Apple-y Pork Fried Rice

In keeping with my theme of "I don't know what kind of blog I want to have, so I'll just put anything on it", here is another new family favorite recipe.

Apple-y Pork Fried Rice

You'll need:

Brown rice

Vegetable broth

1 bottle of hard apple cider

1 tsp. olive oil

2 servings pork tenderloin
1/2 white onion
3 garlic cloves

whatever veggies you have around- I had frozen green beans and leftover sauteed kale

1 Tbsp. coconut oil

In rice cooker, combine:

1 cups brown rice

1 1/2 cup vegetable broth

1/2 cup hard apple cider

In cast iron skillet or other oven safe skillet:

Combine remaining hard cider, onion, garlic and olive oil. Simmer at medium high heat until cider is reduced by half. Once cider is reduced, add pork. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side. Put skillet in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, pull skillet out. Remove pork, cut into squares and set aside. Add veggies and coconut oil to skillet, cover and let warm at medium-low heat. Now all you have to do is stir every few minutes until the rice is done.

Once the rice cooker finishes, add rice and pork to skillet to fluff and heat through. And...that's it!

The resulting dinner is super tasty- a fresh, nutty and fruity version of fried rice. And my favorite part is that this literally came from that pre-payday "dang it, what on earth do I have to eat?" dilemma.

As it turns out, my children are no longer at the baby/preschooler stage that the original blog pictures show them to be. They are now *almost* to the both-in-elementary-school stage, with Alex's preschool graduation less than a month away. Here is a more recent picture- aren't they cute (most of the time)?

Just once, I want to...

Someday, when someone I don't want to deal with comes in to my office, I want to (with a totally serious face) crawl under my desk and scream "Brianna isn't in right now!". And then stay there until they leave. Just to see what would happen.

Actually, along those lines, I'd like to try this method when my children need me to solve an argument. In this case, though, I'd need to actually become invisible for a bit since those minature people are pretty darn persistent.

Due to pesky things such as professionalism and lack of human ability to become invisible, these scenarios will never happen. Oh, well. A girl can dream, right?

My note to Stephenie Meyer:

I love Twilight, Mrs. Meyer, but you got it wrong.

Those weren't immortals you were seeing in your dreams. They were just born and bred Pacific Northwesterners. So here I am, a born and raised Oregonian, to clear up the confusion:

-We aren't vampires, we're just pale. Not "I need a tan" pale, but "gee, is the fair colored foundation too dark for me?" pale. This is because we have no sun for most of the year. When we do, we get so excited that we go to Target and buy SPF300, huge sunglasses and sun hats in order to make us feel all summer-like.

-We aren't vampires, we just run fast. You'd run fast, too, if you had to face torrential downpours anytime you got out of the car.

-We aren't vampires, we just have dark circles under our eyes. This is attributed to the fact that children in rainy climates stay inside often. Children who stay indoors often are kind of nuts. Parents of children who are kind of nuts are freaking exhausted.

-We aren't vampires, we just talk funny. But we won't admit it because, obviously, it is actually the rest of the country who sounds strange.

-We aren't vampires, we are just moody. You try living in an overcast climate 9 months out of the year, then act all Little Miss Sunshine.

-We aren't vampires, we just sparkle. This is caused by the makeup we wear in an attempt to distract you from the fact that if you look too closely, you'll see our veins through our deathly pale skin.

-And finally, we aren't vampires...we are just cold. This isn't because our skin is made of marble. It's because we spend most of our time as wet as a drowned rat, wondering if the sun exists and fighting wind- with no umbrella or coat (of course) because only tourists use that crap.

Sooo...while I am admittedly a Twilight girl, I have to disappoint. There are no immortal beings in the Pacific NW. There are only people who actually live in the PNW, and you can see how that gets confusing.