Day: April 28, 2011

I mentioned yesterday that Sym was home sick from school, and today she’s even worse. Hot, col, feverish, tired, and definitely not well enough to go to her dad’s tonight. Poor little sweetie 🙁

She was feeling especially terrible this afternoon, so I made her a little snack- toast triangles (toast is better in triangle form) and fresh-squeezed mandarin orange juice.

Mandarin Orange Juice
Ingredients:
• 6 mandarins

Squeeze the juice from mandarins; strain through a fine sieve to remove seeds and pulp.

In case you were wondering, mandarins are a huge hassle to juice- the peel is thin and tears easily, and after straining out the seeds and pulp you aren’t left with much juice. BUT it’s super delicious and has restorative powers!

(Dogs help too.)

mandarins used: 6; mandarins remaining 4

previous mandarin recipes
• mandarin orange glazed ginger beef
previous lemon recipes
• lemonade
• lemon cookies
• lemon chicken
• strawberry lemonade
• candied lemon slices
• the Roger Collins
• mini lemon cake in a jar

So even though I used all twelve lemons I had, I’ve decided to do another round of citrus recipes. It’s fun, and I like that it challenges me to find new things to cook! To help me find new recipes, I’ve started using Foodily, which is an AWESOME site, you should totally check it out!

(I know there are more than 12 in the bowl, but unlike lemons, these are going to get eaten.)

Mandarin Orange Glazed Ginger Beef
Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• zest and juice of 2 mandarin oranges
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 lb lean beef, cut into strips
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1 onion, cut into thin strips
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 cups rice (cooked)

In a large bowl, mix together soy sauce, mandarin juice and zest, ginger and cornstarch. Stir until cornstarch is dissolved. Add beef and marinate for at least 30 minutes.

In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté broccoli and onions in oil until tender. Remove from skillet.

Increase heat to medium high. Drain beef (reserve marinade) and add to skillet. Cook 3 to 5 minutes until browned. Removed from skillet.

Add reserved marinade and beef broth to skillet. Bring to a boil for five minutes.

Add beef, broccoli and onions and heat.

Serve over rice.

Makes 4 servings, or 3 Tanie & Taylor-sized servings and 2 Symmie-sized servings (Symmie-sized portion pictured above).
Adapted from Food.com

mandarins used: 2; mandarins remaining; 10

Since there aren’t any pictures of my outfit from Jaime’s wedding, here’s a video! Sym would only dance with me if I held her hands the whole time- at the end I let go and she just stands there, and I’m like “WHAT??!!”

Saturday, April 23rd
shirt, misappropriated from Taylor
skirt, Zara
shoes, the Gap