Some people find birthdays — as I do — as friendly reminders to appreciate each day granted to us and show our appreciation to those who matter to us most. Happy Birthday, Laura….
happy birthday sweetheart <3 August 30th
Do you celebrate birthdays or hold a month long celebration?
- An old family favorite : Cantonese Sweet & Sour Pork — CLICK on the picture for a link to the recipe
Well, when you try to celebrate two birthdays together you need to have a dish that everyone loves. In our family, one of our favorites is Sweet and Sour Pork… and an apple pie! It may sound a bit unusual for someone to prefer an apple pie over the tradition birthday cake, but if that’s what the birthday girls want… that’s what they get! Karla also started a fun tradition of having little celebrations of someone’s birthday ( hers in particular) all month long… it can be a little fun…. but challenging.
- Not just any apple pie will do… See Canyon Apples, a special nutty cobler topping and our own sauce makes it wonderful.
O
h yes, we can’t forget presents and those little touches that make anyone smile.
- ‘Happy Birthday Laura and Mom.’
sweet and sour pork for her birthday
One of our family’s favorite meals is home made Cantonese inspired sweet and sour pork! When someone reaches their birthday in our family, we seldom let them cook and we make for them the meal of their choice as part of the celebration. However, when we make this dish, everyone gets involved!
Today, we do a certain amount of simple preparation: 1) slicing and marinating the pork tenderloin 2) making the main sauce and 3) finding the right vegetables for the occasion! One of the world’s great cuisines is Chinese and in all of their tasty variations. Although we used many canned ingredients we use many fresh as well.
In addition, we will add some of the produce of California: red bell peppers, green onions, white sweet onions, and fresh garlic.
Cooking together is always fun… Tonight we will do our ‘first’ frying of the pork!
are you sexy enough for your oatmeal?
I grew up on oatmeal and mostly Quaker Oats… so naturally when I discovered the steel cut version from Ireland and certain small manufacturers in the Northwestern United States, I jumped at it! I like the steel cut version I find in some of the quasi-health food stores… in particular Frontiers Market here in San Luis obispo.
I couldn’t resist but check out Quaker Oats to see if they had a ‘steel cut’ version of their own… and right now I could only find it at Target in California so I bought 3 boxes — this is a ‘taste for me’ and they’ll ship it here. I’ll let you know what I think.
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you how this sleigh ride began. My daughter Karen wrote a nice post about ‘sexy oatmeal’… so I had to follow it up! Thanks Karen!
soft egg pretzels for laura
Laura doesn’t ask for much… but when she does, I like to make it for her. In any event, many of the recipes you find are very similar… but where they differ is significant and there is a bit of a trick to it.
Dad’s Pretzel Recipe
( a variation of our cracker bread recipe)
3 cups flour ( I prefer Bread Flour )
¼ cup special flour (whole wheat, rye or spelt)
3 tablespoons gluten
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon or package yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup ‘special’ flour (whole wheat, dark rye, or your choice)
1 egg ( white for mix, yolk to brush after boiling)
For 1 dozen
- Put yeast, sugar, salt, butter, water, egg white and 1/4 cup of the special flour into a bowl and mix.
- Mix in remaining flour, mix and place in greased bowl, cover and place in a warm place
- Let dough rise for 1 hour
- Divide into 16 pieces and form as pretzels, cover and allow to rest in a warm place for 30 minutes
- Prepare the baking soda-water mixture and bring to a boil on stove. 5 tsp baking soda mixed in 4 cups water in a saucepan.
- Place them into boiling water-baking soda mixture .
- Preheat oven to 475 F
- Let the pretzels boil for on both sides for about a minute a side
- Place on greased pan and brush with egg yolk dip in coarse Salt before baking
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until pretzels are colored desired is attained
Oh, BTW… they were good!