Saturday, November 26, 2011

Oh blog, where art thou?


Wow, so it's been over 2 years since my last entry. I sort of slacked in late 2009, and then in early 2010, I started cooking up something of a different variety. Yes, I'm blaming my lack of posting on my kid. Nice, I know. Anyway, Max P. was born 11/1/10 (the photo was from his 1st birthday party)

Food is a funny thing. For me, food is love. I love to eat. I love to read about food, talk about, think about food. I like to think about meals far off into the future while eating my current meal. If I love you, I'll cook you anything you want, whenever you want. Often without any sort of prompting. If I like you, I'll cook you things for the expected occasions-birthdays, etc. And if you're my picky son, I will make you turkey teriyaki-with-homemade-teriyaki-sauce-because-there-was-that-one-time-at-the-sushi-place-that-you-ate-chicken-teriyaki, and-bottled-teriyaki-sauce-has-so-many-ingredients-and-we-had-an-entire-extra-turkey-breast-leftover- from-Thanksgiving.

I've been thinking a lot about what sort of blog this is going to become, since my brain now thinks about food in a new way. A way that sounds something sort of of like, "What can I feed Max for breakfast/lunch/dinner that doesn't involve cheese or Bamba?" (his 2 favorite foods)
I don't want this to be a boring blog about the stuff Max ate last night, but I know that I can't escape that from time to time. So, to kick things off, I'd like to share the recipe for the Turkey Teriyaki that Max didn't eat but LPR seemed to enjoy:

Teriyaki Sauce:(I sort of fudged a lot of this. It seemed super sweet so I threw in some extra soy sauce and Mirin at the end. Start with this and adjust for your tastes accordingly)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup mirin
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated/chopped garlic (I discovered that if I just use the same zester I used for ginger, it works just as well as a garlic press)
4 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 -2 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water

Mix all but cornstarch and 1/4c water in a sauce pan and begin heating.
Mix cornstarch and cold water in a cup and dissolve.
Add to sauce in pan. Heat until sauce thickens to desired thickness.

Teriyaki Turkey:
About 1/2 T Olive Oil
A handful of whatever veggies you want (I used frozen peas, carrots, corn and edamame)
A few spoonfuls of Teriyaki Sauce
Approximately 1/4 cup of leftover (cold) turkey, cut into chunks

Heat oil in pan.
Add veggies and saute until warmed through.
Add teriyaki sauce, cook for a few minutes.
Add turkey and cook until heated through.

I put this on top of Trader Joes's Brown Rice. Max did eat a few fingerfuls of that.

And there you have it! If you're lucky, your kid won't say "na" every time you try to get him to eat it.