget it, he is on his way.

Thirty minutes later (we live 10 minutes from this restaurant), the driver calls from his car and says "I'm on your street and I don't see you".  I restate my address and say "I'm standing on the front porch". He hangs up and then I see him pass our house and he doesn't stop. Now what? My husband says "That's it, I am calling and cancelling the order now!".  He calls the place and tells them we want to cancel our order because the driver has been rude and can't find our place. Of course all the lady on the phone can say to him is "so sorry" but nothing else. He is on the phone for about 3 minutes and still can't get through to this person when the delivery driver comes back down our street and parks two houses up from ours and walks to our house. When he gets to the end of the sidewalk he holds up the bag to his half cocked head and says "___ food here" then proceeds up the sidewalk to our porch. My husband, who is a very gentle, calm and collected person normally, walks out of the house with the cell phone to his ear (he is still trying to cancel the order) and points to our address and says "DUDE, ____" as he points to our numbers that are illuminated underneath one of the only porch lights on the entire block. "You were rude to my wife, we don't want the food anymore" my husband says.  "The food is still hot and you can forget the tip and we will only charge $20" the driver states. Then he adds "I didn't mean to be rude". My husband takes the food and we go inside.

We sit down to eat and I get a text from the driver (so typical of today's age) that says "Hey, I just wanted to say that I am really sorry about being late on your delivery. If I came across as offensive or rude, I promise  you it was not my intention. Again, I am very sorry for the trouble I caused". I text back "That's very nice of you to say. No hard feelings. Thank you".  Now we sit down to eat and we both look at each other and say "Well that sucked especially because this food is good."  My husband says "You realize we can never order from ____again because we have been labeled". And I say sadly shaking my head "I know".

To top it all of I checked our account the next day and the restaurant changed us the full amount not the $20 the driver said. Oh well.

Great Adventure Starts

Hello World,

This is my first official blog.  I have decided to start this blog because I have embarked on a great adventure and would like to record the outcomes. 

I just resigned from a job that I have worked 12 years to get. Reason for my sudden departure is a hostile environment, lack of respect, sexual discrimnation and the list goes on and on.  Enough about this!

I decided that life is too short to be miserable, especially when I have so much joy in other areas of my life.  I am married to the most wonderful man that has always supported me and I have two beautiful, wonderful children, which you will hear more about as time goes on.

I have eight days left before the great adventure. A couple of obstacles will be my exit interview and having to remain at work until the end but I have a light at the end of the tunnel and oh boy is that light turning into a giant ray.

Stay tuned!