Moving day

Since I want to link books and music to this blog I have since moved to
http://www.carpediemdesignsllc.blogspot.com

come find me

Sweet/Sour Chicken for the Gluten & Lactose Intolerant

I am a hungry girl. AND I am gluten intolerant AND lactose intolerant. Yeah yeah, sucks to be me!!!! I can still drink booze so shut up! (atleast today that is! GAHHHHH! - that would really suck! - Ummm I mean dear Murphy - whatever I don't care!)

So I made this for dinner and it's pretty good if I do say so myself!

Kind of like Gen. Tso Chicken - only without MSG or Wheat!
Enjoy folks!

Sweet and Sour Chicken without Gluten or Lactose
Chicken Chunks:
* 2 pounds semi frozen chicken breast (chopped into 1" chunks - I use a scissors)
* 1 cup corn starch
* A little fresh ground black pepper & garlic powder & red pepper flakes
* 2 eggs
* EVOO
* Vegetables:
* 1 green bell pepper, washed, seeded and cut into chunks
* 1 red bell pepper, washed, seeded and cut into chunks
* 2 medium carrots, peeled and trimed, slice (yeah into chunks!)
* 1 20-ounce can pineapple chunks in juice

* Sweet and Sour Sauce:
* Drained pineapple juice
* 1 cup water
* 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1/4 cup vinegar
* 3 tablespoons lemon juice
* Strawberry water (2 strawberries cut up into water about 1/2 cup - this makes that creepy red color without adding creepy red color LOL!
* 2 rounded tablespoons corn starch mixed in enough cold water to make a loose mix (about 1/2 cup or a bit more)


READ ALL THE WAY THROUGH FIRST - DON'T BE SURPRISED LATER!!!!

Preparation:
Directions for Making Chicken

When cutting the chicken into bite-sized pieces, remove any tough stuff.
In small frying pan, add some evoo and heat to sizzling. In a bowl mix eggs and milk. Beat until well combined.
Place corn starch and seasonings in a shallow bowl and mix.
Dunk pieces of chicken in the egg mixture. Allow excess to drain.
Dredge the chicken pieces in the coating thoroughly. Here is your chance to practice with your chop sticks and keep the crud off from your fingers.
Drop pieces into the hot oil and fry until deep golden brown. Turn as necessary to cook evenly on all sides. When golden brown, turn down heat and cover and cook for 5 min. Watching to make sure not burning. Then remove to paper towel covered plate to drain.

Directions for Making Sweet and Sour Sauce
Place pineapple juice and water in sauce pan. Heat over low flame. Slowly add sugar while stirring.
When sugar has dissolved, slowly add the vinegar and the lemon juice while stirring.
Add corn starch and stir while heating. Bring to a boil.
Stir constantly until thickened. Add strawberry water (not the strawberries) and stir well to mix. Continue to heat and stir until almost a syrup. Remove from heat and set aside. It will thicken fast - wisking will help this. Turn off heat and let sit.

Directions for Assembling Completed Dish
Add a little oil in the chicken pan over medium heat. Add vegetables (but not the pineapple) and cook, stirring frequently, until onions begin to caramelize, reduce heat and cover - check in 3 minutes.

Add sweet and sour sauce and continue cooking and stirring until vegetable are bite tender and sauce has re-thickened and clings to the vegetables.
Add pineapple and chicken into the vegetables and sauce. Simmer until heated through. Serve over rice.

Obsequious

Yes, that is the word of the day according to Tim. I, however have chosen insouciant as mine. That just seems the funniest turn of affairs I could ever think. Anyone who knows me or my ex knows that Obsequious was pretty much tattooed on my ass from birth and that laissez-faire whatever whatever characterizes him to a tee! So today as I'm driving home from shoe shopping with the kiddies - he sends me this random word text and as the stuck in traffic driver that I am I respond in kind.

I do really miss having intelligent conversations about things that matter and things that don't but do to a certain extent just because they are fun to talk about. I miss sitting around a fire with wine and beer and such and being smarmy and funny and kind and sassy. I even miss the company of outlaws as they were some of the most interesting men I have ever met. Truly a rare 1% breed if there ever was one. Time wounds all heels and does heal all wounds. It's a fact - palpable indeed!

Dirty little secrets

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Secrets-Loreena-McKennitt/dp/B000J233SK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1271158582&sr=8-1-spell
We really all have them in one way or another - but what do you do with that evil little thought if it's not so very little and is so so very evil? Yes as a Christian I KNOW what to do with it. And it's NOT rolling the thought slooooooooowly over and ooooover in your head like a big piece of rock candy over your salivating tongue. No it's definitely not that. Though really that's what I want it to be.

Nor is it to just banish it to the deep dank murky recesses of your swampy brain to ferment and stagnate into a pungent stank you can always smell but never really place it's origin.

Nope, the answer is face up to it. Mirror like. And know that no one, NOBODY besides a certain Winemaker (John 2: 1 - 11), gets out of this place clean. You learn a lot about yourself when you face the honest to goodness filth that is inside the cleanest looking reflection!

I'm so glad I don't have to be God and read everyone's messy dirty thoughts all day long - reading mine is bad enough. Though some are really really goooooooood!

Never ready

The first paragraph to my book is:
"I have killed everyone I have ever loved. Some have burned to death in firey car crashes, some have gone softly in their sleep. Some have shot themselves and some have had heart attacks. Regardless, all have died in varied and myriad ways. Still there I was, in my mind - at the funeral looking regal in my basic black - sobbing or stoic depending on the particulars of the situation. Suffice it to say - no matter who or what happened - I (heart and mind) was ready when my specific loved one passed."

Bullshit. No matter what and no matter who you are never ever ready. If you have no warning or if you have tons - years of slow demise - you, if you truly love someone are never ready to say goodbye. I really don't even care if you know - Know - KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that you WILL see them again. There is no ready. Just knowing that there is peace that passes understanding is slightly enough. Slightly.

It's raining it's pouring

well, you finish the line - I'm too tired to. The man has a problem. 7.6 on the richter scale - WOKE himself up. Oh and me as well - 3 times! I understand why couples get separate rooms now - always thought it was creepy. No, it's so you can freakin sleep when the lawnmower is running!

I would never advocate living together prior to marriage - if so no one would actually get married! But seriously - a heads up on this one would have been nice! Though I guess if it's you - you really have no idea until someone is bashing you in the skull telling you to roll over - OH I mean gently nudging you and rolling you sweetly on your side.

It has to stop before I am reaching for a pillow to cover his face - I mean an amicable solution needs to be found.

I think I am going to find a corner to nap in - preferably one without a lawnmower in it!

Time

What I dislike in myself even more than my intense self-absorbtion is my seeming dissatisfaction with whatever it is I have the most of. If it's money - then I probably am working my butt off and what do I do with it? What is the most responsible use for it . . . . worry worry worry about doing the WRONG thing with it since I also know that famine quickly follows such feast. If it's time - then it's what is the most constructive use of it? Sewing, praying, working out, reading, blogging chatting, looking for programs for the kids during the summer - gardening . . . . . I don't seem to just be able to relax and just know it will all get done. Again I have been sucked into justifying my own existence through activity! Why can I not escape this very destructive of activities?

goodness gracious great falls of

coolness! I really have to say of all of the coolness that is the state of VA - great falls national park rocks. I have to have a moment of humbleness - I really wanted to turn around when the line of cars to get into the place was 1500 feet deep (no lie!) that is 163 cars (I counted when we came out). It is the coolest place and only the picnic area was creepy crowded. And by creepy crowded I mean "freakin set up camp and stay the day! - wow is that a kitchen sink? really chorizo cookin on that grill hombre? yummy!" So apart from that we had - frogs and turtles and lizards and white water falls and rapids and cool rocks and trees and lions and tigers and bears. Oh my. I love this state. really I do. Virginia is Wisconsin. only prettier. If you can believe that. No shit. Really. I love it. Fat people and all.

where there's smoke there's

fire

okay so 7 doors down from me. Another house. Another family's house burned. Today. A family I don't know, a family the neighbor to my left knows because he coached their games, whatever, he knows this family. 7 fire trucks. A house burned why? I don't know. A lesson for my kids to respect fire and things that make it, but shit really I can't shake it. 7 house's a family is done. for a long damn time. I miss my mom. A lot. And my friend. a lot. You can't fix that.

regret

Okay - really. Regret is like a dagger to the sleeve. Or wherever you happen to place your particular heart. You can't go forward and back is never an option - or has never been to me anyway. It bites and you just live with it like a cancerous lession that you know KNOW is really not going to get better. Time - time is all that you have and yet time is your enemy. You my friend are not getting any younger - are you? Had that expensive plastic surgery yet? No. You have not. Not getting any younger or prettier. More experienced and more educated yes. Does that count? Depends on who is doing the math.

So many things to sew - sew little finished

Yup. Got it again. Some people catch colds - I catch crafter's ADHD. It really sucks and I am pretty sure like the cold there's no cure. It needs to run it course and I can only soldier on.

There's purse ideas, cushions for the back yard, oh and speaking of the back yard - pots for flowers to buy - no wait something more creative - we need to dig up clay from our yard and then spin the pots and then fire them somehow - I don't have a kiln, hmmm dig a hole and do some version of a raku fire. . . . . . it's really really annoying and mental and happens pretty often when the weather changes. It's gorgeous here and I just wanna burst and frankly mentally I think I have.

Maybe I can write it all down so I don't forget some of the really cool ideas swirling - oh yeah I could make my own paper with flower petals and leaves and newspaper scraps . . . . .

What would you do if you knew you would not get caught?

Would you adhere to the predisposed Judeo/Christian upbringing that we have all (or at least all I was raised with) or would you run wild? Banks be damned - or robbed - virgins deflowered - villages pillaged - you get the idea.

What if that was your dream - I mean real dream like sleeping dream? And then you woke up feeling so funky fresh and - well guilty. Cuz you did things you would have loved to do but were inhibited because of the inherent "wrongness!" And yet oh so satisfying!

Gotta stop watching Lady Gaga videos before bed. Or frankly ever!