Chicken Stir Fry

My son and I had this for dinner tonight and we really liked it.  I was super pleased with the way it cooked up.  It is very easy to prepare and quite tasty.  And I'll admit, I was trying to finish up laundry so instead of stir frying the veggies properly, I stirred them long enough to coat them with the sesame oil to give them the proper taste and then threw a small amount of water in the pan and put the lid on and let them steam a bit while I took care of the laundry.  Maybe it's cheating, but when you're the only one doing every bit of the housework for two humans and four animals, shortcuts become a way of life.

2 cups white rice
4 cups water
2/3 cups soy sauce (I used reduced sodium soy sauce, but either works fine.)
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch (If you don’t have cornstarch, 2 tablespoons flour will work.)
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger (If you don’t have fresh ginger, ¼ teaspoon ground ginger will work.)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, thinly sliced
2 tablespoon sesame oil, divided
1 green bell pepper, cut into matchsticks
1 can (8oz) sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 head broccoli, cut into florets (If you don’t have fresh, 3 ½ cups frozen florets will work.)
1 cup sliced carrots
1 onion, cut into large chunks

1. Prepare rice according to package directions. I like to put a bit of sesame oil in the water.

2. Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, and cornstarch in a small bowl; stir or whisk until smooth. Mix ginger, garlic, and red pepper into sauce; coat chicken with marinade and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

3. Heat 1 tablespoon sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir bell pepper, water chestnuts, broccoli, carrots, and onion until just tender, about 5 minutes. Remove vegetables from skillet and keep warm.

4. Remove chicken from marinade, reserving liquid. Heat 1 tablespoon sesame oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir chicken until slightly pink on the inside, about 2 minutes per side; return vegetables and reserved marinade to skillet. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until chicken is no longer pink in the middle and vegetables are tender, 5-7 minutes. Serve over rice.

**Try adding bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, snap peas or any other of your favorite veggies. You can also serve over noodles.**

Serves 6

Thanksgiving 2014

I've gotten several questions this year asking what we serve at Thanksgiving and asking for the recipes.  Ours is not a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but it does have a few traditional dishes.  And it's very good.  At least we think so! 

2014 Thanksgiving Menu

Chicken (As a family, we do NOT like turkey.  So as a family we decided we wanted a heavy hen for
   dinner.  My mom roasted it and it was very good, of course.)
Hog Maw (This is our preferred holiday meat.  I made this.)
Gravy (Of course my mom made this using some of the pan juices from the chicken.)
Mashed Potatoes (My son requested these and I made these.)
Green Bean Casserole (My son requested this and I made it.)
Sweet Potato Casserole (My son requested this and I made it.)
Collard Greens (I love these and so does my mom.  My son and dad do too, but not as much.  I made
   these.)
Steamed Pole Beans (My mom thought perhaps we needed a "normal" vegetable on the table.  I made
   these.)
Fried Cabbage (I had cabbage leftover from the maw so decided to fry it up.)
Cranberry Sauce (My mom requested this and I made it.)
Cole Slaw (My dad requested this and my mom made it.  Her's is perfect and I can't duplicate it.)
Deviled Eggs and Hard Boiled Eggs (I wanted the deviled eggs.  My mom made them because I can't
   duplicate her perfect deviled eggs.)
Stuffing and Dressing (My mom made this.)
Cornbread (My mom made this.)
Biscuits (My mom made these.)
Pineapple Upside Down Cake (This is my son's favorite so my mom made it.)
Homemade Pink Lemonade (My mom made this.)

And this was only for four people.  Needless to say we have a ton of leftovers.  We've eaten some of the leftovers today, but I fear I'll be eating leftovers for the rest of my life!  And then comes Christmas.  My son has already requested a ham so I'm on the quest for the perfect ham now.

In the coming days I'll post recipes for the individual dishes.  As I post the recipes I'll come back here and add a link directly to the recipe.  I won't post recipes for my mom's dishes (I don't know them).

Buffalo Shrimp Salad

My son was going through some recipe cards I had laying on the table and picked this out as something that he wanted to try "right away".  Although instead of a salad like the original recipe called for, he wanted his in a wrap.  Really there is no difference.  Just take the salad and stuff a wrap with it.  Pretty easy.  This turned out really good and is something that is great to take to work for lunch too.

1 large fresh mango, coarsely chopped
1 medium avocado, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 lbs peeled/deveined shrimp (thawed), tails removed
1 tablespoon garlic herb Buffalo wing seasoning
1 bag (9-10oz) romaine lettuce
1/2 cup Caesar dressing
1/4 cup Buffalo wing sauce
1/4 cup honey

1.  Preheat oven to broil and line a baking pan with aluminum foil.

2.  Chop mango and avocado, discarding peel and seed.

3.  Arrange shrimp on pan in single layer.  Sprinkle seasoning over shrimp and broil 4-5 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink and opaque.

4.  Place romaine in salad bowl.  Combine dressing, wing sauce and honey.  Drizzle 1/2 of the dressing over the lettuce and then top with shrimp,mango and avocado.  Drizzle the remaining dressing over prepared bowls and serve.

Serves 4

Mediterranean Herb Crusted Tilapia

My son really doesn't like fish all that much, but this he loved.  And I have to admit, it was truly tasty!  I had two servings myself!

1 teaspoon minced garlic (dried)
1 teaspoon marjoram leaves
¾ teaspoon ground mustard
¾ teaspoon basil leaves
¾ teaspoon oregano leaves
½ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
6 tilapia or flounder fillets (about 1 ½ lbs)
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, melted or olive oil
1 ½ cups chopped fresh spinach leaves
¾ cup panko bread crumbs
1/3 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
3 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese

1. Place fish on foil lined shallow baking pan. Sprinkle with salt. Mix butter and all of the spice in medium bowl. Brush fish with 1 tablespoon of the seasoned butter.

2. Stir spinach, panko, bell pepper and Parmesan cheese into remaining seasoned butter. Divide mixture evenly among fish fillets, pressing lightly so mixture adheres to top of fish.

3. Bake in preheated 400 oven 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Serves 6

Potato Soup

For some reason, I've never made potato soup.  I guess I was afraid of the roux.  I don't know.  Or maybe I thought it would be a lot of work.  Well, last weekend that all changed.  I always take soup to work for lunch and Sunday night I realized I had nothing made.  It was a little chilly so I decided I wanted potato soup.  Much to my surprise this recipe was amazingly easy and turned out to be the most delicious potato soup I've ever had.  My son loved it.  I made 8 servings and he ate 6 of those servings....in one sitting.

1 pound bacon, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
8 potatoes, peeled and cubed (I leave my skins on and it turns out just fine)
4 cups chicken stock, or enough to cover potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste

1.  In a Dutch oven, cook the bacon over medium heat until done.  Remove bacon from pan and set aside.  Drain off all but 1/4 cup of the bacon grease.

2.  In the bacon grease remaining in the pan, saute the celery and onion until the onion begins to turn clear.  Add the garlic, and continue cooking for 1 to 2 minutes.  Add the cubed potatoes, and toss to coat.  Saute for 3 to 4 minutes.  Return the bacon to the pan, and add enough chicken stock to cover the potatoes.  Cover, and simmer until potatoes are tender.

3.  In a separate pan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour.  Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 to 2 minutes.  Whisk in the heavy cream.  Bring the cream mixture to a boil, and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.  Stir the cream mixture into the potato mixture. 

4.  Puree about 1/2 the soup, and return to the pan.

5.  Adjust seasonings to taste.

Note:  I only had about a 1/2 cup of heavy cream.  For the remaining 1/2 cup of liquid for the roux I used half and half.  My grandmother used to simply use 1 cup of whole milk and I know some people who say they use water.  I don't know about the water, but I suppose in a pinch it would do.

Breakfast Potatoes

This dish gets made in my home fairly often.  It is mostly made for breakfast, but I've used it for dinner as well. 

The nice thing about this recipe is that it is easily adaptable to whatever your family likes.  I typically use one potato per person.  However, if you have a big eater you may want to use two potatoes for that person.  I also don't list an amount for the other ingredients because this recipe is all about making it to suit your tastes.

potatoes, with or without skin, (1 per person is a good rule of thumb), cut into bite size pieces
olive oil
minced garlic OR garlic powder
salt OR garlic salt
finely minced onion OR onion powder
paprika
Italian seasoning
Lawry's seasoned salt
parsley flakes
freshly ground black pepper

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Place bite size potatoes in a large mixing bowl.  Drizzle with just enough olive oil to lightly coat potatoes and toss.  Sprinkle with spices and then toss to coat.

2.  Lightly coat baking dish with olive oil.  Transfer potatoes into baking dish and sprinkle lightly with spices.  If you used a good bit of spices in Step 1, you can skip adding more spices in this step.

3.  Cover baking dish.  If you don't have a cover for your baking dish, using tin foil is fine.  Bake 30 to 45 minutes, until potatoes are done.

Serving suggestion:  Breakfast:  When my son asks for these potatoes for breakfast he likes to have sunny side up eggs served over his potatoes.  Dinner:  Usually I serve these potatoes with steak if we want something other than baked potato with our steak.  These also go well with a roast.

Chili

This is a recipe I developed on my own over the last few years.  Often I put more of the seasoning in my chili than what I've listed below, but my son and I like our chili a little more flavorful than most.  So for the sake of my readers, I've toned the recipe down to accommodate the more sensitive palate.

1 lb hamburger
1 lb ground sausage
1 large red onion, diced
1 large green pepper, diced
1 (27 oz) can Bush’s Chili Beans in mild sauce
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon garlic powder or substitute minced garlic to taste (I usually use minced garlic)
3 tablespoons chili powder
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 teaspoons ground cumin

Put onion, green pepper, hamburger and sausage in large skillet and cook until meat is done and onion and green pepper are soft. Onions will be translucent. While you are cooking the meat, combine the rest of the ingredients in a Dutch oven or similarly large pot and warm over medium-low heat. When meat has finished cooking, drain well and then add to Dutch oven. Turn heat to medium-high and heat until bubbly. Turn heat back to low and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.  If you are in a hurry you can skip the simmering step and simply serve immediately, but you won't have the same flavor as when you let it simmer.

I usually serve this chili with sour cream, shredded cheese and warm cornbread.

Serves 6-8