Jultember: that ain't happening...

i finally managed to get a much-needed chunk of sleep, and i was still super-groggy when i woke up. i would have stayed in bed a bit longer, but my tummy had other ideas. so, there i was having a breakfast of pizza leftover from the previous night—you know, when i was being all classy with my wine glass full of ginger ale. i am struggling to keep my eyes open, while he is messaging me for ideas of what to cook for his mom.

there is a running joke in our home about never being able to share recipes with other people because so many of the things we make around here tend to involve some whole other recipe for some whole other thing. case and point...

him: what did you put in the basting sauce when you made the shish kabobs with pork, pineapple, and peppers?
me: uhm... stuff.

seriously, who asks a question like that when you are still half-asleep?

i knew i had taken some photos of that meal, so i pulled up a few of them to try to reverse-engineer a sauce from an image. yes, the lunacy is strong with this one.

it began with some pork cutlets which i cut into strips and marinated with some sort of mixture of some sort of stuff. then i accordion-folded the strips onto bamboo skewers with pieces of onion, sweet pepper, and pineapple.

at some point, i dumped some extra... uhm... stuff into the bits of marinade in the bowl, and that new mixture became the basting sauce, which was applied a couple-few times while the kebabs were cooking.

then they were done. and they were really good.

so, i stared at the photos for a while, but nothing was coming back to me. then it hit me...

me: so i figured out what i used for the marinade, which was the base of the sauce.
him: so what was in that amazing sauce?
me: first you need to grow some thai basil, then use that to make a batch of thai basil pesto. then you can start to make those kebabs.
him: oh no!!! it's one of THOSE sauces! well, that ain't happening.

pretty much.