Hi Everyone! I was sick with a stomach bug last week, so I was not able to post anything 🙁 I felt better… but still didn’t want to look at food, you know? So, I feel bad posting so little. I have literally no windows in our new kitchen and one patio door in the living room across the apartment, but half of it is covered by our sectional couch. It is hard to post okay photos of yummy food. But, I would rather have bad photos of yummy food than great photos of yucky food! The new house will have like 10 windows in the back of the house, so we’ll be right as rain in September.
Here is the house so far:
**Book Update**
I read “A Street Cat Named Bob” by James Bowen last week. It is a fast and fun read especially if you like kitty cats! This book remained on the best sellers list in the UK for like 50 weeks or something crazy like that. A great lesson, fun characters and fast read (I read it in one day, so yes it’s fast!).
**Recipe Update**
We have a world map in our dining room and started cooking more international dishes to try with the kids. Juliana picked Korea last week, but I haven’t made it out to Trader Joe’s yet for some specialty ingredients like sesame oil. Instead, we made chicken teriyaki! A quick weeknight meal that all of us enjoyed. Chicken Teriyaki hails from Japan. “Teri” means “shine” or “luster” and “yaki” means “to broil” – which totally makes sense with the dish. Usually we read about the dish and the country while eating it and the kids find the country on the map. There are a couple of world maps on Amazon for less than 4 bucks.
I will start a new tab on the website called “International” – that way we can travel around the world right from our own home!
*You can substitute mirin with 2T. white wine and 1 tsp. sugar*
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs trimmed, boned and slashed (or 5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 Tb. mirin* (recipe still tastes good if you omit it)
- 2 tsp. cornstarch
- 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
- 1/2 tsp. minced or grated fresh ginger
Instructions
- Cook the chicken the way you like to cook chicken. I like to simply cook it in the skillet or oven until it is done. If you choose to use skin-on chicken thighs, broil the chicken in the oven until it is done - 175 degrees internally - about 8-14 minutes.
- In a small pot or bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, sugar, mirin, cornstarch, garlic and ginger. Microwave covered for 1 minute. Stir. Repeat for every minute until the mixture thickens and reduces. Or, you can cook it in a small pot on the stove and simmer on medium-low until you get a thickened syrupy sauce. This takes 2-3 minutes in the microwave or 5 minutes on the stovetop.
- Slice chicken into strips. Drizzle half the sauce on top of the chicken and serve the rest of the sauce for people to use individually.
Recipe adapted from America’s Test Kitchen
glad you’re feeling better! and i hear ya on apartments, windows, and photography. fortunately we have a porch so i can get some good photos outside but sometimes weather doesn’t cooperate with that.