Hoisin Chicken--and Writing Chat tomorrow!

Tonight's dinner was a HUGE hit with DH. I love Food Network Magazine and absolutely LOVE their cookbook. It's filled with the past year's recipes from the magazine, and 99% of them are super easy and really good. This one was no exception. I served it with my own fried rice, and also made the cucumber salad in the recipe.

A couple tips: be sure your grill is really well oiled (I found out the hard way :-) and reserve some of the marinade for basting. The cucumber salad is perfect--not too tart, not too sweet--and I highly recommend it.

Here's the recipe. I read in the reviews that some people tried it on pork, something that's on my to do list for sure :-)

I served it with my own tried-and-true fried rice recipe. If you chop all your ingredients beforehand, Chinese food isn't so tough to make :-)

Also, tomorrow, I'm doing a writing chat on Twitter--ask me anything you want to know about writing. My twitter name is @shirleyjump and the chat hash tag is #ARWchat. Chat starts at 11:30 am EST, which I've been told is 4:30 pm UK time. All chatters will be entered to win an Amazon gift card and a copy of one of my books!

Shirley

Thai Mango Chicken, Glazed Carrots and Coconut Rice

I must be in an Asian mood lately because I've been making all kinds of Thai-inspired meals lately (my oldest, who loves Asian food, is in heaven). I made the Spicy Thai Shrimp and Mango Salad twice this week (sooo good that I want to have that one every day) and tonight I made Thai Mango Chicken, Glazed Carrots and Coconut Rice. A hearty thumbs-up from the the kids and me (DH won't be home till later).

I've made the Thai Mango Chicken before, and my son (who loves the recipe) requested it when he saw I had mangoes in the kitchen. This time, I got to take a picture before everyone ate ;-)

Thai-Mango Chicken Stir-Fry

Chicken:

2-3 chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Mango Sauce:

2 fresh ripe mangos, chopped

3/4 teaspoon chili sauce

1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons fish sauce
juice of 1/2 lime
1-2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 thumb-size piece ginger, minced (use a microplane)

3 cloves garlic, diced
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
zest of 1 lime

Also:

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1/4 to 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1/2 to 1 mango, cut into chunks (to finish the dish)
Optional: 3-4 Tbsp. coconut milk OR water

Put the chicken pieces into a zip-type bag. Sprinkle with rice vinegar, then cornstarch. Close bag and shake until chicken is evenly coated. Set aside.

In a food processor or blender, mix all the ingredients for the mango sauce and blend until mango is pureed. Set aside

Heat oil in a wok or large nonstick skillet, over medium-high heat. Add chicken and stir-fry, a few minutes per side, until cooked on all sides. Take chicken out and put it on a plate or paper towel. Clean out wok/skillet, then reheat it and add the mango sauce and red pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and let simmer for about 5 minutes, until red pepper is softened. If it's too thick, add the coconut milk (I did). Put in the chicken and extra mango chunks and cook until heated through. Top with cilantro and serve on top of coconut rice.

Coconut Rice

2 cups Thai jasmine-scented white rice
1 cup good-quality coconut milk
2 cups water
2-3 Tablespoons dry shredded unsweetened coconut (baking type)
1/2 teaspooon salt

Put all ingredients in a rice cooker. Stir to mix. Then cook until done. When the cooker switches from Cook to Warm, let it cook a couple minutes more to thicken and make it stickier. Stir before serving.

Glazed Carrots

3 cups carrots, chopped on the diagonal into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder

Put all ingredients in a pan. Bring to a boil, then simmer about 10-15 minutes, until carrots are cooked and sauce has caramelized. If you're in a hurry, you can microwave the carrots for 3 minutes with a little bit of water, then cook with the sauce...it only takes about 5 minutes then.

None of this was much work--a little prep, but with Chinese food, the key is to chop everything in advance. I did that earlier today, put everything in baggies and then just had to assemble and stir. Not bad at all :-)

Shirley

Thai Chicken Stir-Fry

I was in the mood for Asian food tonight, but not in the mood to pay or wait for take-out. I wanted a healthier option, something quick and easy, and this fit the bill. It's a recipe from Cooking Light that I tweaked, and served as lettuce wraps instead of on rice.

This was a bit spicy, so if I make it again, I'll tone down the spice a bit.

You can look at the original recipe, and then here is my changes:

Thai Chicken Stir-Fry

1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon fish sauce
4 teaspoons canola oil, divided
1 small onion, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 12 or 16-ounce package frozen Asian stir-fry vegetables, defrosted (I used a green bean, broccoli, mushroom mix)
1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (use a micrograter; it's way easier)
3/4 cup light coconut milk
1 tablespoons Sriracha (hot chile sauce, such as Huy Fong)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped
1 teaspoon Sesame oil

Heat half the oil in wok until it begins to smoke. Add chicken pieces and cook, stirring often, until browned on all sides (about 5 minutes). Remove chicken. Add remaining oil, then add vegetables and cook for 2 minutes. Put chicken back in the wok and cook for another minute or two, until cooked through. Add all remaining ingredients except Sesame oil and season to taste. Just before serving, drizzle on Sesame oil and toss mixture. Serve on rice or in Bibb lettuce wraps.

Spicy, but smelled FANTASTIC and tasted great, too. One of those things I'm sure I'll make again. :-)

Shirley

Another Pad Thai option

I make Pad Thai pretty often (and order it all the time when we go out to Thai restaurants). It's the kind of recipe that no one makes the same way, and the kind I vary every time depending on what I have on hand for ingredients.


The recipe I had was yummy, but IMO, a tad dull. I wanted to jazz it up a bit, and while browsing other Thai recipes, I came up with an idea...


Why not flavor the chicken as I'm poaching it, which will add to the overall flavor of the dish? That's exactly what I did, and then I used the poaching liquid to cook the noodles, so I had the same flavor throughout.

BTW, I normally add shredded cabbage to my Pad Thai but it was pouring rain out and I sure as heck wasn't going to the store for cabbage in that. The silly teenager wouldn't go either. Geez, kids. ;-) So this is sans cabbage, but still good.

BTW, this is for my cooking challenge with my good friend and amazing cook Julie Sellers. Check out her blog for lots of great recipes! We're cooking one new recipe a week between here and Christmas. Also, if you like to see how people used to have to cook, read this interesting blog on cooking in the 1800s.


Shirley's Pad Thai


2 boneless chicken breasts
2 slices lime
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and quartered
2 cloves garlic
8 ounces rice vermicelli noodles (they're sometimes labeled Pad Thai noodles. Basically, a flat, slightly wide Asian noodle will work).
2 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
4 ounces carrots, julienned
2 scallions, diced
2 teaspoons lime juice (use fresh; you already have the limes in the poaching liquid)
2 tablespoons soy sauce (I buy mine at the Asian foods store. It's SOOO much cheaper)
1-3 tablespoons Pad Thai sauce (also at the Asian foods store. This is a to-taste kind of thing)
1/4 cup roughly chopped peanuts
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped rough


Heat a pan of water, add the lime slices, ginger and garlic, then add chicken. Boil chicken until just cooked through, then remove chicken and add rice noodles to the boiling water. Cook about 7 minutes, then drain (throw out the lime, ginger and garlic).


In a wok, heat the oil. Add the carrots and saute until slightly limp, about 3 minutes. Add scallions, saute one minute. Add chicken, then add sauce ingredients (lime juice, soy sauce, Pad Thai sauce) and toss until it thickens on the veggies and chicken. Taste to see if you need more Pad Thai sauce. Add noodles, a little at a time, and toss until coated with sauce. Garnish with peanuts and cilantro.


The Pad Thai sauce in the bottle is a bit spicy, so definitely taste as you go. But this was yummy, and way more flavorful than my other recipe. I can't wait to have it for lunch today :-)

A side note: When I had this the next day for lunch, I added a little Sesame Oil on top (one drizzle since it has a lot of flavor). PERFECT. It was the exact right final touch.

Oh, and while I was in the Asian foods store, I picked up Papaya Salad Dressing. OMG, yummy!! I made a salad yesterday with lettuce, tomato, sliced mango and chopped cilantro, then drizzled a bit of that on top. Could have eaten ten servings :-)


Shirley

Two Great New Dinners

I had pictures of these, but accidentally deleted them from my Blackberry before I sent them to myself (silly Shirley!). Trust me--they both looked yummy!

The first dish was from an Ocean Spray ad. They have this whole series of recipes created by Tyler Florence, whose recipes I always like :-). I made the Chicken Tenderloins with Cranberry Mustard Sauce, except I used chicken breasts instead of tenderloins (I really don't like tenderloins because they have that weird tendon thing running down the middle of them and when you try to cut it out, you end up with like zero chicken).

I had a heck of a time trying to find Craisins at Meijer. I don't know what is up with that store lately, but nothing ever seems to be in a logical spot. The Craisins weren't in the canned and dried fruit aisle. Weren't in the snack aisle. Weren't in the baking products aisle (although I found raisins...what was up with that?). They did have a display of raisins and some kind of industrial size bag of Craisins in the veggie section. I didn't need twenty pounds of Craisins, just a small bag.

Finally found them tucked in the dark corner behind the Starbuck's that's inside the store. Oh yeah. FIRST place I'd look.

Anyway, I made this recipe, just using slightly more of all the ingredients to account for the fact that I used six chicken breasts instead of the pound of tenderloins. The sauce was good--a tad mustardy, so next time I'd use just a tiny bit less. Like a teaspoon less. And extra Craisins would be good too. They were the best part, IMO.

Also, because I used chicken breasts instead of tenderloins, I browned them, then baked them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes while I made risotto to accompany the chicken. It's the same method I use to make Emeril's Pan Roasted Chicken. It works well and if you don't overcook the chicken, it stays moist.

The second recipe I made this week came from a Rachael Ray magazine. I love Chinese food and I love mangoes, so when I saw Teriyaki Pork and Mango Stir-Fry, I thought it sounded really good.

Stir-fry, IMO, is one of those things that seems simple, but always involves more work than you anticipate ;-). This one doesn't have a ton of ingredients (pork, flour, salt, cabbage, oil, garlic, ginger, teriyaki sauce and mangoes) so it wasn't as involved as some things I've made.

I didn't put bean sprouts on top like the recipe called for because I hate bean sprouts, LOL. But other than that, I did it was recommended. It was good...but one of those dishes that you try and at first are like, eh, okay. Then you have another bite, and another, and before you know it you're...going back for seconds and thirds ;-) I ate way too much of this. It's the crispiness of the pork mixed with the mangoes that was great.

FWIW, I've found that cornstarch makes a good breading for Chinese food. I might try that next time.

Shirley

Asian Night: Fried Wontons, Fried Rice and Lettuce Wraps

This is probably the fastest photo I've ever taken of a dinner, LOL. We had Asian food again last night, and enjoyed this one immensely.

I made PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps again, though this time they were pretty fiery because my daughter made the stir fry sauce and she apparently had some trouble telling TABLESPOON from TEASPOON. I miss the days of mandatory home ec classes :-)

Still, the chicken was fantastic. Very spicy, but oh so good. We ate a bunch of them even with the tripled heat.

I did NOT make my normal (and easier) Fried Rice recipe. Tonight, because I had the ingredients on hand, I decided to try Juan Carlos Cruz's recipe for Pork Fried Rice.

All I can say is WOW. It had a TON of great flavor.

I did things a tad different than he said, though. For one, because I was making the wontons and they called for a half-pound of ground pork (they called for raw, and I have this thing about using raw food in something that's only going to cook for like three minutes, so I wanted to cook it first), I bought a whole pound of ground pork, and browned it all. I used half in the wontons and saved the other half for the rice. [The good thing about using ground pork instead of cut-up pork? In fried rice, it all blends in with the rice after the sauces are added and your kids can't tell the pork is in there. I know, I'm a tricky mom].

Secondly, I added 4 cups of cooked rice instead of two. Third, I cooked the rice while I was making the wontons (they were pretty time-consuming, probably an hour all together) and then chilled it in the sunroom (it was 30 degrees out, so that was basically like putting it in the freezer). I find that if you do that, the rice dries out a bit and cooks much better.

Fourth, I used a single bag of frozen peas and carrots. I wasn't going to chop both carrots and then add frozen peas ;-). I did grate the ginger (I keep a ginger root in my freezer all the time) and did chop up the garlic, etc. (and I used fresh...I'm on this fresh ingredients kick lately and boy, it has made a HUGE difference in taste).

Now, for the wontons. I got the recipe from Gourmet magazine, and had been waiting a while to try them. These were time-consuming but easy.

I also couldn't get round wonton wrappers here (I live in the land of sporadic shallot availability, remember) so I used square ones. I folded them diagonally, then folded the corners down, then folded the triangle edge up, using water to seal each edge.

I did NOT boil them (but I think that's because I couldn't get them to come out the way they were supposed to so they wouldn't stay together that way...frustration because the wrappers were small and thin). I fried them instead in a little peanut oil (not deep fry, just pan fry, about 2 minutes per side). They are SO GOOD served hot. DD and I ate half of them, I think, before they even made it to the table.

BTW, if you go to the link for the recipe and click on Video, it shows you everything, including how to make the dumpling (if you want them to be boiled and be dumplings instead) dough and to make them into that neat little crescent shape instead. In my spare time, LOL, I think I might try to make them homemade. Or just get myself to the Asian market here in town and buy the round ones ;-)

The Lantern Dumpling Sauce you serve with it is AWESOME. We used it with the lettuce wraps too (we had the PF Chang sauce as well) and enjoyed it with that as well. The sauce couldn't be easier to make.

All in all, a really enjoyable dinner. Lots of dishes involved, but if I had planned ahead a little better, I wouldn't have had so many. I just kind of last minute decided to do this, at like 6:15, and that pushed dinner to like 7:30, so I wasn't all set up like I like to be when I make Asian food. (See my tips here).

Tonight is the easiest night of all...ordering pizza night ;-)

Shirley

Another Worth the Work: Peking Pork and Easy Pad Thai

My kids had a serious Asian food craving this past week. So I spent a whole lot of time in the kitchen ;-).

First up was Peking Pork. This recipe came from Rachael Ray (and you know, I can never tell which issue it is, because I tear out the recipes I want to use before I recycle or pass on my magazines, and they don't print the month on the pages...kind of stupid, if you ask me). Anyway, this has a lot of steps, BUT I can tell you that both the dredging in rice wine vinegar and the cornstarch/flour mixture, plus the double frying (and I used peanut oil, which I found in bulk at my local Kroger, but you can buy MUCH cheaper in bulk at Asian stores) makes this JUST like what you get in a Chinese restaurant.

And the sauce...I can't even begin to tell you how yummy the sauce was. It made WAY too much and that was so awesome. I had bought vegetable dumplings at the Asian store and I've been making a few here and there for lunch or a snack, and using that sauce as a dipping sauce. It's beyond yummy :-). You can get the recipe here, and I did it (for once ) exactly as it was written. Mine, as you can tell from my photos, came out in thicker chunks, but but I think it was because I used boneless chops instead (hey, that's what was on sale ;-).

Along with this, I served Pad Thai, my own version, adapted from the Everything Thai Cookbook and Alton Brown's version on Good Eats. In my opinion, it's better with brown sugar (the Everything Thai ingredient) than Palm Sugar (the Alton Brown version). Plus a little I've learned from a Laotian cook I know. I recommend going to Google Images and looking at SEVERAL images of the ingredients you've never heard of, like Tamarind Paste, before going to an Asian store to buy them. The Tamarind paste that I bought came in a brick, not a jar, but it works just the same (FYI, I keep the excess in the freezer).

Other than that, I usually add some cooked chicken to my Pad Thai, instead of shrimp, since my daughter, who is the biggest Pad Thai fan in my house, doesn't like shrimp.

If you are feeling daunted by the thought of Chinese/Asian food cooking, let me tell you that it's not nearly as hard as it looks. Be sure to A.) have all your ingredients assembled and ready ahead of time. When I'm making two dishes like this at the same time, I set up two different "stations," with the ingredients. One cutting board with all the Pad Thai ingredients, including the bottles of wet ingredients, and a second for the Peking Pork. If there are shared ingredients, those go between the two cutting boards. I have a really small kitchen, so this kind of organization is essential for cooking Asian food. Once you get food into the wok, it all goes pretty quickly.

B.) everything you need for Asian food is MUCH cheaper at an Asian market. Don't be nervous about going into one. Most of the proprietors also speak English, or at least enough English to help you, and if you bring your ingredients list, they can help you find what you need. Most of the ingredients have Enlish directions, too. I'm continually amazed at how the ingredients are at least half the cost of my local grocery. I buy rice in bulk at the Asian market, buy things like dumplings and won tons, sometimes vegetables and garlic, and soy sauce (SO much cheaper) there.

C.) Taste as you go along, and feel free to season. I find that many of these recipes are guidelines. I taste and season, and add a little more soy sauce or fish sauce (which is a staple in Asian cooking. It does smell fishy, LOL, but it cooks wonderfully), or lime juice, or whatever it seems to need. I never add MSG and go for MSG free seasonings. So you don't have to have that seasoning if you don't want it.

D.) Start with something easy -- Fried Rice, for example, and move on from there. Do a simple stir-fry. Then work your way up to something like Spicy Thai Coconut Shrimp Soup (which is really easy BTW) and Pad Thai. Before you know it, you'll be cooking at home instead of ordering out ;-).

Shirley

A Quick and Easy Stir-Fry

At this rate, I'm going to have to get a second wok, I swear ;-). I've been a Chinese food cooking fan lately, making tons and tons of it.


This picture definitely doesn't do the dish any justice. I had to rush to grab a snapshot before the family dug in. They were hungry, and the scents of this dish were very tantalizing. Oranges, plum sauce, soy, beef...


Plus I had homemade fried rice, a recipe I've posted before on the blog. This time, I also roasted a boneless pork chop with some hoisin sauce, putting it on an oven rack over a pan of water (if you look up how to make Chinese barbecued pork on Google, they recommend that to dry it out), and chopped that up to add to the fried rice. Carnivore heaven that night, I guess ;-).

Anyway, this Orange Beef and Broccoli recipe was another one of those Rachael Ray recipes. I did everything, except I cut the jalapeno chile in half, and only added half of what the recipe called for, because my kids aren't big on really spicy food. And I used frozen broccoli that I defrosted in the microwave first, because...that's what I had on hand. :-)


I also used peanut oil to cook with, because that's what I tend to use when I make Chinese food.

I think that's all the substitutions I made :-). Either way, both my kids had seconds, and got mad that there weren't any leftovers. Geez, can't please everyone. ;-).


Shirley
PS: Don't forget Writing Advice Mondays, with your chance to win a copy of one of my books!

Another Asian Night Hit

Last month's Woman's Day magazine had a featured they called "stir crazy" which gave like four stir fry sauce recipes, and then a sort of mix and match stir fry plan. So far, I've tried two of the sauces. Loved both sauces, but didn't have great luck with the combination of food with the second sauce (I made the sweet-and-sour sauce, and then stir-fried it with chicken and veggies. I didn't have the cherries or pineapple you normally get in a Chinese restaurant, and I think that would have made a huge difference, so I'll try it again with those and report back. Plus, we're sweet-and-sour pork people here and I did chicken).

First thing I made turned out GREAT. Ginger-Soy Beef with the ginger-soy sauce, beef, mushrooms, carrots, asparagus and edamame.

There was an adventure finding the edamame in my supermarket -- I finally got it in the organic frozen section. Edamame is high in soy, very good for you. And I snuck it in with success into this dish. Not a single child noticed. I think they thought they were peas (they look like peas).

Ginger-Soy Beef Stir Fry

Sauce

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tablespoons honey

2 Tablespoons water

1 teaspoon grated ginger (that's the real thing, folks; the one that looks like a root)

1 teaspoon minced scallion (I had no scallions, so I minced up shallots)

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon sesame oil (found in the Oriental/Asian section of the supermarket)

Stir Fry:

1 pound beef, cut into 1/4 inch strips (I used a sirloin steak)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3 tablespoons oil (I almost always use peanut oil, but you can use canola or vegetable)

veggies of choice -- I used:

1 pound asparagus, cut into thirds

1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced

1/4 pound carrots, sliced

1 cup edamame, shelled

In a zip bag, shake cornstarch with meat. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Stirfry until browned, then remove. Add 2 more tablespoons of oil, then add veggies and stir-fry until crisp-tender. Add sauce and bring to a simmer. Add meat back in and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes. Serve with noodles or rice.

I served this with homemade fried rice, which is the recipe I ran before. Easy to make, and the more you do it, the easier it gets ;-). Here's a picture of it, all done and cooked by moi.

My son really wants to learn how to make it, so next time I make fried rice, I think I'll have a helper. It's pretty easy -- and once you see how easy, you'll never pay to order it again!

Shirley

Asian Night Recipes

Last night was another Asian night (and I got so busy I totally forgot pics again...I swear, I need a second brain. I wonder if the Scarecrow has a spare).

First -- a HUGE thank you to Karen for telling me about Fresh Market. Finally a market that has neat, cool, unique ingredients. I found the butter lettuce that makes for good Asian wraps. I also found all kinds of cool organic things. Apple chips (yummy!), neat cheeses and ready-made meats for later meals. Also SO MANY COOL mushrooms and other things. My only wish was that the market was larger like a Whole Foods. Sigh. I just need to move to California or something ;-).

Here are my tips first for making this kind of meal easier:

1. Assemble all ingredients first (I lay the ones I need for each recipe on top of the specific recipe)
2. Serve family style. My family LOVES wraps, but likes to make their own, so I got a HUGE platter, and put a variety of wrap stuffings on the round platter:
a. julienned carrots
b. cilantro
c. rice noodles (these could NOT be easier to cook; immerse in hot water for two minutes, drain; these are available in the Asian section in most markets. I cut them into smaller pieces to make for easier handling)
d. green beans
e. lettuce
f. diced peanuts (I have a Braun hand chopper/blender. The best thing ever)
(you can put anything else you want on there: cucumbers, mint, water chestnuts, zucchini...we just added whatever we had)
3. Make individual dishes of dipping sauces. I picked up small dishes at a yard sale. I actually found real Asian ones from an Asian home (I'm not going to try to guess if she was Chinese or Burmese or what) that are just BEAUTIFUL. That way, everyone has their own and no one gets all sloppy.
4. Don't be afraid to use leftovers. My chicken was from last night's dinner (did that little pic, BTW, with the Snipping Tool from Windows Vista). I made a new steak recipe, but used up some of the leftover chicken.
5. Don't be daunted by unusual ingredients. I made Pad Thai, and that calls for Tamarind Paste. Go to an Asian market and bring your ingredient list. They are more than willing to help. (FYI, Tamarind Paste is AKA Thai Fruit Paste. :-)

Here's what I made, BTW: Pad Thai, from the Everything Thai Cookbook (VERY GOOD. This is a great cookbook). The beef from Emeril's Beef Lettuce Wraps ( have you watched Emeril Green? It's a really good show, and probably my favorite Emeril show ever.). And I made the sauce from PF Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps. I could eat that sauce on EVERYTHING. I added, as the reviewers suggested, hoisin sauce (I doubled the recipe, so I added two tablespoons of Hoisin).

We had chicken and the orange steak, then the bibb lettuce and all those fillings, and the PF Chang's sauce. Plus the Pad Thai. VERY yummy. VERY healthy. Considering we had gone to Cold Stone Creamery for lunch (ice cream lunch...is there anything better?) then the movies in the afternoon and had fattening popcorn when we'd seen "The Longshots" (it was good; if you are looking for a feel-good family movie, with minimal cursing, and a nice message, this was nice. Sort of "Pursuit of Happyness"-ish. I teared up at the end. And it's a true story. Good on all points), that made our dinner that much better.

Okay that was A LONG sentence. I'm breathless. Anyway, the light dinner was a nice touch.

Today's a family barbecue. Back to the fattening food. I'm making balsamic vinaigrette wings and yesterday's eclair dessert. :-)

Have a great Labor Day!

Shirley

Chinese Restaurant Brought Home

Three new recipes tonight...and all three were a huge hit. :-)

First, a mango chicken that my son had asked me to replicate from the My Thai restaurant we ate at. I couldn't quite replicate that, but I came close, and actually liked this version WAY better. I did have to altar the recipe a little. Those kaffir lime leaves are not exactly all over the place in Indiana stores, so I did as the reviews suggested and used lime zest instead. And, because my kids are not super fans of heat, I tripled the brown sugar in the recipe. I also cooked the cashews just a bit to soften them. I used peanut oil for cooking, too, to add a bit more flavor.

I had been looking and looking, and trying several different fried rice recipes before I came across this one. Truly the best one yet. Easiest, and closest to real Chinese restaurant versions. I don't use ham, and used a bag of frozen peas and carrots, plus skipped the egg (my kids won't eat it anyway). I doubled the recipe and it came out just fine. I also go a little heavier on the soy, but my family loves soy, so that worked out well here because we're fans of the soy sauce :-).

Then I made my teen daughter make this Thai Broccoli Salad. We ended up heating it more at the end, and adding a tad more soy and sesame oil, just to thin out the sauce, but it was a HUGE hit. It's definitely better warm than cold (at least in my opinion) and went off the plates so fast, we should have made more.

A lot of work involved (honestly, I have no idea how those Chinese restaurants that do those buffets do it), but it was WELL worth it. And here I thought that ambition to quit cooking was going to end.

I also made for breakfast these INCREDIBLE banana-peanut-butterscotch pancakes. You were supposed to bake the pancakes and make them from scratch. Yeah, well, it's a tad too early in the morning for all that. Instead, I made box pancakes and did the sauce from scratch. I'll see if I can find the sauce and post that tomorrow or the next day.

Shirley

An Oriental Flair Last Night

I'm thinking I need to start taking pictures of my meals, especially the more successful ones. But that would involve actually pausing to think before I dive into my plate and usually, I'm starving and practically shoving the kids out of the way to get to the dishes ;-)


Nah, I do dish them up first. Honest.



Last night was a WW Pad Thai recipe. Not too bad at all. Not quite the real thing but close enough that I think if I could get myself to a Thai restaurant, have some of the real thing again and take a little leftover home, I could tinker enough to perfect it. I don't eat Pad Thai often enough to remember the real thing perfectly, so I couldn't tinker with this one. But it was good, enough that both DH and I had seconds. My son looked at it, said it tasted "funny" and only ate the chicken.


Ah well, you can't please them all with every meal.

Then I made my mother's recipe for Green Rice. I can't believe I've forgotten it for the last couple of years. It's quite good, and where my kids are HUGE white rice fans, this one went over much better. Next time, I'll add more Parmesan cheese, because anything with cheese in it makes a friend in my house. I cook it in a rice cooker and honestly have no idea how to cook rice without a rice cooker, so change your liquids accordingly to cook it the regular way.


Green Rice


3 cups white rice (I use jasmine rice; I buy it at the oriental store)
3 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups diced spinach (I used frozen, and defrosted it a bit first)
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons butter (or light butter if you're watching calories)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese


Cook the rice with the chicken stock in the rice cooker. When done, mix in everything else :-). Done!


The book due at the end of the month is coming along well. So well that I started a proposal for another book and started plotting another proposal with my daughter. My daughter's getting older now, old enough to start reading my Harlequin Romances (not all of them, but the one I just wrote is tame enough for her to read and she said it didn't stink, which is about her highest compliment for her mom, and she was literally grabbing the pages out of my hand as fast as I was editing them, so I take it she was hooked). She was way into plotting this other proposal, so I told her if it sold, I'd give her a teeny portion of the advance. That had her eyes lighting up and sent her off into mall dream land. Anyway, there's a long, long road ahead before that might happen, so she better not spend her Abercrombie & Fitch dollars just yet.


Gee, if I could only get her to clean her room that easily ;-)


Hope all of you who are dieting along with me are doing well!!

Oh, and check out the new feature on my website: Behind the Book!


Shirley

What's Cooking in My House

Yesterday, I had a killer migraine. A nine on a scale of one to ten. Barely slept the night before, spent most of the day having a pity party. Finally, in the late afternoon, it abated and I got some work done, then got over to the Korean market and managed to get the ingredients for some Asian dishes I wanted to make.

My daughter wants me to make fried spring rolls for her birthday (we have an extended Asian family -- my parents sponsored nearly 3 dozen people from Laos over the past 20 years and many of them have become true family. I have learned a handful of Laotian and Thai dishes, one of which is fried spring rolls, a huge hit with my daughter's classmates when she did a Thai day in school one year). I wanted to try a couple new recipes, so we went over to the market, where the nice Korean lady took pity on my non-Korean reading American self and helped me find a few ingredients :-)

Anyway, I had two huge hits last night. Emeril's Chicken and Green Bean Stir-Fry -- unless you really like spice, I recommend dialing back the chili sauce and not adding the red pepper flakes.

Then I made the Calorie Commando's Pork Fried Rice, only I made it with Shrimp because I didn't have any pork tenderloin :-) and I added bean sprouts for a little healthy dash (and since I hate egg substitute, I used a real egg, scrambled it in a dish first, then stirred it in). All a hit with the kids and DH. I'm already dying for lunch so I can have leftovers!

One other quick and easy recipe I wanted to share -- my favorite breakfast in the world is Eggs Benedict. It's not exactly the best diet food tho ;-). I found a way to make a mock Eggs Benedict that's a bit easier on the waistline:

Shirley's Mock Eggs Benedict

2 slices extra lean smoked ham
2 eggs
1 ounce shredded cheddar cheese

Fry ham in non-stick skillet on both sides. Put on plate. Fry eggs over medium, then top with cheese. Lay on top of ham. The runny-ish yolk and cheese combined make a sauce that tastes close enough to Benedict to be good for breakfast. No bread, no extra carbs and calories there :-) It takes less than five minutes to make, too!

I did BOTH a power walk and my run today. My nieghbor came by to see if I wanted to power walk at 5 a.m., so I did that, and was very tempted to go back to bed, but when I got back to the house, the dogs were all anxious (I didn't take them on the walk because they don't get along with the neighbor's dog) so I did the run with the young one and the took the arthritic one on her short walk. All totaled today I did 3.2 miles.

Not bad. But I'm sure glad it's Friday! :-)

Shirley