Quick Recipes: Teriyaki Chicken

I am no gourmet chef.  I have heard people say they don't have time to cook, and I never really understood. 
Until I no longer had time to cook.
A rundown of this week -

• Monday:  McDonald's on the run between dance and basketball.
• Tuesday:  Sonic crammed in between work and family photos.
• Wednesday:  Cafe McCree (dinner at the church.  This week's theme - Mexican.)
• Thursday:  Chinese buffet before more dance and basketball.
• Friday:  lunch - Chicken Express.  Dinner -family came in = Montana's fine eatery.
• Saturday:  Lunch?  I cooked!  Go me!  Frozen pizza (my mom is cringing right now.  I know this for a fact.)
• Sunday:  church, golf, housework/projects = Subway!

That's really sad.
So I have decided to marinate some chicken for tomorrow.
And I thought I would share with you some of my techniques and recipes. 
I just re-read that sentence and laughed out loud.

Teriyaki Chicken

My Mom's recipe

Her words, "This is the one that has been so popular, 

especially with chicken and pineapples."

This is ginger.  They have it at the grocery store sometimes. 

Your checker may or may not know what it is when you check out.  

Expect strange looks.  

Peel it, chop it finely.

Or just toss it in a chopper.

Add some garlic.  I used the jarred kind.  

So sue me.

Sure, that amount right there will do.

Then add some soy sauce and water.  However much.  

Go ahead and drain the bottle, why don't ya?

 Now add some sugar.

Sugar.  Your children will love it.

Add some chicken.  

This was a couple of days out of date, but it was also kind of frozen.  

I think we'll live.

Marinate overnight in fridge.

Then you grill it over charcoal, or throw it on the George Foreman, broil it, or stick it in the crock pot.

Mom's exact recipe which I hunted down just for you:

• 3 cups soy sauce (Kikkoman is your friend.)
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1 cup water (Mom probably uses purified.  I go with tap.)
• 2 T ginger
• 2 cloves garlic (Mom uses fresh.  Her chicken is better than mine.)

Enjoy!

My Little Yoshi

Our son often has strange requests. At the age of 1, he began to demand fishsticks every morning for breakfast. He preferred them microwaved. The day could not begin without the fresh smell of nuked fishsticks.
His current fascination involves Super Mario Bros. As a 90s child myself, I can relate. I remember rushing home from school in my Buckwheat "oh-tay" t-shirt to spend waaaay to much time in front of our seven ton TV playing Retro Mario. Only I didn't realize it was retro.
Well, our little one is turning 5 tomorrow. Each year, we do the same thing. We go to Chuck-E-Cheese's. We do not invite his friends. He doesn't want to invite friends because he doesn't like to have "Happy Birthday" sung to him, especially the phrase "and many more...." for some unknown reason. Obviously, he has not completely figured out that more friends = more presents.
Traditionally, if you are a child in our home, you are awoken with cake and presents on your birthday. And so begins my predicament each year, trying to find cakes for both of our children (our daughter's birthday is one week after our son's.) Since I typically wimp out on birthday parties, I try harder to please with the pastery. Plus, I'm a fan of all things frosted.
This year, Conrad decided that he wanted a Yoshi Cake. FYI - Yoshi is a dinosaur on Super Mario Bros. I searched the local Walmart (which I like the call "The Walfarts") and alas, no Yoshi. With few other options in West Texas, I began my Google search, which led me to ebay, which led me to order this:
The cost was about $9 (including shipping.) Basically, you make your cake:
I prefer to spend hours baking from scratch. I don't know why these came out looking like chicken pot pies. I did not cut that slit in the top.

Then you frost the cake. I used this recipe. And I added a little almond extract. And I made it times 1.5. Never hurts to have extra frosting to fill in the gaps, slits, pits, missing layers, etc.

Then you peel the backing off of Yoshi and put him on your frosted cake and he kind of "melts in" to the insane amounts of butter in the frosting. It will probably also melt-in to my thighs.
I forgot to mention that you can have this personalized, but the bday boy wanted it to say "Happy Birthday Yoshi." He also wants me to call him "Yoshi" on his birthday. Go figure. I'm just thankful we outgrew the fishsticks.
Anway, then I put a little color in the remaining frosting, and piped around the edges for a more finished look.


And there you have it! Yoshi's birthday cake! And many more.....