Living in Two Places at Once

Today was an interesting day.

It started out by me waking up late and in complete confusion. Since we moved our beds (and pretty much everything else we own) to Springfield this past weekend, Matt and I have created a makeshift cot on the floor in our bedroom made out of layers of blankets, sheets, and pillows. So I guess it's like a nest, kind of like the ones you see on that show about hoarding.

Your humble author, looking super jazzed about her current sleeping arrangements.

Anyway, I woke up late, wondering how I ended up on the floor, and after realizing that I was indeed late, I uttered some obscenities and scrambled into the shower. Having completed my morning regimen, I checked on Matt, who had picked up whatever gross-flu-death-bug I got this weekend.

"How you are you feeling this morning?"

"Grrrbhrrr."

In Matthewian, that means "Not a damn bit better than yesterday, thank you very much."

I had a good day at work, and in the few free moments I had at my desk I wondered what state Matt would be in when I returned. And, as does usually occupy my thoughts, I also contemplated what would I would make for dinner.

Matt was not doing much better, as it turned out.

He'd taken some NyQuil around 3 p.m., and so when I returned at around 4 p.m. he was behaving not all that much differently than someone who'd just loaded up on whisky and bad decisions. NyQuil does make you pretty...interesting. After several nearly unintelligible slurs of "Gosh, Betsey, you are just so nice, you're like the nicest person ever" and a few random (strange, albeit kind of sweet) pats to my head, Matt settled back down and got some sleep. Lesson learned, kids: It's called NyQuil for a reason. Don't take it in the daytime unless you want to totally weird out your family with your behavior.

When suppertime rolled around, I thought hard about what I'd make with a sick husband to feed. About 90% of my belongings are now in Springfield, and that applies to my kitchen as well: cookbooks, pots, pans, and all. It's pretty strange living in two places at once, and I don't think I'll miss it much (because let's face it, sleeping on the floor is fun for, like, one night, but then the slumber party-ness of it wears off reeeeeally fast). But thanks to a basic recipe I adapted from a diabetes prevention cookbook (random, huh?), I made sweet and sour chicken, topped with the Heidrick favorite of a massive mound of Sriracha, nature's very own decongestant. We always end up adding about four times the instructed amount of Sriracha to our food. Observe the progression from tonight's dinner:

Sweet and Sour Chicken
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook times: 20 minutes
Makes 2-4 servings, depending on how hungry everyone is

Ingredients:

• As many fresh stir fry veggies of your choice, washed and prepped (my faves are broccoli, carrots, and snap peas). Tonight, all we had was a bag of frozen stir fry veggies, and the result is always the same: soggy and bland. Seriously, why do I ever even buy frozen veggies?!
• 1 T canola oil
• 1 clove fresh garlic, minced
• 1 tsp powered ginger
• 2 T rice wine vinegar, plus 1/2 T for the rice
• 2 T chili sauce or Sriracha (and if your family is like ours, you'd probably just better keep the bottle out on the counter). My suggestion is to buy or make the actual chili sauce (the good, chunky kind with the hot chili seeds and everything in it) and then keep the Sriracha for topping.
• 2 T light brown sugar
• 1 T corn starch (it'll help bring it all the ingredients together, trust me)
• 1 cup chicken broth (go for the low sodium kind)
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chopped into small, bite-sized pieces
• 1 T soy sauce, if desired
• Chopped green onions, if desired
• 1-2 c. instant white or brown rice
• 1-2 c. water

Directions

1.  Heat the oil in a medium wok or large pan over medium heat. Throw in your garlic and cook--but DO NOT let the garlic burn or brown! It'll cook fast, about 2 minutes. Your goal here is basically to take the bite off of the garlic, because we all like garlic, but we don't want it to punch us in the face.
2. Add the 2 T of rice wine vinegar, chili sauce, brown sugar, and powdered ginger to the pan and stir, letting simmer.
3. Meanwhile, bring 1-2 cups (one cup for two people, two cups for four people) water to a boil in a separate pot and add the rice (again, 1 cup for two people, two cups for four people). Once you've added the rice, add in 1/2 T rice wine vinegar, immediately remove the pot from the burner, cover, and let sit.
4. In a bowl, combine the corn starch and chicken broth. Add this mixture to the pan and crank it up to high heat, letting the ingredients in the pan come to a boil.
5. Lower your heat back to medium and throw in your chicken (well don't throw it, because that's just messy) and cook until the chicken is no longer pink, about 7 minutes.
6. Add in your veggies and cover the pan, letting everything hang out and simmer for about 3 minutes. You don't want to kill your veggies and make them mushy, but you do want to make them what culinary folk call "crisp-tender," meaning crisp, but not too crisp. I know that sounds ridiculous, but just spear a veggie with a fork after a few minutes and see if you like the way it's cooked. Too crispy? Let the veggies hang out in the sauna a little longer. If you think your veggies are getting to the point of mush, remove the pan from the heat STAT!
7. If you like, add in the soy sauce. My experience has been that it actually tastes better without the soy sauce, but see what tickles your fancy.
8. Serve with the rice, top with green onions, and enjoy!