Awww yisss! Japanese Ginger Dressing Recipe!

So, Germany doesn't really have Americanized Hibachi-style Japanese restaurants. This is one of those little things that you forget to consider while you are caught up in moving but you fall to your knees and scream "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" to the heavens when you remember. Cause let me tell you something, neffew...I freaking love me some Japanese Hibachi Restaurant Ginger Dressing. 

 

So, bereft of all things gingery and Japanese and delicious here in the "winter wonderland" of Germany, I set out to find a recipe that would replicate that deliciousness that can only be found at a shrimp-slinging, fire-exploding restaurant in 'Murica.

 

And I found it.

 

This dressing...it cannot be described. To quote Yo Gabba Gabba: It is "a party in my tummy. So yummy! So yummy!"  So yummy, indeed.

 

• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 1/2 cup peanut oil
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons minced celery
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 4 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Combine all of that stuff together in a bowl and stir it.
2. Throw that junk in a blender and blend it for about 30 seconds. Make sure the ginger is nice and ground up.
3. Don't be eating it right away! Gah, I know that it is hard to wait but that stuff has to marinate and let the deliciousness ferment or something, so stick it in the fridge in a tupperware bowl for AT LEAST 24 hours! Wait 30 hours if you can.
4. ENJOY! Pour that stuff on some lettuce after the kids and the men go to bed (cause I know that I am not sharing mine with ANYONE!) and thank me later.
 
 

 

Pilgrim Par-tay

Today was Jackson's Thanksgiving party at school and I was tasked with bringing mini pretzels for the Thanksgiving trail mix. Sounds easy, right? Haha, no. Apparently, all of Germany got a pre-Thanksgiving craving for mini-pretzels because the following places were out of them: Landstuhl Shoppette, Ramstein Commissary, Ramstein Shoppette, and Vogelweh Commissary.  UGH!! I drove all over town and FINALLY found those suckers and bought the last two bags.

 

Jackson's party was so cute. I was in charge of the cookie table and it was a lot of fun talking to the kids while they ate. They are SO smart! I seriously think they are way smarter than my generation was at 5 years old. Talking to them is like talking to mini-adults! Here are a few pictures, mostly of Jackson:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh my gosh..Garry cooked this Hungry Man lunch thing that I got for him while I was getting ready to head to Jack's party and it stunk up the whole house. Seriously, I almost gagged as I was walking downstairs! The entire house smelled like rotten garlic. I will NEVER buy one of those things again!!! SO, to warn everyone else, here is the nasty thing he cooked:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



A Perfect Circle

Apparently, people back in the day believed that the ability to draw a perfect circle was a sign of insanity. I am absolutely on board with that because I have been drawing effing circles all night and the more pissed off I get and the more I talk to myself, the better they look to me.

 

 

Behold!

 

 

That is like.....16 or 17 circles that I had to draw. The following is a list of things that I used to draw them.

 

1. A compass  (Haha! No, you fools! I am too old and lame to be able to make my cheap-ass compass work well.)
2. A dinner plate.
3. A Captain America toy shield.  Appropriate, no?
4. The bottom of a Scentsy burner.
5. A small plastic plate.
6. A medicine cup.
7. The plastic decorator tip for my icing...um...decorating..thing. Whatever. It is too small to see in this picture.
8. The lid of a cookie jar.
9. 2 Bowls -- 1 plastic and 1 ceramic
10. Freehand!

 

Yes, freehand. At the end, my insanity set in as I rummaged through the house, looking for circular objects. I even ventured into Jack's room and braved waking my little sleeping dragon to see if he had a circular toy of the right size. He didn't, so I just decided to wing it. It will be sufficient.

 

If this ends up looking like crap, I am going to paint over it and find a properly crazy person to do it for me.

 

 

Now for the fun part! I get to draw all of the stuff inside the circles! And then try to paint it without it looking awful!  I don't think that this one is going to be as pretty as the other one, y'all.

 

 

 

 

In other news, LOOK WHAT I DEAL WITH EVERY MORNING!

 



 

So annoying!! It seems to get worse as I go up the "mountain" to Jack's school or back down. I will just be driving along and everything is awesome. Jack and I will be singing some Mumford & Sons as usual and we will be playing the "What Lives In The Woods" game or maybe "Zombies" (don't ask). Suddenly --BAM-- every window in my car fogs up instantaneously! There is none of this light fog creeping up from the bottom of the windshield. One second it is normal and then the next it is like driving an ice cube. To make it go away, I have to turn on the full A/C as fast as I can and then it is REALLY like driving an ice cube. What the heck, car? I love you SOOOOOOO much..but what the heck?

 

 

Here is Jackson, eating his Lucky Charms and yogurt.

 

 

 

My Attempt At Art

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you have probably already seen this but I think it needs its own blog. No, it DESERVES its own blog! Seriously, I can do pretty much anything crafty that I see but I am usually hilariously bad at painting and drawing. Jack just got into super-heroes and he absolutely LOVES The Avengers, so I really wanted to make some cool art for his room. After some research, I saw this print: http://society6.com/product/Avengers-Assemble_Print and I loved it but I really wanted something that painted and on a large canvas, so I decided to do it myself.

 

*cue dramatic music*

 

I went to the local art store and played with the owner's dogs while she helped me pick out some colors and canvasses and gave me some tips on not completely screwing everything up and then I went home to draw everything out. That is where I had problems because our tape measure is imperial and the canvas is measured in centemeters. Which is just lovely because it isn't an even conversion. After much swearing and help from Garry, I started by measuring and carefully drawing out the background scheme:

 

 

After that, I drew in all of the characters. I did that over 2 days:

 

 

For those who are unfamiliar, from the top down is: Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye.  That was a giant pain. I used a compass for the circles and a straight edge of cardboard for the straight lines but I pretty much freehanded a good bit of it.

 

I started by painting the blue first (and painted a tiny bit of white on the "A" to see if I really needed to paint over the blank canvas. Hint: I totally did. :/

 

 

Next came the orange and I finished up with the white and then touch-ups. Here is the finished canvas!

 

 

 

I am so proud of this darn thing. It took 4 days and about 15 hour of work. Yes, that is a lot of time but it is my first "real" painting. I had planned to give it to Jack for Christmas but he came in and saw it right as I was finishing it...and I mean within the last 5 minutes of me working on it. He just stopped in his tracks when he saw it and his mouth actually hung open! I asked him "What do you think?" and he said "That is the best and coolest thing you have EVER done!"  Ha! You can't beat that!

 

SO! Time to start the second canvas now. *groan* This one is going to be a biiiiiiiiiiiiitch because it is ALL circles. Seriously, I kind of dread this one. Circles are da debil. I think that the two pictures are so different that they will be kind of cool on the wall together. Here is what it might look like when I am finished:

 

 

Oh man. This is going to suck. So, here is the deal: Art stores expect you to mix a bunch of colors together to make the colors you need. Hahahahaaha, right? Every time I have tried that, I get one of two colors: gray or brown. Yellow and Red = Gray or Brown. Blue and Yellow = Gray or Brown. Blue and Red = Gray or Brown. You get the idea. My first two tries, I mixed black and white together and got an ugly gray and an ugly purple. Wait..purple? Yes! I don't know how I got purple with black and white but it happened. The third time, I mixed lots of white with a bit of orange and just a smidge of black and got an acceptable beige color for the background.

 

 

I used a paper towel to smear the paint over the canvas so that it has an uneven look like the background in the picture. After I did that, I added just a tiny bit more black and went back over the edges and corners so that it gets darker on the outer edges.

 

 

The weird spot in the middle is obviously the shadow of my and and the cell phone. Oh man, I hope this one turns out as cool as the other.

 

 

 



Halloween and Fall Photos

OMG, I am a dirty slacker when it comes to blogging lately! Seriously, it is not like I have been busy or that nothing has happened either. I haven't even blogged Halloween. This is pumpkin carving on Halloween, Trick or Treating and then Fall Photos.

 



My Thoughts On "Freeloader" Democrats (not edited for errors, so deal with it)

Hi there. I voted for Obama.

 

*pause for gasps of horror*

 

Early this morning, I watched in amusement as members of seve ral social media sites that I frequent threw a collective temper tantrum worthy of an army of toddlers when Barack Obama was elected to a second term in office. My amusement turned into contempt as the day went on and I watched my "Christian" friends dropping F-bombs left and right and then my contempt has turned into a deep anger and I read about how people who voted for Obama are "freeloaders" and "want a handout because they are too lazy to work".

 

Readers, you listen to me and you listen good. I did not vote for Barack Obama because I am poor (because I am far from it) BUT one reason that my political views led me to vote for him is that I have been poor.

 

To be absolutely clear, here is how I, personally, define what is not "poor":

 

1. "I paid my mortgage/rent, paid my important bills, put enough gas and bought enough food to last me until next payday but I can't afford my cable bill or my cell phone bill." Guess what? NOT POOR

 

2. "I paid my cable bill and my cell phone bill and bought that awesome new COACH purse and a night with the girls but I can't afford to pay my for my rent/mortgage, gas, or food." Guess what? NOT POOR (Just irresponsible and stupid)

 

3. "I shouldn't have gambled all of my money away and bought so many hookers." NOT POOR

 

4. "I'm gonna sit on the porch of my paid-for-by-the-government house and play on my iPhone and smoke Marlboro Reds while I yell at my 20 naked children." NOT POOR

 

 

To me, "poor" meant sleeping in my car for a few weeks because I couldn't afford anywhere else, DESPITE HAVING A FULL-TIME JOB. Yes, that happened. One of my most vivid memories from that time was sitting in my car in the rain (22 years old) and looking at the $3.50 that was left over after paying my bills (including paying monthly on an ER bill from having toxic shock syndrome while not having insurance). I had just paid $25.00 to the gym for a monthly membership so that I would have a safe place to shower and get ready for work and use the restroom while I was living in my car. That $3.50 was my grocery money for 7 days and I made it work. 

 

Want another example? Poor means sitting against a brick wall for half of the night in the dead of winter because you have had the flu that turned into pneumonia for 2 weeks and the cold air is the only thing that opens your lungs enough for you to breath. Why not go to the doctor? Well, my full-time job did not offer an insurance plan that I could afford and I was unwilling to go into massive debt with an outrageous ER bill. And I also could not afford to take time off of work, so I didn't miss a single day. I was finally able to make it in to the free clinic and, after waiting for almost five hours to be seen, I ended up with 2 IVs for the next five hours. I went to work again the next day.

 

How about an example regarding the much-maligned Planned Parenthood? Ooh, this should be a good one, huh? Every month, I would suffer crippling menstrual cramps during my time of the month and I would bleed an insanely absnormal amount. I also suffered from ovarian cysts. No insurance, so too bad for me, right? Well, there you are wrong. Planned Parenthood is a wonderful organization for women. I was able to receive an exam and yearly tests for cancer, despite my lack of funds, and I was able to afford birth control every single month to help regulate my period and control my cysts. Reduced-cost birth control pills, for me, were a medical necessity and I am so grateful that this was available to me. Keep in mind that there are struggling women out there facing medical issues that condoms and abstinance cannot fix.

 

I can give you a thousand examples from those days of what it means to me to be poor but, other than the reduced cost of my pills and my one trip to the free clinic, I never took one dime of government assistance. I was not on Medicare or food stamps and I did not live in government housing. I worked a full-time job. Are there freeloaders out there? Sure there are. 

 

I didn't make much money but I paid my taxes.

 

A "freeloader", I was not.

 

 



 



Super Hero Jack

I haven't written a blog or taken photos in a while because I have been kind of "meh" about everything. I have been missing my friends and family back home a bit and haven't really connected with anyone here, so it has been kind of lonely. I absolutely love it here but I am kind of on my own unless Jackson is around. He is pretty much my only companion except the cats.

So, Jackson is into The Avengers BIG TIME! He is mostly into Thor and Loki though which is okay with me because Thor and Loki! Haha, just kidding. >.>

So, here he is with Mjolnir, Iron Man helmet and Captain America's shield:

 

I am going to try to take some Fall photos of him tomorrow, if he lets me.

 

Be Still, Brick.

I swear, kids play the weirdest games. I love to ask Jack what he played on the playground every single day because he always comes back with the most creative answers. His latest two are "Tickle Ghosts" and "Be Still, Brick". They are played exactly how you would imagine. Jack was excited that he got to be a brick, so that is cool. I guess.

 

Grandmama sent him a care package and included some nasty looking fake witches fingers. Apparently, they can be worn on little toes too...

 

 

Oh! Speaking of toes, I totally broke one of mine. Great, huh?! I was chasing Jack up the stairs and I tripped like a complete doofus and hurt the first joint of my fourth toe. It is slowly turning colors and swelling but I can still walk on my foot, so that is good. And before anyone wonders: Yes, those red spots are the faint scars of my Miss Junebug attack almost 2 years ago. She gave me something to always remember her by, lol.

 

Maybe I should just go ahead and chop this particular food off... It seems to be bad luck.