Curry Chicken

There are a lot of curry chicken recipes from different countries, but this recipe is Jamaican style. Perfect with Rice and Peas.



Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 lbs. chicken, cubed
• 3 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
• 1 medium onion diced
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup of curry powder
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. onion salt
• 1/4 tsp. allspice
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ginger
• 1/2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. tomato paste
• 2 branches of fresh thyme
• 1 or 2 scotch bonnet peppers, whole
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup oil for browning water

Method:

• Heat oil in a large, non-stick pot on medium heat and add onions and garlic.
• Add a little bit of the curry and let cook for a about 1 minute.
• Then add the chicken with some more of the curry and brown the meat on all sides.
• Add potatos and enough water to cover.
• Then add the rest of the curry and the rest of the ingredients and mix well.IIncrease heat to medium-high and allow to boil.
• Reduce heat to low medium, cover and allow to cook for at least 30 min.
• Remove from heat and take out thyme branches and scotch bonnet peppers. Then serve on top of Rice and Peas
  

Enjoy!

The wrong signal!

Just read the story carried in MacLeans about the over $18 billion in bonuses being paid out for 'performance' in 2008.

Absolutely incredible. And not in a good way.

Check the story out for yourself at: http://blog.macleans.ca/2009/01/29/wall-street-crumbles-but-bonuses-don%e2%80%99t/. Please join the discussion. I did.

Anger. Disappointment. Frustration.

All their expensive marketing and advertising efforts just got blown out the window.

Makes me want to stop doing business with them. In fact I actually did that a number of years by joining a local credit union, http://www.parama.ca/. Friendly service, no fees, and they give money back to their members. Nice business model. Their marketing: "treat their customers as people first".

Works for me.

The continued adventures of a Newbie blogger

It has been quite the active week. And the results continue to increase.

First, had an interesting email exchange with an individual about my goals and objectives of blogging. He had originally responded to a post I had submitted on Linkedin (http://www.linkedin.com/). We moved to direct communication. My answer has remained the same since the original posts: I wanted an outlet to express myself, promote my business and life philosophy and make money. Got the first two well under way…still lagging on the making money part.

Another email exchange led to me revising and modifying all three of my blogs to improve search engine results. Came from a friend, JY who also was kind enough to forward a post (‘You get to play again tomorrow, http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com/).

Two key results came from the modifications. First, it really ramped up my creative juices and led to a burst of writing and posting. Thanks JY. Second, he sent a link to a blog that promised to improve results http://www.ssi-online-marketing.blogspot.com/. It worked almost immediately after I implemented a number of suggestions including key words in the title, site description and blog roll. I experienced the most impact after adding the blog roll. And it gave me permission to contact a number of other bloggers and ask for a reciprocal link. Great resource.

Also had some good exchanges with other bloggers:

• http://www.afoodcoma.com/. This one came from the blog my son and I maintain, http://realjamaicancooking.blogspot.com/. Turns out this person is a cyclist and wants to try Triathlons. I competed a number of years ago so now another interesting conversation has begun.
• http://therobinsnest.wordpress.com/. Really cool: talking about an individual’s purpose in life. This is a cool blog, you have to check it out.
• http://www.yardedge.net/. My cousin Karin Wilson who works and lives in Jamaica runs this one. Excellent coverage of the culture. Jamaica is not all beaches, ganja and violence.
• And finally for the week, I gained 10 new followers on twitter (http://twitter.com/, follow me ‘Chris_Morales).

I know I have not explored twitter to its fullest yet, but it is an excellent way to update my followers with new posts. As I continue to explore it further, I am learning that I can enter into conversations with my followers and comment on what they have posted.

One specific example of using twitter: saw a post from MacLeans Magazine http://blog.macleans.ca/. They had posted a story about some guy who spent over $1.5 million to renovate his office. The ridiculousness of this prompted me to add my comment about a story right here in Canada that struck me as similarly wasteful: Home Depot Canada spent $11 million to get out of a lease in Toronto. To NOT build a store! Guess who pays. Will now start shopping at Home Hardware, a Canadian company based out of St. Jacobs Ontario.
http://www.homehardware.ca/index/splash. (Confession: we shop at the local Home Hardware store, Beach Builders and are big fans of their customer service).

Enough ranting for the week.

The journey continues.

Thanks for following. I look forward to your comments.

Response to ‘You Get to Play Again Tomorrow’ post

Wow! It really is possible for an individual to change the world.

After I posted the story, ‘You get to play again tomorrow’, on Jan 20, I expected the usual response: some emails, normal level of site visits.

This time I received an unexpected and very pleasant surprise.

First I noticed that the number of hits to the blog jumped significantly. I did my usual promotion:

• email to my usual distribution list (thanks for continuing to put up with the email blast :))
• twittered it (http://twitter.com; follow me ‘Chris_Morales’)
• posted on facebook business/networking groups (http://www.facebook.com/)
• posted on Linkedin groups I belong to (http://www.linkedin.com/ .

Then I started getting emails. All complementary. Unusual. At first I chalked it up the giddiness of the day: January 20, Barak Obama’s inauguration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjnygQ02aW4

Later that afternoon though, the answer was revealed. It came in the form of an email chain from a friend who had found the topic particularly relevant. He had not only forwarded it on to his staff, but had also sent it on to his associates in his company across the country!

This blew me away. I started blogging last fall as a rant (I had just lost my job at the time) and while it has morphed and changed over the months, I did not expect that it could be influential. Pleasant surprise.

As I reflected on this during the evening while watching Obama’s Inauguration Ball (yes, I watched over 8 hours of inauguration coverage that day!), I grew to appreciate the significance of what had happened. I was humbled and reminded of the fact that there are decent people in the world. It re-affirmed my personal belief system: act morally, ethically and treat others with respect at home, work and play.

As a final comment on this, here are two responses that from the email chain (I have removed the identities to protect their privacy)

• “Great (and edifying) story and made me think immediately of a few times both my kids and kids I coached said something similar, BUT, never took the time to write down”

• “This arrived at an opportune moment yesterday as doom and gloom was being spouted by some people in the office. This provided perspective and I've tuned the doom and gloomers out! We are playing again tomorrow!”
  

Thanks for forwarding the email, JY. And thanks again Andrew for teaching us that we do get to play again tomorrow.