What I Ate On Friday. And It Was Good.

Lately, for breakfast, I've been slurping strawberry smoothies, blended up in my Magic Bullet. I have orange juice, sometimes pineapples, or bananas, ice, maybe some cream or milk, and perhaps honey or some type of sweetener. But for the past few days, no decent strawberries at the market. So today, I had a brunch and I was hungry. I had leftovers from last night - my endive with proscuitto and my pasta with kale, parmesan, and walnuts.

Then I had this great idea for an addition

to this meal - my leftover sauteed panko breadcrumbs from the cassoulet I made the other day. The crunch and flavor of the breadcrumbs was the perfect complement to the greens, endive, and pasta. I only had a small amount, and a few hours later, I was hungry again.

So I got out the corn/salsa Mr. Hawthorne made the other night: 1 can Rotel tomatoes, green chilies, and cilantro, drained 1 can diced tomatoes, drained 2/3 can corn, drained 3 TB of Mr. H.'s canned homegrown minced jalapenos 1/2 packet of sauce from taco dinner package Yes, he's going to Sandra Lee everything he makes. But it was good.

Here's the creme fraiche I made the other day. It's nice and thick. Rich and delicious too!

Sometimes, you just want some nachos, with salsa, sliced onions, and melted cheese. This was just soulfully satisfying. A few hours later, I started prepping dinner. Dinner will be Rosie's Original Sweet and Sour Pork. And I totally made this up!

I'd gone downstairs to the freezer to pull out something else to eat. This time, it was pork tenderloin. While it was still half frozen, I sliced it into 1 inch pieces. And I prepared a marinade for the pork.

1/8 cup Tamari sauce 1/8 cup rice vinegar 1/8 cup rice wine 1/3 cup corn starch Mix all together ...

... and add to the pork, tossing to coat. Next, my batter, for the pork.

2 ounces flour 1 ounce corn starch 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 egg 1/3-1/4 cup water 1 teaspoon oil salt Mix batter ingredients together, then add in pork

And here's my battered pork, oinking to go into the hot peanut oil. Now, for the sweet and sour sauce.

I really can't give you exact measurements. I can just tell you what went in. And there are a few odd things, like the CRANBERRIES up there. Let's see, I have Tamari sauce (You could substitute soy sauce.), rice vinegar, cider vinegar. ketchup, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, cornstarch, pineapple chunks and juice, and the juice from Maraschino cherries.

First, I added some ginger joos in my pan. Remember, I keep my ginger in the freezer, take it out as needed, nuke it, then it just exudes juice.

Added in some minced garlic and a few tablespoons of cider vinegar.

The first bit of sugar went in.

A couple of tablespoons of Tamari (or regular soy sauce) went in.

Then I added maybe 1/4 cup of cranberries leftover from Thanksgiving.

Several tablespoons of ketchup.

Then, some Lea&Perrins Worcestershire Sauce to kind of tame down the sweetness of the ketchup.

Maybe a tablespoon of rice vinegar.

Pineapple chunks and some pineapple juice.

Maybe a tablespoon of Maraschino Cherry Joos.

A slurry of cornstarch and soy sauce. Tablespoon each.

And here's my sweet and sour sauce. Bubbling away. Sweet. And sour. And DELICIOUS. Sauce is done. Take off heat and set aside. Now, I'm starting on my stir fry. And CRAP! I can't believe I didn't take a picture of my sliced, prepped veggies. DAMN. Well, you've seen it all before. Let me just describe everything to you. I had bright green broccoli florets. I had crinkled orange carrots. I had tear-jerking onions, eighthed. I had red and orange peppers, cut into diamonds. I had celery cut on the diagonal. I had minced garlic. I had minced ginger and its juice. Everything was ready. And I forgot to shoot a picture. Rosie kicks self.

OK, here's the ginger joos going into the little cup.

I heated my wok, poured some peanut oil in, then added broccoli, then carrots, celery, onions and peppers. In that order. Then a bit of sugar. Stir fried for maybe one minute.

Finally poured in maybe 1/3 cup water to the stir fried veggies to let them steam for a few seconds. Removed to a bowl and covered.

Reheated wok, added peanut oil, heated back up, and added battered pork.

Turn over, and fry until nicely browned. Just a few minutes. Remove pork from wok and drain on paper towels.

For gernish, sliced green onions.

I really like this picture.

After stir frying all the pork in batches, and removing to drain, I wiped out the wok, reheated, added oil, heated, and added minced garlic and ginger.

The wokked vegies went back in for a quick heat up.

Then the fried pork went in.

Everything was tossed together and heated through.

And here's the plated dish Sticky, sushi rice. Veggies. Fried pork. Sweet and sour sauce.

Oooh... I forgot the sliced green onions.

Cranberries front and center. What a wonderful addition to my sweet and sour sauce. They're sweet and sour just on their own.

Dinner is served. Now, during dinner and the preparation thereof, I was getting pissed off. And Mr. Hawthorne, maybe you should take a heads up here, 'cause I was pissed AT YOU. Yeah, imagine that. I don't know exactly why, but everything you said and did tonight just absolutely grated on my every last nerve. You just sat there, silent, staring halfway between the counter and the sliding glass door, not moving the entire time I prepared dinner. And I can say all this because Mr. Hawthorne won't even READ this. Anyways, back to my bitching, Mr. Hawthorne ... YOU sat there saying NOTHING ... until I served your sorry aSS, with sticky rice, stir fried vegetables, battered, fried pork, and a unique sweet and sour sauce with sweet and sour cranberries. Then, you started spewing. "Oh, this is excellent. This is really excellent. You know what would make it better? Just say yes if you want to know." I remained silent and tight-lipped. "You know, this is really excellent. Just tell me if you want to know what would make this OUTSTANDING." I am biting my tongue. My jaws hurt. "You know, I won't say anything if you don't want me to. But if you do, all you have to do is say something." I am grinding my teeth now. I haven't spoken for 45 minutes. FINALLY, the BASTARD tells me, just because he can't stand it anymore: "Some breadcrumbs would really send this over the top." WELL, CRAP! Just CRAP. Wouldja just look at what I said at the beginning of this post?

"Then I had this great idea for an addition

to this meal - my leftover sauteed panko breadcrumbs from the cassoulet I made the other day." BREADCRUMBS!!!! I tell ya! BREADCRUMBS will bring this marriage down! Not really. I am, for some reason, pissed off tonight, at something so very vague, even I can't put my finger on it. Jeeze, I've taken all my bitch meds. What could it be?