Are you chicken?

I can not get motivated this afternoon.  Good thing it's Thursday because I don't know that I'd be able to make myself come in to work more than one more day this week.  I hate days like this.

Despite the blah I'm in this afternoon, I do have a good recipe for you.  I found this while trolling one of my favorite online recipe sites: Allrecipes.  I like that you can type in an ingredient and they'll give you a bunch of recipes based on that one ingredient.  You can also narrow it down by cooking method (BBQ, baked, steamed, etc) or type of food (breakfast, dessert, etc).

Korean BBQ Chicken Marinade

1 cup white sugar
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup water
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp lemon juice (optional)
4 tsp hot chile paste (optional)

In a medium saucepan over high heat, whisk together the sugar, soy sauce, water, onion powder, and ground ginger. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 5 minutes. 

Remove the mixture from heat, cool, and whisk in lemon juice and hot chile paste. Place chicken in the mixture. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator at least 4 hours before preparing chicken as desired. 

NOTES:  Even though the lemon juice and chile paste were optional, I added them anyway.  I marinated the chicken for the whole day.

This is SOOO good!  And it's even delicious cold the next day.  I made this last week and we're already having it again for dinner tonight. 

Hmmmm...after reading the recipe, I realize that I didn't do all of it.  Let me rephrase that.  I added all the ingredients, I just didn't boil/simmer them all together.  I hope it comes out as good as it did the first time.  We're having it in salad with mandarin oranges so the flavor probably won't be quite as important, but I'll let you know either way.


Enjoy!!  Please let me know if you try any of my recipes and what you thought.  If there's a certain type of recipe you're looking for but don't want to try it yourself, let me know and maybe I'll try it out for you first.  I'm always open to new recipes!!  


I know this is a little off subject, but does anybody watch Project Runway?  I missed last season but I'm back in to the show full-force.  In the words of Tim Gunn: Make it work!


Listening to: Why Should I Cry For You by Sting
Mood: It's Thursday

Fire up that grill

I don't know about you, but we use our grill year-round. I know some people are grill purists and insist on using *only* charcoal. To them I say: (said in my best Cartman voice *ahem*) WHATEVA - I DO WHAT I WANT! We have a gas grill and we love it! My parents gave us the grill we have when we moved in to our house almost 5 years ago - it's about time we start thinking about an upgrade. It's still reliable, but it could stand to be retired.

So, in honor of the 4th of July BBQ, I bring you an awesome marinade/recipe for pork chops. I know...I know. Who has pork chops for the 4th? We usually have hot dogs and burgers, but in case you're looking for something a little different that is very low fuss, I've got a good one for you. The really nice thing about this one is you can make it the night before and it's ready for you whenever you're ready to slap it on the grill.

Sweet Mustard Chops

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup prepared mustard
2 tsp seasoned salt
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
4 (1" thick) pork chops

Combine mayonnaise, brown sugar, mustard and seasoned salt; mix well. Blend in vinegar. Pour into a large resealable plastic bag or shallow glass container; add pork. Seal bag or cover container; refrigerate overnight. Drain and discard marinade. Grill, covered, over medium coals, turning occasionally, for 20-25 minutes or until juices run clear.

NOTE: I don't change a thing about this recipe. It is perfection as is! You can speed this up and only marinate for a couple hours, but it really is best if it marinates overnight. Both of my boys eat this without complaint (quite the feat - let me tell you!).





I meant to get a little better pics of those yummy chops, but the hubs and kids devoured them before I could snap one. Some people's kids!


In other news...for a couple weeks, we've been finding what looks to be owl pellets under a big tree in our front yard.



Yeah, kinda gross, but really cool at the same time. Anyway...I told the hubs that we had an owl living in our tree. We never saw it, so I figured he was out hunting at night in the vast expanse around our neighborhood and then decided to rest and eat in our tree. Whatever. It's cool either way. The other morning I was strapping the boys in the car and I heard a bunch of bird throwing a big fit in the tree. I look up and I see birds I've never seen in the area (pretty ones when usually all we have are the boring house finches). And what are they throwing a fit about? THIS is what they're throwing a fit about.


Yep! I was right - we have a barn owl living in the tree. He was not very happy that those birds were bothering him, but there he sat. He was out there that evening, too. But, of course, the next morning, he's nowhere to be seen. I hope he doesn't decide that there's too much commotion in our tree because I think it's awesome he took up residence in our tree! And if he waits around a few weeks, he could probably have a meal of the baby barn swallows that are in a nest above our front door. LOL Circle of life, girls. Circle of life.


Listening to: Make Yourself by Incubus
Mood: TGIF!

Summer's calling!!

Good afternoon, Kitschies! We're officially in to a new week and it's been good so far. However, it IS just Tuesday, so who knows what's really in store for us.

I don't know about you, but it feels like the new year was just last month yet it was over 6 months ago!!! Time is moving much, much to quickly for my liking. However, to help make it slow down, we like to do some grilling outside, preferably with friends and/or family. The weather this last weekend was beautiful and it's been pretty darn nice the last couple of days. See, the thing about New Mexico weather is if you don't like it, wait a few minutes and it'll change. I hope this pattern doesn't change for a while because when it does, that means it's gonna get HOT! Today a patient of mine told me today is the "official" start of monsoon season. What does that mean? Afternoon thundershowers! It's crazy though, because it could be pouring rain one minute and then five minutes later it doesn't even look like it rained. It's nice because it usually cools off the afternoon, but it also can trigger flash floods - not good. Anyway...in light of the upcoming summer, I bring you a recipe/marinade for my favorite cut of meat: tri tip!

If you don't live in California, you probably have never hear of it. Tri tip is a cut of beef from the bottom sirloin. It's a small triangular muscle that usually comes in 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 pounds. Relatively lower in fat, it makes a very good roast and an excellent grilling meat. In my family, we usually use a dry rub and grill it on a gas grill until medium-rare. Now that I live in New Mexico, that cut of meat has been impossible to find. Luckily, my parents come to visit once or twice a year and they're nice enough to stock us up with plenty of tri tip to get us through to their next visit. I know I said that it usually comes in 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 pound portions, but the stuff my parents got me is bigger than that!! One portion easily feeds four adults. Like I said, we usually use a dry rub on tri tip, but I was in search of a marinade to use this time. This is what I found.

Easy Grilled Tri Tip

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp water
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
salt & pepper to taste
4 pounds beef tri tip, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices

Marinate for at least 4 hours, flipping every so often for even coverage

In a large, non-reactive bowl, blend the soy sauce, olive oil, water, garlic, and pepper. Place the beef tri tip in the marinade. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator at least 4 hours.

Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil grate.

Grill the beef slices 3 to 5 minutes per side, or to desired doneness. Discard remaining marinade.

The finished product served with my "potato pack" and El Pinto salsa

NOTES: I think I used a little more than 2 cloves of garlic (we LOVE garlic). You don't necessarily have to oil the grate - I've never had a problem with tri tip sticking to the grate. However, when we do need to oil the grate, we use Pam for Grilling. It's good stuffs! Non-reactive bowl means either glass or plastic. You can either cook the whole thing, which is what we usually do, or you can cut the slab up in to individual steaks. I don't know why, but we always serve this with salsa. Our salsa of choice is El Pinto medium salsa. Before New Mexico, I never knew what salsa really was. I will never NOT get El Pinto salsa, even if I move out of the Land of Enchantment. My Dad usually grabs a jar or two to take back to Cali because you can't find it in the stores there anymore.

This is what I had for dinner - the hubs doesn't like artichokes so I had one all to myself...soooo good!!!

In addition to tri tip, I usually serve my "potato pack". I call it that because when it was just the hubs and I, I would wrap the cut up potatoes in a little foil pack to throw in the oven. Now that we make more (we probably eat more than we should), we've outgrown the "pack" and use a 9 x 13 glass dish. This is just a basic recipe and that's what I like about it. You can mix up the spices depending on what you're serving it with.

Megan's Potato Pack

3 medium potatoes, washed and cubed
small-medium yellow onion, peeled and chunked
olive oil
minced garlic
garlic salt
Italian seasoning
fresh ground pepper
butter (the real stuff)

Wash and cube the potatoes and onion. Place in gallon zipper bag. Add oil, spices and seasonings to taste. Shake to mix. Pour in 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Cube up about 1 Tbsp butter and place all over potatoes. Cover with foil. Place in 350-400* oven for 45-60 minutes, mixing at 30 minutes.

Cubed potatoes and onion

Combine in 9 x 13 glass baking dish

The finished product!

Oh...and I had another Freecycle trade today. MUCH better than the first one - be sure to look for that post coming up in the next couple of days. And while we're on the topic of polish...I am (impatiently!) waiting for my Zoya Polish Exchange package - they charged my account Friday so it should be here any day now!!!

Listening to: Thinking About You by Norah Jones
Mood: good!