First Post

I'm a planner by nature - I like to plan everything to the smallest detail. What I am not so good at is follow-through. Friends of mine have told me to tell someone when I plan to go the gym, so I actually go. I am telling the WORLD that I plan to live greener, so I actually do it. How's that for commitment?

This blog will recordmy amateur struggles with composting, gardening, and cooking. I'm looking for advice from those who know better, and I'll share my mistakes with those who don't.

I'll be posting soon about tmy grandiose plans for a suburban garden this spring. Until then, I'm posting a recipe for sweet and sour chicken. It was incredibly easy to prepare and smells sooo good in the oven right now.

Ingredients:
4-8 skinned, deboned chicken breast halves
1 egg, beaten
cornstarch
vegetable oil (or Pam) to fry in.
Sauce:
3/4 cups sugar
4 Tbs. ketchup.
1/2 cup vinegar
1 Tbs. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Procedure:
Mix all the ingredients for sauce together. Dip chicken breast in egg, roll in cornstarch. Fry in oil (or Pam) until just browned. Place chicken in a shallow baking pan. Pour the sauce over it and bake uncovered at 325 degrees F. for one hour. Turn chicken ever 15 min. Serve with rice!

I used regular breadcrumbs instead of cornstarch. I didn't use all of the sauce, because I thought it was too much. That was a mistake -- the sauce really reduces after an hour in the oven, so if you make this, use all of it! After 45 minutes, the edges of the sauce are black and starting to caramelize, which means I'll be scrubbing that baking dish all night.

I'm serving the chicken with orange slices because they're sweet, and because I have them, and with rice, because the recipe said so - with an exclamation mark. Thanks to the University of Hawai'i for the recipe!