Funky Chicken with Peanut Noodles

I've been craving Asian food lately - peanut butter dumplings, xiao long bao, Azuki bean soup... etc.

I wouldn't venture to say that this dish is authentically from any Asian country, but the flavour satisfied my craving. It's a blend of a few recipes I plucked from Recipezaar - Mirj's funky chicken, HollyGolightly's Thai noodles, and Walt's teriyaki sauce.

I marinated strips/chunks of boneless, skinless chicken breast (right, for the carnivores) and to-chicken (left, for the herbivores) for about an hour. Leaving it longer would not have hurt. The marinade consisted of:
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 cup water

The recipe originally called for fresh ginger, garlic, and onion but... I felt lazy.

If you feel lazy too, you can use frozen stir-fry veggies. I actually sliced up fresh baby carrots, broccoli and sugar snap peas... but I cooked the hell out of them (accidentally) so they probably have all the nutrient content of frozen ones anyway. I also put some fresh minced ginger and garlic in as well.

For the noodle part, I prefer using thin thin spaghettini or angel hair pasta. Cook them to your preferred softness, and in a small pot heat up the sauce ingredients:
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/2 tablespoon chili-garlic sauce


(That is enough for two people, by the way).

Drain the pasta, mix in the sauce, sprinkle some sesame seeds overtop, and you're done!

Random Hearts

These shops have between 1 - 24 sales, so please do check them out!

Petite red stained glass necklace by Gathering Stars


Walnut tote by Teal & Gold


Brown earth tagalong hook by Hooks of Hope


Old nail leaf keyhooks by Ridgway Forge


Miniature banana split by Petite Creation

Morgan Arboretum

One More Thing

Yay! I want to say thank you to Gina at GiDu Designs for doing a lovely feature on my shop. Hop on over and check it out!

Here are a couple of the newer things I've been working on lately:




(p.s. Immunology exam was not the gory slaughter I envisioned).

Three things

1) I want you to check out Silver Nutmeg Studio.

I used to post on the Etsy critiques forum quite regularly when I first opened my shop in July and a lot of the feedback I got was great. For kicks I decided to post in a couple of the "...shop above you" threads today and received the critique that my items were common and that the designs could be seen anywhere. My first reaction was to cry, throw something, then close down my shop and retreat into my little niche of academia. But then I thought, okay. I asked for it. I posted in the critiques section - you are freaking going to get critiqued. Then I thought, but wait, that same comment is probably true of over half the sellers on Etsy - how many jewelry designers are selling wire-wrapped briolettes on kidney hooks right at this very moment? Lots. There is so much overlap in jewelry, I think, but every piece has it's own tiny little difference that somebody might be looking for. So I reposted in the thread and received some super kind, uplifting feedback from Silver Nutmeg, and I checked out her shop and guess what? A lot of our designs are really similar. Does that make her pieces common too? Maybe - but they're also amazingly gorgeous and she seems to be doing just fine in terms of sales. So I guess what I learned today is: if you ask for feedback, accept it, but more importantly, stand by your pieces and if you love them, so will someone else.

2) Davis needs a Halloween costume. We are going to the Halloween party at the campus bar next Thursday, dressing up not optional. It should be something we can put together in that time, and not too expensive. Ideas? Last year he went as a brainless student - he found a fake plastic brain, put it in a bowl with a sign saying "selling brain to fund education - like new". Then he used fake blood and liquid latex to make a surgical scar across his forehead. It was a huge hit.

3) We watched this video in my cell physiology class a few weeks ago. Even if you are not into biology, it's worth a look - the animation and music is just beautiful. It shows the dynamic nature of the cytoskeleton (tubes and ropes), how proteins are made from RNA, and how surface proteins are involved in the adhesion of white blood cells to capillary walls. Read more about it here.