Grandpa's Cafe

My grandpa (dad’s dad) owned a cafe since I’d been born and he sold it when I was 12.

I worked at his cafe for a few summers a couple days a week from age 10-12.

He had a VERY cheap special. 2 cakes, 2 eggs, 2 links. (2 Pancakes and 2 sausage links)

I remember one day he was trying to teach me how to read a clock face and apparently I made him so bad by not understanding that he said “You disgust me” and that upset me so much that the next time he asked me to come work I didn’t want to.

I remember this group of 3 came in and the ONLY thing they said to me for their order was “scrambled eggs and water.” I even double checked what they said. So, that’s what I put in for the order. My grandpa asked me if I wasn’t sure they wanted the SPECIAL. And I said “no all they said was ‘scrambled eggs and water’. My grandpa had enough faith in me that that’s all he made them. I took it to their table and these jerk offs gave me a nasty look and asked where their food was. Luckily my grandpa never reprimanded me for it and he fixed their order in less than 10 minutes. They didn’t leave me a tip.

I remember having a tan bowl with my tips. Usually I’d get change which was fine cause I LOVED playing spin the coins. Most people hold the coin up with their left pointer finger then flick the side of the coin with their right finger. I grip both sides of the coin and twist really fast. I’d start a chain of them.

I’d also spend my time adding up the prices on the menu.
My grandpa actually gave me $10 plus all my tips for working a day. :) Some days if it was from 8am to 8pm he’d give me $20!

His cafe was closed from 2-4. Usually we’d take a nap on the  “oh so cold” booths cause the air conditioning was on high and it’d get REALLY cold. Other days if he needed to get something from the store we’d go to dairy queen and get sundaes!

He had a big stereo that had a cd player. If there weren’t a lot of customers he’d let me pick some polka cds from his collection OR I could play one of my 50-60s cds.

I kind of miss my grandpa’s cafe…

General Tso's Chicken!

This stuff is AH-MAZ-ING.


General Tso’s Chicken
Yields 2 servings

• Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 t hoisin sauce
• 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2c flour
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (I used vegetable oil)
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 6 green onions, chopped, plus more for serving
• 1/2t grated fresh ginger
• 1/2t minced garlic 
• 1c broccoli florets
• 1/2c snow peas
• Crushed red-pepper flakes, optional
• Sesame seeds, optional
• Cooked rice, for serving

Directions: (oh ftw, I MOSTLY eyeballed all this stuff. I tried to guess at how much I put in but it won't hurt if you just eyeball it.)

1.  I marinated the chicken it really adds to the dish and helps it! I diced the chicken, added 1/4t hoisin sauce, 1T rice wine vinegar, 1T soy sauce, 2 dashes of sesame oil, 1/4t fresh grated ginger, 1/4t minced garlic, and 2T brown sugar. I let that sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Any amount of extra time you have will help the chicken so it doesn't need to be that long but it's better if it's marinated that long!
2. So then I drain the chicken from the juices and coat the chicken with the flour and cornstarch.
3. I heat up 2T veg oil in a nonstick pan and cook until the chicken is done. Remove from pan.
4. Add 2T veg oil. Saute the scallions and ginger and rest of garlic. Add the broccoli and peas and whatever veggies you want and the crushed red pepper flakes.
5. Add (eyeball) hoisin, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and brown sugar.
6. Add the chicken and toss to coat.

Serve with rice!
This isn't very saucy so if you wanted more sauce you can mix the sauce ingredients with 1/2c of water and some cornstarch and then you'll have to let it cook to thicken.

Without counting the marinating time, this took like 15min because I had all the veggies pre-chopped and in the freezer so I just threw them in the pan.

It was so good even Bradley liked it!! :D
You could easily change this up and instead of using the crushed red pepper flakes you can use orange juice and zest to make orange chicken! :)