Cashew Chicken

I was recently inspired to have a Chinese night for dinner. Okay, so Husband has been begging for a long time. Anyway, I got this recipe so long ago and never tried it because back then I thought I was too poor to afford cashews. Too bad, this one could have saved many a dinner from being Teriyaki again. It is super good and mostly easy/healthy. No MSG, plenty of flavor. So have yourself a night at the Golden Tree (our local chinese) and enjoy! This is also a freezer recipe.

Cashew Chicken:
1/2 c. ketchup
2 T. soy sauce
1/2 t. salt
1 T. worcestershire sauce
3 T. sugar
1 1/2 t. sesame oil
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 c. chicken broth

2 T. cornstarch
1/2 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
3 whole chicken breasts (as in 6 halves) cut to bite size pieces
1/4 c. cooking oil (peanut works good)
2 T. grated or minced gingerroot
1 T. minced garlic
1 onion, chopped

1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped a bit
1 can bamboo shoots, drained and sliced

1 1/2 c. cashews

Combine ketchup, soy sauce, salt, worcestershire, sugar, sesame oil, cayenne, and broth in a bowl. In another bowl, combine cornstarch, sugar and salt and toss chicken pieces in this. Heat cooking oil in a wok or frying pan to a high heat and add chicken mixture, ginger, garlic and onion. When chicken is cooked through, add chestnuts and bamboo shoots, and ketchup mixture and cook until it comes to a boil. Cool, bag and freeze. Freeze cashews separately. Thaw in fridge overnight, heat on medium until boiling and add cashews. Serve on rice.

Dried Herbs

Maybe this deserves to be posted on my garden blog, being as I did grow these myself. But that is the one I'm keeping up with better at the moment, so enjoy a little herb know-how for your kitchen.

Snip a bunch or a couple of bunches of parsley--not too thick, maybe a half an inch each. Rinse well and shake dry. Wrap a thread around them and hang them in a window. They go limp for a few days and then they dry right up. If you are impatient like me, pull them down once they start to get crisp and finish the job up in your toaster oven. Then, strip the leaves off the stems and crush gently with a mortar and pestle (or fingers).

Basil is easier. After washing, lay out the leaves on a cookie sheet. Preheat your oven as low as it will go (200 or less) and then turn it off. Place the cookie sheet inside and wait. Check on them once in a while. Then crush when crisp. There is probably a more perfected way to go about drying your own herbs, but I have not looked into it. This way works well for me and tastes ten times better than store-bought dried herbs, so I don't mind if I did burn or overcrisp them a bit. Also, the little bunches of parsley look so pretty dangling from the ceiling.

Three Ingredient Buttermilk Biscuits

Yep, three. These are the best, too. I would have taken a picture if I hadn't eaten them all before I made it to the camera.

3 c. self-rising flour*
6 Tb. butter
1 c. buttermilk (8 oz. carton)

Cut butter into half the flour, add remaining flour and stir. Add milk, stir and knead until smooth. Roll to 1/2 inch and cut biscuits. Freeze if you like. Bake at 425* 12-15 min.

*can substitute 1 c. all purpose flour, 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder and a pinch of salt per cup of self-rising flour. I make up a container of it.

If you freeze them, thaw under wrap before baking. They don't rise as much if they're still frozen. Also, I stacked two on top of each other, so I'd have those nice biscuits that pull right apart. They didn't turn out that way. They turned out like two biscuits stacked on top of each other and I was sad because I'd missed out on half of the crusty bottoms I could have enjoyed.

Rainbow Bean Soup

This is a gift from my friend Georgia. I thought it was very pretty and very tasty, so it is getting posted because my kitchen has been boring lately. I made it for dinner last night and don't have a picture, because after the soaking everything took on a bit of a purple-gray tint from the black beans. This cleared up after rinsing and adding tomatoes, but still...it's so much nicer looking in the jar. Here is the recipe.

Beans!

So, my bean class was lots of fun...for me at least. I think I talked too fast and too quiet, but I sure learned a lot! This was one of my experiments: pressure canning dried beans. They turned out quite delicious and sodium free! I also enjoy making homemade refried beans that are fat-free. Have you taken a look at the back of your canned beans? Yikes! We learned about soaking, cooking, freezing, and eating; using bean flour and mashed beans--did you know mashed white beans can replace shortening in baked goods? We had a cake made with this substitution and it was delicious! (I also tried this with Snickerdoodles that called for one cup of shortening--they poofed up instead of getting crisp, but were still edible. No, you cannot use beans to butter your pans.) I made black bean fudge and there was a sandwich spread with garbanzo beans from another lady. I have an entire packet of information and recipes put together with the help of some ladies in the ward. It is too much to retype it, but I can scan-and-email, so if anyone is interested in how to use your bean storage, let me know and I'll send it to you.

As requested...

For all you Winger's fans, here it is. Our version of the Freakin' Amazing sauce. Too good to taste the difference (unless you work there--apologies to my brothers-in-law if you experience decrease in tips). Now you can stay home and drizzle it all over your...everything! Hope you enjoy Fakin' Amazing sauce.

Fun with Eggs

This is late. Hey, I have three kids. Okay, so here are our Easter festivities. First, the eggs in a nest. One bag of butterscotch chips, melted. Maybe melt in the microwave. I did it on the stove and they smelled very peculiar. Tasted fine, though. Stir in half a bag or so of chow mein noodles (the crunchy kind) and press into a Texas-sized muffin tin. Cool until set. Fill with candy eggs. Next year.

This is Eggs A La Goldenrod. Right, Mom? I think that's what it's called. Anyway, when I first made it as a married woman, I didn't remember it tasting as yummy as it does, I only remembered how pretty the sieve-pressed yolks looked up on top--like goldenrods! So, here it is: make up a white sauce by melting 2 T. butter and stirring in 2 T. flour, then 2 c. milk, heat and stir until thick. Salt and pepper it and add in 5 chopped, hard-boiled egg whites. Press the hard-boiled egg yolks through a strainer on top and serve on toast. A lovely way to use up those blue and orange eggs your kids made yesterday (in this case, last week). That's it for now!

Some foods are more photogenic...

Ever notice how some foods are so beautiful that it's almost a shame to put them in your mouth? And how some are so mouth watering you'd eat them no matter what they looked like? On that note, I only have one picture to post. I'd never tried hominy before, but it was good. Like little corn tortilla pieces all boiled fluffy. So here is Pork Pozole.

I tried, but I just couldn't take a pretty picture of this Jambalaya. Not that it wasn't absolutely delicious, though. I have been trying jambalaya recipes for quite a while, searching for the perfect mix of tasty, easy, quick and cheap. Most of them were in fact cheap. Easy and tasty were harder to find. This one showed up in the newspaper two weeks ago and we've had it twice. It's super.

Put the lime in the coconut, shake it all up!

The name says it all, honey. I tore this one out of the newspaper a few years ago because the words made my mouth water. It may not be the prettiest bird in the flock, but dress it up with a little lime zest or fresh fruit and you're in for a sublime experience!

Lime in the Coconut Custard Pie

13.5 oz. can coconut milk (not lite)

1 c. sweetened coconut flakes

4 eggs
1/2 c. frozen limeade concentrate

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. flour

1/2 tsp. coconut extract

1/4 tsp. salt

9 inch deep-dish pic shell, frozen or homemade
Preheat oven to 400*, and set rack at lowest position. Combine all ingredients but pie shell in a blender and give it a good whirl. Pour into pie shell and bake 15 min. Reduce oven to 350* and bake 40 more min. Cool on rack for 30 min. Refrigerate until cold before slicing.

P.S. I use frozen pie shells and end up with an extra cup of batter. This cooks nicely in buttered ramekins for 10 min. less than the pie. It should be slightly jiggly when you pull it out, this is a custard, not a cheesecake! And whatever you do, don't taste it until it is cold.

Chicken Barley Stew

I know, it's been while, but I finally got my pictures from husband's computer. I guess if I expect to keep my visitors, I must entertain them, so I'll be posting a few times this week. First, here is dinner last night. This one is a quicky and but for the barley, you probably have all ingredients on hand. Oh, and if you think you don't like barley, you are probably wrong.

Chicken Barley Stew

1 tsp. oil

1 c. chopped onion

2 c. (or 1 can) chicken broth

2 c. water

1/2 c. quick-cook barley

2 tsp. chili powder

2-3 c. frozen corn, green beans, peas

2 c. shredded chicken

1 can diced tomatoes

1 Tb. dried parsley or cilantro

Saute onion in oil 5 min. Add broth and water, bring to a boil. Stir in barley and chili powder. Simmer 5 min. and add veggies. Anything is really fine here. I use some frozen, some canned (never canned peas--they are icky). Cover and simmer 5 min. until barley is tender. Stir in chicken (or beef or turkey, cooked) and tomatoes (spicy ones are good). Add parsley now. Heat through and serve.