Oy, I have been so busy lately that I didn’t get around to posting yesterday’s 14 Day Challenge Question, so I’m playing catch up today.
This is a recipe that we use all the time. We’ve used this marinade for salmon, chicken, and tofu. It’s super easy, and makes your protein so tasty.
Mamaetmaman’s Maple Soy Marinade:
2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
1/4 cup maple syrup
Freshly ground black pepper (however much you want)
1 clove of pressed garlic (optional)
Combine all of your marinate ingredients in a large closable container. Add your protein of choice and marinate accordingly. For salmon, we usually marinate for up to an hour. For chicken and cubed tofu we often marinate overnight.
After marinating, cover a baking dish with aluminum foil (makes for easy clean up) and place your protein on the foil. Bake accordingly. For salmon, we bake at 375F for 18 minutes. For chicken and tofu, we bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces.
Serve on a bed of jasmine rice, and garnish with some cilantro. Enjoy!
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Favourite Subject in School
As a kid living in an abusive home, I loved school. School was a place where I was safe. It was where there were adults who treated me with respect and warmth. It was where I had control over what was happening to me. To this day, I wonder if any of my teachers or guidance counsellors knew what I was dealing with at home. As a teacher myself, I wonder if being a survivor would make me more in tune with the subtle clues that a child is being abused at home? I hope so.
Anyways, I enjoyed all of the courses I took in high school, except ONE. I hated Social Studies. For some reason, remembering tedious details about events and dates in history didn’t interest me. Colouring maps and learning about Canada’s young history also bored me. To this day, I get my news filtered for me through DW, who basically reads the news from every single major Canadian newspaper everyday. I got A+’s in everything, except grade 9 Social Studies, in which I got a B+. A “B+” is also known as an “Asian Fail” (that’s a joke by the way). It’s also the type of thing that ruins an entire report card for an obsessive compulsive perfectionist like myself.
My favourite subjects in high school were Chemistry, Physics, Math, and English. Chemistry, Physics, and Math just made sense to me. I loved English because I had a passion for reading and writing, and loved analyzing pieces of literature for symbolism and hidden meanings.
When I got to university, my best subjects were math and physics, because at some point, I started to spend a little too much time chasing girls and being a little riot dyke to study or do my homework.
Oh university. Those were the days.
Mama et Maman 
That sounds delicious! I really don’t eat enough fish.
It’s really easy too. I find I don’t love salmon in general because of its strong fish taste, but this marinade totally neutralizes it.
I like salmon and tuna. Lately I’ve been eating tilapia, as it’s more sustainable. I have made a variation of the recipe that uses mustard instead of soy sauce. And the fish is topped with nuts. It’s very tasty.
Oh, I’ll have to try the mustard one sometime!
I am totally with you on social studies. I HATED it. And then I went and married a social studies teacher. Hah. I am absolutely not a math/science person, though. I am much more literature/arts oriented. I silently flip off my math teachers very day of my professional life that I don’t have to use any form of advanced algebra. The kid in me says, “I TOLD YOU I DIDN’T NEED TO KNOW THIS STUFF!!!”
Haha. Funny how things work out eh? Interestingly, I am not a science/math kind of person in the typical way. I like it for its abstract and artistic aspects, and how it relates everything. I have my students building and making art as an extension of their understanding. I get them to dance in parabolas and do a line dance to show how you graph a line. We cook pancakes to talk about chemistry in real life. Etc. DW is also a math/science nerd, but in a very VERY different way. She is all about doing experiments, the rules, and how things are supposed to be done. She is often shaking her head at me, wondering how it is that I teach math/science. Haha
We will try this with tofu this weekend. We will be trapped inside from Friday night until Sunday night due to STUPID snow! The storm will leave just in time for school on Monday morning. Ugh.
I hope you enjoy it! It’s one of our favourites. Stay warm. Winter has definitely outstayed its welcome!
I love history now after spending a few semesters in college on it with some excellent professors, but social studies just fails to make sense of all that random, disparate information. I have no idea why they make you memorize dates when it’s the patterns and accomplishments and culture that are really important (and interesting). [Side note: have you seen any of the Crash Course World History series? It’s on youtube and it is really *really* good at synthesizing history/social studies into something that both makes sense and is fun.]
And oh god getting that one B when you otherwise had straight A’s was terrible. I think that’s a large part of why I chose a college with no grades. >>
Yes, I hope Social Studies has changed since then. I taught two semesters of Civics a couple of years ago, and focused a lot more on culturally relevant topics, which the kids are up! Crash Course is a great YouTube channel. They’ve got lots of science stuff too. I will definitely check out their History series.
What!? There are colleges without grades? That is amazing!! Sounds like a place where people can really thrive.
As a history major crash course got me through a brutal world civilization class. F’ing love John Green
History and Geography are hands down my BEST subjects! I’m like, bad ass at it! But don’t talk to me about math and science. In NY we have Regents exams, and in order to graduate you have to have passed at least 3 regents and a completion (3 or more years of 3 different courses) I had a completion in Social Studies, English, and Language, so basically I haven’t taken a math class since 10th grade. Even in college i managed to stay away from it somehow, but then again, i didn’t finish school so, there ya have it!
Haha that’s awesome! I think those subjects lend to more interesting conversations.
That’s funny – we use that recipe all the time, too! I have always used brown sugar and soy sauce. I’ll try it with maple syrup next time.
Yeah it’s a good one! So easy and tasty!
I love this post! So first, a funny thing you made me realize – I have never in my life cooked with tofu! I think maybe I should try.
Second, I loved social studies and English! Give me books to read, dates to memorize and essay questions to answer and I was in my element. But I actually got better grades in biology and chemistry in high school, I didn’t enjoy them or see their point long term as I was never going to become a doctor and didn’t know what else I could do with them at university. And math and physics were always a problem for me, and always destroyed my nearly perfect report cards. Mr. MPB is totally a math and science person just like you.
I figured out WordPress had unfollowed you when I wasn’t drooling looking at posts. That sounds weird hahaha. What I mean is, for real please be my personal chef.
Lol. You’re funny. Thank you for the compliment. Glad you’re following the food porn again 🙂