Sadly, my visit with my father is over and I have returned home.  It was really good to see family.  I even got to speak with my mother on Skype.  With the addition of my brother, who flew in from TX, it was a great family reunion of sorts.  We got quite a haul of gifts too.  Our car was PACKED on the way back.  It made me feel bad that my gift of some wine, lotions, and some gift cards didn't add up to a fraction of the value of their gifts. It's hard to shop for my dad, step mother, and brother.  They can afford and already have everything they need and I don't see them often enough to truly get a feel for the quirky and meaningful things that make great gifts for them.

Still, I am very grateful for the many things they gave us and for the opportunity to spend time with them.  It was really fun! Not to mention, it's always cool to see the new additions to the house my father and step-mother have done since I was last there.

 

Those wine and glass racks weren't there the last time I visited!  My father and step-mother did all of the work too.  The glass rack still needs to be stained and, you can't really see it, but off to the right there's a wine cooler in the wall.  That wooden box is going to be turned into a bar.  My father is quite the handyman!

Amongst the super awesome gifts my father and step-family was the Belgian waffle maker, new HD TV, some english breakfast tea in a nifty tin, an organizer for my beadwork, a few personal items, and a new sewing machine!

It's not a super industrial professional kickarse machine, but that's a good thing for me.  For one, I'm not quite to my mother's level of sewing, and for two, I wouldn't have space for that!  It's perfect for what I need.  Right now I'm making an apron and so far I've put four hours of hand sewing into it and I've hardly gotten further than what ten minutes on a machine would have done.  

I want to add one more pocket and a bit more decoration and she'll be done.  Of course, just about all of that needs to be done by hand anyway, but for future sewing projects, which I plan to have a lot more of, will go by much faster! Not to mention the quality will be better. I'm excited! I can't wait to break it in!

I really wish I could have stayed there.  Being at my dad's house is rather relaxing.  Throw in the fact that I don't have to work, and it's quite the vacation.  But alas, I had to come home.  So, home I am, and I'm at least eager to start baking, cooking, and creating again.  So, to kick off my return, before I go do more housework, I want to present to you:

Spicy Soy Sauce Grilled Pork Chops

I've said it before: I'm not a big meat eater.  I'm gradually coming around, but it's taking time.  Usually, if I do eat meat, it's turkey, then comes beef.  Pork is usually not something I crave, but this recipe(which came from a surprising source) is actually something I want to eat again.

It's a simple recipe, with few ingredients and not a lot of work involved, so it's perfect for in a pinch dinners.  Not to mention, the simplicity of it leaves it open to lots of alterations without really messing up the flavor.

So, what you will need:

1/4 C of soy sauce
2    Tbsp of sugar
1   Large clove of garlic (mince)
1   Tbsp of Thai chile (de-seed, de-stem, mince)
1   Tbsp of toasted sesame oil (feel free to use peanut or vegetable oil)
1 1/2 Lb of pork chops

What to do:

1: Whisk soy sauce and sugar together untill sugar is compleely dissolved.  Add the garlic, ginger, chile and oil.

2: In a plastic bag, soak pork in the marinade.  Squeeze the air out of the bag and then rotate to completely cover medallions.  Refridgerate for two hours, turning over halfway.

3: Preheat the grill(I actually cooked mine on the griddle at 300f), remove pork from marinade and grill untill cooked through(about 4 min each side)

I actually found the pork recipe on a Eating Well recipe card at the grocery store.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I usually don't like those recipes.   Well, time to clean house and find places for all of the new gifts!  Ciao!

I've FINALLY reclaimed my kitchen back from our Yule tree yesterday.  Oh! What a glorious day!  Don't get me wrong.  I loved the Yule tree.  It was very pretty and covered with yummy-delicious candy-canes.  Also, it was the first tree we(Kana, Caleb, and I) bought as a family together.  We all took turns cutting it down and we all decorated it together.

That whole night is a story in itself.  But our apartment is small and my kitchen is small.  So, the tree went where my kitchen table was.

It was hard getting around the darned thing and it left me with even LESS working space than before.  I have virtually no counter space as it is, so all my work is usually done on the table and on a TV tray that I pull out when needed.  With no table, this made baking tough and during the holiday season, I bake a LOT!

My son didn't want the tree to go.  He has such a magical attachment to everything.  It's not like an annoying, obsessive attachment, but he makes friends with everything.  He can sense a spirit in all things, living or dead, and he didn't want his friend, the tree, to leave.

So, I made up a story about the tree wanting to go back home to the woods and he was going to wait outside for a truck to come and take him home.  That worked.  It made me sad, for a moment, though.  It's out of sight and out of mind now, so I'm allowed to enjoy my kitchen with little guilt.

It's all clean and organized- for the most part.  I still have a  few Yuletime stuff that needs to get put away after I go visit with my father next weekend, but I have my space back and am able to tidy again.  Also! For our anniversary, Kana bought me these wonderful cupcake rugs for my kitchen! I put one in front of the stove and one in front of my sink.  Maybe not the best places for things I want to keep clean, but that's were I want them! (I also got this really cute pink mouse for my laptop.) 

So, anyway, the kitchen is clean and I can cook and bake again! Have a tour!

This is the beginning and the end for most of my foodstuffs.  

Food usually starts on the left and meets it end on the right.

 This corner is always changing as I fight the unending battle of organizing

so much stuff into so little space.  Every time I turn around, this household ends up with

more and MORE candy to be shoved somewhere before I give it away to someone else. Also, I own

a lot of kitchen gadgetry that I'm forced to store in boxes and cabinets all over the apartment!

This is Matsumoto.  Kana and I bought him when we first
got our apartment.  He's been a constant in my ever-changing kitchen
as the centerpiece of our table.  It's good to have him back in his rightful place.

And this is that wonderful, itty-bitty kitchen
table that I never thought I would miss so much! Welcome back!

My next thing to bake, and recipe to put up, is checkerboard cookies!  I'll probably get to that today if I get the rest of my chores and errands done at a decent time. That's a big chunk of some of my new years resolutions.

Every other blog is putting up resolutions.  I think I'll do the same.

First and foremost:

I want to take better care of my health.  This includes getting back

into yoga, jogging, eating better, and simply getting out more.  I've 

become lazy(when it comes to working out) over the past year and

I want that trend to end. I'm not too too concerned about losing 

weight, I can't stay a size four forever, But I don't want to gain any

more than I already have.

I want a better job:

Really, this means going back to school, which may or may not happen

this year.  I went to school for a very long time and kept changing 

majors.  This put me in a lot of debt that I'm still fighting to get a handle

on.  So, when I do that, I want to go back to school and finish getting

my cosmetology license.  However, in the mean-time, I want a better job

than the one I have now.  Or, I want my job, that I have now, to get better.

The later may not happen if certain people don't either quit or get fired.

McDonald's isn't all that bad of a place to work.  I've been there

almost a year and am one of the top employees.  I like most of the

people I work with.  I'm good at what I do, and I have a great reputation

with my regular customers(I have a lot), but there is a certain person there,

who happens to be in an authoritorial(I made that word up) position, that

lives to make other people's lives a living hell.  The stress is getting

to me and I've almost had enough.  Maybe I'll go work in a bakery. I would

love that.

Get a handle on my debt:

This doesn't necessarily mean pay all of my debt off, but I want to be

able to be on a regular schedule of paying my bill.  What I'd really like

to do is consolidate all of my loans and make one payment a month.  I'm

not getting any further into debt now (aside from interest), which is good, 

but I'm not really digging my way out of the hole just yet.  This past year

has been all about stabilizing myself.  Now, it's time to climb back into

the black.

Quality time with my family:

I want to improve the quality of the time I spend with my

partner and son.  This  means going out and doing things that

will landmark our lives.  We need to escape from the norm and

defaults that we've fallen into and live like we did when our 

little family was just beginning.  With the past struggle to balance

our spiraling lives, time has been short and stress has been high,

so our time spent together involved board games, movies, and 

occasionally baking together.  But I want to improve on that

now and do more things. Different things that we can look back

on and tell a story about it.  I'm full of stories from previous

years, but last year's stories aren't about fun family times

(well, some are, but they usually carry a grim undertone).  Just like

my bit on debt, last year was about stabilization in not just

money, but in out lives.  Now, I want to build on to our memories

by going on trips, visiting local events, and doing one of a kind things.

Really, I want to have fun and to be able to tighten the bonds

that hold my family together.

Family also means my Father, Mother, Brother, Step-Mom,

Step-Dad, Step-Brother, and all those other people as well.

I don't see them much anymore, and it's been about two years

since I've seen my Mom.  I miss them all.  Last year, my father

was overseas for most of it.  Now that he's back, I want to see

him as often as I can.  I want to see all of my family more and have

bonding time with all the people I love. 

Make my blog something worth reading:

I've always wanted to have something that not just my

family and friends would have a reason to read, visit, or

whatever.  I wanted to have complete strangers come to

me or my webpage, or my e-mail, and comment, praise, 

or constructively criticize. I wanted something that people 

noticed.  I tried with art on a deviant art page.  I like to think

I'm a good artist.  I took art classes during one of my attempted majors.

But I gave up on that, just like a lot of other things.  I never

had the patience, I guess, to make it worth noticing.  I never

took the time to really put it out there.  Well, I want to

change that with this blog.  This means baking more!

When I started the blog, I really had no idea what

I wanted to do with it.  I tried a few things, then deleted

them, then tried something new, and deleted that as

well.  Now, I know what I want to do with it.  I like baking

and sharing and I've had fun making recipe cards and telling people

about them.  I know I've not done a lot of posts that I've kept, but

all of the ones I've done recently, I HAVE kept.  I've stayed

true to writing and I really like doing it.  Not like a 'job like' but

as a hobby(the blog will never take precidence over job and family), 

this is really fun!  So, my resolution for the blog is to get people 

to read it, to like what they read, and to keep up with it. 

So, those are my resolutions.  There are more goals I'd like to accomplish, like getting a new apartment, but they aren't resolutions.  If I make too many, I'll never accomplish anything.  So, the above mentioned, are my resolutions and goals for the year.  They are  my main focus.  If finding a new apartment means not having enough money to get control of my debt, then I will extend my lease on this horrible apartment I'm in right now.  Really, I think this year is going to be a good one.

I'd better start my chores now!

Well, I hate to say it, but this Yule time could have gone better! I suppose a good deal of bitterness has developed after two years of missing my mother. This is also almost the time of year that I found myself homeless a year ago.

However, this is also the time that I turned my life around and, in five more days, I will be celebrating the one year anniversary of when my partner and I made our commitment. Naturally, I will be working, but it's still exciting to think that so much time has gone by so quickly and with little incident. I also reconnected to an uncle of mine that I had no idea had so much in common with me. So, I still write this year up as a win for me.

I have to say that the best gift this year is the wii that Santa brought to our family, but the more useful of gifts(I still haven't gotten some from other family members) so far was a brand new Kitchen Aid mixer!



Before, I was mixing everything with a whisk, fork, and hand. Then, I had bought a six dollar had mixer at Wal Mart. That was a waste of money. The first batch of chocolate chip cookies I made nearly burned the motor out and it's not like the dough was over-thick or anything either. But this sweet momma has turned my cooking around entirely! Sure, I have to pull a TV tray out and hold it steady while I'm mixing (I have no counter space), but it's so much faster and efficient! I can't wait to see how it will be able to help me with pizza dough!

Of course, my favorite present came from my son.




Those are my partner's lovely hands by the way.

One more good thing about this Yule Time has been a great improvement in my cooking and baking skills and reputation. Having my own kitchen to work in has been a big factor in this- not to mention a growing family. It's not just me and my son anymore. My partner is a part of the household and I LOVE to cook for her as well as my son. (My son just happens to be too picky to be able to properly appreciate and critique what I do.)

Kana, my partner, just so happens to be a major carnivore and has been longing for a steak or a roast, or SOMETHING that is thick, meaty, and rare. I've never been too big on overly-meaty dishes, and red meat isn't all that appealing too me, so cooking it has been somewhat foreign to me. So, one of the presents for my hubby this year was to learn the special art of cooking a roast!




My first ever roast came out great! Even I liked it a little bit. The potatoes and the gravy were especially good. I'll have to share the recipe I used later. I do want to share one recipe with everyone though.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

This isn't an original or new concept, especially to experienced bakers or cookie eaters, but to a lot of people, it's a favorite! My family love these and so do some of my co-workers. In fact, I was asked to make these as a Christmas present for some. So, I may as well share, just because I'm proud to say I can make these- and well at that.

You can use any peanut butter cookie recipe, but if you don't know any, you can use the one I use. This recipe is a hand-me-down recipe from my partner's side of the family.

What you will need
1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C brown, packed sugar
1/2 C softened shortening
1/2 C peanut butter
2 Tbsp milk
1 Tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 3/4 C white flour
1 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt
20 oz bag of Reesee's mini peanut butter cups (how many depends on how many cookies you make. I recommend estimating high and having leftovers)

How to do it
Preheat oven to 375f.
Cream shortening and sugars together, then add the peanut butter, milk, vanilla and egg. Mix until smooth.
Sift together all the dry ingredients and then gradually add to the liquid mixture.
Once all ingredients have been nicely blended, spoon balls slightly smaller than a ping-pong ball onto a greased cookie sheet. Flatten the balls in a criss-cross pattern with a fork.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
While cookies are baking, begin unwrapping your peanut butter cups.
When cookies begin to brown, remove from oven and immediately push the peanut butter cups into the center.
Allow to cool, then enjoy.


Enjoy the cookies, everyone, and I'll be back later!