Cooking, Cleaning & Castanets

This was a weird week. I had so much I wanted to get done this week but most of it didn't happen because I kept getting distracted by other things. Or because other people just don't understand the world revolves around me. *rolling eyes* Or because I have yet to learn, measure twice and cut once. *sigh* I was also having some "keeping-up-with-the-Jones' " issues, which I think needs to be a whole separate post, so I won't elaborate on it now. But even with all that going on, I did make some progress starting with this:

This is the after picture of my clean desk - can I get a "Woo-hoo!"  I cannot believe I didn't take a before picture but to give you an idea of what it may have looked like, take a look at this:

ALL that stuff on the kitchen table, and much, much more, was piled on top of my desk.  This is probably only about 1/4 of the crud junk stuff that was there.  And I threw about 1/2 of it.  *sigh*  When will I ever learn?  But the worst part was when I came across these:

These are my two youngest boy's school pictures (aren't they just the handsom-est!?!)  What you cannot see is what was missing from those envelopes - their individual 8x10's.  I was in a panic.  Why were they not in the envelopes?  What did I do with them?  I looked EVERYWHERE!  I even dug through the garbage thinking I may have accidentally thrown them away.  After about 20 minutes of fruitless, frantic searching, I walked out into the living room, tears of frustration filling my eyes.

And that's when I saw these:

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Yes.  Those are the pictures I was looking for.  Ugh.  Somedays...

But anyhow, moving along.  This week, after an initial planning delay, I ended up doing quite well in the kitchen.  Tuesday I made and posted about my Chicken Pitas, which were a huge hit with the family.  I had a reader that said "Hey, where's the recipe!"  Oh, good point.  Sorry.  If you go HERE, I have now added the recipe.  I have to admit part of the reason I didn't post it is because it was almost too easy and didn't know if it was worth it - but I guess next time I'll leave that up to you!

On Thursday, I made Beef Teriyaki - again a very easy recipe but tas-ty!

So as not to get into any trouble, here it is:

Beef Teriyaki

2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 3/4 cups Beef Broth or  Stock
2 - 3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1/2 - 1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 boneless beef sirloin steak or beef top round steak,

            3/4-inch thick, cut into thin strips (about 1 lb)
4 cups fresh or frozen broccoli florets

One large carrot, peeled into long strips

1 cup regular long-grain white rice, cooked according to package directions (about 3 cups)

1. Stir the cornstarch, broth, soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic powder in a small bowl until the mixture is smooth.

2. Stir-fry the beef in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until it's well browned, stirring often. Pour off any fat.

3. Add the broccoli to the skillet and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the cornstarch mixture. Cook and stir until the mixture boils and thickens and brocolli is heated through. Serve the beef mixture over the rice.

Ingredient Note: To make slicing easier, freeze the beef for 1 hour before slicing.
Makes: 4 servings (about 1 3/4 cups each).

Finally, today I made BBQ Chicken sandwiches - I confess I got the idea from a friend who said something about putting chicken in the crock-pot.  I also confess, I did not pay very good attention to exactly what she said she did - nor did I ask questions because I guess I'd rather just wing it and see if I can figure it out on my own and risk wasting a perfectly good chicken.  But God had mercy on me and it turned out, as evidenced by our empty plates (sorry, once again, I forgot to take a picture.)  But they were good, I promise, and AGAIN, super easy.


Here's what I did:

Buy one 3-4 lb chicken, a bottle of BBQ sauce and a package of your favorite buns.

Before you go to bed at night, rinse and place chicken in lightly oiled crock-pot.  Add 2 cups water and turn crock-pot on low.  Go to bed.

At lunch time the next day, very carefully remove chicken from crock-pot to a large plate (chicken will fall apart).  Let cool for 10-15 minutes.  Separate meat from the bone, putting meat into a large bowl.  Once the meat is all separated, add one bottle of BBQ sauce.  Fill bottle about 1/3 full of water, put lid on tightly (oh yeah, been there - done that), and give it a few good shakes.  Pour into meat mixture (this gets the rest of the sauce out of the bottle and adds a little extra moisture.)  Divvy up meat onto buns and serve with a large glass of sweet tea and some pickles.  Ta-da!  Told you it was easy.

This week, I am excited to use these in the kitchen:

Don't ask me what they are called.  They're from Tupperware and they're called something like "fancy pastry squishing utensil."  Or something like that.

Any-hoo...Isaac wants to make a dessert and some kind of 'hot pocket' with them, so we'll do a little experimenting.  If it works, we'll share our results.

If not, we'll just pretend they're castanets...and dance!

*GIGGLE*

(I can. not. believe Isaac actually let me take his picture doing this.  I really wish I would have had the video on because he was dancing quite the jig!)