Tandoori Chicken

First(and totally unrelated to chicken), proof kids will just do something because they want to. Regardless of comfort. Because you know this couldn't have been comfortable.

This recipe looked promising. It had all the components of something I knew would turn out good. I started making it last night. We ate it tonight.

The reviews:

Jac- "It tastes like those orange flowers in your herb garden." "Nasturtiums?" "Yeah, nasturtiums." (Has he been secretly eating my flowers?)

Joey (Who pretty much wouldn't eat anything for the first 5 years of his life and now is like a human garbage disposal. Seriously, He'll eat anything.)-"It's delicious. Do you think I could take one home?" I sent him home with three sticks.
Alicia (Her reviews of food are not reliable. She has a limited palate.)- "I don't like it." (Insert everyone's surprise here.)

Ryan- "Tastes like something I'd spend good money on. Tastes like lunch from Moby Dick's." (This is where I started getting suspicious of my own opinions.)

Joey's mom (By now I'm just calling it "chicken on a stick" while I'm forcing a plate of them into her hands...to get them out of my house.) -"This tastes like something I've had before. The flavor. Tandoori chicken."

At that point, I realized I evidently don't like Tandoori Chicken. Huh. Who knew? I love Indian food, but always order vegetarian. If this is what Tandoori Chicken is supposed to taste like...blah.

Le Potager (of shame)

1. What you should know about chickens: They are nearly impossible to photograph; especially en masse. One minute they'll all be looking right at you and by the time you can push the button on your camera, one is showing its butt and a ray of sunshine is blinding the rest. Not complaining about the sun. We haven't seen it enough this fall and today has been GORGEOUS.

2. I totally neglected my garden this year. First it was lacrosse season and then FUSE Camp and then a roadtrip. Then it was too hot and then it didn't rain. Then it rained and rained and rained. All the while, the deer feasted. Maybe next year.

3. I thought my basil garden had died. The plants looked dead. And then the rains came. It's really time to get it all in and make pesto, but I don't have any pinenuts. Totally mulling over how it would be with walnuts since I have a couple of bags of them in the freezer.

4. I'm sure Proverbs 31 probably says something about my duty of growing food for my family and whatnot. (I'd go look, but then I'd be reminded of my other failures.) Or maybe I could just say "It doesn't say what kind of food I had to provide." Because, I could totally make a rockin' meal with peppers, green tomatoes and one string bean. Maybe. It probably goes without saying my girls stopped laying right when I was ready to pull in this bountiful harvest and therefore I don't even have eggs to help out that meal, right?

5. Tomatillos. They are prolific. There are millions of them out there. Except none of them got ripe. What's up with that?

6. To sum it all up...there's always next year.

Friday

Friday nights at my house.

Until 6:30.

After 6:30, I sloth around half the night with Alicia. We watch wedding shows on TLC (Sometimes we also watch those "What Not to Wear" shows.) while I fade in and out of "My brain has turned to mush." consciousness.

I think this is probably a sign I am officially old.

Dinner=Lasagna from the freezer...not even a lasagna I made. It came out of a box. Because it's Friday and that's where I am on Fridays.

Macht Schnell!

I've told you I'm the slowest knitter in the world, right? This is why I don't even have one pair of gloves. I'm reminded of "macht schnell!"...because it will be cold soon.

Dinner=Baked Sweet potato with black beans and pineapple salsa and a bit of avocado. Have I ever mentioned the difficulties of finding a perfect avocado on the east coast? Spending time on the west coast (or somewhere like Panama) will spoil you.

What I've still got left to do. I've only had this stuff for 4-5 months. Tomorrow night, my living room will be overrun with little girls. I need to have these ready for them.

1 Hour

I'm just going to say it. Occasionally I am mean to the animals. My mean-ness sometimes includes ponytails. And sometimes we laugh. And then sometimes the ponytailed animal feels bad, because she knows we are laughing at her. And then sometimes I feel bad and take out the ponytails. But, for real...what's cuter than a ponytailed dog? Oh yeah. A well-groomed dog that isn't so shaggy she nearly forces you to get out the comb and rubber bands.

More on topic:

Somebody told me today they are in hibernation mode and don't I get like that when summer is ending? Umm...no. Because "hibernation mode" was defined as coming home from work and falling asleep on the couch in one's p.j.'s everyday after work. Who has time for that?

After I left work, I ran to the store, went to the dentist and then picked up Jac from the bus; I had exactly an hour until I was going to leave again to go hang out with the Yada Girls. (I would have had less, but my other kid offered to walk home in the rain and I let her. Is that bad?) During that hour, the carpet cleaners were here (trying to tell me technical stuff about my carpet in Spanish...which didn't work all that well)and I cooked dinner. Oh, and I took my kid to youth group. And then I looked at my texts (on my way to YG) and discovered the Yada Girls weren't meeting tonight. Turns out...I have all the time in the world. Or, a couple of hours anyway. Well, maybe one. And then I have to go pick up a kid.

Anyway. Hibernate? That's laughable.

Dinner was simple. Broccoli and red bells sauteed in olive oil and tons of garlic. I put it on pasta as it seemed like the right thing to do. But turns out we could have just skipped the pasta. Next time.

And pear cake. Because I had these pears walking around and threatening to attract fruit flies on my counter. I normally feed them to my chickens when they get like this, but I had this idea...pear cake. Turns out, somebody had that idea before me. Why reinvent the wheel? Her pictures are prettier, but whatever.

I said "yes".

My child is going to a dance. With a boy. A year and a half before the age I previously said she was officially allowed to do so.

If I rationalize it, I could say it's just a dance and not "dating", right? Because 14 is too young to be dating. I didn't change my mind on that yet.

Or, perhaps I could just file this whole event with all those other things I said I would not be doing as a parent and then ended up doing anyway.-Because when I said it, it was long before we were there and once we were there, whatever it was I had forbidden didn't seem as outrageous as when I had decreed it would not be.

Or, I could tell you about how I handled the boy thing in my own teenage years. Yeah, I could do that. But, I won't. Because...uh...yeah. That was not good.

Just trying to embrace reality.

She's going to a dance with a boy. I wasn't ready for this. At least I have two weeks to get used to the idea? Maybe one of you can come stay with me that night and help me through it?

Some of you are probably rolling your eyes over the drama. But you have to understand. I only have one girl. It's going to take an incredible boy that will even come close to matching her worth. It probably goes without saying he's going to need to be brave, as well.

My house smells like ginger.

I had planned to have salad for dinner. Like a normal salad. But the lettuce was edging on slimy, so...

We had stir-fried vegetables, edamame, vegetable dumplings (I found lurking in the back of the freezer. I must have bought them at the Asian Market at some point. Is it bad I have no idea where they came from?) and miso soup. Oh. And a little dip I was experimenting with.

I have this thing for salad dressings in Japanese restaurants and always think I'll try to recreate them later. By taste. Because I don't even know the names of them to look up a recipe. But then I never get around to it.

Until today.

This came pretty close.

Sesame Ginger Carrot Dip

(Guestimations...I don't do a whole lot of measuring.)
2 small cloves of garlic
1/4 of a medium sweet onion
1 carrot
1-2" of peeled, fresh ginger
1/4-1/2 tsp of dry mustard
a few shakes of tamari
2 tsp of apple juice
1 tsp of sesame oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
a little salt and pepper

I threw all the solids in my little food chopper and processed until everything was coursely ground. Added the liquids and processed until creamy.

Turns out it tastes good on everything...even a spoon straight out of the bowl.