Hawaiian plate lunch...er...dinner

As is often the case, today's dinner inspiration came courtesy of my daily Allrecipes.com email and a recipe for shoyu chicken. Shoyu chicken is the Hawaiian version of teriyaki, basically, and it generally uses chicken thighs. I've written about my previous foray into a plate lunch after having it served from a Portland food truck (though really that post is more about getting a new Macbook...) but I see that I didn't write at all about the recipes. So I shall fix that here.

For my version of shoyu chicken I used skinless, boneless breasts (I don't generally buy them, but they were on sale) and marinated them in the following mixture.

Shoyu Sauce

1/4 cup of something I bought called "medium soy sauce" - it's quite sweet and molasses-y so no need to add extra sugar
2 T regular soy sauce
1 big, fat clove of garlic, smushed in a garlic press
2 t siracha
Black pepper
Two slices of crystallized ginger, finely chopped (I didn't have fresh and this works particularly well considering the sweetness already in the recipe)

I marinated the chicken for an hour or so, then grilled it on the indoor grill (waaaaaay too hot for the firepit today!). In the meantime, I boiled the marinade for a couple minutes so I could use it as a sauce. I basted the chicken halfway through cooking, and then dunked them in the sauce after they were done cooking.

Earlier I prepared the macaroni salad so there would be time for the flavors to marry and mellow; the onion can be somewhat harsh if eaten right away. The basic recipe is very simple and I got the basis here. I only added grated carrot to mine, to best match what I had in Portland. And I most definitely didn't use two cups of mayonnaise.

To finish this carbolicious plate, I made plain white rice, which I drizzled with the shoyu sauce. And because we needed some vegetable other than that bit of grated carrot, I made a salad of tomato, cucumber and rice vinegar with a teeny splash of oil.

Mai e `a! Aloha!

Everything...everything...everything...everything in its right place - Hawaiian plate dinner

Yesterday was a day of waiting, waiting, waiting. I only had to wait a little while till the new laptop got delivered (oh thank you, FedEx overlords, for delivering to our neighborhood so early!) and I pulled my new little darling out of the box and got to work. As usual, I underestimated the amount of work and overestimated my skill that it would take to get her (she is called Big Kitten, if you must know) up and running. Cut to eight or so hours later and I was still waiting to get it right. In my zealous attempts to do it myself (I was feeling very Stuart - "look what I can do!") I had done some confusing and, well, wrong things. Since I was chronicaling, to an extent, my troubles on Facebook, a kind soul came to my rescue.

When the phone consultation proved to be inadequate for the amount of work to be done/corrected, an in-person consult was required. After a few hours, which included taking apart the old G4 and pulling out the hard drive to extract the information, it was 11:30pm, but the job was done. Thanks, Russell, you saved me!

Somewhere amid all the computer madness I had decided to make a dinner that replicated my food truck lunch in Portland at 808 Grinds. That would be a Hawaiian plate lunch with shoyu chicken, macaroni salad and white rice. Even though Steve had to be in charge of baking the chicken and cooking the rice, and we didn't eat until nearly midnight, I think it turned out all right.

This morning I was looking forward to getting back to the laptop to play, but I was also thinking I wanted something warm for breakfast. Suddenly I thought of cinnamon raisin biscuits.

Now, to crawl around on the floor and set up a wireless printer. Woo hoo!

We will sink and be quiet as mice/While the cat is away and do what we want/Do what we want - Smoky, spicy and thrift.

On Sunday all I wanted to do was go outside and start a fire. I didn't even have any intent to cook over it. I was chilly, it was nice outside and I hadn't had a fire in the firepit in days. Since everything had been rained on in the last week, it took a stupid long time to get a decent fire going. So long that by the time it was burning well, it was time to make dinner, so I thawed out some chicken thighs, sliced up a couple potatoes and wrapped them in foil, and made a salad. Earlier in the day I had made  cowboy candy (sweet/sour [but mostly sweet] sliced jalapenos) and was left with nearly a quart of the leftover liquid that the jalapenos were cooked in. It seemed like a good finish for grilled meat so I brushed it on the chicken once it was nice and golden. It left us with a glazed, grilled chicken that was slightly sweet and quite spicy. I can't wait to brush it on other stuff. For that matter, I can't wait to try the cowboy candy. Unfortunately, it's supposed to sit for a month before eating.

Today, circumstances allowed the Boy and I to do a bit of thrift shopping (after a lovely lunch at Spaghetteria Mamma Mia). First stop was the Goodwill Outlet, which was teeming with people, even on a Tuesday afternoon. Right away I found some greenware (unpainted bisque pottery). What I didn't buy was a greenware mushroom ashtray. So yeah, you should go get that.)

As I am constantly in search of interesting wood pieces, I couldn't turn down a peanut, two apples, and two, um, well, I don't know what they're supposed to be. Acorn squashes?

I can't imagine what this little wooden table was meant to be used for, but I love it.

To keep with the wood theme (and it's part of thrift store mojo to go with a theme when a theme presents itself) I had to have this large-ish jewelry box, even though it brought the overall weight of our purchase up quite a bit. It was still under $10, but still.

And then, a pink melamine gravy boat!

And finally, at the last minute I found this really thick and soft (and handmade, I think) leather bag. Lot of pockets and compartments, it holds my laptop, and it has a strange dimensional applique that appears to be an abstract rendition of lady parts. Yes, you read that right.

Then it was on to St. Vincent de Paul's. Another wooden bowl - hooray!

A lighted magnifying glass and an otherwise unremarkable if not for its wooden handle serving spoon.

 

 I wish I knew more about porcelain and china. This plate is gorgeous and has an art nouveau design. I'm not sure, however, how old this plate is. It was made in Japan, the colors are beautiful (though the silver trim is rubbing off) and it is so thin and fragile feeling, I'm afraid I will break it in half just touching it. The moth/butterfly design is just so beautiful.

Finally, from both locations, the Boy's books.

And my books.

The BH&G books are from 1958, 1963 and 1968. Score! I'm pretty sure I had the Joys of Jello book when I was a kid.

Dinner tonight was born of necessity; basically finding something easy to thaw in the freezer - beef smoked sausage sliced and browned with a bit of honey mustard; steamed broccoli; and steamed potatoes with a little butter.