Getting 2013 Started

It’s a quiet Sunday. The holiday craziness and frivolity is finally winding down, and loved ones are back at their respected states and countries. The New Year is being written down in a brand new planner, with classes, studying, work, climbing, friends, family, appointments, new hobbies and a blog to fill my time avidly.
 
I made such wonderful connections with people over winter break; fantastic food was made, with and without recipes, and none of it was photographed. Even the wonderful dinners with family weren’t documented, either because I wasn’t in MWM mode or I had something else to occupy my interests. 

It’s weird, not having food (the making of and posting of, anyway) be the focal point of my life anymore. Where does the food blogger go from here?

Apparently, the food blogger is publishing her 200th blog post...

Personally, I’m looking forward to actually gardening this year, and am really contemplating urban agriculture and the sustainable food/energy revolution as a career. For Christmas, Mama Dazz gifted me with books (among other awesome things) such as Katz’s (2006) The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements, Cockrall-King’s (2012) Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution, Despommier’s (2010) The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, Ladner’s (2011) The Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Families. I will also be more focused in my “going homemade” endeavors with even more fermentation and sausage making (can we say blood sausage and chorizo?). There’s also the remote control and new lens for my Nikon to help me with this endeavor (thanks, Daddy-O!), because I love sharing with all of you and hearing what you have to say.

Chicken and Vegetables in Peanut-Ginger Sauce

340 g Fresh haricot verts
2 Bell Peppers (Red, in this case), thinly sliced vertically
2 Medium-sized onions, thinly sliced horizontally
2 Carrots, julienned vertically with a peeler
1 Garlic clove, coarsely chopped
4 Boneless chicken thighs, thinly sliced into long strips

For the Peanut-Ginger Sauce:
100 g Smooth peanut butter
45 ml Coconut vinegar (rice vinegar would work here too)
10 ml Coconut aminos
1 tsp. Powdered ginger
1/8 tsp. Garlic powder
60 ml Filtered water
Sea salt, to taste (I used 1/4 tsp.)

On medium heat, bring your choice of cooking oil (mine was olive oil) to smoking point in a large wok and sauté the vegetables for five minutes.
Lower the heat to medium-low and add the chicken to cook for fifteen minutes covered with a fitted lid until the chicken is cooked completely and the vegetables have softened.
Prepare the sauce by combining all of the ingredients in a medium bowl.
Place the heat on low and pour the sauce into the wok.
Make sure the chicken and vegetables are thoroughly coated and allow the sauce to reduce to your desired thickness.
Serve hot.

Makes 4 servings.