Cashew Chicken Or How I Learned That I Can Really Cook

In keeping with new year and new things, I'm definitely making more of an attempt to eat healthy and cook proper dinners. Awhile back I posted smoothie recipes on here and that was also when I was trying my hand at a fit lifestyle. I realized then, I need food. Don't get me wrong, juicing and smoothies are wonderful, but I can't live off fruits and veg alone! I need more and I need it to taste good! So the other day I took a good hard look at all my pinterest boards and made a real grocery list and planned out a couple meals.

Without further ado, here is Homemade Cashew Chicken. All credit for the recipe goes to blog The Art Of Doing Stuff, thanks!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Large Chicken Breasts

• 1 Tbsp Cornstarch
• 6 Small Garlic Cloves (minced)
• 8 Green Onions
• 1/4 Cup Hoisin Sauce
• 1/4 Cup Rice Vinegar (unseasoned)
• 1/4 Cup Water
• 1 Cup Cashews (toasted over medium/low heat in pan)
• 1 Can of Mandarin Oranges or 1 Sumo Orange (optional)
• Salt & Pepper
• Olive Oil
• However Much Rice You Need, i.e: One Half Cup Per Person

To begin, I would chop everything (onions, oranges, chicken, garlic) and start your rice cooking. There was a lot more chopping than I was used to and I honestly extra toasted my cashews. They were still delicious, but a bit blackened :(. Separate your white parts from the green parts on the onions and chop all into about 1/2" to 1" pieces. Chop your orange segments in half. Cube your chicken. Mince that garlic!

Once you've cubed your chicken, go ahead and put it in a tupperware or plastic bag with the cornstarch, salt & pepper. Shake it up! Set aside. 

Then take the white part of your onions and garlic and begin to saute in the olive oil for a few minutes before adding your chicken. Fry the chicken for about 5 minutes or so, until all traces of pink are gone.

On medium high heat, add the rice vinegar and cook until it is evaporated. Then add Hoisin sauce and water. Stir in cashews as well. Remove from heat once sauce is thoroughly covering all and add in the green parts of the onion. Give that a quick stir and then serve on a bed of rice. Top with mandarin oranges and ENJOY! 

This was delicious and I was super proud of myself for adulting so well. Make this for yourself! Make it for your friends! You'll thank me! :)

Keep on, Keepin' on y'all!

M.

If Plant Lady Is The New Cat Lady, I'm Here For It!

Spring is right around the corner, finally! I say this even though yesterday it was a lovely 78 on Thursday and now yesterday and today have brought a chill back into our world. But it's still a good day and that's what you've got to keep telling yourself.

I work in retail and the store I work at has a junior's department with cute and ~quirky~ items for sale. We are having a serious 90's revival and one of the things we have are all these packs of patches. One pack:

The little patch in the upper right is where my post title came from. And I am definitely embracing it! I have a little succulent/cactus garden set up and then yesterday I added a lily whilst at Lowe's looking for a fern. I bought the lily to get somewhat of a start on my "goth garden". If you search on Pinterest you will find so many awesome pictures of black/white/purple/blood red flowers. It's my new goal. I'm glad I've finally dug up the gardening gene from my mom! 

Here's my little garden so far! Enjoy:

Happy (soon) Spring!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Retail Rants Part Deux!

Ah hello my friends, we are now in the full swing of the holiday season! December has arrived, trees are up, Santa is in the mall, people are yelling at sales associates! TIS THE SEASON Y'ALL.

Ok so I was sort of hoping this series would not continue but as I've been in retail for 12 years now, I should have known better. As I said in my first rant, the easiest thing to do during the holidays or literally anytime is to be KIND, it's the best four letter word you could pick! And it's absolutely free!

At the mall we are now into extended hours, 9am til 10pm on weekdays and 11pm on weekends, and we are a bit short staffed at the moment so everyone is tired and working double what we ought to. That's not trying to say we need any excuses, but we aren't maybe at our best, but still pretty great. The thing is that whether or not we were at 50, 100 or 1000% I'm certain people would still mess with us. I have 3 mini scenarios  for you:

First, shoplifters need to for real get their lives right. We had an incident where 4 stores were getting hit all at once! We had a manager run over from her store to tell us that people were stealing. That's so outrageous and it isn't like we don't pay attention to shady folks, cause we see you, we are everywhere and we have a pretty good eye for faces. To me shoplifting is so pointless and so rude and whenever we catch someone they want to fight us. So we see you swiping something and walking out and when we inquire about it because you set off an alarm, you want to cause a scene? No, just stop all of this.

Second, I have said this so many times I feel like a broken record but I will say it again for the people in the back: CASHIERS AND SALESPEOPLE DO NOT SET THE RULES/PRICES/SALES. We have a whole set of head honchos and big-wig assistants who set up our whole store. They tell us when to put on a sale, what to put on sale, what to sell those things for and how much of a discount, if any, we can give you for a defect. Say you pick up a shirt and it is $15 and it has a small hole in the seam. We have a set amount (%) we can discount you and a follow up rule to make that item now a final sale item, meaning you can not return it. I will explain this to you as I am ringing you up, thus you will be able to make the choice on if you want to take the discount/item before you walk out of the store and spend money. The rules that I tell you are specific to my store and so when you tell me that the other store down the way would do this for you, well cool, you aren't in that store.....so I guess go there because I just laid out the rules for you, here in the store you are currently standing in.

Third, holy crap stop yelling at us and giving us an attitude when you don't exactly get your way. That gets you even less than what you might have gotten to begin with. Didn't any of your mothers tell you that you attract more flies with honey than vinegar?? Because honestly I will go above and beyond for you if you are a nice person. It's that simple and goes along with the kindness vibe.


We are at 2 weeks before Christmas, about to hit super Saturday and then Christmas Eve the following Saturday. I'm sure something wild will happen and I'll fill you in when it does. Until then however....

Keep on, Keepin' on!

M.

Sneak Peek!!

Today I give you a rough draft of sorts. I've been writing a novel and a children's book  for a while now and I'm ready to put a part out there and receive some feedback! 

So without further ado, enjoy an excerpt from my currently untitled Great American Novel:

    So allow me to introduce myself: name's Zelda, more specifically Zelda Rubylyn Ziggler. I am 100% a native Floridian and proud of it. You will come across folks in your life who do not always consider Florida as a real part of the South. Well that is a wrong assumption.

     Look: Florida is full of transplants, we are a transient state by nature due to all the tourists who came on vacation and decided to reclaim the Sunshine State as their home. We have wild creatures living among new apartments and golf courses. We have become a state to reinvent yourself in. We have become the butt of jokes with every weird and crazy news story. Florida is it's own bird, through and through. As you can see I have a very grand old South name despite my 5'4" waif frame. My momma was a Georgia debutante and my daddy is a born and bred Florida boy still in charge of our family business, which was of course citrus. 

     The Ziggler's citrus plantations have been a boom crop for centuries now. Started in the rich untapped soils of St. Petersburg, then moved into Central Florida and now branched out towards the Everglades. That's how I ended up living here in Hialeah near "oh-so glamorous" Miami. I'm not trying to get ahead of myself quite yet, but y'all need a bit of background before diving headfirst into this.

That's it for today! Let me know what you think and if you'd like to read more!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

PS: Copyright 2016 Meghan R. Rose. All intellectual property belongs to me. All likeness to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. 

Is It Too Early for Halloween? Or Nah?

After all the Summertime celebrations have ended and all thoughts turn towards fall and back to school and Halloween....can I just say I am so ready. Both for the cooler temperatures and mostly decorating my house and figuring out this years costume(s). Last year I made a large head-dress with antlers

 and kind of skimped out on my actual dress. This year there is a kind of plan in our neighborhood for a group costume, I don't know if we are still holding each other to this but if not, and really even if......I think I might finally make my mermaid dreams a reality and show my true form this year. It all came from a post about how shell crowns are the new flower crowns and just...OMG

You can look at all the rest of the beauty on Chelsea Shiels' instagram: @chelseasflowercrowns.

So now I am super inspired to try my hand at making my own, and luckily Florida has many shells to choose from to help in this endeavor. Also my favorite part of Halloween is making parts of my costume, as well as make-uping my face.  I am about to pin all the things and watch all the tutorials.

We are not doing any inside party this year, all will be on the outside/front of the house, I'm sure my man has something planned to make a big impact, and don't worry friends, it'll be documented properly this year!

Can't wait to get started!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

What Is Happening

        This blog isn't a place normally for politics or current events but I can't sit here and stay silent. This world has gone mad. We are ripping each other down daily for opinions that before social media we would have sat and listened to with an open mind. It's a lot easier to be an asshole behind a computer screen than face to face.
     
        Now nowhere is safe. School, church, theme parks, a damn nightclub! Every time I leave my house I feel like I need to be on extra high alert. Scoping out everyone and making sure I have an exit plan. That's insane and that's the world  we have built for ourselves. A girl was killed signing autographs for fans. Numerous human beings were massacred while dancing and drinking and loving life. Another girl was murdered because she broke up with her boyfriend! No one is safe and no one is taking the blame. Pointing fingers in a circle until we implode onto ourselves.

         So now the conversation about gun control comes back up. No, we shouldn't completely do away with guns. Yes, there needs to be a review of the laws. In other countries there are laws requiring classes every year, there are laws requiring a longer wait/processing time. There are so many factors of legislation to look into, none of which abolish guns completely. If you do that then it becomes a very active black market situation and then you are worse than when you began.

         We need less hate in this world. More TOLERANCE. More LOVE. More RESPECT for your fellow human beings. We are all on this planet for such a short time. We need to stop all this negative bullshit and violence and get back as one. Peace is missing, and has been for a very long time.


Keep on, Keepin' on,

M.

Florida Poster Girls

FLORIDA POSTER GIRLS

   "Nana, what's this photo from?" Victoria loved days spent with her Nana Ruby. She had many stories to tell and amazing photos from years past.
   "Ahhh, darling, that's the day your Great Auntie and I became Florida Poster Girls! Have you heard this one before? I owe Doc Webb to my discovery." Ruby was an actress with a long and impressive career. Great Auntie Edie was a model until she retired in the 1970's. Both ladies grew up in St. Petersburg, FL, just like Victoria now. Ruby poured two glasses of sweet tea and sat down in her favorite chair. Victoria settled across from her on the bungalow porch, ready to be transported to the past...
   "Put yourself in a beautiful afternoon around May 1949. I was getting dolled up for the big night and waiting for Edie to come round......"
   Ruby smoothed her curls and pouted her lips to apply her Tan-Gee Red-Red shade of lipstick. It was her favorite and old stand-by for important events, such as today. Ruby and her best friend Edie would be heading over to Webb's City to discover if they made it as a Doc Webb famous poster girl! Only eight young ladies from the surrounding area were hand-picked per year and it had gotten so huge that they competed against thousands of applicants. Ruby and Edie dreamed of becoming poster girls since they were ten and Edie's mom had taken them for root beer floats at Webb's drug store, the largest this side of the Mississippi, or as Doc Webb boasted, the largest in the world! Not only would they be honored to become a part of such a glamorous club, but as poster girls they would travel across the USA as representatives of their beautiful "Sunshine City". Ruby and Edie knew that this was the perfect stepping stone to get into the movies. In 1946 the group competed against California's prettiest and were sent to Hollywood to rub shoulders with movie stars and their agents. 
   "Ahoy gorgeous!" Edie sang through the open screen door. "Ready to knock everyone's socks off?"
   "You betcha!" Ruby hugged and air-kissed her best gal, so as to not muss her hair and make-up of course. "Let's hit it, that wiggle dress is the bee's knees!"
   A St. Pete gem, Webb's City and the original drugstore came complete with circus acts, dancing chickens and mermaids. Everyone knew it was the place to be seen. Tonight the corner block downtown had been roped off to cars and to really make the announcement of the new girls a major attraction. Ruby and Edie walked arm and arm into Webb's precisely at the given call time, an hour before the presentation. Doc Webb stood, arms outstretched, bidding the two girls a warm welcome. He then directed them to the back room with the other 25 finalists last minute primping and shooing away any nervous feelings. Ruby and Edie sat down, heads held high, taking in all the other competitors. Finally the call came:
   "Ladies, line up please!" The lead director would usher the girls out on to the outdoor stage and then Doc Webb himself would make the announcement to the eager crowd.
   Luckily Ruby and Edie were able to stand next to each other as they were the same height. Lined-up and peering into the masses, Edie spotted her parents first and next to them, Ruby's. 
   "Here's to us." Edie whispered, squeezing her best friend's hand tight.
   "The time has come ladies and gentlemen! Tonight is the night for a new glamour group! A new bunch of beauties! Eight new lovely young ladies to grace the USA as my very own, FLORIDA POSTER GIRLS!!"
   Commence wild crowd cheers and applause. Doc Webb was a wonderful showman. He could put vigor into any audience. 
   "For the fantastic year of nineteen hundred and forty-nine, I present this years eight finalists...plucked from the lovely shores of Spa Beach, the brick roads around Coffee Pot Bayou and whilst enjoying the flora of the Sunken Gardens. I pride myself in having a great eye for female beauty. Earning a place in history and honor, these eight gals will surely represent St. Petersburg for all the fun in the sun and beautiful nights we have come to enjoy. St. Petersburg continues to grow in size and recognition, thanks to the sight of beach scenes and bathing beauties!" 
   Ruby drew in a sharp breath as the anticipation nearly killed her. Edie squeezed a bit tighter to reassure both of them that, yes we made it, don't worry.
   "Walk forward and claim the coveted spot this year, Miss Lauren Brown! Miss Meg Johnson! Miss Virginia Davis! Miss Ruby Morgan! Miss Edie O'Neal! Miss Kim Haines! Miss Darlene Blass and Miss Marjorie Rose! Congratulations ladies!"

 Ruby and Edie heard their names and then only noise. Cheers and claps and whistles. Their bodies moved forward but their brains were thrown for a loop. Edie looked over, smiling wide at Ruby, still holding hands as Ruby simply said, "I knew it!" and then dissolved into laughter while a sash was placed over each girls' head and shoulders.
   The fanfare of the event was one of the best nights Ruby and Edie had together. The next week they were both featured in Life magazine's advert for Webb's City. Ruby framed it years later and placed it on the mantel next to photos of trips taken for film shoots and vacations to exciting locales taken with Edie and their husbands. Despite such a glamorous life, both women settled back home in St. Petersburg to raise families and live out their golden years.
   "Nana that was wonderful!" Victoria exclaimed breathlessly. "Auntie Edie and you are the prettiest of the bunch!"
   "Thank you my darling love. It was a grand time in our lives, the beginning of everything, I always say. St. Petersburg has a rich history and I am very grateful to have been such a wonderful part in it."
THE END 

This is an original short story I wrote for Keep St Pete Lit in their collab with Green Bench Brewing. Enjoy!!

Keep on, keepin on,

M.