A lot of things happened in the last two weeks, first I had a nasty ‘accident’ with the kitchen knife. And the culprit again…is the prominent garlic. Everytime I get nasty cuts on any of my digits, it always stems from the garlic, I don’t know why, maybe the Garlic God has something against me eating so much of its subjects.
The cut was pretty deep that it took like maybe a few hours and 3 changes of dressing to completely subside. But women…and I mean all women in general…would take this pain as a slap on the wrist and go on doing what they need to do. My husband came home and told me he got a bit light headed seeing all that blood because I posted this picture up in Facebook. *sigh….my knight in shining armour.
On a more pleasant note; I was surprised to find this scene when I came out to dry my laundry one day;
Doing what comes naturally, they’re true professionals…
didn’t budge an inch even as I snapped several photos….or maybe they couldn’t… 🙂
These beauties were perched on my soon-to-die basil plant. You don’t see things like this very often so it goes to the official records of ‘Amazing Moments’. On a another different note; my herb box has been swarmed lately with these creepy-crawlies (below).
I don’t know what they are and they don’t appear to be doing much damage to the herbs’ foliage but their numbers are just overwhelming. They stay in the soil and come out when it’s damp and not so hot. At first I just let them be but after taking a closer look, I find they like to congregate at the root base of my herbs and burrow holes into the earth near them. This might be causing damage to the roots of the plants so…they have to go. I have been manually deposing them using an old pair of tongs to pick them up and sink them in salted water. That seem to kill them pretty quickly. If you have any idea what these are, do drop me a note. They’re not centipedes or caterpillars. They have somewhat similar features as millipedes but they emit this stench when you pick them up and it stays on your fingers for a while even after washing under the tap…hence the tongs.
Over the last, last weekend, the whole family took a trip to Impian Morib for a getaway, although facility-wise, it was pretty well-equipped, the hotel food was next to blah. My poor son had to eat rice and oily soup for 3 days because the other dishes were curried this and curried that, fried chicken as hard as concrete and fish that had fishy smell. But…I was there more for the pool. My little man rarely gets a chance to swim in a proper pool so we made full use of that provision.
When we came back, he fell pretty ill. He rarely falls ill. I think he overexerted himself, not too mention brought home some mean-looking tan lines. 🙂 But all in all, we had some good times and that itself is a rare treat. In the midst of theme week, I set about creating a dish that is to be included into another theme week….but it came with two recipes and I’m sharing this first, maybe you can send me a guess about the dish I made…hint; it was up in the Feats of Feasts Facebook wall account.
I used Heinz tomato ketchup for this BBQ sauce because I find other ketchups like Maggi just a tad too sweet. I love the taste of chipotle, I would use the real thing if I can get my hands on them but instead I had chipotle sauce, it goes really well with the ketchup and lends that smoky flavour. This is not as smoky as what normal BBQ sauces might taste like but it’s pretty close and the best part is, you made it yourself. You can alter any taste you like whether you like it sweeter, hotter, smokier or mild.
This taste even better than ordinary ketchups. Actually I’ve stopped eating ketchup for years now (I prefer chilli sauce), only using it for cooking rather than dipping but I can totally picture this with fries, chicken fingers or any other finger food that needs ketchup.
I still have about a tub left in the fridge so I’m aiming to use it as some sort of marinade for a chicken dish. And I’m totally penning this down as gift ideas for my friends!
HOMEMADE CHIPOTLE BBQ SAUCE RECIPE
Ingredients;
2 bottles 300 ml Heinz ketchup
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons onion powder (or more)
2 tablespoons garlic powder (or more)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 heaping teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 cup Chipotle sauce
Dried Oregano
Paprika
Black Pepper
Salt
Cayenne (optional)
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
Dried Basil
Water
Steps;
1. Heat a pot over low simmering heat. Empty the two ketchup bottles into the pot. Throw in the springs of rosemary without chopping. Add your powders to dissolve first; onion, garlic, mustard and sugar. Stir to make sure everything is dissolved.
2. This is followed later with lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar and Chipotle sauce. Keep stirring. Be careful because it might spit.
3. Add you other herbs and seasoning; oregano, paprika, cayenne, salt, black pepper, basil.
4. This is very much a matter of taste. So you need to taste and adjust anywhere that’s too sweet, lacking saltiness or needs to be more tart. If it’s looking too thick and dry, add some water.
5. When you’re finally happy with the taste…close the pot with its lid and let it simmer in very low heat for 30 mins.
6. Take out the sprigs of rosemary and let it cool before you bottle them up. I put part of mine in a squirt bottle.
Enjoy!
