Ginger Pork

I really like the flavor of ginger and really don't use it enough in my cooking. I always have it on hand and keep it in the freezer, but because it's in the freezer, it's one of those out of sight, out of mind things and I never really use it. To remedy this, I decided to make ginger pork and make ginger the star of the show!

This is a quick and tasty dish to make and since the hubz has taken a liking to keeping the freezer stocked with pork tenderloin (I think he's tired of chicken), I'll probably be making this a lot more in the future.

Ingredients:
- Pork tenderloin
- Onions
- Ginger
- Soy sauce
- Brown sugar
- Corn starch
- Edamame (optional)

Directions:
- Slice the pork into thin strips.
- Marinate the pork in some soy sauce, brown sugar, corn starch and lots of grated ginger (I used a microplane zester) while you're prepping the rest of the ingredients.
- Slice the onions into thin strips.
- Slice some ginger into super thin strips (you can skip this step if you want. I just thought that the grated ginger was a bit mild, so I added more strips of it for more ginger flavor).
- Heat a wok or pan with a bit of oil in it.
- Add the onions and saute until they are mostly softened.
- Add the sliced ginger and the pork along with the marinade and keep everything in the pan moving until the pork is cooked through, adding more soy sauce and brown sugar to taste as needed and water/stock if it gets too dry or you want more sauce.
- Add the edamame if you want it to just heat it through.
- Serve everything over rice.

Soba Noodles

A few months ago, my office moved less than 6 miles away from home! It still takes me about 15 minutes because it's all local, but it's still nice to be so close.

One of the benefits of being so close is that I can go home for lunch! I don't do it often, but it's nice to know it's an option.

On this particular day, I didn't bring a lunch like I usually do and didn't have lunch plans with anyone, so I decided to go home. There were no leftovers in the fridge (otherwise I would've brought those for lunch), so I needed to make something quick. We're going through a heat wave right now in California, so I decided on cold soba noodles. Quick, refreshing, healthy, and delicious!

This is my submission for Presto Pasta Nights which is being hosted by Sara of I'm a Food Blog. Check out the rest of the submissions on Sept 25th!

Ingredients:
- 1 serving of soba noodles
- Edamame (I used frozen)
- 1-2 slices of ham
- Soy sauce
- Rice vinegar (or any vinegar will do if you don'to have rice vinegar)
- Mirin (honey or sugar is fine if you don't have mirin)
- Miso paste (if you don't have this, just leave it out and put more soy)
- Wasabi paste (optional, if you want a bit of kick)

Directions:
- Boil a pot of water and cook the soba according to package directions. Put the edamame in also, just to heat them through. Immediately drain and rinse with cold water when done and set aside.
- Mix a bit of soy, vinegar, mirin, miso paste, and wasabi in a bowl to taste. If you're missing some of the ingredients, no big deal. Just substitute the soy and miso with something salty, the vinegar with something sour and/or citrusy, and the mirin with something sweet.
- Toss the noodles in the sauce and top it with the edamame and julienned ham and you've got yourself a quick and easy summer meal.