Tasty Tuesday 9.27.11

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch
4 teaspoons peanut oil
12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pint small, sweet mixed peppers, quartered, or 2 mixed bell peppers, cut into 1-inch strips
6 scallions, whites cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces, greens cut into 1-inch pieces and thinly sliced vertically into thin strips
8 ounces snow peas, trimmed
Serving suggestion, cooked brown rice
Chopped peanuts for sprinkling, optional

Directions
In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, chili-garlic sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, orange juice and cornstarch; set aside.

Meanwhile, coat the chicken with 2 teaspoons oil and heat large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken to taste with salt and pepper and cook, turning occasionally with a wooden spoon, 2 minutes. Transfer the partially-cooked chicken to a plate. Reserve the pan.

Heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil in the pan; add the peppers, scallion whites, and snow peas. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Stir in the reserved chicken; whisk the sauce again and add it to the pan. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and the chicken is tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve over rice and sprinkle with the scallion greens and peanuts, if using.

Motivational Monday 9.26.11

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

-Henry Ford

Weekend Movie Releases 9.16.11

Drive
Driver is a Los Angeles wheelman for hire, stunt driving for movie productions by day and steering getaway vehicles for armed heists by night. Though a loner by nature, Driver can't help falling in love with his beautiful neighbor Irene, a vulnerable young mother dragged into a dangerous underworld by the return of her ex-convict husband Standard. After a heist intended to pay off Standard's protection money spins unpredictably out of control, Driver finds himself driving defense for the girl he loves, tailgated by a syndicate of deadly serious criminals. But when he realizes that the gangsters are after more than the bag of cash in his trunk - that they're coming straight for Irene and her son - Driver is forced to shift gears and go on offense.

I Don't Know How She Does It
Kate Reddy devotes her days to her job with a Boston-based financial management firm. At night she goes home to her adoring, recently-downsized architect husband Richard and their two young children. It's a non-stop balancing act, the same one that Kate's acerbic best friend and fellow working mother Allison performs on a daily basis, and that Kate's super-brainy, child-phobic young junior associate Momo fully intends to avoid. When Kate gets handed a major new account that will require frequent trips to New York, Richard also wins the new job he's been hoping for -- and both will be spreading themselves even thinner. Complicating matters is Kate's charming new business associate Jack Abelhammer, who begins to prove an unexpected source of temptation.

Straw Dogs
David and Amy Sumner, a Hollywood screenwriter and his actress wife, return to her small hometown in the deep South to prepare the family home for sale after her father's death. Once there, tensions build in their marriage and old conflicts re-emerge with the locals, including Amy's ex-boyfriend Charlie, leading to a violent confrontation.