my birthday today!

23 years old

been through a lot lately. spent the day with dan.. i didn't like how when i woke up it didn't feel like my birthday.. maybe it was because i woke up alone. maybe it's because it's been a bad month.. maybe it's because i'm just getting older at this point. who knows. but it didn't feel right and it made me sad.

later that night i was cooking with dan. a recipe neither of us have had before, so it was a bit questionable.. but as we were cooking i felt the excitement i had been missing earlier that day, so it did feel like my birthday finally. it was great.

we cooked sweet & sour pork btw.. recipe:

Sweet & Sour Pork:
2/3 C packed brown sugar
2/3 C cider vinegar (i usually opt for white vinegar since i hate the funk of the cider kind, but this time it worked out really yummy)
2/3 C ketchup
2 tsp soy sauce
1lb pork, but into small cubes
1 tbsp canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, cut into 1" cubes
2 medium carrots, sliced (we had baby carrots on hand, so they got a thick julienne instead)
1/2 tsp minced garlic (we added more, cause we like garlic)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 can 8oz pineapple chunks, drained.

In a small bowl combine brown sugar, cider vinegar, ketchup & soy sauce. Pour half into a large resealable plastic bag; add pork. Seal bag & turn to coat. Marinate in fridge for 30 mins (at least) set remaining marinade aside.

Drain & discard marinade from pork, in lg skillet cook pork in oil for 3 mins. Add onions, carrots, green pepper, garlic & ginger; saute until pork is no longer pink. Add reserved marinade. Bring to boil & cook 1 min. Stir in pineapple, serve over rice or noodles

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we had ours with rice, we also added half the pineapple juice into the remaining marinade & allowed to reduce.

also: it turned out DELICIOUS. even without the added marinade to the cooking process, the marinade on the pork alone gave it a great flavour.