Our Precious Carnivora

Waiting for command & hand signal, "Okay Sadie, eat." That is Cinnabun, still in the oven there.

SuicideGirl, as many of you know, is our precious grey baby who loves her diet of unadulterated raw meat. I truly mean raw everything--from the bones out to the feather, fur, scales and skin and everything in between. She has been on a this diet without break for nearly two years and before that off and on over the five and a half years we have had her. I give her everything I can find that was once living would be something she would eat as a prey based diet.

Oh YES: FOOD!!!

I have been able to eat nearly all that I desire for the past month now and I am reveling in it! Having a stable stomach again is such a joy, it really did bring tears to my eyes when I was finally over being sick by late second trimester. Once again I lifted my voice up in song to join Oliver's Food, Glorious Food ballad (yes, those of you who had not a choice in food depravation will agree with me; it is a ballad). Snack time had me singing with Templeton's, A Veritable Smorgasbord from Charlotte's Web. No, I am not into junk food like that, but I SO related to his euphoria.

Now Part 2 of 2 Ginger Chicken: The Chicken Soup

Now that I have gotten some sleep... and I do mean some, since it was quite elusive till after 01:30. Didn't help that I was stuffed like a puppy and paid dearly for the excessiveness; but it was SO GOOD, causing us all to stuff ourselves like puppies and prompting The CrazyOne to immediately request the soup for lunch. Fabulous idea and taking out the left over soup from the fridge,
opening it up,
~inhailing~

Ginger Chicken Part I of 2

This has been the best pot of ginger chicken I have ever made. The first post of ginger chicken you read about here was a variation of my usual due to the mass quantities of lime and basil we had. This pot was my traditional form. Keeping it to the basics is what makes this dish grand and twice as grand the second time around in the Impervious' Chicken soup.

One Of The Fam's Faves...

Mmmmmm, this inspires me to get to the Commissary after math this morning... then Dr. Oz... then lunch... ALRIGHT sometime before now and 16:00.

Ginger Chicken in Basil and Lime

Finally, I am getting to some of the food posts I had promised to publish long ago. This one is a variation on what I was inspired to create when I brought home a load of ginger (because I couldn't pass up the fantastic smell of good, fresh ginger) and three pounds of chicken that was on it's way out the door, if you understand my meaning...

"Love is in Air...

... Everywhere I look around
Love is in the air every sight and every sound"

To the happy couple,
Congratulations!
ご結婚おめでとうございます!
Félicitations en ce jour de votre mariage!
You two looked great and we send you our love.

Speaking of love, our dear SailorStudMan has had a good bit of love from the Steal Mistress. She brought him home a little over two weeks ago, let'im enjoy 36hr at home and then like a true high-maintenance bitch, she demanded the rest of the seven days he had in port with her, only letting him go five hours at a time--relinquishing him late into the night only to reclaim him within the early hours of dawn. My poor SailorMan's shame and plight was known all across the waterfront and beyond. He was known as, "oh, that guy."
At the moment I am trying to gracefully tamp down the giggle that wants to follow my grin, 'cause truly, it really did suck to be SailorMan. His CO rode him hard and just as I said when I first began this blog, the gods of SW (Surface Warfare) truly hold SailorMan dear to their hearts. After very intense labor, with specialists brought in, the Steal Mistress was able to sail again. I tell ya, the man lives for pain. If his job was simple and a 9-5 he wouldn't appreciate the act of working at all, and would once again drive me to my whit's end, with thoughts of putting him out of his misery and me manically laughing with insanity at the sweet prospect of peace in a lovely padded cell all to myself.
Back to the heart of the matter... since life was loving our SailorStudMan a bit too much, and we were once again going to be parted; 22hr before the Steal Mistress took him again, me and the girls decided to make a comfort food that is somewhat healthy for him to take away on his deployment. We call it: Daddy CHENG's Love Mix.
It is all the snacks he loves:
Toffee,
Chocolate,
Banana Chips,
Pecans,
Coconut.

The only toffee to be found was a package of milk chocolate and toffee bits. That is the Eldest picking out the toffee from the chocolate... we wasted half the bag and the penny pinching side of me nearly kept silent with only occasionally grumbling once in while the idiocy of putting chocolate and toffee together; if you want chocolate, wouldn't you just add it yourself?! The coconut was already sweetened and complemented the semi-sweet chocolate bits we put in. The banana chips were plain and the pecans were plain too. The Unfortunates discovered banana chips quite tasty, toffee is up there with chocolate; coconut is just as gross as before while pecans aren't all that, and Mommy only likes the pecans (sort-of) and the chocolate. We had fun covering up the bananas and pecans with parchment paper and breaking them up with the smooth side of the meat tenderizer and later by hand. I didn't measure out anything, I did everything by looks, however since the coconut--as its nature--was quite potent, I think there are only about 3 tablespoons worth of the stuff in the entire mix, which by the way was housed in a plastic container that is suppose to house a bag of coffee for freshness. It was fun to make, easy and somewhat expensive due to the pecans and organic banana chips. Yes, the Commissary constantly surprises me with what it continually adds to the shelves in regards to organic and environmentally friendly products. It was well worth every penny and more when SailorMan came through the door at 21:30, before the Unfortunates were put to bed (nice thing with homeschooling, we can change our schedule to fit life at large). I had to threaten with violence and the promise of a good crock-pot dinner to keep him from eating the mix. I know, the violence part is very un-aiki, but I haven't professed perfection.

"Food, Glorious Food!" (amended)

"Don't care what it looks like -- Burned! Underdone! Crude! Don't care what the cook's like. Just thinking of growing fat -- Our senses go reeling One moment of knowing that Full-up feeling!" You know that feeling, when you are hungry--truly feel hungry and not just 'cause you're bored, or unsettled to a degree or so--fast food won't do, even frozen fast food? Yeah, you know what I am talking about; Oliver and his orphaned mates certainly knew: home cooked food. That is what I try to do for 90% of our 19 meals (3 daily Monday-Friday; 2 daily Saturday and Sunday, unless we have to be up early). {this is the amended part: Of each meal prepared, 70-90% of it is home made. For an example, one of the Unfortunate's favorite meals: Hilshire's Beef Little Smokies, rice and spinach. I cook the rice, and saute the fresh spinach to go with it. Yes, you read right, the Unfortunates do like spinach--if it is sauted or baby spinach mixed in with salad.} All meals in this home--regardless of preparation time--excluding Friday and Saturday nights, must fulfill the Trinity: fruit/vegetable, carbohydrate, protein. Of the 14 snacks in a full week, the snack needs to be fruit/vegi and/or homemade, or if it is processed, then the other half of that snack must be fruit or vegi. Let me tell you, it is a FRACKIN challenge and there are times I wonder if I am out of my FRICKIN mind?! ~~in through the nose~~out through the mouth~~ Yet despite it all, I know over half the battle is mental, as in anything truly challenging. No, I do not spend over half my day cooking, and nothing near a half of either. I am not Mrs. Clever. I was inspired to put my culinary ventures here since I was tired of emailing them--yeah, I don't email well either--and I can put up a FEW pictures for the visual learners too. The label for these postings is Epicurean Delight. They won't be much, so don't go looking for a 4 star or higher grade of cooking. Mostly I prefer easy, fast, and hot--preparation and cooking wise, you gutter-minded creatures! I hope it inspires you to fool around and get messy in the kitchen--hmm... (sorry, my mind wandered--yes again) Its lots of fun and has an easy learning curve. Ya'just might find it satisfying and fulfilling... Okay, I am going now!