Hi World! Let's start with dinner...

I am interested in pretty much anything. I love having at least basic knowledge of a variety of subjects.

One subject I find particularly fascinating is food. Eating, smelling, tasting, shopping, every part of the culinary experience is akin to the sensation of finding a 5 dollar bill in your pants pocket. (With the exception of prep work, which can be really tedious, though some good music and sharp knives help)

Tonight I made dinner for my family. Since we are on a tight budget the trick is to use ingredients that are in the fridge already or come cheap. So even though I was really really craving red meat (a trick for curing that post-time of the month yuckkies) I found the chicken breast we had in the fridge and made an old stand-by, Chicken and veggie stirfry.

The vegetables this time were a red bell pepper and a pound and a half of fresh green beans. It was a good thing I had that extra half pound of beans since my little brother (Little only in age, size-wise he has a good 6 inches and 30 pounds on me) had invited a couple friends over. The food turned out delicious and juicy.

This last bit was a bit tricky. I am a little paranoid about my food, especially pork and chicken. When over cooked chicken becomes dry and not unlike eating a cotton sock. When under-cooked the slimy texture puts even the most slippery eel to shame, plus the risk of disease exponentially increases the "ick" factor. So the trick with cooking chicken on the stove top is to cook it at a high enough temperature that you get a nice caramel brown color on the outside, but not too high so it doesn't burn when you try to cook it all the way through. Using the singed chicken bits left at the bottom of the pan as a base for any sauces enhances the chicken flavor (Yes chicken does taste like chicken if you do it right).

The end result was this:

While the presentation was rather basic it tasted better than it looked.

I was also craving pie. Apple Pie. So this happened:

It was also yummy. Unfortunately I have yet to perfect my pie baking technique so the filling was a little watery. Still good but the slice kind of disintegrated once it was separated from the rest of the pie.

Currently I am finishing alterations to a skirt while watching the original karate kid. I'm kind of hoping to dream with "You're the best, around. Nothing's gonna ever keep you down." as my soundtrack.