Isn’t it amazing how caught up in our own things that we get? I had a great happy hour date with a friend last night and it was fun to just connect and look back at our college years. Being girls we got to talking and I was amazed at the stories and the similarities between the two of us, before we were even really close. We were literally dealing with a lot of the same issues and completely unaware of it. The thing is, I have always felt like EVERYONE knew everything about everyone else, and maybe that was true for some things (hello sorority!!) but the fact is that people really are just living their own lives and pretty oblivious. So get over the stupid stuff, everyone else has.
It was a good little chat. Also good to look back and see how much all of us have changed and grown up.
Here is my first recipe posting, as promised!
Caribbean Pork with Spicy Peach Glaze
Disclaimer: With this recipe and all others to follow you should know that I don’t believe in measuring. Cooking should be fun and should be an experiment. Every time I make this and anything else, it comes out just a little different then before. That being said, there won’t be any measurements in my recipes. So have fun and cook for your own personal tastes.
You will need: Boneless pork ( I like to buy the kind for skewers or stew so that I don’t have to cut anything up but you can also use shoulder if you don’t mind the bones), two or three peaches, an onion, curry, red chili pepper, black pepper, ginger, brown sugar and an orange.
Just put the pork in a crock pot (you can also do this on the stove top if you need it quick), sprinkle with black pepper and salt, add a little curry, ginger and red chili pepper, chopped onion and about a coffee cups worth of water. Follow the instructions for your crock pot for the timing. I usually turn mine on for about four hours on medium. When the pork is done and you are ready for dinner you can start making the sauce. Make some rice now if you want it to be done in time! I always forget to do that! Anyway, the sauce. In a kettle, put your peeled and sliced peaches, black pepper, curry powder, grated ginger if you have it, otherwise the powder is fine, red chili pepper, and brown sugar in and cook on high until this is thick, almost like a jam. I taste this as its cooking add more curry, red pepper or brown sugar as needed. At the very last minute squeeze in the juice of the whole orange.
Plating: Make a neat pile of rice and top with your pork. Pour just a touch of the peach sauce over the top. Done and done. Trust me, this is good. I make ours pretty spicy but you could leave the red pepper out altogether if you need. Goes well with a deep red wine, try Fetzer, Cabernet Sauvignon.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
And I'm Back!
Its been quite awhile since I lasted posted anything, so I’ll start with a recap. The weekend after Valentines we went to Portland/Vancouver and stayed with the VP of Sales for Nick’s company, his wife and Deepak (Nick’s boss in Arlington) and his wife. We did the whole tourist thing and just explored the wineries and McMenamins around the area, went to several bars/clubs, played a lot of beer pong. It was a fun weekend for sure.
We closed two big clients here at work and that was really exciting. It was especially nice getting acknowledged for the website and the proposals I have been putting together, everyone here came to thank me for getting us these jobs. (And…while I know that it wasn’t just me, and that it has A TON to do with the experience of these guys, it was nice to get such a high compliment, I’ll take it!)
That weekend, we met back up with the crew from Portland and did a repeat, but this time in Downtown Seattle. We had a blast! I love this group, no drama, just as much fun as you can pack into a night. We started at Joeys on Lake Union and progressed to Pioneer Square, where Carol and I had our cards read. The lady had about ten different types of cards, tarot, angel, life, etc. It was very interesting what she had to say and hit home to both of us. I don’t really believe in this stuff, but its always nice to hear a good fortune.
I hired a house cleaner for the first time and it was so great coming home from being out and about to a perfectly clean house. Might be the best money I’ve ever spent. They are set up to come once a month and keep me from pulling my hair out :)
I was being really good about doing my lunch time workouts and going to yoga, until two things happened. One, work got crazy busy and I stopped taking lunch breaks altogether, two, I didn’t have the money to renew my class pass. Not to worry, I’m back on track and starting yoga again this week.
Also, I learned how to do payroll and all the taxes, so I am officially the accountant here at work. Cherri is gone gone gone (except for her midnight sneak into the office, which is a whole separate story, and weirds me out beyond belief).
That’s the brief overview, and now onto the real blog which is about my weekend! Friday night was the Chocolate Lover’s Gala! Such a great night, I don’t have the actual amount raised yet, but I know it was upwards of sixty thousand. Amazing. One of my cakes sold for $600, couldn’t be happier, unless I had baked the cake myself in which case I’d be beaming with pride. As it stands, I’m pretty thrilled. The dessert dash itself raised $6600, for forty cakes which were all donated. I met a fabulous older gay man, who I plan to be friends with from here on out. He did all the decorating for the event but was my right hand during the auction itself. I love him.
The other good news from Friday is that the Silvertips won 4-0.
Moving on to Saturday, Nick’s parents came over in the morning and we took Nick’s new company truck to pick up an antique buffet/sideboard (I’ll post some pics). When we saw the sideboard, I wasn’t entirely thrilled that it would be coming to our house, but once we got it home and started cleaning it up with HAROLDS, the piece is actually stunning and looks almost new. Literally a miracle worker that Harolds is.
While us girls were cleaning the furniture, the guys started in on clearing out the basement (which I had spent all of the previous weekend cleaning out). They took a BUNCH of stuff to Goodwill and I couldn’t be happier, more appreciative of Nick for getting that done. BONUS, we found Nick’s BRIO train set and added it to Mackenzie’s: he is in heaven.
We decided it would be fun to BBQ at Gary and Criss’ new house. Obviously we had to take the train set with us, but when we got there Nick and Mackenzie played soccer on the huge lawn. We went down onto the beach for the first time and it’s a great space. The sea wall is made of drift wood and looks like a giant fort. We turned over rocks in search of crabbies as Mack calls them, and I was instantly transported back to being seven and doing this exact same thing on Dyes Inlet. God, I miss that house….. and my family :(
Criss made us a fabulous dinner and we ended up playing Settlers of Catan well into the evening. All in all a great day.
Sunday we were supposed to go down to Nick’s softball game, but right as we were getting to the exit we got a message that the game had been rained out. No problemo, we went to see the trains down at interbay (Magnolia) and ended up at Pike Place market. After riding the pig, getting fruit rolls, coffee, bread from le Panier, spices from Market Spice, we headed back home. I finally planted my tomato seeds inside and did a little weeding, until I got rained on. Made some chicken curry with the Bombay Curry that we had bought earlier that day and it turned out so delicious. Mack played with his trains more and is overjoyed by all the new train cars. I just love how excited he gets about these things. After much jumping on the bed, playing “slip” with dad (literally, Nick makes him slip on the blanket over and over again), Mack was so worn out he could hardly make sense of it being bedtime. So were mom and dad. Bedtime for everyone.
I should also mention somewhere in here that I signed up for Italian at EverttCC and will be starting class on Thursday. Here’s to me finally finishing school! So very very excited. (also excited that my instructor sent me an email in Italian welcoming me to the class, I already love him)
Basically, life is pretty darn great, even though money is a little tight. We are getting back on track and excited to start saving this spring/summer for eventually being able to buy a house.
I know I promised some recipes and I still plan on doing that! Don’t give up on me yet!
Much love to all of you :)
We closed two big clients here at work and that was really exciting. It was especially nice getting acknowledged for the website and the proposals I have been putting together, everyone here came to thank me for getting us these jobs. (And…while I know that it wasn’t just me, and that it has A TON to do with the experience of these guys, it was nice to get such a high compliment, I’ll take it!)
That weekend, we met back up with the crew from Portland and did a repeat, but this time in Downtown Seattle. We had a blast! I love this group, no drama, just as much fun as you can pack into a night. We started at Joeys on Lake Union and progressed to Pioneer Square, where Carol and I had our cards read. The lady had about ten different types of cards, tarot, angel, life, etc. It was very interesting what she had to say and hit home to both of us. I don’t really believe in this stuff, but its always nice to hear a good fortune.
I hired a house cleaner for the first time and it was so great coming home from being out and about to a perfectly clean house. Might be the best money I’ve ever spent. They are set up to come once a month and keep me from pulling my hair out :)
I was being really good about doing my lunch time workouts and going to yoga, until two things happened. One, work got crazy busy and I stopped taking lunch breaks altogether, two, I didn’t have the money to renew my class pass. Not to worry, I’m back on track and starting yoga again this week.
Also, I learned how to do payroll and all the taxes, so I am officially the accountant here at work. Cherri is gone gone gone (except for her midnight sneak into the office, which is a whole separate story, and weirds me out beyond belief).
That’s the brief overview, and now onto the real blog which is about my weekend! Friday night was the Chocolate Lover’s Gala! Such a great night, I don’t have the actual amount raised yet, but I know it was upwards of sixty thousand. Amazing. One of my cakes sold for $600, couldn’t be happier, unless I had baked the cake myself in which case I’d be beaming with pride. As it stands, I’m pretty thrilled. The dessert dash itself raised $6600, for forty cakes which were all donated. I met a fabulous older gay man, who I plan to be friends with from here on out. He did all the decorating for the event but was my right hand during the auction itself. I love him.
The other good news from Friday is that the Silvertips won 4-0.
Moving on to Saturday, Nick’s parents came over in the morning and we took Nick’s new company truck to pick up an antique buffet/sideboard (I’ll post some pics). When we saw the sideboard, I wasn’t entirely thrilled that it would be coming to our house, but once we got it home and started cleaning it up with HAROLDS, the piece is actually stunning and looks almost new. Literally a miracle worker that Harolds is.
While us girls were cleaning the furniture, the guys started in on clearing out the basement (which I had spent all of the previous weekend cleaning out). They took a BUNCH of stuff to Goodwill and I couldn’t be happier, more appreciative of Nick for getting that done. BONUS, we found Nick’s BRIO train set and added it to Mackenzie’s: he is in heaven.
We decided it would be fun to BBQ at Gary and Criss’ new house. Obviously we had to take the train set with us, but when we got there Nick and Mackenzie played soccer on the huge lawn. We went down onto the beach for the first time and it’s a great space. The sea wall is made of drift wood and looks like a giant fort. We turned over rocks in search of crabbies as Mack calls them, and I was instantly transported back to being seven and doing this exact same thing on Dyes Inlet. God, I miss that house….. and my family :(
Criss made us a fabulous dinner and we ended up playing Settlers of Catan well into the evening. All in all a great day.
Sunday we were supposed to go down to Nick’s softball game, but right as we were getting to the exit we got a message that the game had been rained out. No problemo, we went to see the trains down at interbay (Magnolia) and ended up at Pike Place market. After riding the pig, getting fruit rolls, coffee, bread from le Panier, spices from Market Spice, we headed back home. I finally planted my tomato seeds inside and did a little weeding, until I got rained on. Made some chicken curry with the Bombay Curry that we had bought earlier that day and it turned out so delicious. Mack played with his trains more and is overjoyed by all the new train cars. I just love how excited he gets about these things. After much jumping on the bed, playing “slip” with dad (literally, Nick makes him slip on the blanket over and over again), Mack was so worn out he could hardly make sense of it being bedtime. So were mom and dad. Bedtime for everyone.
I should also mention somewhere in here that I signed up for Italian at EverttCC and will be starting class on Thursday. Here’s to me finally finishing school! So very very excited. (also excited that my instructor sent me an email in Italian welcoming me to the class, I already love him)
Basically, life is pretty darn great, even though money is a little tight. We are getting back on track and excited to start saving this spring/summer for eventually being able to buy a house.
I know I promised some recipes and I still plan on doing that! Don’t give up on me yet!
Much love to all of you :)
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