The Amazing FUBAR Blanket

Hey, Gentle Reader, what's made of a long piece of string, three shades of pink and shaped like an equilateral triangle with one point lopped off?

Why, it's the amazing FUBAR blanket!

Pretty pathetic, non? I worked about a month on this sucker, putting in 204 rows of carefully tracked knitting and purling. Still managed to fuck it up beyond all recognition.

Yeah yeah, I know. If I'd paid attention to the gauge, I would have realized I was screwing up. If I'd used the same kind of yarn for the whole project, I wouldn't have mucked this up. But doing so was impossible--and that's what I get for buying clearance yarn not once but twice and then having to resort to buying a third brand.

Sadly, this blanket was going to be a gift for someone. Now...now I don't even think it's fit for my feline kids.

Gads. I suck.

Feeling Gr8!

Yes, Gentle Reader, that's 800+ miles I've run since July 28, 2008. Hard to believe I hit 700 back on January 12. Not too shabby, either! Then again, I am running 10 miles three times a week and have kicked up my "day off" run on Friday from four miles to six.

And no, I'm not training for anything. I'm tired of getting asked that question. I'm running that much because I can. Because for years I hated running. Because little over a year ago when I started running, I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be able to do 10 miles at once.

So that's why I run. Because I can.

Your 'No Shit, Sherlock!' News for the Day

The level of idiocy out there really, really amazes me at times. And scares the shit out of me too. What, Gentle Reader, happened to common sense?

U.S. School Children Need Less Work, More Play: Study
We needed a study to tell us this? Anyone who's been around young kids who've been forced to sit and concentrate (or attempt to do such tasks) for a prolonged time can tell you how absolutely absurd it is to expect the kids to do that.

Oh, and, uh, Reuters? Nice headline. Where did you find that gem of a reporter? And the two editors who worked on the piece? Got a crack team there!

But here's the even sadder thing about this "news" item: No one's going to pay any attention to it. You can't quantify the value of playtime. You can sure as hell quantify the results of prolonged sessions of math lessons, grammar lessons (hint hint, Reuters), social studies lessons and all those other uber-important topics in standardized tests. With those numbers you generate from those tests, you sure can make it look like a school is doing something for its students--or not doing anything for its students. ROI, bitch! That's what it's all about.

Onto the next item, which has me asking, Gentle Reader, when will the whitewashing end?

More Anger [A]bout Avatar
So I've complained about Keanu Reeves bringing Cowboy Bebop as a live-action flick to the big screen. I think I complained in that same post about Spidey McGuire's bringing Robotech as a live-action to the big screen. Well, another cartoon property with a lot of Asian faces and ideas, Avatar: The Last Air Bender, is coming to the big screen, and guess what? Asians are few and far between in the pic!

Just get a load of what some genius at Paramount had to say about casting Asians for the film, as quoted in The Daily Pennsylvanian:

Casting officials are seeking candidates with military or martial arts experience, athletes, gymnasts and people of various races and cultures.

'We want you to dress in traditional cultural ethnic attire,' [Deedee Rickets, casting director for the Avatar film] said. 'If you're Korean, wear a kimono. If you're from Belgium, wear lederhosen.'

Well, it's so nice to see that the folks in charge of casting really know about the cultures of Asia! How silly of me to have asked Mum to make me a hanbok in honor of my son's Korean heritage when I should have asked her to make me a kimono!

Oh well. At least the boy isn't from Belgium. Neither he nor I are big fans of lederhosen.

I love stupidity. I especially love stupid white people. They totally make my day.

Yeah, Bats, I've Been Where You Are

Who says Batdude is a creepy hard-ass with laryngitis?


If I had a dime for every time I asked this question...well, I'd have a lot of dimes. Y'know who has a lot of dimes? Bruce Wayne. So therefore Batdude has a lot of dimes.

Okay, maybe I have lost my mind. Oh well.

And You Thought the Snuggie Was Silly

I can't tell you how many times I've been subjected to the commercial for the Snuggie, the blanket with sleeves so you can veg on the couch and never disturb your blanket placement to do such pesky things as use the TV remote, answer the phone or feed your face. It's on all the damn time when I'm on the treadmill, especially so when I'm running my 10 miles at the gym on Saturdays.

Is it just me, or does this ridiculous thing remind you of that robe Exedor wore on Mork and Mindy?

See what I mean?

Well, as utterly absurd as the Snuggie is, I've found something that tops it in terms of sheer absurdity. Gentle Reader, I present to you...leg warmers!
If you find yourself pondering making yourself or someone you love (or really, really loathe) a pair of these ridiculous things, I have a bit of advice for you:

Get a cat!

I escaped from beneath this feline pile-on for fear that (a) my legs would be forever crushed and (b) I'd sweat to death despite the near-freezing temperatures outside. Trust me, you won't need leg warmers ever if you get yourself a cat or three and experience temperatures below, say, 50 degrees.

Frickin' Fricassee

I've always had this impression--for some reason, I want to attribute it to a Bugs Bunny cartoon from the Friz Freleng era--that a fricassee was some high-falutin' dish, très haute cuisine.

Imagine my surprise when I came upon a chicken fricassee recipe in my January 2009 issue of Cooking Light that seemed very simple--or at least very similar to a few dishes I've attempted to make in the past.

If you're not familiar with what a fricassee is, Gentle Reader, it's merely a dish of cut-up pieces of meat (such as chicken) or veggies stewed in stock and served in a white sauce. And what's a white sauce, you ask, Gentle Reader? It's a sauce consisting of a roux with milk, cream or stock and seasoning. And before you ask, Gentle Reader, a roux is a cooked mixture of flour and fat used as a thickening agent in a soup or sauce.

Got all that? Good. Because you'll probably notice a few...off things in the fricassee recipe I chose to make.

Dijon Mustard Chicken Fricassee1/4 C Dijon mustard
1/4 C chopped fresh parsley, divided
1 T chopped fresh thyme, divided
3 pounds chicken pieces, skinned
1/4 t salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
1 T olive oil
1 1/2 C chopped onion (about 1 large)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 C dry white wine
1 C fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

1. Combine the mustard, 1 tablespoon of parsley, 1 1/2 teaspoons of thyme and the chicken in a large zip-top plastic bag, then toss to coat. Chill the marinating chicken 8 hours or overnight.
   
2. Remove the chicken from the bag and discard the marinade. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and black pepper.
   
3. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
   
4. Add the chicken to the pan, and cook 5 min. on each side or until browned. Remove the chicken from the pan.
   
5. Add the chopped onion to the pan, and sauté 5 min. or until tender, stirring frequently.
   
6. Add the garlic to pan, and sauté 1 min., stirring constantly.
   
7. Stir in the wine and chicken broth, scraping the pan to loosen any browned bits.
8. Stir in 1 tablespoon of parsley and the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of thyme.
9. Return the chicken to pan, then cover, reduce heat and simmer 25 min. or until the chicken is done.
   
10. Remove the chicken from the pan with a slotted spoon and keep it warm.
    
11. Cook the sauce, uncovered, over medium heat 4 min. or until it's slightly thick.
12. Pour the sauce over the chicken, and sprinkle atop the remaining 2 tablespoons of parsley.

Yield: 4 servings (one serving size is about 5 ounces of chicken and 1/2 cup of sauce)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 244
Fat: 10.6 g
Sat fat: 2.4 g
Protein: 28.2 g
Carbs: 7.8 g
Fiber: 1.5 g
Cholesterol: 80 mg
Sodium: 527 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
Believe it or not, Gentle Reader, but I didn't do too much futzing with this recipe. I have bad enough luck as it is with recipes that call for any kind of sauce to thicken, so I didn't want to press my luck any further. But, hey, I wouldn't be The Faudie if I didn't futz a teensy bit, now would I?

I didn't have any parsley and while I had every opportunity to acquire some, I didn't feel like buying a big bunch of it--even if it is less than a buck a bunch--I wanted to use up the cilantro we have already, as it was getting near the end of its time. Cilantro is certainly more flavorful than parsley--or at least I think so--but I don't think it affected the flavor of the fricassee at all. The fresh thyme was quite potent, and that's the herb smell that greeted me every time I took a whiff.

I'd planned to make this dish last Monday, but I'd gotten it confused with another recipe and had it in my head that the fricassee didn't require marinating time. So when I went Monday afternoon to get things started, imagine my surprise when I discovered that the chicken should have been marinating before I'd hauled my arse into the kitchen to make it! But what's a faudie to do with thawed chicken she won't have a chance to use until Thursday (because the FSM forbid we deviate from the appointed course of Pizza Tuesday--and a special pizza at that--and Burrito Wednesday)?

She plunges ahead and hopes to hell her chicken doesn't turn on her while it's marinating for nearly three days, that's what she does!

I'm happy to report that thus far, no one at Chez Boeckman-Walker has died of salmonella or any other food poisoning. The chicken was quite fragrant with Dijon mustard and thyme by the time I got it out of the marinating bag and into Chive the Dutchie.

So how did my first fricassee turn out? Well, Gentle Reader, need I tell you that my sauce never thickened? No, probably not. But honestly, I'm not surprised it didn't because if you take a look at the definition of a roux, fat and flour are required. They're the essential thickening agents. This recipe had neither flour nor fat--or at least not the kind of fat Escoffier and his ilk would like to have for a good roux. Really, the recipe sets you up for failure, unless you're willing to resort to tossing in cornstarch or tapioca or some other thickener. And I'm not.

But I counted on my sauce not thickening, which is why I served the fricassee with brown rice and broccoli. Let me tell you, the rice absorbed the soupy sauce quite nicely, as did the broccoli. The chicken, I thought, was a bit chewy--probably because it was in the mustard and in the 'fridge for so damn long. However, I'm calling this one a victory if only for the simple fact that no one's dead yet of food poisoning.

Frightening Food Finds

The name of the recipe says it all, Gentle Reader:

Hamburgers and Ketchup Gravy
Y'know, Muffinhead's puked up something that looks just like this. Then again, she eats protein with wings, odd things that fester in the corners of the house and under the beds and in the closets, as well as tortilla chips. She should puke up something that looks like this. We, however, should not eat something that looks like this.

Pssst, Gentle Reader, the secret's in the simmering! Wanda even says so!

Happy Inauguration Day!

Another post from the husband:

To celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama (you may have heard of him), we made a Chicago-style deep dish pizza for supper tonight.


Yeah, I've made this before. But today's pie was better thanks to a Bialetti pizza baking stone set, a Mario Batali pizza wheel and, oh yeah, a better resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.


This sounds corny to say, but I've got to think that President Obama can't help but make the world a better place for our kid to grow up in. (Don't prove me wrong, Barack!)

Anyway, the pizza really did come out nicely. The crust was that perfect crunchy/spongy texture I remember from the one genuine Chicago-style pizza I've had. I think the pizza stone really did the trick.

Not a bad way to kick off the new administration, if I do say so myself.

The Good, the Bad and the Absolutely Marvelous

Because it's listed first in the title of this post, I feel obligated to present the good of this triumvirate of topics. Predictable, I know, Gentle Reader, but we all have to make certain concessions for the sake of convention.

So here's the good: Sunday night we enjoyed a feast of salmon, stir-fried vegetables and brown rice. Doesn't sound terribly impressive, does it, Gentle Reader? Well, let me explain why it gets the good nod.

The salmon was a portion of a big slab o' salmon we bought at Central Markup. These fresh, giant fillets were on sale for $6.99 a pound, and the fillet we selected was just over two pounds and was just gorgeous. I'm going to get three meals out of this slab 'o salmon, which makes me quite happy.

This beautiful portion of this beautiful slab 'o salmon I decided to use to try a new recipe I found recently while culling the stack of Cooking Light issues on the coffee table. I don't recall now in which issue I found the salmon with sweet chile sauce recipe, but I knew I'd have to try it because it calls for Sriracha, a sweet heat Thai sauce that I could drink straight from the bottle. I've used it to much gustatory delight in a stir fry I whip up from time to time, so I was thrilled to find another recipe with it.

Salmon With Sweet Chile Sauce4 6-oz. salmon fillets, skinned
1 t ground coriander
1/2 t salt
2 T honey
1 T fresh lime juice
2 t low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 to 1 t Sriracha
4 t thinly sliced green onions

1. Sprinkle the fish evenly with coriander and salt.
   
2. Combine the honey, juice, soy sauce, and Sriracha in a small bowl.
   
3. Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray, then heat it over medium-high heat.
   
4. Add the fish to pan and cook 4 min. on each side or until the fish flakes easily.
   
5. Drizzle the sauce over the fish.
   
6. Sprinkle with green onions.

Nutritional Info
Calories: 262
Fat: 10.5 g
Sat fat: 2.5 g
Protein: 31.2 g
Carbs: 9.5 g
Fiber: 0.1 g
Cholesterol: 80 mg
Sodium: 460 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
Do you notice, Gentle Reader, that the recipe doesn't give specific directions for removing the salmon from the pan? I did. The lack of that specific direction had me wondering if I was supposed to drizzle the sauce over the salmon while it's still in the pan, while still in the pan with the heat on or once it's plated. What's a faudie to do without precise directions?

My sauce was not very saucy. That is to say, it wasn't of a drizzling viscosity. Drizzle to me bespeaks a viscosity somewhere close to pancake syrup or thicker. No, my sauce was thinner and soupier. So I dumped it into the pan with the salmon in it with the heat seat to Lo. Naturally, because I was using my higher-quality saute pan that retains heat well (love those copper bottoms!), the sauce immediately set to sizzlin'. And the smell! Oh! the smell was heavenly! Honey and lime wafting up my nostrils put me and my stomach in a very, very happy place.

And me and my stomach were not disappointed by the flavor of the finished fish. Very, very tasty! But I will say this: Next time I won't use as much salt in the rub, and I'll probably use more than just one teaspoon of Sriracha. Maybe a tablespoon. But, hey, I likes me some Sriracha.

As for the veggies, the sauce I used in the stir fry is the same I use when I make the Thai chicken stir fry. The veggies we enjoyed were julienned carrots, lots of broccoli (because the boys likes them some broccoli) and slices of green bell pepper. Yummy tummy for our tummies!

"So if this recipe is so yummy, why does it only rate a good from you?" you ask, Gentle Reader?

Well, it rates a good because of what happened right before and right after supper. Right before: The boy was setting his father's glass of ice water on the table and, as he is wont to do from time to time, spilled it all over the place--"all over the place" being the table upon which our two laptops, including the husband's brand new, flamingo pink XPS m1530--sit. I couldn't stop keeping a close watch over the cooking salmon and the stir-frying veggies to help, but the husband assured me all was good.

And I believed him until he went to wake his laptop from its hibernation--and the damn thing told him it couldn't find its internal hard drive. Yeah, big oopsie there. I wound up calling the XPS tech support line (yeah, XPS buyers get their own tech support line, making XPS systems totally worth their slightly higher price, although the husband's system was a refurb and ridiculously cheap). While working with tech support, I quickly discovered the problem: water infiltration. I pulled out the battery and came away with droplets of water in my hand. I removed the hard drive and came away with a few tiny droplets of water in my hand. Every time I closed the display and turned the system over, a few droplets emerged from beneath the keyboard.

Let's just say nothing delights me more after a fabulous fish feast than spending time on the phone with tech support trying to repair a brand new computer that's moist and malfunctioning. The indigestion I suffered the rest of the evening and throughout the night is why I give this salmon with sweet chile sauce recipe a good.

The Bad
As I mentioned several paragraphs back, I culled my stack of recent Cooking Light issues and rediscovered some recipes I'd marked for future use but then put on the coffee table and promptly forgot. When I culled the stack, I made sure to find the recipes right away on MyRecipes.com and bookmark them into the appropriate folders on my laptop and make a list of them so I can actually get around to making them. Pretty smart, non?

When I came upon the recipe for cranberry-oatmeal bars, I realized how many of the ingredients I had on hand and how much unclaimed free time I had ahead of me that afternoon. So, hey, why not try this one out right away?

Upon closer inspection of the printed recipe, I found some options for variations on the cranberry-oatmeal theme, including one for--my favorite!--dates. I also liked that this variation removed some of the sugar and replaced it with maple syrup. Excited, I started making the bars.

Maple-Date-Oatmeal BarsCrust
4.5 oz. (about 1 C) all-purpose flour
1 C quick-cooking oats
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t ground cinnamon
6 T butter, melted
3 T orange juice

Filling
1 1/3 C (about 6 oz.) chopped pitted dates
3/4 C sour cream
2 T maple syrup
2 T brown sugar
2 T all-purpose flour
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t orange zest
1 large egg white, lightly beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prep an 11 x 7–inch baking dish with cooking spray
   
2. To prepare the crust, combine the flour, oats, salt, soda and cinnamon in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.
   
3. Drizzle the butter and juice over the flour mixture, stirring until moistened (mixture will be crumbly). Reserve 1/2 cup oat mixture.
   
4. Press the remaining oat mixture into the bottom of the baking dish.
   
5. To prepare filling, combine all its ingredients in another medium bowl, stirring well.
   
6. Spread the filling over the crust, then sprinkle the reserved oat mixture evenly over the filling.
   
7. Bake for 40 min. or until the edges are golden.
   
8. Let the bars cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.

Yield: 24 servings (serving size is one square)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 124
Fat: 4.6 g
Sat fat: 2.6 g
Protein: 1.7 g
Carbs: 19.8 g
Fiber: 1.1 g
Cholesterol: 13 mg
Na: 68 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
Just a tip, Gentle Reader: Never discover you only have a fraction of the sour cream you need in the middle of the process for which you need it. Got that?

All right, onto my futzings!

• I used fat-free sour cream. I thought it interesting that Cooking Light didn't call for reduced-fat or fat-free sour cream in the first place. Perhaps readers are just supposed to assume such information, but then again, the magazine's recipes are usually very specific about what type of ingredients to use.
  
• I used Splenda brown sugar blend in lieu of regular brown sugar.
  
• I don't own any maple syrup. That stuff's expensive! So I used my beloved Griffin's waffle syrup, which is one of the better things about having grown up in Okiemolah.
  
• As I have many times before to much success, I used an equal combination of white wheat flour and whole wheat flour.
  
• As I have many times before to much frustration, I used Promise fat-free butter. Yes, I know, Gentle Reader, the lack of fat screws me over every time, but...I'm pathological in my obsession with using this stuff. Maybe in my next incarnation I won't be so neurotic about these things. Maybe.
  
• Because I needed so little orange zest, I didn't zest one of the three giant oranges I have sitting on my counter. I was lazy and substituted a quarter-teaspoon of orange extract. Or was it a full half-teaspoon? Hell, I don't remember at this point.
  
• As I was pouring the filling onto the crust, I remembered that I hadn't add the two tablespoons of flour to it. D'oh!

Needless to say, Gentle Reader, I had issues pressing the crust into the pan. The stuff wasn't crumbly--it was gooey, thus it stuck to my hands despite them being coated in nonstick cooking spray. This problem was nothing new.

And perhaps I used the wrong pan since I wasn't sure if the recipe wanted me to use a Pyrex baking dish (which I thought was still dirty at the time) instead of an aluminum cake pan. I know a glass pan will not yield as good of browning as a metal pan will (something handy I learned while reviewing--and erasing--some old episodes of America's Test Kitchen recently), plus I have a new aluminum pan with a plastic snap-on cover (thanks, Erin, for the Williams-Sonoma gift card birthday gift!), which I figured would be really handy for keeping the bars fresh and moist as we ate them slowly.

I also found it odd that the recipe didn't have me bake the crust, even just for a few minutes, before putting the filing atop it. I have several oatmeal crust bar cookie recipes that require me to do just that. So I wasn't terribly surprised that the crust in places was still gooey after the 40 minutes of baking. Thank the FSM I coated the pan in baking nonstick cooking spray or else some of the bars never would have released from the pan!

Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with the recipe. Don't get me wrong: The bars had a good flavor. But the sour cream-based filling was just...in the husband's words, had an odd mouth feel. Maybe if I'd used full-fat sour cream, the mouth feel wouldn't have been so...off. Would I try the recipe again with full-fat sour cream? Not on your life.

The Absolutely Marvelous
The husband and I celebrated 11 years of marriage last Saturday. We actually celebrated a day early by going to Rangoli together for lunch sans boy. Rangoli, as always, was delightful, but it especially was last Friday, for nothing beats a belly full of warm, wonderful Indian food on a cold, overcast day.

We decided to continue our Indian anniversary feast on the big day itself by preparing a murgh makhani (cashew chicken) recipe my sister-in-law had kindly shared with me and highly recommended--and one I'd actually marked in an older issue of Cooking Light that I'd been neglecting. While I'll admit right away I wasn't terribly keen on blendering up the marinade paste, I was anxious to taste the final result, so I sucked it up and got the job done.

Speaking of that marinade paste, that stuff was damn delicious right out of the blender.

Yeah, I know--looks kinda disgusting before blending.

And it doesn't look appetizing afterwards, but it's delish!

I probably could have eaten it cold (well, cool) as a chutney to accompany some idlis, medu vada or even some papadum. Because it was so tasty, I was a little nervous about finishing the recipe and adding more ingredients to the pot when it came time to cook the chicken and finish the dish. But I needn't have worried!

Indian Cashew Chicken2/3 C cashews, toasted
2/3 C fat-free Greek-style yogurt
1/4 C tomato paste
2 T white vinegar
1 1/4 t garam masala
1 t ground coriander
1 t grated peeled fresh ginger
1/4 t ground red pepper
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces (about 14 oz. total)
2 8-oz. skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 3/4 C finely chopped onion (2 large)
2 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 2" cinnamon stick
2 C fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 C tomato puree
1 t Hungarian sweet paprika
1/4 t salt
3 T half-and-half
Chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

1. Combine the first nine ingredients in a blender or food processor, then process until smooth.
   
2. Pour the nut mixture over the chicken in a large bowl, then cover and refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.
   
3. Coat a large Dutch oven with cooking spray and heat over medium-low heat.
   
4. Add the onion, cardamom and cinnamon stick to the pan, then cover and cook 10 min. or until the onion is golden, stirring often.
   
5. Add the chicken mixture to the pan and cook 10 min., stirring frequently.
   
6. Stir in the broth, tomato puree, paprika and salt, scraping the pan to loosen any browned bits.
   
7. Cook the curry 1 hour or until it's thick.
   
8. Stir in the half-and-half and cook 1 min., stirring occasionally.
   
9. Turn off the heat, then discard the cinnamon stick. Garnish with fresh cilantro, if desired.

Yield: 6 servings (one serving is about 1 cup)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 340
Fat: 13.6 g
Sat fat: 3.4 g
Protein: 36.7 g
Carbs: 18.7 g
Fiber: 3.8 g
Cholesterol: 91 mg
Sodium: 435 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
Not too many changes with this one--which is highly unusual, I know.

• I wasn't going to buy a big carton of fat-free half-and-half for this recipe, so I'd initially planned to omit it. Then I remembered that often half-and-half is used in place of heavy whipping cream, which I do have (even if it is a little old). But here's the funny thing, Gentle Reader: I forgot to add it after I was satisfied the curry was thick enough. I've done this before and found the flavor was not affected, and this time the same is true.
  
• For the boy's sake, I didn't put in any cilantro. I'm a good mom, aren't I? (Don't answer that. And don't die laughing either.)
  
• Central Markup was all out of Hungarian sweet paprika, so I used the regular paprika I had on hand. I doubt it made much of a difference.
  
• I didn't cover the onions to cook them for 10 minutes. I don't understand that step. Just cook the damn things until they're golden. Sheesh.
  
• I didn't cover and cook the curry for an hour. I'd say in 25 minutes, the curry was nice and thick and ready to be scooped up with a piece of naan.

This recipe is perfect if you've wanted to make your own Indian food but haven't been sure if you'll be able to replicate your favorite chicken tikka masala dish at your favorite Indian restaurant. Because here's the thing, Gentle Reader: I've found many restaurants do a makhani recipe as their tikka masala dish. The recipes are pretty similar, I've found.

So what are you waiting for, Gentle Reader? Get your butt and gear and get some yummy Indian food in your belly! Heaven to murgh-atroyd, it's absolutely marvelous!

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to play the video game."

You never know what you'll get on this blog. Case in point: today's video game review from the husband.


Angela has previously alluded to one of my favorite guilty pleasures: the LEGO series of video games, namely LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Star Wars II, LEGO Indiana Jones and LEGO Batman. They're what you call "casual games," which essentially means they're simple enough that I can enjoy them even if I have only a few hours a week to play. (For comparison's sake, as a teenager I would spend several hours a day trying to complete Mega-Bug or Dungeons of Daggorath on the family's TRS-80 Color Computer--which I was never able to do--but that's a subject for another, even geekier post. Suffice it to say, you don't get to waste time like that when you're an adult. Or at least, you shouldn't.) Being a fan of casual games, then, my curiosity was understandably piqued when Angela was able to score a review copy of The Princess Bride Game.

I figured that the boy, who digs video games even more than I do, would probably want to give the new game a try too. However, the kiddo had never seen The Princess Bride, upon which the game is based, so we picked up a copy of the DVD at Half-Price Books. He enjoyed the movie (especially the sword fighting parts; no surprise there), and we popped the game into my new computer immediately afterward. We've since played the game a number of times.

As noted on the back of package, The Princess Bride Game is comprised of "5 complete episodes--each featuring a unique gaming experience." We started with the first episode, "As You Wish," in which you control Westley, who has to complete his daily chores while simultaneously responding to Buttercup's various demands. You read that right: It's a video game about DOING CHORES. It's a peculiar premise, but the tasks are suitably varied, with enough interesting complications (we particularly enjoyed picking up the bunnies that show up to eat the carrots in the garden), that it's actually quite fun. Unfortunately, one particularly challenging aspect of this episode is that it has a timer--Westley has to complete all of his chores before time runs out during his day--which made it somewhat difficult for junior to complete the levels on his own.

Episode two, "Battle of the Wits," is a trivia game that the five-year-old also needed help with (though he did seem to do well with the anagrams), so we skipped ahead to "The Fire Swamp." Based on a part of the movie the boy especially liked, this episode is a typical platformer, and he took to it like a duck to water. There's no timer for this episode, and the gameplay is somewhat reminiscent of the LEGO games, in that you can switch back and forth between two characters (Westley and Buttercup), each of whom has unique skills. Plus you get to whack Rodents of Unusual Size with a sword--now that's entertainment!

The kiddo also enjoyed episode four, "Miracle Max," in which you prepare magic potions. This episode is based around the activities of finding hidden objects and mixing colors, which were very age-appropriate for our kindergartner.

"Storming the Castle" is the final episode, where you use items you've collected from the animated segments at the beginning and end of each episode to build a Rube Goldberg device for getting into the castle. While the boy was hoping for a level in which Inigo Montoya fights Count Rugen, he appeared to enjoy this episode anyway.

Although we completed the game in relatively quick order, each episode has extra levels, so the kiddo was able to go back to "The Fire Swamp" and keep playing after we'd finished. I don't think The Princess Bride Game will provide the endless hours of entertainment for the kid that the LEGO games do, but it's really nice to have a different (and less violent) game on the shelf for him to play.

On the "My Favorite Video Games Are From 1982" scale of one to four Mega-Bugs, The Princess Bride Game gets...

Three and a half Mega-Bugs!

Winding It Down

Ahh, are we really this close to the end of the Dumbyah era? Will we really see that SOB and his posse of assholes, pricks, sycophants, cold-hearted bastards, cowards, blowhards and other ne'er-do-wells and miscreants pack up and leave--or are we in for some cruel January 20 surprise, such as a sudden coup d'etat in which Darth Chaney pulls all the puppet strings he holds and refuses to get out?

Should we get to January 20 without any cruel tricks to dash our hopes of, y'know, decency--at least some modicum of it--returning, then celebrate the end of the Dumbyah era by--what else?--throwing computer-animated shoes at a computer-animated caricature of his dumb ass.


Ahh, that's a little bit satisfying, isn't it?

Happy inauguration, Gentle Reader!

UPDATE
Look like Dumbyah isn't the only one who needs a shoe or two chucked at his worthless head!
When your own veep nods off during your big fare-the-well to the nation, you know you're toast.

Free Advertising for a Talented Friend

Go check out my dear friend Alicia's new blog and read all about the contest she's running. As you may remember, Gentle Reader, Alicia is a fellow adoptive mom, an incredibly talented photographer and just a really fun person. I used to have a link up to the photos she took last spring of the boys and I, but I took it down. Oh well.

Anywho, go check out her blog and check out her really nifty announcements and services. Also, take a moment to marvel at how aesthetically pleasing her blog is (compared to this bland-ass template I recently switched over to). I'm a wee bit jealous!

It's Good to Be King

Wednesday was a big day for the boy. Not only is he Citizen of the Week in his class (hence the crown because being the citizen warrants a crown, naturally) this week, but today was his first awards assembly.

Yes, yes, this is the same awards assembly I ranted about earlier. Being the self-centered mom and exercise addict that I am, I dropped my kid off 20 minutes early and made him walk all by himself from the back drop-off circle all the way to the front of the school in the relative dark at 7 a.m. (he complained later that he had no one to talk to--major bummer for him) just so that I could get my full work out in--including my slowly-becoming-the-standard 10 miles on the treadmill before I needed to present myself, freshly showered and well-attired for the assembly in the cafeteria. To say that the slacks I was wearing put me in the "Severely Overdressed" category is an understatement. Oh well, with an extended family whose idea of formal attire is a dry-cleaned pair of Wranglers and polished cowboy boots sans bovine dung, I'm used to being overdressed.

So did the boy win anything? Eh, he got the standard Spirit Award (today's self-esteem-building equivalent of yesteryear's participation certificate), an award for being fight-free the entire first semester (he's a yakker and a wiggle worm, but my kid isn't a brawler) and an award for having perfect attendance during the first six weeks of school. In short, he got three largely meaningless pieces of colored paper. But oh well, I was there, he seemed genuinely happy to have a parent present and I got a few snaps of him crowned as he was.

Just about an hour after I left (the assembly lasted a merciful 20 minutes), I returned to the school, this time with the husband and two Subway foot-longs. The boy's teacher asks that the Citizen of the Week's parent(s) try to eat lunch with the Citizen of the Week, and originally the plan involved only the husband dining with the boy. But the boy asked me to join him and Daddy, so I did. And the boy got to invite one of his classmates to join him, which is a special privilege given to kids who have an adult guest joining them for lunch.

Surprisingly, the boy did not devour his entire foot-long turkey and shredded cheese and mayo (Daddy ordered his son mayo, which the boy thinks is the ultimate in special, since lunch was a bit special--remember, the boy's crowned) sandwich as he often does. I think he was just a bit overwhelmed by his parents, his friend and his Cheetos to pack it in. But he did eat ever bit of turkey, cheese and mayo.

(Mum, if you're reading this post, do know that I put wholly blame you and Dad for the boy's fascination and acquired taste for mayo. You introduced him to it. Thank you ever so kindly.)

After lunch, which was a trippy experience for me since the elementary cafeteria is equipped with one of those asinine noise traffic light monitors that I had the utmost pleasure of dealing with in the last few years of my incarceration at the local elementary school back home, the husband and I accompanied the boy back to his classroom so we could see his pictures and description of himself on the Citizen of the Week bulletin board. I was honestly surprised by his answer about his favorite food (tortilla soup--he'd told me earlier he was going to say bulgolgi), and I'm quite proud of his answer about what he wants to be when he grows up. Like overachiever mom, like overachiever son?

Jim Henson, We Lost You Too Soon

Mas Tequila!

I'm not much of a magazine reader. For a few years I subscribed to Yoga Journal but dropped it when I found its content to skew waaay too much toward this commercial concept of yoga that it and other companies are perpetuating these days. I subscribed to Health for about a year--right about the time the magazine changed its format to something I did not enjoy whatsoever.

When I started this whole faudie nonsense, I subscribed to Cooking Light--then quickly discovered that the front half was full of lifestyle crapola I didn't want and the back half's content was all available for free online, so why was I paying for the magazine? Then I subscribed to Cook's Illustrated, which is really a beautiful magazine in its simplicity, but its content.... Well, I've also subscribed to its Web site, making the magazine subscription rather superfluous, and what magazine content isn't included online is...well, it's interesting to read, but it's not stuff I'm going to use day in and day out. Maybe I should: It might make me a better cook.

I'm also receiving (but soon won't be since I haven't paid the invoice and have no plans to) Food Network's new magazine, ingeniously titled Food Network Magazine. At least it makes absolutely no pretensions about what it's all about--marketing the network's stars, programs, cookware, kitchenware and anything and everything that has some kind of connection to Food Network. Since I don't want too much Food Network and find a lot of its stuff irrelevant (I'm looking at you, Paula Dean the Crisco Queen!), a lot of the content in the magazine is irrelevant.

Somebody Tell Guy Fieri Tips Are So Déclassé
The February/March issue of FNM on Saturday, and I thumbed through it in a moment of boredom. I determined my cooking style based on my affinity for a selection of Food Network celebrity chefs (only two of whom I knew of, and I doubt either Iron Chef and former fat man Masaharu Morimoto or Jamie Oliver is my Food Network soul mate), I gawked at the latest in expensive kitchen gadgets, I generally killed some time turning page after page of, well, ephemeral stuff.

Then I came to "Guy's Night." Ahh yes, a macho article about macho foods for that uber-macho event, the Super Bowl. Knowing as you do, Gentle Reader, what a huge fan I am of all things sporting, I'm sure you're wondering what caused me to pause on this article. And I'll tell you. My eyes fell upon a recipe for tequila bars.

Tequila bars, I silently said to myself. Well, that's something.

The recipe struck me as a liquored-up version of lime bars (or lemon bars), and I'm guessing the intent is to sort of have a margarita dessert bar. I've never drank tequila, I've never had a margarita, but I thought I'd give these bars a try--despite never having drank tequila or a margarita and despite the recipe calling for five egg yolks.

Guy Fieri's Tequila Bars1 12-oz. box vanilla wafers
1/2 C pine nuts
3/4 C unsalted butter, melted
1/3 C tequila
1/2 C fresh lime juice
5 large egg yolks, plus 2 egg whites
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 T sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Pulse the wafers and pine nuts in a food processor until well ground up. Add the butter and blend until evenly mixed. Set aside 1/4 cup of crumbs.
   
3. Press the remaining crumb mixture evenly into a 9-by-13 shallow baking pan.
   
4. Bake until golden brown (15-18 min.) then let cool.
   
5. In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk together the tequila, lime juice, egg yolks and condensed milk.
   
6. In another medium bowl, beat the egg whites and sugar with an electric mixer until they hold soft peaks.
   
7. Gently fold the egg whites into the tequila mixture.
   
8. Spread the filling evenly over the crust and bake for 25 minutes, then let cool.
9. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs on top.
   
10. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight before cutting into bars.
    
11. Drizzle with agave nectar or honey, or top with tequila-spiked whipped cream, if so desired, you horrid lush.

Yield: 16 bars

Nutritional Info
Guy didn't see fit to include any nutritional info. However, I'm sure you can roughly estimate how many calories and fat are in these things given the ingredients. Alcohol=empty calories, after all.

The Faudie's Futzings
So that I could make these with a somewhat not-so-guilty conscience, here's how I lightened Mr. Tips' recipe:

• I used reduced-fat Nilla Wafers. Yeah, sure, they're much dryer and far less flavorful than regular Nilla Wafers, but you people who can eat crap like that and not feel awful--physically, emotionally and spiritually--can suck it.
  
• I only used about 2 ounces (probably 1/4 cup) of pine nuts because I only bought one package at HEB.
  
• I used fat-free sweetened condensed milk. I don't think I've ever noticed a difference between it and the regular version.
  
• I used salted, light Land 'o Lakes butter. I knew there was no way in hell my favorite Promise fat-free butter would work. Again, I don't think the low-fat butter made too much of a difference, whereas the fat-free butter would have royally made a difference.
  
• I used key lime juice from a bottle. I didn't have enough limes in the house to get the half-cup I needed.

So how did these suckers turn out? Well, that's a good question that I honestly can't answer. Allow me to explain.

I have no idea if the tequila I used is any good. I walked into Twin Liquors on my way home from the gym yesterday morning and told the clerk that I needed the smallest, cheapest bottle of tequila the store offered. I paid all of $7.03 for my prize, and I have no idea if the quality was worth even that much. All I do know is that the smell of booze was very strong when I poured in the third-cup of tequila, was still very strong when I went to wash the measuring cup I'd poured the tequila in and was very prominent when I took the baked bars out of the oven.

I'd say too that the booze was still pretty strong when I took my first bite of the bars after supper because the husband proclaimed, "Oh, I wish I had a camera so I could capture the expression on your face right now." Or perhaps I just can't hold my liquor. I dunno.

I suspect that perhaps I didn't get the egg whites folded into the tequila-yolk-milk mixture well enough or that I didn't get the tequila blended into all the other topping ingredients well enough because the husband and I both noticed that some bites produced a stronger lime taste first followed by the tequila while other bites had the strong booze taste chased by the lime. Interesting, non?

Speaking of those egg whites, I also suspect I may not have gotten them to the right beaten and submissive state. I got little peaks that held a second or two and stopped there for fear of overbeating. I've never done well when it comes to beating egg whites into a good, peaky froth. I always screwed them up when I'd make this fabulous chocolate mousse recipe I got in high school French class, and I've generally avoided recipes calling for beaten, frothy egg whites for this reason. I can say now that nearly a year of somewhat confident cooking has not improved my skill with egg whites. Oh well.

Because of the bars are, at least to me, awfully boozy, I found drizzling some agave nectar atop helped temper the alcohol and added a nice counterpoint of sweetness--very subtle sweetness--to the citrus bite of the key lime. Perhaps if I'd used regular lime juice I wouldn't need the agave, but I guess I'll never know unless I try this recipe again, which I doubt. I guess a second attempt will depend on whether my dear friend the world's greatest Spin instructor and committed lover of margaritas enjoys the bars since I sort of made them for her. We'll see.

Oh, just one more note about this recipe: Listening to podcasts of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me makes the going much, much easier--and f'in hilarious.

Frustrations

Oh yeah, you're reading that right, Gentle Reader. I've logged more than 700 miles since late July.

Actually, add an additional 9 miles to the total you see in the image. I logged a little over 9 miles last Monday, but thus far I haven't been able to upload them to my Nike+ account because my friggin' Nike+ sportsband is in its final death throes. Yes, my much-loved but poorly designed sportsband's USB connector is no longer recognized by any of the three computers here at Chez Boeckman-Walker. By some magic late last week, I got my computer to recognize it and upload the 18 or more miles I had sitting on it, but the 9 I did last Monday? No magic has materialized to allow me to get those miles uploaded.

So what's a runner addicted to her little toys to do? Well, since Nike hasn't released the allegedly promised sportsband 2.0 (per the Bettysport salesperson I spoke with back in October) hasn't yet materialized, I opted to run to the Apple Store at The Domain last Tuesday and score myself a Nike + iPod sport kit. Which means I have to plug this little...thing into my gym iPod. Except I can't because the awesome case I have for it that does a superb job of protecting it from sweaty 'ol me doesn't have an opening for this attachment.

So, again, what's a runner addicted to her little toys to do? Well, she grabs out her old gym iPod and now goes to the gym armed with not one but two iPods.

Cumbersome? Yeah, a tad. Ridiculous? Yeah, a tad. But I'm getting my miles logged, which makes me very happy.

Porker of a Sunday

As you can undoubtedly deduce, Gentle Reader, if you keep up with my rantings and ravings, everyone here at Chez Boeckman-Walker consumes a lot of chicken. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts to be precise, with a few "chicken tenders" thrown in every now and then to mix things up. But we're a house of white meat eaters.

So you'd imagine, perhaps, that we white meat eaters would naturally consider eating "the other white meat." To which I reply, "What other white meat? Don't tell me you fell for that Pork Council bullshit." Because pork is not white meat. It's red meat. If you need to reeducate yourself, check out this handy site.

But here's the thing: HEB has had pork chops at a pretty compelling price for several weeks, and chicken breasts of the boneless, skinless variety aren't dirt cheap. And they get dull after a while. So I thought I'd change things up at little and experiment with some pork.

No History With Pork
Mum never served us pork chops. Sausage was the only pig product we knew. And may the FSM forever bless J.C. Potter and its excellent sausage.

I think we never had much pork because my parents weren't pig people. They didn't grow up that way on their respective childhood farms, if my recollection is correct. Mum's never talked about hogs on the farm, and I know that Dad in his blue and gold days raised cows. (May the FSM bless dear Devil Boy, where he is.) Our beef-oriented eating seems a natural extension of these animal husbandry habits of my parents' respective childhoods. Or perhaps Mum and Dad didn't like pork. I dunno.

Anywho, my first encounter with a pork chop came at my best friend Joy's house, and I distinctly remember being surprised that the meat wasn't offensively bad. No, that's not a slam against Joy's mom's cooking. She was an excellent cook. I figured that pork must not be very tasty since Mum didn't make it, but I was wrong.

But that didn't mean I've eaten a lot of pork. Or handled it much. I learned a fair amount about proper raw pork handling in freshman-year home ec, but I didn't put it to use when I dallied in raw meat preparation at the grocery store where I worked after school and during the summer from '93 until '95. (Hmm, now that I think about it, AML didn't really offer fresh pork cuts aside from bacon. Perhaps Okiemolah is just not a pork state.)

When I decided to perhaps throw in a little pork into our meals here at Chez Boeckman-Walker, I had to track down some recipes and possibilities. I ended up choosing a recipe that seemed pretty simple appears in the January/February 2009 issue of Cooking Light, which arrived the same day I bought pork chops for the very first time.

Pork Chops Oreganata1 T extra-virgin olive oil
2 t lemon zest
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 t chopped fresh oregano
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 (4-oz.) boneless pork chops
1/2 t kosher salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

1. Combine the first five ingredients in an 11 x 7–inch baking dish.
   
2. Add the chops, turning to coat. Let stand 30 minutes, turning the pork occasionally.
   
3. Preheat the broiler.
   
4. Prep the broiler pan with nonstick cooking spray.
   
5. Remove the chops from the baking dish, and place them on the broiler pan. Discard the marinade.
   
6. Sprinkle the pork evenly with salt and pepper.
   
7. Broil the chops 4 min. on each side or until done.

Nutritional Info
Calories: 168
Fat: 6 g
Sat fat: 1.9 g
Protein: 26.5 g
Carbs: 0.2 g
Cholesterol: 78 mg
Sodium: 283 mg

The Faudie's Futzings

• I used more than 2 teaspoons of lemon zest because the lemon I zested was larger.
  
• I used a lemon-flavored olive oil to help ensure good lemon-age. I figured, hey, if I screw up something, at least it'll be lemon-flavored.
  
• I didn't haven't any fresh oregano. While I considered replacing the oregano with freshly chopped cilantro, I opted instead to use some of the dried oregano that I've had literally for more than a dozen years. One of these days, I will finish that big-ass container I bought at Sam's back in Santa Fe in October of 1995....
  
• I completely forgot to sprinkle the chops with salt and pepper before broiling them. Oh well.
  
• I followed Lumpy's instruction manual and broiled the chops on high for 10 minutes on one side and 8 minutes on the other. Perhaps I should have followed the recipe's instructions:
  
  Before Broiling--
  Aren't they lovely?
  
  
  
  After Broiling Per Lumpy's Instructions--
  Lovely burnt sacrifices I have, n'est pas?

When Life Gives You Lemons....
After deciding on a pork chop recipe, my next dilemma was deciding what sort of side dish to prepare to accompany it. I presented this dilemma to the husband, whose tastes along with the boy's so often determine what side dishes I prepare. I admitted I didn't have too much to choose from--some frozen broccoli, frozen sugar snap peas, frozen soup veggies, frozen peas and carrots mix and frozen peas.

The husband suggested instant mashed potatoes.

I passed on his idea. For starters, potatoes would just be too damn all-'merican. I also didn't want to pair the pork with something heavily starchy.

While showering Sunday morning after kickboxing, I was thinking over the recipe for the chops and thinking about the lemon olive oil I planned to use. That's about the time inspiration struck: What about a lemon and mushroom rice pilaf of some sort? (I was in a mushroomy mood that Sunday morning for some reason, Gentle Reader. Just go with it.) I figured I could find some recipe online to start with and improvise from there.

Fortunately, I found a lemon rice recipe--also from Cooking Light--that I chose to make instead.

Fresh Lemon Rice3 C water
2 C uncooked basmati rice
3/4 t salt
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 T butter
1 t brown mustard seeds
3 T chopped fresh cilantro
2 t lemon zest
2 t fresh lemon juice

1. Combine the first three ingredients in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
   
2. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 15 min. or until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.
   
3. Remove the heat and let the rice stand 5 min. Fluff with a fork.
   
4. Heat the oil and butter in a small skillet over medium-high heat until the butter melts.
   
5. Add the mustard seeds and cook 2 min. or until the seeds begin to pop.
   
6. Scrape the seed mixture into the rice using a rubber spatula.
   
7. Add the cilantro, lemon zest and lemon juice to the rice and stir well.
   
8. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired.

Nutritional Info
Calories: 146
Fat: 4.3 g
Sat fat: 1.5 g
Protein: 2.2 g
Carbs: 24.5 g
Fiber: 0.6 g
Cholesterol: 5 mg
Sodium: 309 mg

The Faudie's Futzings

• I used jasmine rice because I didn't have any basmati. And while I use two cups of rice, I only used about 2 1/4 cups of water. Three cups, in my experience, would have been too much.
  
• Salt? No.
  
• Screw the butter.
  
• I used about half a tablespoon of the lemon-flavored olive oil to cook the mustard seeds.
  
• Because the boy hates cilantro, I used only about two tablespoons, even though I had chopped probably four tablespoons' worth. Oh well, we'll have it ready for Wednesday burritos.

Heh, I did a mean thing to the boy when he came trotting through the kitchen as I was putting the final touches on the rice. He spied with pile of chopped cilantro on my cutting board and wailed his usual complaint against cilantro. So I told him no, that wasn't cilantro--it's parsley. And y'know what? The boy ate it.

He bitched about the mustard seeds though. Little fartknocker. At least he ate his chop without complaint, so I guess I scored some victory.

Pretty tasty dish, non?

Birthday Broccoli

The husband's birthday was Saturday. (Yes, Gentle Reader, I'm no longer sleeping with a younger man. Oh well.) Although he'd been crazy busy at work with employee evaluations and other nutty stuff and at home with his article for StarWars.com (did I mention we received a LucasFilm holiday card? How bitchin' cool is that!), I tried to get him to tell me how he wanted to celebrate--specifically, what kind of cake he wanted and what kind of birthday supper he wanted. When he finally got a break, he actually skimmed over the old posts in this blog to jog his memory about some of the dishes we've had.

"How sweet to reread your posts," you might be saying at this point, Gentle Reader. And on one hand I agree with you. On the other hand, though, I'm a little...frightened and saddened that he can't remember some of the dishes I've made. It's not like we have something new every night. In fact, for the past few months, I really haven't made many new dishes. I guess between the sleep apnea robbing his brain of essential oxygen and rest and the stress and craziness of work, the husband doesn't remember things as well as he might. And here's hoping those surgeries will help to some degree!

After I, well, mildly yelled at him for sending me an email with links to about half a dozen different possible dishes, he finally decided on the very easy chicken curry I first made back in July. "Or something with broccoli because I'm really surprised how much I like broccoli," he told me.

Stirring up a Birthday Meal
Lucky for the husband, I've saved a broccoli and chicken stir fry recipe I found in a sales flyer from Whole Foods--and later received in an email. The recipe was pretty straightforward and basic and seemed like it might be tasty, so I offered to make it for him for his big day--but would happily make the curry if he changed his mind because, hey, who knew if the stir fry really sucked.

Luckily, the stir fry didn't suck. It was quite tasty and so damn easy to make. I was very thankful for the ease because I was juggling making the husband a pan of birthday ooey-gooey peanut butter brownies so they'd be hot and gooey shortly after supper, just in time for the birthday boy to open his gifts, share some brownies with the boy and then pack the boy off to bed. Speaking of the boy, even he enjoyed it because it didn't have any veggies in it he typically rejects. (Yes, even the boy enjoy broccoli.)

Whole Foods Cheap and Easy Chicken Broccoli Stir FryYou can read the original recipe on Whole Paycheck's Web site. Here's roughly how I modified it:

3/4 C low-Na chicken broth
3 T low-Na soy sauce
1 t rice wine vinegar
1/4 t red pepper flakes
2 t cornstarch
1 T canola oil
Two boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed, trimmed and cubed
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 t minced peeled fresh ginger
3 C frozen broccoli pieces
Handful of julienned carrots

1. Combine the broth, soy sauce, vinegar, pepper and cornstarch in a bowl.
   
2. Add the canola oil to a wok or suitable pan and heat.
   
3. Add the chicken and stir-fry until lightly browned (about 2 min.), then shift to the cooler outer edges of the work. If not using a wok, consider removing the chicken from the pan and keeping warm.
   
4. In the hotter center of the wok, add the garlic and ginger. Stir-fry 30 seconds.
5. Add the broccoli (still frozen)) and carrot, then stir-fry about 2 min. or until the veggies are tender.
   
6. Pour in the soy mixture and toss to combine.
   
7. Let the sauce simmer until the chicken is cooked through (about 3 min.).

Nutritional Info
The original recipe includes nutritional info, but that's based on certain products from Whole Foods--and I didn't use some of them. Therefore, the nutritional info, if you ask me, is far from correct, thus I'm not going to include it.

The Faudie's Futzings
As I noted, Gentle Reader, the recipe as it appears above reflects the changes I made to the original recipe. The only change I didn't note was that we ate our stir fry with jasmine rice, which the husband requested. I would have preferred brown rice, but it wasn't my birthday.

As for dessert, the ooey-gooey brownies turned out really, really well. I used a regular (not a reduce-fat, not a reduced-sugar) Betty Crocker devil's food cake mix. While the powder came out of the bag in some large chunks that were reluctant to break up--which I was worried wouldn't bode well for the finished product--the cake itself was excellent. No hardening around the edges, no total collapse in the center. Hooray!