Friday, December 07, 2007

A cruel hoax


This explains why the lining of my coat is coated with fur. I no sooner set it down than my faithful friend decided it would be a comfortable item on which to nap. Will the extra fur make me extra warm?




I will admit that on occassion I have enjoyed playing a fun practical joke on a friend - I once had my best friend in college convinced I was flunking out and there was a time when I told my parents I was adopting three kids - oh, that wasn't actually a joke, I really did. But it was still funny to hear their reaction. (They were totally supportive once they got over the shock). But this week I learned of a practical joke that was downright sinister. A woman on my dish cloth knit a long group wrote in asking for help with a pattern. After trying it and frogging it several times it just wasn't coming out right. How many times has that happened to you? A couple folks looked at the pattern and couldn't see anything wrong with it. Turns out, her daughter and son-in-law had switched some lines in the pattern! That's not funny. That's just plain mean.




For time-pressed cooks, I have another recipe for you to try - this one was a real crowd pleaser in my house. Everyone loved it, even my finicky son. I used creamy peanut butter to appease my nut-hating children, but I would have preferred it with crunchy.


Easy Peanut Chicken sauce

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons oil
2 cloves of garlic chopped
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
1 pound chicken breasts or thighs cut into cubes
(fresh or frozen vegetables if desired)

1 can diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup chicken stock
¾ cup peanut butter (or more to thicken)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a large sauce pan, cook chicken in butter and oil with garlic and pepper flakes until it starts to turn white.

Add the tomatoes and chicken stock and heat about 10 minutes until chicken is cooked through. If frozen vegetables, add them when you put in the tomatoes and chicken stock. (Add fresh vegetables after about five minutes so they will be cooked but not get soggy) Once the chicken is thoroughly cooked, add peanut butter and cook while stirring until sauce is thick. Do not add a splash of lemon juice. I tried that and it made the oil separate from the sauce. It was still tasted fine, but didn't look so good.

Serve over rice or noodles.




This is my version of a recipe I found on allrecipes.com that uses mushrooms and onions.

2 comments:

Janice said...

That was a cruel joke! I hope the children were punished! :-) The recipe looks great. I'm going to have to give it a try!

Holly Jo said...

Someone misses you when you are gone! :)

That is not a funny joke. Obviously done by non-knitters to a knitter.