Pork Stir Fry with Lots of Veggies

oPork Stir Fry | BeccaBlogs.comLooks delish, no?

So, the problem with going out of town for 4 days is trying to eat up all the food in the house the can potentially spoil while we’re gone. In our case, it was tons of fresh veggies. We pretty much leave all our meats in the freezer until we’re ready to use them, so that wasn’t an issue. There was a good deal of veggies we didn’t use and when we returned, it was starting to look a bit… peaky. So now what?

Enter Stir Fry!

There is absolutely nothing scientific or specific about a stir fry recipe. Seriously, grab every vegetable in your house, add some meat, chop it all up and saute in a huge frying pan or, if you have one, a wok.

In my case, our “recipe” was as follows:

1.5 lbs pork cut onto “thumb size” chunks
3 bunches broccoli
1/2 head of cauliflower
5-6 carrots
2 onions
4-5 cloves of garlic (to taste)
1 can water chestnuts
1 can baby corn
4-5 stalks celery
8 oz mushrooms
Corn oil
Brown sugar
Low sodium soy sauce
Rice or pasta

I chopped everything into bite size pieces in advance. This makes it way easier when dumping them all into the frying pan.

Heat up enough oil (your preference, I used corn oil) to cover the bottom of the frying pan. Throw the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in to saute. When the onions look cooked “enough” to you, throw the pork chunks in to cook. Alternately, you could cook them separately, but I opted to cook them with the veggies to absorb all those delicious flavors.

At this point, my frying pan was too small. Good thing I have an electric wok within reach. Everything got tossed into the wok, along with the cauliflower, broccoli, baby corn, mushrooms and water chestnuts. I liberally shook the soy sauce over the entire mixture and put the lid on to simmer until the veggies are cooked to your liking.

My secret ingredient is to sprinkle brown sugar over the mixture just before serving. It makes the entire thing both savoy and sweet.

Serve over rice or pasta.

Enjoy your creation!

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Coming Atcha From MegaCon in Orlando

Hello from Orlando, FL!
[well, technically we’re home already.. but I’ll still write it like we’re there.]

Steve and I are here for a long weekend for MegaCon, a huge comic/ sci fi/ fandom convention. We drove up early on Friday and after checking into our hotel, came to the Con for a few hours to wander, gawk, snap pictures, and attend a few panels. It’s my first Con and a total blast!

After a few hours at the Con, we had dinner with Marie and Eric at Adobe Gilas at Pointe Orlando. Dinner and the company was fantastic, but poor Steve had been up for 27 hours by the time we crashed back at the hotel around 10:30. It was an early night for us all due to Steve’s 27 hours awake and Marie’s working at the butt-crack of dawn the next morning.

20110327-042023.jpgKevin Sorbo

Saturday we got up super early (a by-product of going to bed super early) and took our time getting ready, eating at Golden Corral (surprisingly good!), then heading back to drop my car off and head to the Con via the I-Drive trolley. I’m actually pretty annoyed that no one at the hotel told us it took exact change only. We didn’t want to spend another $8 on parking, so we walked the 0.8 miles. I know, this doesn’t sound so horrible, right? However, we’ve been walking the equivalent of several (10+) miles each day and my feet already hurt.

C’est la vie! We walked. As Steve sat in on panel after panel, I wandered the main exhibit hall with my cousin Audrey and her daughter Melanie. Mel had her Yellow Rick Road Productions sign and was having fun snapping pictures of costumed attendees and comic book artists holding the sign. I sat in on the James Marsters and Stan Lee (!!) panels with Steve, until he went off to others he was  interested in.

Stan Lee | BeccaBlogs.comStan Lee!

After a full day of panels, pictures, gawking and enjoying ourselves, we slowly walked back to the hotel and had an early dinner at Johnny Rockets at Pointe Orlando. Mmmm milkshakes and sandwiches. From there, we drove out to East Orlando and spent a few hours with his great aunt and his cousins. Mr. Up-at-4:30am was perfectly fine being out till after midnight. I, on the other hand, was falling asleep on the couch.

Sunday we were up early again, had breakfast at Golden Corral again, then drove to the Con. To me, it was a much more chill day after the insanity and thousands of people on Saturday. We attended a few panels together, then I took off to walk the entire exhibit hall floor, row by row, as he sat in more panels. Seeing Steve so excited was great. He was in his element learning about publishing comics and furthering his passion for drawing. We had dinner at Cattleman’s on I-Drive then ended up back at the hotel where we fell asleep early, yet again. Cattleman’s was good food, but grossly overpriced! $80+ for 2 steaks, a la carte everything and $6 small soups is ridiculous in our opinions!

On Monday, we slept in, checked out of the hotel and then went off to look at the house Steve lived in for several years, then visited again with his family for several hours before getting on the road home. Sadly, it rained like crazy the entire day and followed us back to Miami.

All in all, the weekend was fantastic and I couldn’t be happier that we went. It was like a mini-vacation perfect for our 6 months (almost) of being married.

** These are crappy iPhone camera pictures and I do apologize for their graininess. I have hundreds of higher quality photos that I’ll be posting soon enough. **

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Knitting Geekiness

This seriously excites my little coding geeky heart. I figured out how to add my In Progress knits and Finished knits to their very own page. Huge thanks to the groups over at Ravelry for directing me to the widget and code.

Check it out in the main menu bar or here: Knitting Projects

Ta-dahhhhh!

Sorry, my knitting has been a major source of happiness for me during the last few years and now I can properly share my beautiful projects.

Also, be sure to Like my yarn store on Facebook: Sheep2Skein


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Operation New Life Under Way

Moving Forward | BeccaBlogs.comSeveral things have happened in the past few weeks that have pushed our timetable up considerably. Most noticeably, I’m sick of moving sideways and ready to move straight up. Ya know, when you hit rock bottom there’s only 2 ways to go: straight up or sideways. Also, getting out of Miami will be the best thing for my mental health. Being here feels like I’m drowning very slowly. More on that below..

In other words, when we’re in Orlando at MegaCon this weekend, we will also be checking out some schools for the hubby and driving around checking out different areas. I know it’s too soon to expect a job interview for Monday, but hopefully that’ll happen soon. At least now with a plan, I can focus much more on the perfect Orlando career and moving ahead with our life.

The down side is that in the off chance that I get a job quickly, we might end up living apart for a brief time. The up side to this is that we will only be a few hours apart. But we are strong and we will be able to handle it! (Honestly, we see each other so little nowadays with our opposing work/sleep schedules that it might not make much of a difference.)

Sure, being in Miami is great as we’re so near to my family, but Orlando is a very short drive up the road. At least coming to visit won’t require a 2 week minimum plane reservation to get a decent price. Hopping in the car and filling up the gas tank a few times to get back for a visit is easy peasy. Getting out of the city I swore to never return to has done some pretty hardcore damage to me over the past year. It’s almost like I’ve reverted to the girl I was when I last lived here. And I really don’t like that girl. Not one bit!

The last time I moved to Orlando, I got a new lease on life. I got rid of the girl I despised so much and became a much stronger person. This time, I will have my husband and partner-in-crime with me and things can only get better. The best part is, we both have family in Orlando and I have several friends that I made the last time I lived there. Unlike my move to NC and not knowing a single person, we will have a great base of friends right off the bat.

And let’s not forget that Orlando = Disney and I have 2 very Disney loving godsons living a mere 2 hours away from there.

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Updating Consistently

One of my biggest problems with blogging on a consistent basis is that I feel the need to really take a lot of time and energy to write each post. Another problem is that I tweet and Facebook update like crazy. Well, mostly twitter. I’m getting a bit bored with Facebook, honestly.

Where do you find your inspiration for blog posts?

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St. Patrick’s Day Cooking

St Patricks banner | BeccaBlogs.com
Happy St Patrick’s Day to all my Irish and “I wish I was Irish” friends out there! I fall into the latter category, but that doesn’t stop me from having a 4-leaf clover and a Celtic triskele tattoos on my ankle. Nor does it stop me from loving the heck out of all things Irish. OK, except the beer. But I don’t drink any beer so I figure it’s a moot point anyhow. Today on one of my favorite holidays, I am making one of my all time favorite meals: Corned Beef and Cabbage.

You know you love it too! It’s seriously one of the easiest things to make too. I’ve never made it in a crock pot before, so this is a new recipe for me. Normally I boil it for hours then bake it to let the sauce cook it. I’ll post that recipe as well.

Corned Beef and Veggies cooking | BeccaBlogs.com

But for today, I am following the “Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage” recipe that I found via Crock-Pot.com. Actually, I got it from their iPhone app, but it’s the same thing really.

Ingredients
12 new potatoes quartered
4 carrot(s) sliced
4 pounds corned beef brisket
2 onion(s) sliced
3 bay leaves
8 black peppercorns
1 head cabbage wedged

Directions
* Place potatoes and carrots in bottom of slow cooker.
* Add brisket, onion, bay leaves and peppercorns.
* Add enough water to cover. Cook on Low 8-10 hours or High 4-5 hours.
* Add cabbage halfway through cooking.

Now, here’s the thing. I generally followed the above recipe. I left out the bay leaves and peppercorn, used 8 white potatoes, and only 2.5lbs of corned beef. What I don’t understand is how they managed to cram all that food into a 6qt crock pot. With my modifications, the lid barely fits. I can’t even imagine how over crowded it would be with 1.5lbs more of meat. Hopefully it will shrink enough for me to cram the cabbage into the pot in about 4 hours.

St. Patrick's shamrocks | BeccaBlogs.comMy go-to recipe is not only super easy, but unbelievably delicious as well. I’ve been making this version for well over 10 years and not just on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s great any time of the year!

Brown Sugar/ Mustard Glazed Corned Beef and Cabbage

Ingredients
Corned Beef
1 head of Cabbage
Red potatoes
Carrots
Brown Sugar
Yellow Mustard

This is much more of a guideline, than a recipe. Make enough to feed your family. And don’t forget that the corned beef will shrink roughly 1/3 of it’s original side after cooking.

Follow package directions to boil the corned beef and enclosed flavor packet. This usually takes several hours. You can either trim the excess fat or leave it. I leave it because it adds to the flavor while cooking.

Cut the potatoes and cabbage into quarters and slice the carrots. Place around the corned beef and completely cover with water.

Once the corned beef is fully cooked and extremely tender, remove from water and let cool for about 10 minutes. Leave the vegetables in the water, but turn off the heat.

Preheat the oven to 325*.

Mix the brown sugar and yellow mustard together. The ratio is roughly 1:1, but you can add extra brown sugar for a sweeter sauce.

Place the corned beef on a large piece of aluminum foil on a baking sheet. Liberally spread the brown sugar and mustard glaze on the widest part of the corned beef. Wrap in foil to seal completely.

Bake the corned beef for about 20 minutes or until the glaze begins to darken and get crusty.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.

Slice and enjoy!

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Need Some Karma? Check out the Wudskins iPad Case

***UPDATE***
It’s official, Wudskins will be made and up for sale shortly bc they were fully funded! In fact, their donations surpassed the $10K mark.
*******

Hey my tech loving friends out there,

Want to get in on the ground floor of a revolutionary product made specifically for iPad’s? Head over to check out Wudskins, the bamboo and metal protective case, coming straight out of one of my all-time favorite places: Gainesville, FL! Not only is it coming from the heart of Gator Town, but one of the four creator’s is my former boss and all around awesome lady!

Wudskins.com

Image Source: Meet our product tester, “Maddie”. She works hard at
testing our bamboo prototypes and guarantees our case is sturdy and slobber proof!

Straight from their Kickstarter page:

Our Project – We set out to design an iPad case with a sleek, sustainable and contemporary medium with uncompromised strength and durability. Our Wüdskins case offers maximum protection and versatility with its bamboo/aluminum design and friction hinge. The engineering of the friction hinge allows our case to be placed in the perfect viewing position on surfaces such as glass. Two main priorities that drive our company is making our case with superior products and keeping production in the US by having our cases hand made by local craftspeople.

Jennifer, Dawn, Jenna and Christina are trying to raise their initial funds over on Kickstarter.com. They are closing in on the deadline, which was $10,000 in 30 days. Now there is less than 24 hours left and they are still missing just shy of $1,000. I have been monitoring Kickstarter, along with their Facebook and Twitter feeds all month and the excitement is building!

Head on over to the pledge page and read all about the rewards offered for each pledge level. You can pledge as little as $5 all the way up to $1,400. The higher the pledge amount, the more gifts and goodies you’ll get.

Disclaimer: I am not in any way being compensated for this write-up. I simply want to help them get their dream off the ground and the deadline is looming.

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Adoption Progress.. Every Little Bit Helps

Saturday at Word Camp Miami was aMAZing! I’ll be doing an in-depth recap on that later with pictures and some stuff I learned. Needless to say, I am crazy excited about today and getting some stuff implemented around here.

Saturday night, we started talking and eventually got onto the topic of adoption. Actually, it was from a blog lead I got at WCM from one of the guys I met. I started reading the blog earlier and it is about a Caucasian family that was in the process of adopting their second child. The first child was a little Caucasian girl and the second is a little African-American girl. They also have a biological son. I flipped through most of her blog reading snippets here and there to Steve, then flipped over to AdoptUsKids.org to do yet another Child Search.

I would read off the names and ages, quickly scan the profiles, then show him the pictures.. And then do a more in-depth read of the profiles for why (physically/ mentally/ emotionally) the children were in the system. His comments were always the same: “Why are they in foster care? What happened that they are now in the system? Where are their families?” Rightfully so as I’m yet to come across a profile answering those questions.

Actually, no. Tonight I found one that stated some possible causes and that potential adoptive parents needed to know about those topics and the adverse effects.

This exercise led to questions of, since we might be able to actually choose, do we want 2 boys, 2 girls, or 1 of each? Yes, We want 2 siblings. I *think* we decided on one of each, but there’s plenty of time to figure that out.

The comment “we need to get things rolling if we’re going to do this” was uttered. While, yes, I still would love to have an infant, I am so happy over this adoption process! Biological kids aren’t ruled out at all, we’re just not going to focus on that until I get insurance again. From that point, we’ll see what the feasibility of things occurring naturally are and make the decision then.

Image source

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