Experimenting on Old People

You are not to experiment on old people.

Say it again.

You are not to experiment on old people.

Say it one more time so it sticks.

You are not to experiment on old people.

Berating myself about using my grandparents for taste testers is not really going well.  It lacks sincerity. It isn’t like they left clutching their stomachs in agony.  That in itself makes it a successful brunch, right?

Truth be told I learned the art of experimentation on guests from my grandmother.  She would often have several experimental dishes when she would host holiday dinners. (And most of us have survived.)

After I lured them into the house with the help of the charming Dib cat, the real fun began. The food experiment this time was something that my grandmother loves and that would be baked oatmeal.  A traditional baked oatmeal typically tastes like an oatmeal cookie and you pour milk over it while it is warm.  The one I tried is from Five Hearte Home and is called Banana Nut Baked Oatmeal. 

Oh, my goody goody gumdrops is it good.  It tastes like a cross between an oatmeal cookie and banana bread.  The maple syrup in it and more to go one it adds the perfect amount of sweetness to balance the density that the oatmeal brings.    The best part is that it was easy to make and doesn’t need to bake for an eternity.  If you are looking for something different that is relatively healthy, I would certainly check it out. 

No grandparents were harmed in the making of the baked oatmeal. So far all participants have survived. Further testing will be conducted. 

Cat Tested

One of the things that I have learned while adventuring is quilting is that it is better to have extra squares then not enough squares.  When you don’t have enough squares, it can ruin a project or create some creative solutions.  Having too many squares hurts nothing and gives peace of mind.

I was recently trying to organize my quilting supplies and I came across a bag of extra squares.  The squares were of various prints I had used when making a couple of quilt toppers.  There were not a huge amount of any one print. At most there are three squares with the same pattern on them.  The toppers I have been making were of various themes and the miscellaneous squares were not cohesive for repurposing for a new quilt topper.  (Yet, If I get enough miscellaneous squares it is going to be a scraps quilt, but it is going to be a while before I get there.)


Dib cat is my sewing buddy and often times I end up moving his cat tree near the table so he can supervise without laying on my squares. (This only works about half the time, but half the time is better than none of the time.)
Looking at my extra squares and then at the charming Dib cat, inspiration struck.  Dib needed a new cat bed. (Let's be honest, he needs a new cat tree, but that is a project for another day.)

  One of the most recent quilts toppers is for my nephew for Christmas.  It is full of dinosaurs smashing buildings and robots.  It is mostly a green base and lots of fun.  Dib is kind of like a fury monster. He likes to knock things off of tables and destroy boxes with his teeth. If he was large enough he would totally knock over buildings.  

With eight squares and some quilt batting I was able to make Dib a new cat tree bed in ten minutes. (Cat Tree beds are a square foot and my squares were six inches.)  My new  sewing machine has several fancy stitch options, which I was excited to try on the trim.  Dib decided that the bed was passable and promptly laid on it.

If you have a couple of scraps left over, I highly recommend using them for the greater cat good.

I Work with Monsters

For the most part, I like everyone I work with.  Then something happens that makes you question whether or not you really know the people around you.  After all what sort of person would do this to cake?

This is clearly the work of a monster. My only conclusion is that someone is a monster at work and is very good at hiding it.  Maybe a werewolf.  Do you think that werewolves like red velvet cake? This might be a weird werewolf ritual.  I am not 100% sure. It would make sense for werewolves to be into red velvet cake. Maybe it is a cake to celebrate a newly turned werewolf and they had to cut the center out to conceal their identity.  If so, then that definitely proves that who ever cut this cake is a monster and that I work with a monster.  

Comfort Food: Peanut Chicken

I had this idea that I was going to write this epic post about recipe that is a frequent flyer on the dinner circuit in my house. It was going to patriotic. It was going to be swoon worthy.  It was going to disclose the secrets of comfort food. It was going to involve peanut butter.  In fact I was going to make the recipe to make sure I had all my measurements to correct and that I wasn’t missing any steps, since I can make this recipe practically in my sleep.

Then tragedy struck.  Not major tragedy that change the entire course of lives, but more of a dinner tragedy.  My recipe of ultimate comfort food, the one that I could do in my sleep, I totally fucked up on. 

The problem was simple.  The soy sauce and the Worcestershire sauce are in the same shape bottle and they both have a red cap.  Being on auto pilot and not paying attention to what I was actually pulling out of the fridge, (because why would the bottle locations change) I totally dumped half a cup of Worcestershire sauce in my recipe. I then had to scramble to mellow to taste of Worcestershire sauce and make it be friends with the peanut butter.   It may have one of the least spectacular meals I have ever made.  It was a pretender to the throne.  One bite and you knew it wasn’t the infamous peanut chicken, but more of something that had aspirations of being steak and failed. 

The lesson here isn’t that you should always identify your ingredients before you put them in the sauce, but more of don’t become complacent.  Focus on what you are doing even if it something you have done a thousand times before, because maybe that thousand and one time will be different.

Peanut Chicken  

Use the big stir fry pan or a wok.  This is going to make a lot of food. 

2 1/2 Cups Chicken  Cubed

1/2 Cup Diced Onion 

1/4 Cup Diced Peppers

1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic

1/2 Cup Shredded Carrots

1/2 Tablespoon Chinese Five Spice

1 Tablespoon Chili Garlic Sauce

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

1 Tablespoon chili oil

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Sauté everything together until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots are limp. 

Add

1/2 Cup Soy Sauce

2/3 Cup Chunky Peanut Butter

1 Cup of Chicken broth (Water can be used in a pinch)

This should make a rather liquidy sauce.  If it is super thick, add more chicken broth.

Add

2 Cups cooked rice

Brown rice, white rice, doesn’t matter.  Perhaps not wild rice, that doesn’t hold the flavor as well.   Mix everything together until warmed all the way through and then serve.   The sauce should mix and cover all of the rice.  The meat and vegetables should be mixed in evenly, kind of like a fried rice. 

This is one of those foods that also holds well in a crock pot for hours if you were to make a double batch.   It is spicy, yet savory and has all the comforts of home. 

Round 2: A Better Review

I am terrible at leaving Etsy reviews.  When I sit down to write a review my brain goes utterly blank. Then about a week later, inspiration will have struck and it is too late.  This is the unfortunate case of what happened with my last review. 

Recently I purchased some lovely soy sauce dishes from CeramaicsbyHitomi.  When it came time to write the review, I said something bland and it didn’t truly give a great description of the products I received.  I just used my purchase and thought that I should take the time to write a better review and give a little more back story as to why I was even looking for the dishes. Let’s call this my Ground Hog’s Day review do over. (I know it isn’t Ground Hogs Day, but we are close.)

I had been searching for some replacement soy sauce dishes for a while. I know it is not the intended purpose, but I find that soy sauce dishes are the perfect size dish for serving canned cat food to my spoiled rotten cats.  My cats get canned food as a treat and because they are a little round and the rear I portion control what I give them. Soy sauce dishes give them the right amount without it getting all over the place.  

I stumbled upon CeramicsbyHitomi by accident.  I was looking for a gift for my best friends birthday when the ceramics shop came up as a suggestion. It was love at first sight.  I loved the bright orange and the grey spots on the set of soy sauce dishes.  It is almost as if some one took two of my favorite colors and made something beautiful out of them.   

The entire process with the purchase was seamless.  The shop owner contacted me to verify I had received my purchase and that it arrived in  one piece. They are not perfect pieces.  If you know anything about pottery and glazing, they can be snags and pulls in the glaze that can ruin the beauty of the piece.  There are a couple of imperfections in the piece, that were notated by the creator, however the small pulls in the glaze don’t distract from the beauty and functionality of the dishes. 

One of the things that I look at when I purchase from any one on Etsy, is if I would purchase the item again.  I would whole heartedly agree to purchasing additional items from CeramicsbyHitomi.  They are exactly as described in honest detail, they arrive in a reasonable amount of time and the vendor is an absolute joy to work with.   If you are looking for something unique, functional and beautiful, check out CeramicsbyHitomi.