stir fried honey ginger chicken with peppers

I’ve decided to start blogging about my obsession with trying to cook new recipes. At least once a week I like to try something new. There are so many things that look good. I get 3 food magazines and have an entire book-case filled with cook books.

Here’s the first of many recipes to come:

stir-fried honey ginger chicken with peppers

Ingredients:

-1/4 cup honey

-2 TBSP rice vinegar

-2 TBSP soy sauce

-2 TBSP vegetable oil

-1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, sliced into 1/4 inch strips

-1/4 cup minced peeled fresh ginger

-2 garlic cloves, minced

-3 red, orange or yellow bell peppers (ribs and seeds removed), thinly sliced

-cooked rice, for serving

-fresh cilantro, for serving

Directions:

In a small bowl, stir together honey, vinegar, and soy sauce. Heat a large skillet or wok over high heat until hot. Add 1 TBSP oil and swirl to coat skillet. Add chicken and stir until opaque but not cooked through, about 3 minutes; transfer to a plate. Add 1 TBSP oil, ginger and garlic to skillet and stir until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add peppers and stir 2 minutes. Add soy mixture and bring to a boil. Return chicken to skillet and toss until sauce thickens and chicken is cooked through, about 3 minutes. Serve over rice, topped with cilantro.

per serving (with chicken breasts and 1/2 cup cooked white rice) 402 calories; 11 grams fat; 2.4 grams fiber

This recipe came from Everyday Food Jan/Feb 2010 issue by Martha Stewart. It got rave reviews from Nolan. He’s my best judge. I’ll be making it again!

2010

Here are some things that I would like to do in the next year.

-Run the Indy Mini Marathon

-Paint  the spare bathroom

-Keep up with my garden

-Eat more local and organic foods

-Keep better finances and save more…you know, for a rainy day

-Keep a positive attitude about work.

-Volunter at a local food pantry.

-Clear the house of all of our excess stuff! Goodwill, here we come!

-Remember to clean the kitchen and pick up the living room every night before bed!

-Keep cooking and trying new recipes.

Stay tuned to see how this year turns out!

Last Year

I set some goals for myself last year. Just a quick follow up….

Goals for 2009

-Paint the spare bathroom (this did not get done….maybe in 2010)

-Paint the master bathroom (DONE! actually Nolan and my dad painted the room for me. Thanks guys! I was going to help, but came down with the flu that weekend. I would have rather been painting, but I was throwing up and miserable!)

-Run the Indy 500 Festival 5k (DONE! Katherine, a friend from church, and I trained and ran it together. I finished a little over 31 minutes, I can’t remember the exact time now. And I have continued running since! Yea!)

-Organize my house, again (DONE! But it needs to be done again!)

-Cook more meals at home (I do cook a lot, but I’m not sure that I cooked more than the previous year…I didn’t cook all the recipes that I wanted. Hmmm maybe that would be something to blog and share over the next year….my new recipes. Just a thought!)

-Run, not walk, the 2009 Drumstick Dash (DONE! I did have to stop to pee along the way at a gas station, but I did it….I ran the entire race! YEA! It took me longer than I wanted, but I ran it. I did get mixed in with the walkers when I stopped for my potty break, so that contributed to my slower time. I hate all the strollers and people walking 4 wide in the street. I was weaving through all of that! Frustrating! But that was mostly my fault for not pottying before the race! ALWAYS PEE BEFORE YOU RUN!)

-Take a vacation…anywhere! (DONE! We went to California for a few days. Fun trip, beautiful weather, fantastic nature, and the best part was spending time with my best guy and best little gal!)

-Sing more at church (DONE! I have participated in church choir and singing in ensembles more. I was able to sing in Nolan’s brother’s wedding and that was so fun. The songs they picked were so fun to sing!)

-Take more pictures (I’m the photographer in the family. I take lots of pictures. I actually took a photography class this year. I was able to learn a few things. I’m not sure if I’m going to take another class. We will see what the year brings!)

That was my year in review. I’m glad that most of my goals were accomplished. And now….onto another.

Last Class

At my last photography class (back in November) we were to submit 4 photos.

This is a bridge at the art museum.

Rylee, playing the piano.

Scottish Rite Cathedral, Indianapolis

cast iron pot

I’m not sure that I learned a lot from this class, but somethings were helpful and it was fun. I did learn a little about editing my pictures at a site called Picasa…..the best part is that Picasa is free. How did I not know about this? Here are some other favorite pictures that I have edited.

church door knob

church windows

landscaping at the art museum

brick garden wall at the art museum

 

Week #2 Photos

Week # 2 assignment was to take a photo of a door.

This is what I ended up sending for my finished project.

Church Doors

This was my # 2 choice. I didn’t send it because Nolan said there wasn’t enough focus on the door. I liked it anyway.

Stay tuned to see what next week brings!

Happy Birthday, Dear Friend

My oldest friend (not oldest in age, but oldest in the amount of time we’ve been friends) turns 30 today. It’s hard to believe that we have remained friends for 25 years. There aren’t many people who can remain friends after all those years.

While there were times of being apart, we always found our way back to each other. Now we live 5 minutes away from each other, just like when we were growing up. I can’t imagine life without her and I’m so glad that I can call her my friend. She is beautiful, talented, smart, loving and caring.

Here’s to you my friend. May your day be special!

Intro to Digital Photography

2 weeks ago I started a digital photography class. It’s 4 weeks long and meets for 2 hours on Monday nights.

Sometimes I have trouble doing things on my own, but this was something that I really wanted to do. I think that I have an eye for good pictures. Sometimes my pictures turn out great. Other times they are really bad. I don’t know what I do to make them good or bad. Now is the time to find out.

Week 1 assignment is to take a photo of your favorite beverage. We could send no more than 2 images. Here are mine.

Cup of Chai Tea #1

Cup of Chai Tea #2

Nolan was a great model, don’t you think?

boo!

This year I saw a costume idea in a magazine several weeks before Halloween. My plan was set, to make Georgia’s costume this year. You would think that since I had a plan to make this great costume that wouldn’t wait until the last minute to do it. You might think that….but then you would be wrong!

the little octopus ready to trick or treat

I did get it done a couple of days before Halloween, so I guess it wasn’t totally last minute. But, I wish that I wouldn’t have waited and would have thought to make a list of materials that I needed weeks before hand! Live and learn. But the question is, did I really learn anything….probably not.

       

The most important thing is that the costume was done on time and Georgia loved it. Goal accomplished!

Woowho! Vacation Time!

Nolan and I were thinking that since we’re both turning 30 this year a vacation is in order to celebreate. As we searched on the internet for vacation ideas, I started to see pictures of hi-way 1 in CA. They were breath taking. The more we talked about it, the more we liked the idea. It was something that we could do with Georgia, we could be apart of nature, we could go and have great weather in the fall…..is there anything wrong with this vacation idea? We couldn’t find anything.

Tuesday Oct 20 we flew out of Indy into San Jose, CA. We were able to meet up with some friends from our time in Atlanta who moved back to San Francisco after grad school. They have a 2 year old daughter, Celia, who is just 1 month younger than Georgia. The girls had so much fun hanging out and playing in a water fountain. After they got soaked we took a walk and got some ice cream. It was great to catch up!

Once we left San Jose, we headed to Monterey to our hotel. The drive was not as scenic as we were hoping for, but still pretty nice. There were farmers markets along the hi-way selling artichokes (that seemed to be the hot item).

After we got settled into our hotel, we headed down to The Fisherman’s Wharf to get some dinner! We decided that Crabby Jim’s sounded pretty good. I got the crab cakes and Nolan got grilled shrimp. They gave us an appetizer of calamari. Georgia tried it and like it. Who knew?!?! It was great to be near the ocean and get fresh seafood!

           

 

The next morning we set out for our scenic drive down hi-way one. It was supposed to be very beautiful between Monterey and Big Sur. That was an understatement. It was awesome. I found myself getting emotional because of all the beauty that surrounded me. It was a bit overwhelming. That morning we drove the hi-way and stopped along the way to take pictures and check out the beautiful mountain, ocean and wildlife that surrounded us.

   

After lunch at a cute little place along the hi-way, we headed to Big Sur State Park for some hiking. Entering this place was like going into an enchanted forest. I felt like a little fairy among these huge trees. It was exactly the way I imagined it to be.

  

We decided to take a trail up a mountain (a small mountain) to check out the valley view. Afterwards we hiked down to the waterfall and back to the start of our trail. There were some trails that were closed because of fire damage. It was very sad to see trees that had been burned. You see it on the news, but it was a strange feeling to see it in person.

After our hike we headed back to Monterey for the night. We stopped at a Baskin Robbins and Georgia got her first ice cream cone all to herself. What a treat. And what a slow eater!

 

On our last full day in CA, we set out to do the famous 17 mile drive. This is the area where Pebble Beach golf course is located. It cost $9.25 to do the drive. We took the drive and saw more amazing sights. My advice though, if you really want to see Pebble Beach and the famous Lone Cypress this is the only way to do it. But I think that my time would have been better spent doing something else. It was beautiful, but there are other areas that are just as beautiful and don’t cost anything!

   

In the afternoon we went to an area called Pacific Grove. There is a Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary here. The monarchs migrate here in Nov, so we were a little early to see the thousands of monarchs that come, but we did see a few.

We traveled down to the Dennis the Menace Playground. It wasn’t much more than a regular playground, but Georgia had a great time playing with the other kids. She was such a good sport on all of long drives that we really needed to let her run around a bit and this was a great spot!

   

Seals. Georgia talked all day about seeing seals.  So we walked along the boardwalk and at the end is a huge rock where lots of seals and birds gather to sit in the sun! They were smelly and loud, but she loved it. And we loved it too.

 

That night we went to Rosewood Restaurant. Chef Bobby Flay recommended the BBQ here. Everybody knows that Nolan LOVE ribs so that’s what he got and I got the chicken. It was yummy!

Before we headed to the airport, we checked out a local winery. The rows of grapes looked so pretty with the mountains and blue sky as the background.

After we left the winery, we raced back to the airport. We had to drop our car off by a certain time and we weren’t certain we were going to make it. That was our only problem on the trip, thank goodness. And we got the car back in time!! Yea!

We were all sad to leave California, but glad to be going home to our other kids (Herbie and Myrtle), family and friends. Goodbye Cali, we had a fantastic time!

Pumpkin Patch

Georgia was obsessed with pumpkins this year. It seemed like every time we went to the store, there were pumpkins. She would get so excited to see them. Having a 2 year old really puts the excitement and magic back in these holidays!

We decided that a family trip to the Pumpkin Patch was in order since Georgie loves pumpkins so much. We headed to Waterman’s Farm-it’s about a 5 minute drive or a quick bike ride from the house.

The pumpkin patch ain’t what it used to be. I remember going when I was in grade school and the big event was the hay ride and picking your pumpkin. I do remember Waterman’s having a straw maze, but other than that, nothing else.  Now there is a petting zoo and all sorts of rides and fun things for the kiddos. There is even a dinosaur who roars and eats pumpkins.

Nolan loves the slide just as much as Georgia

ready to head to the pumpkin patch

we made it to the pumpkin patch

Georgia found a pumpkin more her size!

We picked a lovely afternoon to go, Nolan and I were both off of work for vacation time (we were leaving for CA the next morning) so it wasn’t too crowded either.

Georgia had so much fun that she fell asleep on the way home holding onto her pumpkin!

We love the fall fun at the Fletcher Lichti house!