Friday's Frog Our Daily Dinner

Friday's Frog

chuckieb 9 years ago
Good Morning Everyone!
Benjamin ate frog. Ugh. I really don't think I could. I might have been able to once upon a time but last year when we went to Taiwan and I saw the poor things outside a restaurant in a big old aquarium like lobster in a tank, I only wanted to free them. :)
Benjamin's picture is below and the frog dish is to the left of the hot plate. He said the dish is called "Three Cup Frog". To which I answered "Is it because the frog is the same size as three cups and he said no, it's a common cooking method in Taiwan. So I googled it.

"Three cups"
The dish derives its name from the three cups of sauces required. For each chicken, a cup each of soy sauce, rice wine (usually mijiu although it may be mixed with Shaoxing jiu), and sesame oil are added. Lin Shangquan, a famous chef in Taiwan, believes that the traditional recipe called for a cup each of soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar, with added ginger, garlic, and basil.

The chicken, together with the sauces, is cooked in an earthenware pot on high heat for ten minutes, then on low heat to allow the sauces to be absorbed by the meat. The dish is usually served in its cooking pot when the sauce has 80-90% reduced. Sanbeiji is served with no sauce; the dish is cooked until all the sauce evaporates and is absorbed by the chicken. When it is served at the table, the chicken should be sizzling—even popping—on the cusp of burning. This gives the chicken a crisper texture (and richer flavor) unlike most other Chinese or Taiwanese stewed dishes. The dish is then eaten with either steamed rice or rice congee.

Other meats, such as pork or frog, can be substituted for chicken in this dish without detracting from the taste.

Benjamin said "Sounds clicheed, but it tastes very similar to chicken haha except a lot of very small bones"

Gross and disgusting.

Joce, I'm still in shock over your news and I do hope you're comfortable. How's the Hospital food? :)
Not sure what I'm going to make for dinner this evening. I had bought all the ingredients to try out this new recipe for Butter Chicken served on pappadums. We'll see as the morning progresses.
Second pic reminded me of all the recent talk on here about dogs and cats getting to the Christmas trees. :)
Wishing everyone a great Friday. TGIF!
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chuckieb 9 years ago said:

LOLOLOLROFL.....I posted the wrong frog picture. LOLOL. The one above is one I took in our pond this past summer. Oops. I'll put Benjamin's frog 'dish' picture in my Avatar. :) Bring on the second cup of coffee........

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MissouriFarmWife 9 years ago said:

Janet - still have one gift to buy. Hunting pants for GS. I may have to go on line - WalMart.com - and see if they will send them to the WM nearby. Or else we try at Orschelns. The chiropractor appt. went well and he is working on the alignment to help with arthritis. Wayne’s back is greatly improved and he doesn’t have to bend down in slow motion as much - LOL. He is a holistic / naturopathic chiropractor and has a view much removed from standard medical profession. I am so tired of limping with hip pain that I decided this would be perhaps be worth a try.
Postage is high - we don’t mail any more since our parents are all deceased, but I can recall sending packages from Germany home -- at least through the US postal service it was not so expensive. If we had had to use the German one it would have been more.
Love the cat and the tree picture - so funny! Even showed Wayne and he laughed. How cool! We just let our cats climb up and sleep in the branches. They love it.
Have you ever had frog legs? They must raise these huge (bullfrogs maybe ?) ones specifically for that since the legs are huge. People around here go gigging for fish / frogs at night -- not my favorite sport and I don't do water or boats - LOL - but they do fry up a mess of tasty fish.

Marie - we think the leak by the window in the sun room is fixed with the change / addition of another downspout and screen over the eaves. (Had to ask Wayne for the word “eaves” since it did not come to mind, “Old-Timers-Disease” active and well --.)! There are one or two places that need attention - it is an old stone house and sometimes difficult to figure where it is coming in. The company did a great job, to code to Green County, very respectful. They are Liberty, out of Springfield, MO, and I would happily recommend them. The chimney area has a wet area again so I think the best thing would be to have his buddy (Wayne says he can do it but I think not) put some whatever-it-is-that-they-use on the roof to seal it better. Chimneys are also touchy areas to keep dry.

Michelle TX - yesterday was productive. Went to WalMart, chiropractor, and Dollar Tree where I got LED lights for candles, a set of little village houses / churches etc. I bought a couple of identical houses, one of each business, and every church in the set -- I figure my little village will have LOTS of little churches for all us church-goers. LOL. I like the little figures and at 1.00 each you can’t go wrong. We bought 10 or so or more of the LED lights, have one for each little building if we want. WalMart was a partial success but still have some stuff to get - GS hunting pants (in correct size) are still elusive.

Tina, LOL on the Clark Griswold effect! Your nails sound very pretty. I do good to file mine. Good luck on house hunting.

Joce - wow! Sending prayers for your rapid healing! Please keep us informed - My father also had a triple bypass and did well with it. Good idea giving HB password to let everyone know how you are. I already told Wayne he will be getting mine along with the web site for GR. Bummer to have it happen around Christmas. Your training hospital does sound great.

Did not get the tree - raining last night and still this morning. Tomorrow is busy day so probably will not until next week. My sun room is full of packages moved from the LR. Plan on wrapping presents later and setting them on the couch until the tree is bought and set up. Will have to wait for Wayne to get the decorations out since he is working on other stuff and in no frame of mind for decorating -- or maybe I will just go get them myself and take a zillion trips back and forth. Ha ha.

His buddy may or may not come over. He has to get tires for his truck (a huge monster which takes 6 tires and gets horrible gas mileage). He found a set of gently used ones and decided to get them ASAP - new ones would have to be bought two at a time due to cost - they are BIG and EXPENSIVE! My car needs tires and I hope Wayne gets them on sale. His exclusive task is tire buying - I would go nuts trying to decide what tires are best to buy.

I have finished my novel so maybe a second cup of coffee is in order.

See you later.

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mommyluvs2cook 9 years ago said:

I'm not sure if I could eat frog either unless it was picked off the bone and put in soup or mixed in with something. If it resembled a frog, I'd get sick lol! You have one trooper of a son Janet :) I like the sound of that dish though, made with chicken! Lol, that Cristmas tree photo is hilarious! The animals at their house must have been really doing something horrible for them to go through all the trouble to put that thing up ROFL!

Too bad about not getting a tree Karen :( I think we are going either Saturday night after our family get together or Sunday to get our tree. My Uncle owns a couple of Christmas tree lots, so we get a nice family discount, and a super fresh tree :) Hope you can find some nice used tires, I hate putting money into cars UGH!

JOCE!! Omg, I just can't believe. I'm wishing you the the best and am praying for you and for the surgery to go well. Sending you good vibes and smiles :) Best of luck on the surgery, please check in when possible!

Going to get all the Christmas decorations up, inside and out, (except tree) so have quite a bit of work ahead of us. Every Christmas I think that we don't have that much stuff and then Michael gets up in the attic and starts pulling down box, after box after box. So I'm prepared this year lol! I have some food prepping to do as well for tomorrow. Tomorrow evening is our family get together (Theme: Thai) but beforehand the girls are all going downtown to Penzey's, TJ's, and Whole Foods. Then we will rush back to throw together the food. I am making Spring Rolls and Egg Rolls. So my goal today is just to have everything chopped so I will just need to roll when we get back. Will be heading off early in the morning so I won't be checking in the morning. Maybe will pop back in a bit today though! Dinner tonight is:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carries-catfish-larue/detail.aspx
I don't think I have ever had catfish not breaded and fried, so this will be new for us. Wishing everyone a great day :)

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notyourmomma 9 years ago said:

Good Morning.
Joce, I'm so sorry to hear your heart is giving you fits. My mom had a triple by-pass and six weeks later, she was on vacation in Hawaii. She made a bet with her heart surgeon that she was not going to miss her long awaited trip. She was there and even did the hula. They had to go through the sternum and that hurt the most. Please know that I'm praying for skill in your surgeon's hands and swift healing for you, dear lady. Please know Den is in our thoughts as well.

Janet, I don't know why I reacted to the frog dish so negatively when I've had frog legs many times. The dish you described is amazing. Three Cups would be delicious. Benjamin has definitely expanded his horizons gustatorially. Butter chicken, yum. Are you going to help your florist friend this year? That picture of the tree with the cage is hysterical. When I saw Angie yesterday, she told me that Lola likes to chew ornaments too. My tree is going to be decorated from the middle branches up, indeed. I don't want any of the special ornaments chewed up this year.

Karen, how generous of you to let the cats sleep in the branches. I definitely see where fishing line to hold the tree would be required. I have put our creche on the mantle. I have the Precious Moments cast iron set. I love it. I'll have to take a picture. Nice buy on your Christmas village pieces. Best wishes on finding the chimney leak. We had a huge fix around our chimney when we had the new roof installed. (We have had a fire in our fireplace exactly twice in 16 years). Home maintenance is never done, a necessary evil. After working at a card store and seeing the waste following Christmas and being ordered to destroy cards and wrapping paper, I won't buy from any place but the dollar store for wrapping paper. It hurt to take a razor knife to perfectly beautiful rolls of paper to go to a landfill.

Marie, sending you good vibes for enough business to keep you happy, but enough slack to give you a bit of Holiday cheer. How did the enchilada casserole turn out? So Bribie likes to tree climb too? Has the rain stopped?

Michelle, nice on the juicer and your trial juices. I think you can do frozen in a blender, but I'm not sure about frozen fruit in the juicer. Fred will wrap presents for hours. When the Pinellas Center for the Visually Impaired had the secret Santa program, he would volunteer for the "wrap" party. They serviced 60 children and all family members would get gifts, you can imagine the volume of wrapping to be done each Christmas. I should see if there is a volunteer opportunity for him this year.

We didn't eat our hot dogs last night. Change of plans, we went house cruising and then stopped at Little Tommie's Tiki Hut in Gulfport. I had stuffed dates for an appetizer and then because we didn't have enough turkey, a turkey wrap with cranberry. Liv joined us and she had blackened fish tacos and Fred ate cheeseburger sliders. They shared guacamole, salsa and fresh fried chips. Plus all of us had a bite of chocolate rum cake with ice cream and whip cream. Oh so decadent.

We are considering Gulfport/south Pasadena for our new neighborhood. There is a small local Library and a beautiful performing Arts Center, it is eclectic and has an artist bohemian vibe downtown. There is the annual Geckofest and a Tuesday Farmer's Market, many restaurants, the Gulfport Casino, fishing pier and volleyball on the beach. The houses are older, primed for rehabilitation. Stetson Law University is a huge part of the neighborhood. What is the number one rule of real estate? Buy the worst house on the block, and fix it up. My reasoning is that there will always be a pool of renters in the area, proximity to Boca Ciega Beach, access to the Gulf beaches, so when we are long gone, Olivia can rent the house out or chose to live in it. Research shows that the houses are in an area of appreciation greater than most other areas of St. Petersburg. Gulfport is physically surrounded on three sides by St. Petersburg and the water on the fourth. If we purchase on the northern outskirts, we will avoid flood insurance.

Hot dogs tonight. (I had macaroni salad for breakfast, hey it has hard cooked eggs in it.)
Hope everyone has a great day. Well wishes, Joce.

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chuckieb 9 years ago said:

Sounds like you had yet another very productive day Karen! Glad the Chiropractor is working out for the both of you. Glad also to hear you think you got the sunroom leak fixed.Your Christmas Village sounds lovely. I've never had one or those nor my parents but I used to be quite entranced with them when I saw them at other people's places. I'm sure you'd do find choosing tires if you had to. Google is your friend remember? We deal with Frisby Tires and really like their knowledgable service.
How fun your Uncle owns a Christmas tree lot Michelle. (I have vague memories about hearing about that last year) Have fun decorating today. Fun, fun on your Thai family get together. Can't wait to hear how it goes. spring rolls and egg rolls will be awesome. I've never had catfish ever.

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NPMarie 9 years ago said:

Janet, I agree, frog legs, ewwww:) I LOVE the kitty pic..we need a cage to go over our tree..too funny and I love the cat's bed:)

Karen, so glad to hear you got the leak fixed in your sun room:)

Michelle, have fun decorating:) We usually just put up the tree and I like to add some lights around the fireplace..

Tina, it has been pretty slow this month so far..good thing he was busy last month. It's so weird, it's usually crazy busy or crazy slow:) The ench casserole was really good, I have made it before..I did add some red pepper flakes to the mix for a little more heat:)
Bribie LOVES to climb the tree, although she doesn't get as far as when she was a kitten:)

Joce, thinking of you dear..healing thoughts & prayers going your way.xoxox

I don't have a clue what to make for dinner:)

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chuckieb 9 years ago said:

SP Tina! Yes, I am going to help my Girlfriend at the Flower shop, next week actually. Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm very excited. :) Do take a pic of your Precious Moments set. When I was a teen I worked in a Gift shop and did a lot of gift wrapping myself. I did enjoy it I will admit. Little Tommie's Tiki Hut sounds like my kind of place. :) How fun! I would have had the Cheeseburger sliders too. :) Gulfport/South Pasadena sounds just lovely. Bring on the Geckofest. :) And I guess housing prices are a lot better there so moving will be advantageous for you? Are you hoping to do some renovations yourselves? YUM on Hot dogs.
LOL @ Bribie climbing the tree Marie. I'd love to actually see that. :)

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notyourmomma 9 years ago said:

Yes, it would be very advantageous to move. We would cut our mortgage payment in half. Since I am not working we need to reduce our monthy expenses, by a serious chunk. The flipper has the house next door priced at 170k, a similar size home in Gulfport would be 90-100k. It is a matter of city taxes, and insurance too. City of St. Pete has a higher tax rate to carry all the city services. We would use Justen for the remodel services. We are going to do more drive arounds today.

Michelle. Have fun at the Thai theme supper. I would love the spring rolls. I hear you on the decorations, we have so much in the attic. Ugh.

Marie, there is always Friday night pizza! LOL Good luck decorating too.

Liv has an ugly sweater party to go to this year. I'm going to mash up some kind of horrible sweater for her. I have Mr and Mrs Santa Claus oven mitts and I think I'll sew them to the butt part of the sweater. Tack some garland around the neck. I was trying to figure out how to put in a battery pack light strand without cutting holes in the sweater.....still in the brew process.

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notyourmomma 9 years ago said:

Fred fixed my star! I knew he could do it....with lots of suggestions (nagging, me, nah).

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MissouriFarmWife 9 years ago said:

Good luck on house hunting Tina.
Prices sound reasonable, esp. for in town. Fixer uppers, if you have the ability or know a good place to hire, are cool - I love Love It Or List It and Flip It on HGTV.
A 40 acre farm with one new and one old barn, right off the highway, was advertised for (if my feeble memory serves me correctly) somewhere about $140,000 but I don't know the actual purchase price. The house was 2 story, approx. 1700-1900 sq. ft. but I am not at all certain of that, either. Too close to the highway for my liking. Most houses are small farm type. Land here runs about 1K per acre, because it is not good for anything but pasture, hay, lsst of hills etc. Prices for a normal size city lot in nearby towns start at about 5,000 to 10,000, more or less, depending on town / neighborhood / etc. Depending on size, you can buy a decent, smaller home starting well under $100,000.
Wayne has a task so must go. See ya later.

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NPMarie 9 years ago said:

Janet, if she tries to climb the tree I'll be sure to take a pic...it's hard to catch the rascal..she usually does this when we are in bed..and when I get up she runs away from the tree like crazy..you can tell she's been in the tree because it's leaning over just a bit..LOL

Tina, yes, pizza does sound pretty good:) I'm making some lentil soup..just to make it, I had some celery I needed to use up, so we will have soup if we don't feel like venturing out to get a pizza:) Good job Fred on fixing your star:) Did I mention, we can't put any ornaments on the tree because of the cats? I NEED one of those cages like in the pic Janet posted! haha
The home prices sound quite good compared to California's prices!

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jett2whit 9 years ago said:

Gosh I am so far behind in the threads! Prayers for healing Joce. Frog legs I've had before, and yes they do taste like chicken - LOL!
The cat in my profile pic is Wriggley. We rescued him from a shelter. He thinks he is a dog. He fetches his little squishy ball and sleeps with me at night. There's no way we could have a Christmas tree. He would climb it and wreck the balls! The everyday question I have for my cat is "Wriggley, where are your balls"? He baps them all around and I can't keep up!
Y'all have a great weekend and I will chime in when I can!
Jett

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chuckieb 9 years ago said:

The prices in Gulfport do sound good Tina. Good on the tax prices and insurance as well. LOL @ Liv's ugly sweater party. Can't wait to see what you come up with. :)
Yum on Lentil soup Marie. I haven't made that in ages!
Hi Jett! Lovely to see you. Ugh on the frogs legs. :)

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