Is there such a thing as Asian Comfort Food?

These chilly, wintery nights make me yearn for some old Southern Comfort food. However, that's not always an option. Tonight I was trying to figure out what to do for dinner as the winds picked up outside. My daughter had asked for meatballs again, "like the ones I made last time". Those aren't homemade, or even mine for that matter - these are just simple frozen meatballs from Costco. They are a chicken Teriyaki & Pineapple meatball. Last time I made them, I made them in chicken broth wth ginger and served with rice. But I remembered the sweetness of the pineapple and teriyaki not being as smooth of a taste as I liked.

Teriyaki & Pineapple Meatballs

That being said, tonight I decided to jazz them up a bit and maybe make them a bit more "home-ey". My son is coming down with a cold and is losing his voice, so I knew the chicken and ginger would be good for him. Plus, last time I made them he LOVED those meatballs and I knew this could be a good way to get some "ginger remedy" in him.

This time I wanted to stay along the same lines but wanted something "thicker". Tonight I used Cream of Chicken soup as the base. Then I added two chicken bouillon cubes with a cup of water, a tablespoon of chopped garlic, a tablespoon of parsley, a tablespoon of butter, a teaspoon of ground ginger, and a small can of mushroom pieces and set the meatballs to simmering while I got the rice going. After about 20 minutes, that sauce smelled like heaven - and tasted amazing too!

Teriyaki & Pineapple Meatballs

I gave my son a taste and he tried to act like he didn't like it, but I saw him grinning and licking his fingers too! After the rice was ready, I drizzled some sesame oil and soy sauce over the meatballs and stirred that in to the sauce. That really gave it a nice smokey flavor. I served it up with the meatballs & sauce over rice and stirred well. That was the closest thing to Asian Comfort Food I've ever had or made...best of two worlds and a hit with the kids (Kenton ate every last little bite of his)!

Pinterest Is Awesome

This morning I decided my sewing room need a little TLC and "winter cleanup". I found several projects awaiting my return. I was able to complete 4 of them, LOL! The biggie was patching jeans... When I went in there, I saw and remembered these jeans my husband has been hounding me patch up for him. There were 4 holes that needed patching and I'd tried patching the 2 big ones previously. Unfortunately I'm not the queen of "mending" things and my little sewing machine has a hard time with heavy duty materials.

Anyway, I searched Pinterest (which is my new habit for tips & ideas) a while back and came across this jean's mending blog. This lady is awesome. I put her tips to test this morning and it worked out great! For jeans, the style seems to be that anything goes for the "look" anyway. This tip used fusible backing as a stabilizer to hold the hole together and allows you to do a up & down motion to fix the hole and yet continue the "distressed" look of the jeans that is fashionable anyway. I was leary but it worked, even for me and my unskilled sewing self and machine!

Jean's After Patching

These are Kyle's yard work and utility jeans anyway, so if they came out screwed up, it would still be better than paying huge amounts of money for new jeans to work in anyway. Here's some pictures of the final product. I was quite happy with the results for "work" jeans and being able to extend their life. Thank you Pinterest for providing yet another invaluable tip!

Jean's After Patching

Kenton Gives To Those Less Fortunate

Kenton - job well done!

Today has been a pretty special day for us. Kenton learned about those less fortunate and stepped right up to the plate to share some of his good fortune. Over the past few weeks I've been noticing his room is looking more and more consumed by "stuff". Toys, magazines, books, cars...you name it, this boy had it! The sad thing is that he never touched most of it anymore, and it was just eating into his play area.

This morning I decided today would be the day to talk to Kenton about donating his older, gently loved toys to little boys and girls that don't have anything - or only have very little. A few months ago, he was super responsive about donating some of his older clothes that were too small for him for the same cause. Surely, this should go well too...but my secret fear was that it wouldn't and he'd have issues with this. Shockingly he could hardly wait to get started!

This morning I sent him into his room right after breakfast to "pre-screen" those toys. "Sort them into piles of what to keep, what to donate, and what to throw away" is what I told him to do. I told him if there were toys that were broken or missing parts they needed to be thrown away, and if he didn't play with certain toys anymore maybe some other child would just LOVE to play with them! He ran into his room and jumped right in to it! After a few minutes, I joined him with the sorting. All I had to do, was hold the trash bag and he told me what he wanted to do  This boy even gave one of his favorite teddy bears to my unborn baby. His room looks SO much bigger! He was SO excited to do this and kept talking about how happy the other kids would be to get those toys.

He even helped me to load the bags in the car and take out the trash. My heart swelled with pride - my baby is GROWING UP!! We drove the stuff to a donation center and I rewarded Kenton with lunch at McDonalds! All in all a great morning - 'tis the season and it feels great to "give".