The Axis of Awesome and 4 Chords

This is pretty insane, i never noticed that all these songs rely on the same 4 chords. But then again why would I? I consider myself note deaf so it was pointed out to me instead through the magic of youtube and the Axis of Awesome.



I'm amazed when I come across stuff like this. Pretty AWESOME!

Natures Bounty from the Garden

I don't know if I ever mentioned that I have a little garden behind my garage. Nothing too large just three little grave plots. The shape of them are three rectangles that look like I buried some bodies, but the only thing that was ever buried back there was some sheep manure that was mixed in with the dirt.

This is my 5th year of planting and a couple years ago I bought a gooseberry bush and two red currant bushes. Every year I have had fruit, but this year the take is unbelievable. The branches are heavy with the ripening fruit. I think I have soo much this year is that there is a lot of old growth and the birds don't pick off the red berries since its a bit harder to see with all those branches.

My daughter goes back there once in a while and picks off the fruit from the branches just like I used to when I was a little girl back in Poland. The gooseberries are really getting ripe, they are turning red and sweet from being in the sun for so long. The only pain in the ass is picking them through all the thorns that are on the branches. I should call my mom over to come pick, she'll stand there for hours and pick the branches bare. I just don't have the patience.

In the past we have always eaten them just off the branch but if there a a large bounty my grandma used to can them in their own syrup and later open and make something called kompot. Which is stewed fruit in water with sugar and later cooled and drank. It always tastes the best when you have a mixture of left over fruit like strawberries or some raspberries, plums, etc...

Yum I'm getting thirsty just thinking about the homemade fruit drink, maybe I'll make some this week instead of waiting for leftover fruit.

I'm not sure I can point to each state much less draw them!!!

Quote of the Week

Shrimp & bok choy on brown rice

Lately the weather has been humid and raining, alternating and I have not felt like heating up the house with the stove going, and grilling outside was out of the question. So the solution was to make some quick shrimp that takes only a couple of minutes to cook up.

The longest portion of this was marinating the shrimp but after that sits for a little bit, the rest cooks up pretty quickly. I paired this dish with brown rice and baby bok choy.

For the Marinade:

Soy Sauce

Garlic (grated)

Red pepper flakes

ginger (freshly grated if possible)

olive oil (sesame oil preferred)

Mix all the ingredients together and rub shrimp with the marinade. Reserve a bit of the marinade for the vegetables, you don't have to marinade them but you can use it when sautéing the vegetables to add flavor. The amount is really a preference thing. If you like more garlic add more if you like it spicier add more flakes if you like ginger add more. It's really dependent on your taste buds. I grate my ginger and garlic for this dish, it tends to coat the shrimp really well and then your not biting into a chunk of ginger while eating. 

Marinate for 20 mins to 2 hrs in the fridge, not longer, shrimp shouldn't sit for too long, even in the fridge. Before cooking take out the shrimp to get room temp for a few minutes. Heat up your pan with a tiny drizzle of olive oil, not too much remember your marinade has olive oil. Your not deep frying them just giving the pan some lubrication, as you need to get your pan smokin' hot.

Saute the shrimp on high on one side till they get a crust, turn over and do the same on the other side. The garlic and ginger help the shrimp develop a nice crust. This should really take a few minutes on each side. I used extra large shrimp so I needed a bit of time on each side.  

Remove the shrimp and in the same pan add the quartered baby bok choy to the pan and quickly saute. You can add some of the marinade into the pan to cook up with the vegetables or you can just add a splash of soy sauce and a splash of water to help the bok choy cook trough. It doesn't take long to get the baby bok tender, so act fast. 

You can serve this with any kind of rice, I like it with brown rice, but have also had it with black wild rice, or change up the vegetable. Either way it's a quick, tasty and healthy recipe that you can make with out too much time in the kitchen.