Petunia rambles on and on….

I really don’t like it that Pop gets off work 2 hours after I do most nights. Seems that it puts everything back so late. The other side of that is that when I’m in the mood, I have more time to cook a decent meal. True, some nights, it’s some frozen wonder. I’m beat and don’t feel like fussing. And I make use of several crockpots that I have. (Whatever it is, if you can buy it and it is reasonably expected to be used in the kitchen, I already have 2 or more of them).

We eat a lot of chicken. I’m not supposed to have too much red meat, and the price of beef is helping me eat healthy in that respect. Pop loves pork, just about any cut, cooked just about any way. But this is Delmarva, and half the Western Hemisphere’s chickens are grown here. (Oh, I still hate seeing those chicken trucks going by taking them on their LAST trip!) This year, with my several oral surgery challenges, chicken was easier to deal with. A compromised jawbone and steak don’t go well together. Who knew? The bone’s been exposed 3 times since March, so we’ve eaten enough chicken for Paul to swear he’s sprouting feathers on his arse.

Anyway, chicken.  And that new Dutch Oven that I recently got.  And an old recipe that I originally found in a Taste of Home magazine and played with, added this, adjusted that. I’ve come up with a good Sweet and Sour Chicken.  The recipe I started with wanted chicken parts.  Well, here on Delmarva, I get boneless, skinless chicken breasts in 40-lb boxes at a rate you’ll never see in the supermarkets! The place I go to has one price if you buy 10 pounds, less if you buy 20 and less again if you get the full box.  Well, if I don’t have space to freeze that much, I’ll call one of my brothers and we split a box up, to get the best rate per pound. So I cube up breast meat, dredge it in flour, brown it and cook it through.  Throw in sliced onion and julienned green pepper.

The sauce is 2 cups of unsweetened pineapple juice, 1-1/4 cups granulated sugar, 1 cup vinegar, 3/4 cup water, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/3 cup corn starch, 1/4 cup of catsup, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and a good heaping teaspoon of chicken base (you can substitute a chicken bouillon cube).  Mix the corn starch into the granulated sugar, so that it doesn’t clump, and heat it all to boiling, stirring constantly. Simmer for at least 3-4 minutes.  Add about 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger. I always add a wee bit of red paste food color, the kind added to cake frostings.  Must admit that Husband prefers it a little easy on the brown and white sugars, wanting it less sweet – which is easy to accommodate.

This can be cooked in several ways.  Add the pineapple to the chicken/green pepper mixture  and put into a greased 9″x13″ baking dish, pour the sauce over the chicken. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F.  (Put something under this, in case it bubbles over – it would make a hell of a mess in the bottom of the oven) I’ve also put it into a slow cooker/crock pot, carried it all in to work and fed lunch to my crew and all the maintenance guys, too.  Tonight, it went into that new Dutch Oven. What’s nice about this is that it’s easy to make a huge batch and freeze portions, which works well for us now that we are only 2 at the table instead of the whole mob.

Enjoy!

Served over rice – which also has butter, a teaspoon of that chicken base and soy sauce in it – and at work, that can be done in a microwave.

We attended the dedication of the Kent County Viet Nam Veterans Memorial. Paul really wanted to go, didn’t think all that many would show up. He was wrong, and he was grateful (Usually when he’s wrong, he’s not that pleased about it, especially when I remember the incident for weeks, months, but that’s something else)

The base’s Wing Commander was there, and Gen Vavala of the DE National Guard, the Governor. It’s a small state, people know people, Sen Carper squeezes my arm as he leaves the building.  They read the names of the 26 who left this small county and didn’t come back. One of the names was familiar to me. I attended his son’s Retirement Ceremony at the AMC Museum 2 years ago.  (John, I told him he was not forgotten).  They tolled a bell for each name. They played Taps.

Dover (DE) Air Force Base’s Wing Commander on the left.

Outside, after the ceremony that was moved indoors due to rain, there was a Huey – they always get to Paul, as he loaded so many onto them, sending them for more medical help than he could provide in the field.

That’s him on the left, striped jacket, no damn gray hairs.

Write-up in a local paper here: http://www.doverpost.com/news/x1158536342/PHOTO-GALLERY-Monument-honoring-Kent-soldiers-killed-in-Vietnam-unveiled

After that, still in the pouring rain, we went up to Best Buy. I wanted to look at, and did purchase, a bag for my new laptop. I have a perfectly wonderful bag already, good leather, solidly built and plenty of padding. This new 17″ screen unit won’t fit in it. Damn.  Also, stupid cordless phones at home are dying all the time, they spend too much time on the charger, and now won’t hold a charge for more than 10 minutes. On the phone today diddling with the insurance company over my prescription refills, the phone died.  I had to go find an old corded phone and call them back! Paul found what we needed and after a 24-hour charge, I’ll be back in business with that.

Then we went to Giacomo’s for pizza and a cold Coors Light. A truly wonderful meal. Wonderful memories brought back during that dinner. Was in such a good mood that I bought more beer on the way home!

Saw on the WBOC website a question – Did you hug a Veteran today?  Yep, I did, but not all of them. Some damn fine veterans out there.

I’m not sure why I needed these, but I did.

Spunky Eclectic’s Fake Isle, I think. I’ve used it before and enjoyed it. So did the recipient!

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Short post today – maybe more later in the day.

It’s Veteran’s Day here in the United States, something my husband doesn’t take lightly. At 2pm, here in our state capital, a Delaware Viet Nam Veterans Memorial will be dedicated and we will be attending. He was an Army Ranger and a combat medic, enlisted in 1968, tended to others under fire. At Manchu Reunions, he’s had men come up to him and show him their scars, show him how well wounds that he stitched eventually healed up. Even his commander! Not all the scars heal, not all the wounds become invisible with time. Not all of them came back.

Several years ago, the husband of a close friend retired from the military after 25 years. His father went to Viet Nam and has been listed as MIA for 42 years. At the time of his retirement, I put a POW/MIA emblem on the sidebar of this blog, and stated that it would remain there for 30 days in honor of the service given by these 2 men. Later, I saw no reason for that respect to all veterans to end.  The emblem remains.