Cashew Chicken

Normally I take forever to post something, but I JUST finished eating this and had to post. 2 reasons: 1. it was absolutely delicious and 2. I had to make a number of changes to the recipe, so I wanted to get it down while I remember. But mostly #1, bucause it really was good.

Because of the number of changes I made, I won't even go through it here. Just trust me on the changes. Also note: most of my recipes make 4 servings, this makes 2. Keep that in mind.

Cashew Chicken (adapted from Williams-Sonoma: The Weeknight Cook)
Serves TWO (2)

Ingredients
3TBSP soy sauce
1 1/2 TBSP white wine
1 tsp ginger
2 chicken cutlets cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cornstarch
1/2 head of broccoli cut into small florets
1 TBSP canola oil
2 green onions, chopped
3/4 cup salted cashews
steamed rice, to serve

Method
1. Marinate Chicken: in bowl, combine 2 TBSP soy sauce, 1 TBSP wine, and ginger. Stir in chicken and allow to marinate for 15-30 min.
2. Make the sauce: in a small bowl, combine 1TBSP water, remaining 1TBSP soy sauce, remaining 1/2 TBSP wine, Worcestershire sauce, sesame oil, sugar and cornstarch and stir to dissolve sugar and cornstarch,
3. Stir Fry the chicken. Steam the broccoli very briefly (about a minute) in the microwave so that it is not undercooked at the end. Heat oil in frying pan over medium high heat. Remove chicken from marinade and drain well, discarding marinade. Add chicken to pan and stirfry until slightly brown. Add cashews and stirfry another 30 seconds or so. Using a slotted spoon, move the chicken and nuts BUT NOT THE OIL to a bowl. Heat pan to medium high and stirfry green onions about 30 seconds until fragrant, add chicken and nuts and broccoli. Stir the sauce and add to pan. Stir until sauce thickens slightly (this happened very fast for me). Serve over the rice.

Quick Black Forest Cake

I appologize for the photos. I brought this cake to school and it was devoured, so the only pics I got were from a friend's IPhone. Trust me, it was good, and looked a lot better than these pictures show. It was a friend's birthday, but I had about 100 pages of reading for the night, so this quick, easy and delicious cake did not dispoint on any front. Also, it was the best cake batter I have ever tasted. I likely could have eaten the whol cake's worth of cake batter...not that I thought about that or anything...

Quick Black Forest Cake
1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
3 eggs
scant 1/2 cup water
scant 1/2 cup oil
1 tablespoon almond extract
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
1 cup chocolate chips (I used Hershey's Special Dark chips to make it even more chocolatey)
chocolate frosting (I used a storebought one, but homemade is always better if you have time)
marachino cherries
almond extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Mix together: cake mix, beaten eggs, oil, water, almond extract, cherry pie filling and chocolate chips. Stir until just combined. Pour batter into a greased 9x13 inch pan.
Bake in a 350 degree F (175 degree C) oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and let cool. While cooling, you can drizzle some of the marachino cherry juice over the cake to soak in.
Combine frosting, about a teaspoon of the cherry juice and about 1/2 teaspoon of the almond extract to taste, being careful not to make the frosting watery. Frost the fully cooled cake. Drain the cherries and decorate the top of the cake with them. Eat within a day as the marachino cherries start to release their juice after a while.

Baked Crab Rangoons

Happy Valentine's day to all. Or in my case, a Happy "Girls Night In" Day. The boy will be back in a bit, but for tonight I was without him, so I used the opportunity to make a thank you dinner for one of my single gal pals. Did I just say "gal pals"? Forgive me, must be the strawberry margaritas speaking.
Anyway, I made a 3 course thank you dinner. It started with these baked crab rangoons. Followed by a Chinese chicken salad with a home made sesame soy dressing and ending with a brookie (brownie cookie, aka cookie in a brownie). While all parts were good, I think the crab rangoons were best. I made 13 rangoons and the 2 of us ate every last one.
These guys are SO easy too. Mix, place in won tons in muffin cups, bake. Done.

I was really afraid that these would be really gross once I opened the can of crab meat. I have never used canned crabmeat before, so I was shocked to open it and find that it smelled a little like canned tuna. Not what you want in your crab rangoon. After I drained it and mixed it with the other ingredients though, it tasted nothing like that smell, and was really good. Just make sure to drain it.

Also, I think this is a great base recipe for a crab dip. Add old bay, maybe replace the green onion with regular onion, add some cheese and bake in a casserole dish and it should be great. Just a thought from a girl who loves crab dip a little too much (what can I say, I am always a Marylander at heart).Baked Crab Rangoons

Ingredients

• 1 (170 gram) can crabmeat- drained well
  
• 125 grams (a little more than 1/2 package) Brick of Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
• 1/4 cup Mayo (I used the olive oil based mayo as it is all I buy nowadays)
  
• 12 wonton wrappers
• Optional: Sesame seeds and/or green onions for garnish
  

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix crabmeat, cream cheese, onions and mayo.
2. Spray 12 muffin cups with cooking spray (not too heavily). Gently place 1 won ton wrapper in each cup, allowing edges of wrappers to extend above sides of cups. (I realized it is best not to try to bend the middle parts onto themselves to make it flat, let the insides be bumpy, it firms up better) Fill evenly with crabmeat mixture.
3. Bake 18 to 20 min. or until edges are golden brown and filling is heated through. (I then placed them on paper towels for a few minutes to absorb the extra oil and firm up) Serve warm. Garnish with chopped green onions and sesame seeds, if desired.

We'll call them Franken-Muffins

I found this GREAT post a while ago on tastespotting. It was a basic muffin formula that you adapt for whatever type of muffin you wanted to make, and it gave some suggestions for combinations. But really, give me time to peruse the grocery store and I can come up with my own combination rather easily. And that's just what I did. Introducing, the delicious and rather healthy Franken-muffin. OK, so the name may not work, but my combination of ingredients did!

Here is MY Version:
Dry ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp spice cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Wet ingredients
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
scant 1 cup white sugar
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups grated zucchini
3/4 cups grated apple

PROCEDURE
Preheat oven to 375˚F.
Grease a muffin tin (12 count- I needed about 14 muffin cups if they had all been full size, or 12 regular muffins and 12 minis) with grease spray or butter.
Get two big bowls. In the first bowl combine the dry ingredients except the dry muffinhancers.
In the other bowl combine yogurt, sugar, salt, melted butter, egg and extract. Mix it all up until it’s good and smooth. Now mix in both the wet and dry Muffinhancers and stir to distribute.
Make sure your oven is set and the muffin tin is greased up before you combine the wet and dry. It’ll need to happen pretty quickly.
Pour the dry mix into the wet bowl and fold gently with a spatula while you count slowly to 15-20. The result should be a very lumpy batter, with frequent dry floury spots. It’s better if it’s not a smooth batter.
Now use an ice-cream scoop or just a big spoon to fill the muffin tray evenly. Fill it up almost to the top of the tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes (about 13 minutes for the minis). When they are done, turn it over onto a clean tea towel to let them cool.

And here is the basic formula:
Dry ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp spice (cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ground ginger, ground coriander, etc)
1 cup of dry Muffinhancers (can be chopped nuts, dried fruits, toasted coconut, chocolate chips, etc)

Wet ingredients
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup melted butter (or vegetable oil)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups of wet Muffinhancers (can inc: mashed banana, grated zucchini, grated carrots, grated apple, frozen berries, mango puree, chopped up orange, etc)

PROCEDURE
Preheat oven to 375˚F.
Grease a muffin tin (12 count- I needed about 14 muffin cups if they had all been full size, or 12 regular muffins and 12 minis) with grease spray or butter.
Get two big bowls. In the first bowl combine the dry ingredients except the dry muffinhancers.
In the other bowl combine yogurt, sugar, salt, melted butter, egg and extract. Mix it all up until it’s good and smooth. Now mix in both the wet and dry Muffinhancers and stir to distribute.
Make sure your oven is set and the muffin tin is greased up before you combine the wet and dry. It’ll need to happen pretty quickly.
Pour the dry mix into the wet bowl and fold gently with a spatula while you count slowly to 15-20. The result should be a very lumpy batter, with frequent dry floury spots. It’s better if it’s not a smooth batter.
Now use an ice-cream scoop or just a big spoon to fill the muffin tray evenly. Fill it up almost to the top of the tray.
Bake for 20-25 minutes (about 13 minutes for the minis).
When they are done, turn it over onto a clean tea towel to let them cool.

Fettuccine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce

Ready for the shock of your (and my) life. The boy really liked this. He ate all of it. Why is this shocking? Let me count the ways:
1- red peppers. They are a vegetable. They are also the PRIMARY ingredient here. The boy doesn't eat many vegetables, including bell peppers. He picks around the tiny pepper bits in the Chicken Caesar Casserole. Yet he ate these
2- Feta. Turns out he loves the stuff. He who thought my Greek salad was weird (because it wasn't Caesar with Parmesan) loves feta now. This makes life- and Greek salad making- much easier
3- It was fettuccine. The boy likes angel hair/cappellini. I love fettuccine and hate angel hair. Yet again, the boy still liked this.

Clearly this was some good stuff. And, not terribly bad for you, even with the cheese. Mmmmm, feta cheese....

Fettuccine with Creamy Red Pepper-Feta Sauce

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 to 3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• 1 (16-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock stock (can also use vegetable)
  
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese or a 6-ounce block
• 1 pound whole-wheat fettuccine
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft, about 10 minutes. Add roasted peppers and saute until heated through. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Place mixture in the bowl of a food processor with stock and all but 2-4 tablespoons of the feta (recipe says 2, but I really like having more feta on top, so omit more now). Process until combined and smooth, about 30 seconds.

2. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Toss pasta with sauce (or as much sauce as you want. I don't think I added all the sauce), adding pasta water by the tablespoon, if needed. Sauce should cling nicely to pasta. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Divide among pasta bowls. Sprinkle with parsley and remaining feta cheese.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

You know it is finals time when: I randomly decide to poke my head out of my study hole and post.

This summer some friends and I initiated a dinner club. Each month 1 of us would host a dinner, come up with a theme and assign menu items. This was the dessert for out Mexican themed night (more Cal-Mex, but I certainly did not mind!). I was terrified it wouldn't work out and I would be left with a 9x13 pan of ick and no dessert to bring. Thankfully I was TERRIBLY wrong, and I had a 9x13 pan of deliciousness and a great dessert for my dinner club.Sadly, my dear friend and dinner club peer, Sam, is leaving for the Big Apple, so dinner club will likely fall to the way-side. If anyone in the No.VA area wants in to take her spot, let me know ;)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake
from laughingduckgardens.com

• canola oil to grease the pan
• 12 tablespoons (i.e. 1.5 sticks) of unsalted butter (not margarine), soften to room temperature, and divided into 9 T for the caramel/topping and 3 T for the batter
• 1.5 cups brown sugar
• 12pineapple rings - about 1-2 15-oz cans pineapple rings in juice (not in syrup)
• 4oz (1/2 of 8 oz jar) jar maraschino cherries, pitted and stemmed
• 1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoons of whole milk
• Skimpy 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoons strong vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups + 3 tablespoon of all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• Heaping 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs

Instructions:

1. Turn oven on to a temperature of 350 F

2. Oil the pan with a pastry brush (or your fingers) using up to 2 tablespoons of the canola oil. Make sure to get the corners and sides well. Do not be stingy as you want the cake to unmold easily. Roughly chop 9 tablespoons of butter and scatter at the bottom of pan. Put pan in oven while it’s preheating. Keep an eye on it, and take it out of the oven as soon as butter is melted. It should do so before the oven reaches 350 F. Put the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter in a very large bowl on the stove where it’s warm to help it soften.

3. Sprinkle the bottom of the pan with the brown sugar evenly, again making sure to reach all sides and corner. Lift the pineapple slices from the juice (reserve the juice) and arrange them in a grid pattern. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of the pineapple juice over. Sprinkle 1TBSP of maraschino liquid from the jar over the pineapple. You could push one cherry in the center of each ring now, if you want, but they’ll look better if you do this after the cake has been baked.

4. In a bowl, combine milk, the skimpy 1/2 cup canola oil and vanilla. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

5. In the very large bowl where you set it to soften, beat together the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter (which should be very soft by now) and the sugar until light and pale lemon colored. It will look “mealy”. Beat in the eggs, one by one, then add the milk mixture, and the flour mixture (1 cup at a time) beating well after each addition. Pour batter over the pineapple rings, smoothing it out as necessary. It may looks like there is no enough batter: there is!

6. Bake in the preheated oven until cake is golden and a toothpick or skewer comes out clean. I am not sure how long exactly, I believe about 40 min-1 hour ( I did not keep good track of time). It Will be about this color:

Remove from oven, let cool until you feel comfortable handling the pan.

7. Now comes the tricky part: inverting the cake. Position the cake inside a rimmed cookie sheet (rim facing up). Put another rimmed cookie sheet on top of the cake (rim facing down). The cake is now sandwiched between two rimmed cookie sheet. Clamp the two cookie sheets together and invert the cake quickly and decisively but carefully. Remove the pan from the cake carefully. If necessary, use a spatula to remove any stuck ring and put it back on the cake. Scrape any caramel from the pan and put it on the cake.

8. Push one cherry in the center of each ring.

9. Let cool and cut into squares, one for each ring

Pesto Chicken Packets

This summer the boy and I went camping with a friend from college and his friends. These have to have been some of the nicest, most patient people. You see, and this is embarrassing, I hadn't been camping since girl scouts. Clearly I had no clue what to expect or what to do, but these wonderful people helped me survive, and even enjoy, my first camping trip as a person over the age of 10.
Don't worry, I'm not here just to tell you about my trip, but also the food. I knew going into it that there would be roasted marshmallows and s'mores. And there were indeed marshmallows and s'mores galore. Loved it!
So perhaps those marshmallows were a tad too toasty, but you get the point.

The way we did food is we had a different couple make dinner for everyone each night. After a REALLLLLY long drive, the boy and I were welcomed to camp by bratwurst and steaks. The next night was our turn to cook. By "our turn" I mean "my turn"- but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I had made a Caesar-pesto pasta salad and snickerdoodles before we left home, so I only needed to make the main meal on site. To go with the pasta salad (which I will post next time I make it), I made Pesto Chicken Packets from Rachael Ray. Chicken, zucchini (and in my version squash), tomatoes, green onion and pesto baked or grilled in individual serving aluminum foil packets.I apologize, as good as these were, I just could not for the life of me get a good picture. The lighting as well as my hunger did not support a great photo shoot! You will just have to trust me that everyone liked it, or check out the professional picture on Rachael Ray's website.
***UPDATE: I have since made these for a friend and was able to get slightly better pictures. The aluminum foil is still not a great photography medium, but at least this time I had light and more time. See the pictures below. ALSO I have added comments to the recipe where I adjusted stuff***Pesto Chicken Packets
4 servings

• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling (TIP- do not use; the pesto will give off a fair amount of oil during cooking)
  
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast cutlets
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup pesto (don't use nearly this much)
• 1 zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 yellow squash thinly sliced
  
• 4 plum tomatoes, chopped (or about a pint of grape tomatoes halved)
• 8 scallions, trimmed (and cut into 1/2- 1" sections)

Directions:

1. Preheat a grill to medium or oven to 450. Cut four 12-inch-long sheets of heavy-duty foil. Drizzle 1 teaspoon (or no) olive oil into the center of each sheet.

2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Lay 1 piece of chicken in the center of each sheet and spread (from 2 teaspoons to) 1 tablespoon pesto on top.

3. Mound one-quarter of the zucchini, tomatoes and scallions over each chicken breast. Dollop 2 tablespoons (no more than 1tsp) pesto over each mound. Fold the foil over the chicken and vegetables; pinch the edges to seal.

4. Cover and grill over indirect heat or bake the packets for 25 minutes. Remove from the grill or oven and open carefully.

5. Serve with rice or pasta to absorb the extra juices. (also GREAT with garlic bread-put the tomato bits on the garlic bread and it is DELICIOUS)