Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts

Thai Shrimp Salad

Tuesday, June 7, 2016


 It has been so HOT here! And as much as I love my old ranch house one thing it does not have is a powerful air conditioner. It has an air conditioner, but all it does is cool the floor about one foot in front of each vent and cost us $300 a month.

 Which means that when temperatures climb above 90 degrees it becomes completely mandatory that I make dinners that don't require any oven time! Our oven is the original 1947 Westinghouse that came with the house and while it still works, and is super cute, it has very little insulation. When I turn it on it raises the temperature in the kitchen a minimum of 50 degrees. I'm not making this up.

 So we eat a lot of salads. If I make something. We also eat a lot of cereal and watermelon. You do not need a recipe for cereal or watermelon, but I am totes ready to share one of our favorite salad recipes. 

 We love Thai flavors, so I invented this recipe for a Thai Shrimp Salad based on this one.
Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil 
  • 1 small red onion, chopped fine
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 pound cooked medium size shrimp tails removed
  • 4 tablespoons lime juice
  • 2 teaspoons fish sauce 
  • 1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated 
  • 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
  • Honey, to taste
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 cups shredded Napa cabbage
  • 3 carrots, grated (or small bag of shredded carrots)
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 2 scallions, chopped
  • ¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
  • ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
  • ¼ cup chopped cashews (I like the ones that are roasted AND salted)


Instructions
  1. Heat coconut oil over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for four minutes. Add shrimp and saute until heated through.
  2. Make dressing by whisking together lime juice, fish sauce, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Slowly whisk in olive oil until emulsified. Add honey to taste.
  3. In a large bowl combine cabbage, carrots, scallions, basil, cilantro and shrimp. Toss with dressing. Top with cashews and serve.
กิน 
(Kin)
That is Bon appetit in Thai. I love the internet! If you love Thai too, here is a fantastic recipe for Thai Curry Seafood Stew.

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Quick Rise Braided Bread

Thursday, April 14, 2016

A long time ago I knew a lady who made super good punch with frozen fruit and different juices and things in it. She would make it for church ladies events of which I have attended many in my days and it was always a hit. Later, when I was planning a party or something and I asked her for the recipe she told me, "I don't usually give it to people; I should charge $100 for it." But she did give it to me because I looked pathetic...or something.

It occurs to me that you might think I'm completely confused about today's post since I'm talking about punch but there is clearly a picture of bread up there. Nope, I just wanted to illustrate that this here braided bread recipe is so good it should cost a hundred dollars. And if I was an older church lady I might charge you for it.
 Who told you to eat those carbs? Could it be...Satan?

Oh my gosh, reel me back in someone, please. But really, this bread is excellent. We are talking about bread. Really. Bread.

What I like best about this recipe is that it only needs to rise for 1/2 hour, which means even if you don't think about what you're making for dinner until, well, dinner time, you can still have it. Plus it looks pretty and tastes delicious.

Actually, let me revise my statement-what I like best about this bread is that it is super yummy, especially when it is hot and a little chewy right out of the oven. In all seriousness, Go! Make! Eat! My family is so happy when I make this. It's a good thing it makes two loaves because often one doesn't even make it to the table.

We just rip it apart like savages while it's cooling on the stove, smoother it in butter, and gobble it down. Like my mom said when we were kids, "it's only hot out of the oven once."

So, onto the recipe!

(This is a downloadable link for easy printing or saving)

Ingredients

1 1/2 package of yeast
1/2 cup of warm water
1 teasppon sugar
8 cups of flour
3 eggs
2 cups of water
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tablespoon of salt
1/4 cup sugar

 Combine the yeast, 1/2 cup of warm water and sugar in a small bowl and set aside for about 5 minutes or until it's foaming.
Put all eight cups of flour into a large bowl and make a "well" in the middle.
Add all the ingredients including the yeast mixture.
Mix with a spoon as much as you can and then knead until smooth, adding flour until it is not sticky and bounces back. 
Place the dough in an oiled bowl (I just give the bowl I've been using a quick wash and continue using it), oil the top of the dough, cover and let rise for about 1/2 hour.
Divide the dough in half and then divide each half into three sections. 
Pull each section into a rope. 
Braid it on an oiled cookie sheet
 Tuck the ends under and repeat with the other half of the dough.
Brush with a beaten egg.
 Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees and 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

 When it's all done you really should eat it warm. It's sooooo goooood!

Especially with Danish Creamery salted butter. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you. On day one we just pull it apart and eat it. If you have any left over (usually we don't) on day two you can slice it and make toast and it is the best toast ever!

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Chicken Salad with Lots of Goodies

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

I am still working on part two of how to reupholster dining room chairs. There are SO MANY photos to edit for it. In the interim I give you:
I imagine every family has their own version of a chicken salad that they love. We love this one, Jonathan asks for it all the time, so I thought it would be nice of me to share. And I am nothing if not nice. 

 It's so good that no matter how much I make, we never have leftovers. The secret, as you may have guessed from the title, is adding lots of delicious goodies.

 Here's what you'll need.
Chicken-SURPRISE! I like the whole rotisserie chicken from Costco. It's quite easy to remove the skin, de-bone, and chop it up into bite sized pieces. You can also use cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts if you like but I think it's nicer with dark meat mixed in.

 On a not totally unrelated note, when I was at Costco picking up my chicken there was a gentleman in front of me also choosing a chicken. Except it was taking him a loooong time. He would pick up a chicken, examine it, and put it back. He did this for maybe ten chickens before putting one in his cart.

 It made me feel extremely anxious about taking one of his rejected chickens! They looked fine to me but who knows? What was he seeing? I ended up choosing one from the very back that he hadn't looked at. It tasted good, so, that worked out and I won't take so long to tell you about the next ingredients.

 3 stalks of celery chopped
1/2 yellow onion also chopped
1/2 cup of craisins
1 chopped apple (I used a gala)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 teaspoon of curry powder
1/2 to 3/4 cups mayonnaise

 All of these measurements are subject to your own good judgement of course. Chicken salad is like that you know.
We had ours with a yummy bowl of butternut squash soup. It's the perfect meal for a Spring evening-soup to warm you up from the cool nights but not a heavy stew that would leave you too full and a chicken salad that is crunchy and sweet and savory all mixed together in goodness!

   

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The Best Sweet and Tangy Chili You've Ever Tasted

Wednesday, January 13, 2016


Hi friends. Sorry I haven't blogged in so long. I like to keep at it until I gain a bit of momentum, my page views are going up, and then I just, suddenly, stop blogging altogether and go dark...for fun? Actually, I'm pretty frustrated with myself, but onward and upward as they say. Let's just get after it shall we? We shall!

I'm throwing myself an easy pitch and sharing my award winning recipe for the best chili you've ever tasted, as opposed to say, sharing my thoughts on disciplining teenagers or something (you'd like that though, wouldn't you?). It is sweet and tangy and meaty and I could seriously eat three bowls in row. Still, how can I claim this is the best tasting chili ever? Because my sister-in-law said so. It must be so! Also, I did win at my church's fall chili cook off a couple years ago with this baby and I've got the gold painted ladle to prove it. Somewhere.

Here is what you will need:
 6-8 US
  • 2lbs sweet Italian turkey sausage, casing removed
  • 1chopped sweet onion
  • 3cloves of pressed garlic
  • 1 chopped green bell pepper
  • 1 finely diced jalapeno pepper
  • 1 (15 ounce) can of chili beans
  • 1 (28 ounce) can of maple cured bacon baked beans
  • 1(14 1/2 ounce) can of petite diced tomatoes
  • 1 1⁄2teaspoons chili powder
  • 1teaspoon cumin
  • 1teaspoon thyme
  • 1⁄2teaspoon salt
  • 1⁄2teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1⁄2cup of honey
And here is how you are going to put it together:

Start with browning the sausage, chopped onion, garlic and bell pepper in a large sauce pan over medium heat.
 Sometimes you can get the sausage simply packaged as ground meat without the casing, if not, just slice the casing with a sharp knife and slide out the sausage. 

My eyes are freakishly sensitive to onions and peppers so I wear a pair of onion goggles while I cook. It's very chic, all the sexy chefs are doing it. I tried to take a selfie in them so you could see how fabulous they look on me, but, it just, no. 
 I need a new manicure. Please ignore my ugly fingers.
My Safeway recently started carrying these peeled garlic cloves and they are my favorite thing ever! I am too lazy to mince garlic so
I always use a press. 
  
And this is a chopped bell pepper. Nice. Now cook that all up until the meat is cooked through, about 8 minutes. I didn't really time it, I'm just guessing about the eight minutes; cook it until there is no pink left.

Now add the beans and tomatoes. If you have a fancy pampered chef can opener you should totally use that. I had one but now it's disappeared and I have to use a regular one from CVS or somewhere. I have a suspicion that my good one went on a Scout camping trip and never came home, but I don't have proof.
 Add your spices
Now let all that chili goodness simmer uncovered on low for about 30 minutes. It will smell SO good.
After 30 or so minutes add the honey and cinnamon. I think of these two as the secret ingredients, once they're cooked in people can't put their finger on what makes it taste so special, but you will know. Mwahaha! The best honey is from your own bees, but if the bees are not participating, go for local honey. So yummy!

chili with honey
 The last thing to do is enjoy watching your family slurp it up! I don't know why, but seeing my family eat makes me super happy. I'm a feeder. This recipe is perfect for that. I hope you like it.
sweet and tangy chili
This week I was motivated to get back in the blogging saddle by my friend, Monica, who just started her own Suh-weet blog where she wrote about doing things we want to do but are scared of at the same time. I often feel that way about putting my writing and weirdo photos out there and her essay was just the nudge/shove I needed. I hope you'll check her out here. 

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What We're Eating

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

It has been hard to blog since my sister passed away last month. It's been hard to do very much at all. Actually, I am really good at crying. I'd like to send big smoochy hugs to everyone who took the time to read about her here and send me such kind messages. It meant more than you can know.

So yesterday I decided that we were going to go bankrupt if I didn't make the herculean effort to plan a weeks worth of meals, write a grocery list and, yes, drive to the store and purchase food. We've been living on a steady diet of pizza and Chinese take-out supplemented with a lot of toast. After I put everything away and wrote the menu up on my chalkboard kitchen door so I won't forget what the heck I'm supposed to do with all those groceries, I noticed that I'd planned a menu of almost all comfort foods. Go figure. 

Some of the recipes I've made before and know are yummy, and some are new but just sounded good, you know? Anyway, here are some of the meals we're having with links to the recipes in case you need a little comfort too.

Monday is fish day. We had this oven roasted sea bass with ginger and lime sauce. Except sea bass was $24 a pound so I selected the $6 cod instead. The sauce is super good. I plan to use it again to marinate chicken and I even think it would be tasty as a salad dressing.

Tonight were are trying this slow cooker honey garlic chicken. I know, it's not a very far step from Chinese take-out but whatever. Doesn't it just look like it will make me feel better? I think so.

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken | justataste.com
Link
Also I am making broccolini to go with it because I saw it in the produce section and I thought, "hey! the little chefs on 'Master Chef Junior' use this all the time to look fancy, I want to look fancy too." Broccoli is so last year.
I snapped this right before Marc dug in.
Wednesday night we are having boiled dinner. There is no recipe for this; my little German mom has been making it for as long as I can remember. In your largest pot boil carrots, potatoes, a quartered onion, a quartered cabbage head, and sweet Italian sausage (my mom uses polish sausage). Let it all boil together until the potatoes and carrots are tender and the sausage isn't pink in the middle. In our family, this is comfort food.

I'm a sucker for a good slow cooker recipe, as you can tell, and on Thursday I'm making Coconut Ginger Chicken and Vegetables. I've made this before and it is really yummy, mild enough for the whole family, but with a lot of nice flavors.
Link
Having said that, I recommend a few changes. One, canned baby corn grosses me out so I just don't use that weird stuff. I about double all the spices plus add a couple tablespoons of curry. My final tip, when you choose your frozen veggies, get ones without carrots. Believe me, frozen carrots just don't taste that good. I use a stir fry mix and then add some asparagus.

The last meal I planned for Friday or Saturday depending on the leftover situation is another slow cooker favorite, Vegetable Beef Soup.
Link
I've made this before too and I like to make a few changes. Instead of frozen mixed veggies I use chopped whatever I have in the fridge, usually broccoli (because I also am so last year), green beans, bell peppers, onions, carrots or whatever. I never use canned corn, always fresh or at least petite white frozen. And this time instead of buying ground beef I purchased a roast that was on sale and asked the butcher to chop it up for me; I plan to season it with salt, pepper and garlic powder then brown it in a little bit of oil before putting it in the crock pot.

And that is how I am eating my feelings this week.

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Slow Cooker Scallop Potatos

Monday, October 27, 2014

I feel like my life doesn't have as many creamy potato casserole type moments as it did when  I was a young girl blissfully ignorant of fat, calories, and the dreaded cholesterol.  And it is sad, sad because I really do love a rich, creamy, delicious scalloped potato with all my heart and stomach. So when Jonathan said he wanted creamy, cheesy potatoes with his birthday dinner I decided I was going to do those tots up right! Like, if I only get to eat them once or twice a year then by golly they are going to be WORTH it!

 Also we would be at church before dinner at my Mom's house so I wanted to make them in the crockpot so they'd be ready take over there as soon as we got home.

 After many minutes spent looking at pinterest for the perfect recipe and being disappointed, I realized it was up to me to create the ultimate dish...one that was creamy, but not bland...and I didn't want to dump cream of anything soup in it either.

 So here friends is what I came up with. It is a mash up of a few recipes I read that sounded promising, along with my own tweaks seeing as I know best when it comes to fattening potatoes. They were a hit at the birthday dinner if I do say so myself. Do as I say and you will be happy when YOU get home from church next week!

Slow Cooker Scallop Potatoes

8 russet potatoes peeled and sliced
1 onion thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 and 1/2 blocks of cream cheese cubed
3/4 cups milk
truffle salt and black pepper
rosemary

First I mixed the onion and garlic in a bowl. This is what onions and garlic look like together. They look happy.
Next I sliced up the potatoes like so. Hi potatoes. I'm sorry we don't get to enjoy you more often.
Then I started making layers in the crockpot. First a layer of potatoes, then sprinkle with a pinch of truffle salt, a twist or two of black pepper, and a smidge of rosemary.
Certainly I am showing off when I say that my Sel a la Truffe was a gift my daughter brought back to me from her stay in France, but you are in luck because they also sell it at World Market and Williams Sonoma. It is good on EVERY VEGETABLE. Seriously. 

Okay back to layering, so potatoes, spices, then a layer of the onion and garlic mix. And finally, some of the cream cheese cubes you made. Here is what my first layer looked like.
I fit about two more layers in and then poured the milk over the top. Cover the entire confection and cook on high for 4 hours. Enjoy the smell of garlic potatoes! Take it all in.

After four hours I stirred the whole thing gently to distribute the cream cheesiness over all the tots, put the lid back and cooked it for another 1/2 hour.

And that is all. We were so busy eating I forgot to take a beauty shot of the goodness when it was all done...but here is a plate with the little bit of leftovers so you can see how it looks.
 It was yum. I hope you like it.

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Do You Have to Make Dinner Again? Try This!

Friday, September 19, 2014

really good slow cooker chicken tortilla soup
I think that most people will agree with me when I say that cooking dinner is overrated. And that it should be simplified.  Like maybe with cold cereal.

 But my family's taste buds are elevated and they just don't go for that. For example, when Jonathan was about five and I offered to take him to McDonald's for lunch his response was an emphatic sigh and a request to, "just go to Wegman's and get some cheese."

 And when we go to family reunions my cousin-in-law, who is a chef, brings his sous-vide and foie gras. I'm not saying that we don't eat all kinds of low end food like donuts and Slurpees, but when it's time for dinner they all expect me to, like, cook. They hate frozen dinners, and chicken casserole, or box noodle kind of things, and really anything that might be fast and easy for me.

 It's possible I am exaggerating but it's how I feel, okay?  And maybe it's a little my fault because usually I like to cook good meals but right now I don't feel like it and that should be my prerogative. 

 So you can see that while I am fed up with the whole dinner making nonsense, it just keeps happening. Like Groundhog Day. I know you feel me. In response I have been doing a lot of slow cooker cooking this week in an effort to get something together for dinner early in the day before I start feeling really stubborn.

 I've tried several so so recipes, but a couple days ago I finally hit on a keeper (yeah, I get it, I'm picky too) so I thought I'd share.

 It's for a chicken tortilla soup and I adapted it from the one on Skinny Mom Blog. The main difference is that I can't use a packet of taco seasoning because one, gross, and two, Marc is allergic to msg. Instead I use a mix of spices to get that Mexican flavor.
these are great for seasoning taco meat too.
    Here's the recipe:

  • 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (Just put them in frozen)
  • 2 Tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 16 oz can  black beans, drained + rinsed
  • 16 oz can kidney beans, drained + rinsed
  • 8 oz can tomato paste
  • 10 oz package of white corn, frozen
  • 2 — 10 oz  diced tomatoes with chilies
  • 1 Tbsp chili powder
  • 1 Tbsp cumin
  • 1/2 Tbsp coriander
  • 2 tsp oregano
  • 2 tsp dried cilantro leaves
  • (really I don't measure any of the spices. I just put in a lot because it cooks so long in the slow cooker that you lose flavor if you only put in a little)
  • 4 Cups of water 
  • 4 Herb Ox Chicken Bouillon cubes (or 32 oz. chicken broth) I like these cubes though.
  •  Herb Ox Chicken Bouillon Cubes (25 count)
  • I topped ours with:
  • light sour cream
  • lime wedge squeezed over it
  • crushed tortilla chips
  • chopped avocado
  • chopped  cilantro
  1. Place chicken on the bottom of the slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients.
  2. Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.
  3. Remove chicken breasts and shred with a fork, return to slow cooker and mix well.
    this is how mine looked
  4. Spoon soup into bowls and top with crumbled tortilla chips. 
  5. Add optional toppings, especially the lime. Okay, especially all of them.

This was really good! Jonathan ate three bowls. 

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