In the middle of the celebrations

As Thatboy began his first of three attempts to wrap himself in tea-stained gauze, I had the task of coming up with dinner. As usual, my "in a hurry" meal involves chicken. I called out to my pre-mummified man "How would you feel about terriyaki chicken?" He was interested. And so I headed to the portion of the pantry where I keep the soy, terriyaki, hoison, chili garlic paste, fish sauce, and oyster sauce, only to find we were completely out of terriyaki sauce.

Well, they say necessity is the mother of invention and so I jumped on the net and began seeing if I could whip together some terriyaki sauce on my own. The recipes seemed pretty easy - did you know terriyaki had a soy sauce base? I didn't. The recipes I found all called for mirin, sake, rice wine, or sherry. We all know I love putting alcohol in things, but I didn't have any of this stuff on hand. So I left it out. Then I needed ginger. But I didn't have that either - I did have ground ginger so I subbed that in, but honestly, if you know you're going to make this in advance I suggest picking up some fresh ginger and using that instead.

Terriyaki Sauce

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

1. Heat soy sauce and sugar over medium heat in a saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
2. Add garlic and ginger and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool.