Cuteness overload brought to you by me

I have so many pictures I am going to upload to Flickr. Someday. After I finish adding all the blogs I read. REALLY!

Emma would like you to know she has MORE Polly Pockets than Emily.

Pretending to be a mermaid?  With her Daddy’s sandal as the flipper?  It was cute.

OMG I hate being late!

But oh, I’m totally not because someone switched the time on me and really there is an hour and a half before I have to be there! YEAH!

Surprise surprise, Emma missed her visit with her dad again this weekend!***

So we went to a birthday party and took a nap and watched IGOR at the dollar theatre.

And then we went grocery shopping and now I’m making chicken adobo.  I heart chicken adobo. It’s my favorite dish in all the world.  It also happens to be the first thing other than a pot of rice I learned to cook.

I was the worlds pickiest eater.  I would eat rice and potatoes and rice and rice and rice.  I think I was 5 or 6 when my mother said “I am not making you another pot of rice.  You will learn to make it yourself!” And I did.  One of my earliest memories is sitting on the counter with my Grandma watching her make me a pot of rice.  I was 8 or so when I learned to make adobo.

When my mother and aunties were small, they (and this is the part I am confused on and never remember to ask) lived next to a man who was either A: From the  Philippines or B his wife was. AND one way or another the husband only liked blonds so the wife used peroxide on her hair.  And they taught my grandmother to make chicken adobo. And she taught my mom who taught me.

I spoke once with a woman who was born in the Philippines and she was talking about all the different variations- whether you lived inland or right by the sea etc.  So I have NO idea where my version fits in- because she was as crazy as a loon. Nice lady, though.

ANYWAY.  I’ve sorta tweeked the recipe from what my mum did.  Here is how I do it! And dude, if I had a better camera and better cuter dishes I bet my picture would look better. Sorry.

Ariel’s Chicken Adobo

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced (I used the pre chopped in a jar stuff cause I is LAZY)

1 cup wine ( My preference is red wine because I like the color it gives. Original recipe uses vinegar*-about 1/2 a cup will do. I’ve also used beer, when I didn’t have wine- I use 1/4 a cup of vinegar with the beer, to give it a bit of a bite.  I would also add vinegar to the wine if it was a really sweet wine)*if you use only vinegar put a teaspoon of sugar in*

1 cup of soy sauce

3 bay leaves

3 Tablespoons Paprika

1/2 tsp black pepper

2-3 Chicken Breasts (You can use any type of chicken you want-even a whole chicken-Brian just won’t eat anything but white meat.  And there are only 3 of us, so I don’t want it to go to waste)

Heat a bit of olive oil in a big deep pan of some type- I use a soup pot.  A stock pot would be too big.

Add the onions and the garlic and let them saute until they start to caramelize.  You can add everything all at once if you like, it will still be delicious, but sauteing the onions and garlic adds a layer of flavor!

Add to the onions and garlic the wine/vinegar, soy sauce, paprika, bay leaves and chicken.  If you use a whole chicken cover the chicken with water, but if you are using pieces like I usually add about 6-8 cups.

Bring all of this to a boil and then lower the heat to a nice simmer and cook for about 45 minutes.  Take out the bay leaves and cut the chicken up into bite size pieces.

To serve I ladle the broth and some chicken into a bowl and then add a scoop of rice.

- my version is MUCH stronger than my mothers.  I add a LOT of wine and soy sauce.

***SO anyway Brian wants to to tell you WHY Jeff missed his visit again.  He currently has supervised visits and has the option of having a family member approved by me supervise or he could go to the facilitated visitation center. But he hasn’t even bothered to call them back. His sister was the only family member willing to do the visits with him and she is 8 weeks pregnant and very busy puking her toenails out.  Jeff didn’t return either the text’s his sister and I sent him on Friday, or respond to the voice mail I left on Saturday regarding his visit.  So when she spent all Saturday night throwing up, and I called to check on her she said she couldn’t do it.  IF Jeff would have bothered to call me I might have taken her over to his parents house and stayed there for a couple of hours and let him visit, but he DOESN’T call!  And he won’t fix his relationship with his parents, so they are not willing to supervise themselves.

It’s sad really, because when his parents can tell me he’s healthy and responsible I’d be willing to go for unsupervised visits…