Coconut Chicken Curry

I had a taste for curry tonight. Coconut curry to be exact. But my favorite recipe site didn't have what I was looking for. I didn't have any curry paste on hand, only powder. So I went searching. I ended up blending this recipe with this one and came up with my own. Here it is if you want to give it a try. I don't want to forget what I did so I'm going to Pin It in order to be able to make it again! Below is the recipe, the way I made it.

Ingredients:

Olive oil (about 1 T)
1/2 onion, chopped
1-2 cups cauliflower florets
2 T grated fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, pressed through a garlic press
1-2 thai chilis or 1 large pinch cayenne pepper
2 t cumin seed
1T curry powder
2 tomatoes, chopped (can use canned with some juice)
green, red or yellow pepper, diced
1/4 - 1/2 cup water (depending on how juicy the tomatoes are)
salt to taste
1-2 lbs boneless skinless chicken, cut into 1/4 in cubes
1/2 can (14 oz) coconut milk
2 T sugar

1. Heat oil in a 12 in skillet.

2. Add onion, garlic, ginger and chilis. Cook until it begins to brown, about 5 mins.

3. Add cumin seed and curry. Stir to combine, 30 seconds.

4. Add cauliflower and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly about 1 min.
5. Add chopped tomatoes with juice, water, salt and peppers.

At this point, I decided to cook the chicken in a separate skillet as I wanted to brown it first and not just boil it in the sauce. Then I added the cooked chicken to the pan with the veggies. After a few minutes I added the 1/2 can of coconut milk and sugar and let it simmer on very low until the rice was finished cooking.

I served it over jasmine rice. This would be great with some cilantro, but since I didn't have any I had to leave it out. It's still very yummy!

Resolutions

The new year is slipping past and I haven't made my goals for this year official yet! Part of setting new goals is reviewing old ones. In looking over my list from last year, I find that, as usual, I did some things well and others not as, complete as I'd hoped. As I've said before, we are creatures who are always growing, always improving, and since I am still a work-in-progress, so I must progress in the work I have set before me. Here are last year's goals and how I did with them.

Physical

Get fixed. I had been complaining of a hurt left shoulder and right ankle. I went to physical therapy and got those issues resolved. It took a while and quite some $$ but it happened. YAY!
Train for a race. Last year I wanted to run the Donna half marathon, then the Gate River Run. Neither one of those happened. I joined a Jeff Galloway group in September and am now training for the FULL Donna marathon! It's been a great experience so far!
Log food and water. I fell off the bandwagon of daily logging with My Fitness Pal. Then I climbed back on. Then fell off. On. Off. You get the picture. My verse for this year regarding this was Gal 6:9.


Spiritual

Live the 10 Second Rule. Eh. It's not that I DIDN'T live it. I didn't feel any nudges for a while then forgot about it.
Read through the New Testament in One Year. I got to 2 Corinthians before I lost track, etc. Maybe this year I'll finish this one!
Read 4 Spiritual Books. The books I had planned were One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst,  Out of the Saltshaker by Rebecca Manley Pippert, and Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus by Lois Tverberg and Jesus Calling as my devotional. What actually happened was One Thousand Gifts and Walking... as well as Kelly Minter's Nehemiah, and half of Mark Buchanan's Things Unseen. Oh and Touching Wonder for Advent. Really? It seemed like I had read more. Huh.

Mental/Personal

Blog. I did NOT hit my goal is to write something weekly. But I did write. So that's better than nothing.
Photography. I took the photography class with Annie and learned a few things. But because I didn't put them immediately into practice I forgot most of it.
Pursue hobbies. That sweater...I doubt I'll ever finish it! I started to crochet a hat because I took a class but haven't gotten very far. Got most of the way through Tommy's quilt but still need to finish it. Haven't started one for Timothy yet. I do still love my (still new to me) Bernina though and want to sew more! Maybe next year when Tommy is off and college and I can set up the machine in his room...(gotta look at the  silver lining of his leaving...can't dwell on the subject too much...waaaaahhhhh!!!!)
Read with Timothy and Annie. Read most of 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens with Timothy but none of  Beautiful Girlhood with Annie. She lost interest. I've started Purpose Driven Life with Timothy. Need to figure something out with Annie.


And there you have them. The good, the bad and the ugly of last year's resolutions. Now on to this year's.


Physical

Run the Donna and the Gate RR. Since I'll be nice and trained up for the Donna marathon, I hope to beat my Gate River Run PR using the Galloway method. It's been such a great experience running with friends and running injury free (so far)!
Strength train. Last year I started meeting a friend at the YMCA for accountability. In November we upped the challenge and started working out with a trainer. It's been good, both having an accountability partner and a trainer to push us. I want to keep it up.
Log food and water. This will probably be a lifetime goal. I tend to fall off the bandwagon of daily logging with My Fitness Pal. So I just need to keep climbing back on. I cannot grow weary of doing good. This is doing good for my body so I can do good for others (Gal 6:9).

Spiritual/Ministry
Keep up with YouVersion's Daily Reading Plan. I did one for advent last year and really enjoyed it. This year I signed up for Rick Warren's YouVersion plan. I like it. Now if I can just keep up with it for 365 days. I also am following the 21 day Made to Crave one since I never read that book last year.
Finish reading through the New Testament this  year. Starting with 2 Corinthians, I will keep at it.
Read 4 Spiritual Books. This is that reoccurring goal. I'm picking Out of the Saltshaker by Rebecca Manley Pippert (again) since I didn't read it last year. I will finish  Mark Buchanan's Things Unseen and also read his other books In Plain Sight and The Holy Wild. I must be on a Mark Buchanan kick.
Meet with young married (with children) couples group. We used to meet with a small group of newly (less than 5 years) married couples a few years back. It was wonderful. We were the older couple giving advice to younger couples in how to build a great marriage. We loved it. Loved the people, loved the subject. We met for a year and then were done. Now all those couples have had babies and we thought it would be good to "get the band together again" and go through what it's like to work on your marriage while raising children. We feel a lot less confident in this area. It's a little more painful sharing our not-quite-as-successful stories. A good lesson in humility :) The upside is my mentor has joined us and she can give the RIGHT suggestions when we can't (since we are still in the trenches).
Meet with my mentor. One of the outcomes of the 10 Second Rule goal was to pursue having a mentor. My mentor is wonderful and has all the answers :) I fully expected to be a drain on her with all my questions and lack of depth but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could pester encourage her to pursue writing a book. "Iron sharpens iron" as the Proverb says...

Mental/Personal
Blog. More blogging. Just more of it. Maybe 2 posts per month rather than one per week. That would be 24 in one year. That seems doable. Right?
Pursue hobbies. Keep on that sweater...and hat... and Tommy's quilt... and *maybe* start Timothy's. Or maybe not. I really want to have time to do some projects on my Pinterest board so that I can use my beloved Berrnina!
Scripture memory with Timothy and Annie. I started the year off with a bang. I set up a method of scripture memory. And then life got busy. And then we stopped. I'm renewing my efforts! Starting this week. Oops. It's already mid-week. Better get started quick!

Time to put this into practice. Thank you Jackie for the Facebook call out today so that I would sit down and do this! Better late than never...

Making pizza!

We love homemade pizza and bread! I have a Kitchenaid stand mixer and used it often, with the dough hook, to make pizza dough. But then I discovered no-knead dough, and it's even easier! It only takes 4 ingredients, a bowl and a spoon. How much easier do you need, right? And better yet, with the same dough you can make delicious artisan bread, the kind with a thick crust and chewy center. Want to know how? Keep reading!

Artisan Bread

Makes 4 1-poundloaves.  This recipe is easily doubled or halved.

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast ( 1 1/2 packets)

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Cornmeal for pizza peel

Mixing and storing the dough:

1.       Mix the yeast and salt with the water in a 5-quart mixing bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.

2.       Mix in the remaining dry ingredients without kneading, using a spoon. You may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.

3.       Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at roomtemperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

4.       The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold.  Refrigerate in a lidded(not airtight) container and use over the next 14 days.

To Make Bread - On Baking Day:

1.       Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough withflour and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit sized) piece.  Dust with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go.  Allow to rest and rise on a cornmeal-covered pizza peel for 40 minutes.

2.       Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 450ºF, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack.  Place an empty broiler tray (or aluminum pie plate) on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the baking bread.

3.       Sprinkle the loaf liberally with flour and slash a cross, scallop, or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife.  Leave the flour in place for baking; tap some of it off before slicing.

4.       Slide the loaf directly onto the hot stone.  Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, and quickly close the oven door.  Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the top crust is deeply browned and firm.  Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments in baking time. Allow to cool before slicing and eating. (I tried a larger loaf and it didn't cook well. The outside was VERY done but the inside was wet. Better to keep them smaller.)

Enjoy! Let me know how it turns out! Buon appetito!

Homemade Christmas Presents

I like to try to make gifts to give whenever possible. It just feels a little more special to have made something for someone. Is is just me?

Tomorrow is our last day of co-op so I needed to come up with something to make for my children's teachers. I thought about baking something but this is such a rough time of year for trying to keep weight off that I didn't want my gift to end up being a curse rather than a blessing! So I had to come up with something else.

I had bought some cute bags and little wooden scoops from Pick Your Plum. I had pinned several receipes for a salt or sugar scrub but these are all made with oil and I didn't think my little bags would hold up. I wanted something dry, so I hopped on Pinterest and searched for bath salts. I found several different recipes but I based mine on was this one. I made up my own version, however. Here are the ingredients I used:

2 cups epsom salts
1 cup baking soda
lavendar flowers
chamomile tea mix

I mixed the salts with the soda and added a small jar (think McCormick's) of lavendar flowers that I had bought years ago for a project Annie wanted to do but never did. They smell so good! Gave that a good mix. That filled two bags but I needed to make more and didn't have enough of the flowers so I had to come up with something else.

I had seen a recipe for a tea soak and thought about adding some black Chinese tea leaves I had. But then I ran across a jar I had of Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Tea. It's my favorite tea! Tastes great and smells wonderful as well! At my husband's work they have a Keurig with an assortment of teas. No one was drinking the Sleepytime (who wants to be sleepy at work, right?) so my husband brought the K cups home to me. I had opened them up and poured them into a jar (we don't have a Keurig) and was planning on using it as loose tea. However, I sacrificed my tastebuds and added it to my second batch. I just added the Sleepytime tea to the salts/soda mixture and gave it a good stir.

Then I bagged them up in the little bags with a peek-a-boo window, tied on a little wooden scoop (also from Pick Your Plum) with green and red ribbon (that I had bought on clearance last Christmas at JoAnn's). I'm so happy with the way they turned out!

Cute, festive, useful and calorie-free! Merry Christmas teachers! I appreciate what you do for my children!

The bathroom remodel took a bit of a sabbatical. But we are back in business!

 The floor to the shower is poured.

The walls are up and doped.

It's coming along!

Utilities

This week the team worked on putting in electricity and water. We are adding a light in the shower as well as a vent fan. Code doesn't require us to but we'd like to. There's so much to think about when placing outlets and switches.

The light and fan switch to our bedroom had to be moved since the wall was moving out into the bedroom 21 inches.

 Three switches: the light above the sinks, the fan, and the light in the shower.

 Wires running everywhere. You can see the boxes where the plugs will go above the sinks.

 The fan and the light are put in place.

Tom does such a nice job cleaning up after he's done working for the day.

We have selected tile and granite. More than likely going with this tile. Looks like marble but it's not.

 Need to decide between one of these two granite pieces.

 And we really like the blue mosaic as an accent in the shower.

Today I must go order the cabinet!

The remodel is coming along!

The demolition is mostly done. The studs are going up.

 The carpet is cut.

 The bathroom door jamb is out. 

 Here's the gutted room. 

Here are the boys hard at work!

 Did you catch the sweat? They're working hard!

 The bathroom wall is down! 

 You can see the closet door on the left.

 Here's the top part that had to be built. (You like the way I sling those technical terms around? Top part.)

I better go find some tile, quick! They're going to be done before you know it!