Sunday, December 26, 2010
Christmas!!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
WooWooo!
I purchased a bottle of Kikkoman stir fry sauce and cut chicken into strips, about 1/2" - 1". I put 1 tbsp of corn starch in a large plastic Zip-Lock bag and pouring some of the sauce in there, mixing it well and then tossing in the chicken, coating it. Throw that in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Heat up a large skillet with a bit of vegetable oil and throw the marinated chicken in there. I cooked it through and removed it from the heat, putting it in a glass bowl. Throw some of your favorite veggies into that skillet, pouring a bit of the stir fry sauce over it, cooking them until tender. Mix the chicken back in. Serve on top of rice.
It was soo good! I was proud of myself. Brent likes his with some of those crunchy noodle things on them, but I just put a bit of low sodium soy sauce on mine.
The only thing that sucked was the rice didn't cook quite right because it was my first time. I was kind of a newb at all of this. It was quite dry, but the soy sauce helped out a bit.
But, mmmm-mmmmmmmmmmmm!!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Mmm Thai Foods - Bamee Gaeng
2 cups uncooked Jasmine rice (I used the Mahatma brand) and cook according to package
1/4 cup red curry paste
2 (13.5 oz) cans coconut milk
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into strips (either use ENORMOUS chicken breast or add 3)
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1/4 cup white sugar
1-1/2 cups sliced bamboo shoots, drained
1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
1/2 green bell pepper, julienned
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 cup pineapple chunks, drained
Dash of red chili powder or cayenne pepper
1. Drink the pineapple juice - ok, just kidding, but I did. It's my favorite. Reminds me of when I was a kid and Mom would let me drink the juice that she drained from the can :)
Real 1. In a small bowl, whisk together the curry paste and one can of the coconut milk. Transfer to wok (I don't have one so I used a large pan) and mix the remaining coconut milk, chicken, fish sauce, sugar, red chili powder (or cayenne) and bamboo shoots. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.
2. Mix the bell peppers and onion into the pan. Continue cooking for 10 minutes or until the peppers are more tender. Remove from heat and stir in pineapple. Serve over cooked rice.
I was surprised at how much this smelled and tasted like the Ba Mee Gaeng at the Noodle!! It wasn't exactly like it, but it was close enough for my taste! However, it's not spicy at all like the recipe suggests, so that was a little disappointing. It's a great recipe for people who don't like the spice as much, or have kids who aren't fans of the spicy. Consider adding some ground cayenne pepper if you do want some spice. BUT - maybe we got the wrong curry paste? Who knows. Anyway, I added some cayenne pepper toward the end so that my left overs tomorrow would be spicier.
Speaking of left overs... HOLY MOLY! This makes a TON of food!
I did do a couple things differently, however. I only had a cup of bamboo shoots as that's what the can gave me (I'm lazy, what can I say?) and Brent hates onion, so I didn't put any in at all. Sometimes I try to sneak a bit in the food (I don't like much of it either, but a tad doesn't hurt) and I play it off like that's how I'd always made the meal. He's not stupid and he totally remembers how I had made stuff the previous times. Also, as far as changes, I added a tad less sugar than what it called for. I didn't want it to be too sweet.
All in all this was a great meal! I'm really impressed and glad I tried it out. I'm still on the hunt for more recipes with curry! Either Thai or Indian. I recently got a recipe from a friend for sweet and spicy sweet potatoes. I'm stoked for that one. I'm a sucker for sweet potatoes, but that's another blog for another day.
What are some of your favorite curry recipes?
recipe source: allrecipes.com - Thai Pineapple Chicken Curry
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Pom Kick
Monday, November 15, 2010
Sweet and Salty Pretzels, Pomegrante Muffins, Egg Nog French Toast AND Alfredo Pasta!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Baked Apples
So, growing up, my parents had an apple tree in the back yard by the swing set and I can remember going and helping pick these apples. Mom always made stuff like homemade apple sauce (with Red Hot cinnamon candies), pies, etc..
They came to visit me this weekend and brought me a boat-load of apples. I found a recipe for baked apples and decided to try it out.
(Above pictures borrowed from link at the bottom of this post. I'm pretty accident prone so I'm not quite able to core apples and take photos at the same time. I've almost lost a finger a time or two.)
You take 4 large apples wash and core them so the hole is about 3/4" wide. The tree doesn't produce the largest apples so I was able to get this done with 5 decent sized apples.
Mix together 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 cup chopped currants or raisins, 1/4 cup chopped pecans. I added a teeny tiny dash of nutmeg, ginger and cloves as well... Pack this inside of the apples (literally pack it) and then cut the butter into quarters and place it on top of the apples in an 8"x8" baking pan. Take the boiling water and pour it into the dish.
Serve those puppies up with some vanilla ice cream. Yum.