My Blossoming Birthday Celebration!

Today is my actual birthday that I share with my beloved twin sister.

Life lately has been beautiful. Celebrations with friends and family have been abundant, and I am so grateful for a life rich with a close family and strong friendships.

Life has also been blessedly hectic lately between my new niece, a promotion at work, and so many great outings with friends and family. Hence, I decided to take this day off from work and spend it relaxing and enjoying rare quiet time alone. The gift to myself today is downtime and a chance to text and talk with friends and family instead of being at my desk at work on the trading floor. I woke up and went out for coffee and a bagel with a good schmear, pampered myself today at the nail salon with a manicure and pedicure, cracked open a bottle of pink prosecco, and also enjoyed this dish that was prepared in my Crockpot (no way was I making anything today that would ruin the nails!). I served this on top of white rice. I would have done brown rice if it were not my special day to make it healthier, but I wanted to indulge! Oh, and of course I read food blogs ALL day. Fellow foodie bloggers, you make my day and being able to read them leisurely today was a great gift!

I highly recommend this dish any time of year in the Crockpot. It was delicious and full of wonderful flavors and so easy to make. The next time I make this I may do half pineapple juie and half orange juice for even more great flavors, but it is truly perfect the way it is!

Orange Blossom Chicken Teriyaki (a recipe for a slow cooker)

Ingredients:

8 chicken drumsticks (you can also do half thighs if you want, but use dark meat; I also used skinless since skin slow cooker recipes make little sense to me - it gets too soggy)

1 large onion, thinly sliced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup grated fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon cardamom (I was fortunate to have this particular spice given to me recently by a friend who was in Ethiopia, so I cracked the outer shell and ground the pods in my mortar and pestle!)

1 thinly sliced, unpeeled orange

1 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp water

Directions:

1) Mix onion, garlic, and olive oil and place at bottom of slow cooker.

2) Place the chicken on top (sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste).

3) Whisk together orange juice, soy, honey, brown sugar, ginger, and cardamom in a mixing bowl. Pour over chicken.

4) Cover chicken with sliced oranges

5) Cook on high setting for 4 hours or low setting for 8 hours (I did low).

6) Remove chicken and oranges with slotted spoon.

7) Add cornstarch to the water and mix - then stir into the juices and whisk to thicken.

8) Place chicken and oranges back in the pot and keep on warm setting until ready to serve.