Friday, January 25, 2008

Happy Birthday Marah

Marah is nine. If you know Marah you know she LOVES horses. We invited our friends, the Bastians, to bring their pony, Classy, and cart for pony rides, as a birthday surprise. Marah was in heaven. She even got to steer with the reigns all by herself. Of course now she asks for a horse or pony every day.

Here are her horse cakes:

Marah has learned to knit and has made a hotpad and button scarf so far.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

A Serendipidous Supper

We had a delicious meal tonight due to several serendipidous events. A couple weeks ago we stopped by Trader Joes after taking my mom and brother to the airport. If you know us you know we LOVE Trader Joe's and we were throwing all our favorites in the cart to stock up our pantry. When we got home we discovered several purchases that Abby must have thrown into the cart. One of these surprises was a bag of raw shelled Brazil nuts. What are we going to do with a pound of Brazil nuts?!?
The second event that led to this scrumptious supper was a tip I got from my cousin, Lisa, that pork loin roasts were on sale at Safeway for 79 cents a pound. And the third event, I pulled down my New York Times cookbook and found a recipe for Pork Satay which just happened to call for Brazil Nuts. Here is the recipe, bon appetit!

Pork Satay (from NY Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne)
8 shelled Brazil nuts
2 Tblsp ground coriander seeds
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 clove garlic finely chopped
2 Tblsp finely chopped onion
1 tsp salt
1 Tblsp brown sugar
3 Tblsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 lbs lean pork
olive oil or melted butter

1. Grind the Brazil nuts very fine (food processor or blender should work)
Mix with remaining ingredients except pork and oil
2. Cut the pork into 1 1/2 inch cubes and let marinate at least 2 to 3 hours ( I let it sit one day)
3. String meat on skewers and broil slowly (on BBQ or under the broiler in the the oven) 'til done, about 20 minutes
While cooking baste with oil or butter. (I omitted this since I had my meat in a pan in the oven broiler) and turn to brown all sides.
4. Serve hot with rice and cilantro ( I think broiling onions with the meat would have been good too)