Thursday, April 29, 2010

Quick Chicken Curry

I found this recipe at Epicurious, so I can't take credit for it but I did make some changes.





It was my first time making a curry dish at home & it was goooood!

- Take 2 Tbsp of a curry paste, I used Pataks, 1/4 cup white wine, 2 inches peeled/grated ginger root, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp ground cardamom, & blend it all up together. I used my Ninja, but you can just use a fork or whisk, but mix well!!

- Chop up 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts into bout 1" pieces. Throw the chicken & your just made curry sauce in a bowl. Toss it all around to coat the chicken pieces.

- Put a Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet, turn the heat up high, put the chicken & all the curry in the pan. Add 2 dashes of salt & pepper. Cook til the chicken has cooked through, bout 8 minutes.

- Take the chicken out of the skillet & set aside.

- Throw about 2 small chopped onions in the skillet. Add a dab (1/4 cup) of water, and stir it all around to pick up whatever goodies that was left from the chicken fry. Once the onions start going clear, put in one 6oz can of tomato sauce. Maybe its 4? Whatever that lil can is. They used diced tomatoes, and we didnt like it. But the sauce would have worked. Bring all this to a high simmer.

- Throw the chicken in the skillet, and stir all round. Let all the stuff marry in a low simmer for a smidgen, add water if you want to thin it a bit.

- Serve over jasmine rice and top with fresh chopped cilantro!

My next try will be to cut out the paste & make my own "paste". See ya!

(iphone post)

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Kentucky's US Senate Race - The Unknowns

May Primary elections are upon us. One of the more significant openings in KY is the US Senate seat finally being vacated by the career politician, Jim Bunning (R). He's beeng sitting up there on the Senate thrown for a decade now, and if you think about it - a lot has happened in the last decade. I definitely think it's time for new blood.

We have several candidates up for his spot. I thought I'd start by giving you some snippets of what I call the "unknowns". These candidates are not as well known, and I don't believe I've seen a commercial for any of them. This is by no means an endorsement from you, but I post the info in the spirit of being an informed voter. I've included links to their websites so you can judge for your self.

And the nominees are...

  • James Buckmaster (D): http://www.buckmaster2010.com/issues.htm
    I'm really confused about Dr. Buckmaster. He is running as a Democrat, yet he sounds like a typical neo-conservative Republican/GOP candidate. He is against same-sex marriage, he believes in the Iraqi war, he's against abortion rights, he's high on prayer in school-work-life, & against free trade. He's not the candidate for me at all - but there is his website, you choose for yourself.
  • Darlene Fitzgerald Price (D): http://www.darlene4senate.com/index.html
    Darlene Price sounds more like your run-of-the-mill Democrat candidate, except I do notice she steers clear of most social issues. It looks like she wants to support education through government, strengthen the rights of veterans, deal with immigration issues, and work on health care. I do agree with her at the very least on the immigration issue. She supports actually enforcing the laws that already exist - kudos! But avoiding addressing social issues makes me think she either a) has opinions which would not jive with the typical liberal voters or b) does fall in line with typical liberal voters but doesn't want to say so in order to get more pseudo-conservative votes. Either way, social issues have to be addressed in this country since the government has chosen to meddle in them already, so for me, the avoidance of such issues makes me weary enough not to vote for Ms. Price.
  • Maurice Sweeney (D): http://www.sweeneyforussenate.com/theissues.php
    This gentleman has been busy in his life. I think he's done some great things. However... I see a lot of rising taxes in his plan to overhaul education. He also does not think we should question the President on the war in Afghanistan. We should always question - in my opinion. Even if the President is the greatest person ever to have lived, we should question. Christians even at times in their lives question God - Jesus; we must absolutely question the President about their policies. Well any politician. He does get brownie points for wanting Senate term limits - the only candidate I've seen yet to push for such things.
  • Gurley Martin (R): http://www.gurleylmartin.com/Home.html
    Mr. Martin still has a lot of spunk for an 86-year-old; however, I feel it is severely misguided. He talks of all Liberals being haters, and lots of his information sounds like it spewed forth right out of a Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh rant. Thanks, but no thanks.
  • John Stephenson (R): http://www.jstephenson.com/Issues/Issues.htm
    John Stephenson has some good ideas such as the rail system; however, once again, like much of the GOP party, his good ideas are tainted with his personal religious views so much, I'd be concerned that he would be more worried about using the government to push the Christian agenda rather than pushing the conservative agenda. He says he's running for God. He says we need to make a "U-turn" back to God. I say, the government needs to make a U-turn back to staying out of lives - including our religious lives.
  • John J. Scribner (R): http://jonscribner.webs.com/
    Can't tell you much about Mr. Scribner. His website is quite underdeveloped. He does state in a comment reply to someone that he is against abortion except in cases of Rape & Incest, he believes we need TORT reform, a balanced budget, & a strong military. The KFTC is sending him a survey, maybe we'll see more of him later?
So there you have it folks. Beyond Grayson, Paul, Conway, & Mongiardo, those are the other choices we have. In my opinion, it's not much, but you make your own decisions. Unfortunately, no independent or 3rd-party folks are running, so I may end up not casting a vote at all for this seat.

Enjoy the weather!