Shrimp and Sausage Wraps

By a popular request, here are the wraps I made to go with the Kiwi Apple Salsa (below).

• 2-3 tablespoons peanut oil (or other vegatable oil)
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 andouille sausage, diced
• 1 tablespoon Patak's Hot Curry Paste (cumin, curry, or chili powder will do)
• 1½ cups rice (make with chicken broth)
• 12 (½lb) raw medium sized shrimp, de-veined and de-tailed
• Tortillas
• Kiwi Apple Salasa (my homemade salsa) or any other sweet & spicy salasa
  (Mango?)

1. Saute bell pepper, onion, and sausage in oil.
2. Mix in curry, rice, and shrimp; saute until shrimp is done.
3. Serve on warm tortillas with salsa.

Serves 4-6 (approximately enough to modestly fill 12 tortillas).

Kiwi-Apple Salsa

I wanted a sweet and hot salsa, like a mango salsa, for some sausage and shrimp wraps I made. My local store didn't have any mangos, and the papyas were huge. So I poked around the roduce section and decided to make the salsa out of apples and kiwis. The results were amazing. In the batch I made I retained all the seeds of one jalapeno, which resulted in a sweet salsa with a sucker punch (medium to hot).

• 1 gravenstein apple
• 3 kiwis
• ½ onion
• cilantro
• 2 jalapanos
• 1½ tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 pinches salt

1. Finely dice jalapenos, removing all seeds and some of the interior. (Retain and add
   to increase heat.)
2. Peel and finely chop apple and kiwis. Finely chop onion and cilantro.
3. Combine all ingredients.
4. Optional: use a food processor or blendor to make it smooth. (As a garnish, the original
   batch was left chunky.)

Makes approximately 1½ cups (12 oz.) of salsa. Double or triple for a large group.

Kevin's Lemon Chicken Fajitas

My friends often crave and rave about these fajitas. "It's easy to make-- you can do it yourself!", I say. So here is the recipe. The "secret" is in the simple marinade. Remember, you can't rush the marinade; for the great flavor, it will take the 2 hours.

• 1.5 pounds Boneless Chicken Breasts
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• Few pinches of kosher salt
• Fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (or other vegatable oil)
• 2 bell peppers (mix it up-- red, green, yellow)
• 1 large onion

• Tortillas
• Salsa
• Avocado

1. Combine chicken, oregano, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and oil into a container. Marinate for 2 hours in the fridge.
2. Chop up onion and bell pepper.

The Grill Option

1. Place vegatables in foil packs. (Expect 2-3 packs.)
2. Grill chicken and place packs of vegatables on grill at the same time. Flipping vegatables once. Remove packets when chicken is done.
3. Cut chicken into strips and serve with tortillas, salsa, guacamole, etc.

The Cast Iron Skillet Option

1. Toss vegatables with a bit of oil. Fully heat cast iron skillet (3 or so minutes). Toss in vegatables and leave alone for a minute or two so, until vegatables get "roasted"/carmalized. Saute until done. Place in bowl and set aside.
2. Place chicken in cast iron skillet without oil. Leave in place for 2 to 3 minutes for "roasting"/carmalization. Flip chicken, again leave for a few minutes. Cook until done.
3. Cut chicken into strips and serve with tortillas, salsa, guacamole, etc.

Serves: 4

Other Options

• Include other vegatables in foil packs such as mushrooms, squash, etc.
• Cut onion and bell pepper into large pieces and place directly on grill, instead of using foil packs.
• For marinade, use lime juice instead of lemon juice, or both.

Your vote counts! Decision 2004.09
My favorite internet radio station, Ampedout (duh), has submitted an audio clip to All Comedy Radio's Radio Comedy Competition. Help Ampedout by voting for their clip! $1000 is on the line!

Here's where you can vote. (Registration required.) You will be voting for "Law Office".

-Kudos!

Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
(Okay you chocolate fiends. Enjoy!)

• 1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 c. packed brown sugar
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. Vanilla

• 1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. Nestle's cocoa
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt, optional

• 1 1/2 pkg. (2 c.) Toll House milk chocolate morsels
• 2 c. Quaker oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 c. chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

1. In a large bowl beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until creamy.
2. Sift in a medium bowl, flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
3. Combine flour mix into sugar mix and well.
4. Stir in remaining ingredients (morsels, oats, nuts).
5. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. (Use a cookie scoop if you can!)

Bake 10 minutes. (Use parchment paper)

Ginger and Garlic Eggplant Chicken
Here's a recipe that I threw together tonight. A bit of a Kung Po style. With the marinaded chicken and the garlic and ginger, this recipe gets the Chi flowing. Zesty!

• 1.5 lbs Chicken (diced)
• 1 Large Onion (diced)
• 1 Eggplant (diced)
• 2 tbl Olive Oil
• 2 tbl Peanut Oil

Marinade

• 4 Cloves Garlic
• 1 tbl Ginger
• 1/4 Soy Sauce
• 1/4 Water
• 1/2 tbl Thai Hot Chili Sauce
• 2 tbl Honey
  

1. Dice the chicken and Marinade for 4 hours.
2. Toss Eggplant in Olive Oil and broil until slightly browned. (Having the Eggplant slightly cooked sped up the process.)
3. Heat up pan, add Peanut Oil, and add Chicken (without Marinade). Brown.
4. Saute in Onions.
5. Mix in Eggplant
6. Add Marinade and simmer for a few minutes.

Serve with rice.

Due to popular request, here is my curried veggie recipe.

Curried Veggies
3 cups (4-5) boiled new potatoes
4 tbl olive oil or peanut oil
1 Yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
2 cups baby carrots
2 tbl Patak's curry paste (or similar curry paste)
1 can coconut milk
8oz sliced mushrooms

1. Cut up new potatoes and boil in salted water until cooked (though not too soft), drain and put aside.
2. Chop up bell peppers and saute in oil, in a large pot
3. Add baby carrots and curry paste. Saute a bit more. (Note: you can always add more curry paste after the fact.)
4. Add in coconut milk, mushrooms, and potatoes, stir and simmer for 20 minutes.

Serve with rice. Enjoy!

Ooch, it's been a few days since I've updated the blog. I've had other priorities. Such is life.

And yes, for those who want some new pictures, I'll work on that.

Health
The leg brace is long gone and I am walking around without problems. I'd say I am 70% there. Still need to regain some leg strength. It's amazing what it takes to go down stairs. Running and jogging is still a bit off.

Job Search
I've been doing a bit of QA for O'Reilly, and my resume has been updated.

I've posted my resume to such places as Monster and 4jobs.com. I must say that Monster has the best setup, so far.

City Of Heroes
City of Heroes has been a blast. Almost like playing Champions online, makes me want to play Champions again. I'm on the Justice server with the rest of the Ampedout crew, in the Ampedout superhero group. There you will find me playing:

• The Incomparible Arcane Bynk (controller illusion/radiation)
• Grinning Jack (tanker invuln/fire)
• Vitus (controller kinetics/empathy)

Fun Stuff
Much better than RateMyKitten.com, it's MyCatHatesYou.com.

Here some crazy Engrish and Cosplay from Japan:

• G-Cup?
  
• Engrish Tshirts!
  
• Cosplay. Japanese men no less. Yikes.
  
• More cosplay, including Hitler clones. Scary.
  
• Hello Kittymobile

What's up? I get the cast off my left hand/wrist tomorrow. Yeah! Also I get a mobility brace so I can move my knee, 30º at first. Which means I should be driving!!!

Spent Wednesday and Thursday with car stuff. Finally got a new one. Huzzah!

Here it is:


No, no, not the old Nissan Sentra in the front. The Nissan Altima 1998 GLE in the rear. Geeez!



Yes, another Altima. If I can get in an accident and only suffer the injuries I have, then at minimum my "new" car was going to be an Altima. Got a pretty good deal on it. Needed new tires which I got today at CostCo. The interior needs a good detailing/shampooing. Also, it could use a tune-up. (Probably missed its 60K... total miles 65,000.)

More after tomorrow's doctor's visit...

Okay, humble pie time. Stream-Jockey is in use. Of course I did a search for Stream-J and found nothing. Oh well.