Singapore Noodles

Turns out this is one of my Dad's favorite noodles, took a look at a few different recipes and came up with this. It's a pretty flexible recipe, use more or less of whatever meat and vegetables you have on hand and enjoy!  

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 oz chicken thigh or breast (velveted, see following ingredients)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp water
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1/4 tsp curry powder 
• 1/8 tsp five spice powder
• 6 oz shrimp (peeled & deveined, marinated, see following ingredients)
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp fish sauce
• 6 oz char siu pork 
• 8 oz vermicelli noodles
• Vegetable oil 1 Tbsp or so at a time as needed to stir fry ingredients
• 2 eggs 
• 1 tsp mirin
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• salt & white pepper to taste
• 1 small or 1/2 large yellow onion thinly sliced
• 3-4 stalks scallions, cut into 1" pieces and separate whites and greens 
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
• 1 medium carrot, julienned
• 4-6 oz snow peas, thinly sliced at an angle
• 6 oz bean sprouts

SAUCE INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp & 1 Tsp curry powder
  
• 1/2 tsp tumeric 
• 1/2 tsp five spice powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp MSG
• 1/8 tsp white pepper

PREPARATION:

1. Velvet chicken: 
• Slice chicken into 1" pieces across the grain and place in a medium bowl and 
• Add water and oyster sauce to chicken and set aside for 5-10 min until most of the liquid is absorbed by chicken. 
• Add cornstarch and vegetable oil and mix until incorporated. Marinate for 15-20 min.
2. Marinate shrimp in oil and fish sauce and set aside 
3. Thinly slice char sui into 1" strips and set aside
4. Mix all sauce ingredients together and set aside
5. Cook vermicelli noodles - Cook in boiling water according to package instructions until al dente. Adjust cooking time a min or so less than package indicates as it will be stir fried with other ingredients. Drain and do a quick rinse in cool water and set aside.
6. Prepare & Cook Eggs
• Beat eggs with mirin, soy sauce and salt & white pepper
• Heat 1/2 Tbsp oil in a large nonstick skillet and heat over medium high heat. Add egg mixture and spread evenly on bottom of pan and cook in one layer until just cooked through. Not necessary to flip. (I tried and just couldn't get it to work. It still worked out just fine cooking it on one side) Remove from pan when cooked in single layer. After it cools enough to touch, roll up and cut into thin strips. Set aside.
7. Add 1 Tbsp of oil and start cooking chicken. When chicken is about half way done move to the side and add shrimp to 1/4 of the pan and the char sui to the other 1/4 of the of pan. Cook shrimp until just barely pink, should be less than a minute. Remove shrimp and set aside. Continue cooking until until char siu is heated through. Chicken should be mostly done at this point, it's ok if it's a little bit pink still, it will finish cooking with noodles, remove both from pan and set aside.
8. Add 1 Tbsp of oil and sauté yellow onion and white pieces from scallions with ginger and garlic. Cook for 1-2 minutes and move to side of pan
9. Add carrots, red pepper, snow peas and bean sprouts and cook for 1-2 minutes until vegetables reach desired doneness/texture. 
10. Add noodles and sauce mixture and toss until everything is evenly coated.
11. Add green parts of scallions, cooked eggs and meat to pan and toss until evenly mixed. Serve!

Furikake Chex Mix in Smaller Batches

We had this for the first time when we went to Hawaii a few years ago. We found it when we stopped by the local Costco and they were selling the Cookies in Paradise Furikake Party Mix. Since then discovered that this is a common party mix in Hawaii. After reviewing a few recipes out there we are a fan of the one by Onolicious Hawaii and this is adapted from her recipe. Mostly adapted to make a much smaller batch, sometimes you want to enjoy a snack without making a huge batch for a crowd. :)

A lot of these ratios are based on evenly dividing up the packages the ingredients are sold in. I would consider this roughly a quarter batch? It ends up fitting in our roasting pan which is about the size of a half-sheet pan with higher edges. It can be hard finding a container large enough to fit everything and mix it which is the main reason we like to make smaller batches so we don't have to buy separate trays. We have 2 roasting pans so we have often made 2 quarter batches at a time and measure out one quarter set of ingredients at a time for each tray.

We do like more coating on ours so we end up using a higher ratio of syrup to mix. Also, I don't love pretzels so I end up using less, feel free to adjust to your taste. After making this a few times I would also recommend making your syrup in separate batches to match however many trays you're making as it tends to separate and it's difficult to split one large mix between trays evenly. While this requires a little more effort we've found it results in more even distribution of syrup on larger batches.

PARTY MIX INGREDIENTS:

• 127.5g Rice Chex (1/4 box)
• 127.5g Corn Chex (1/4 box)
• 106g Honeycomb Cereal (We used the Malt-O-Meal Honey Buzzers, 1/4 of the bag)
  
• 71g Pretzels
• 65g Fritos (1/4 bag)
• 53g Bugles (1/4 bag)

SYRUP INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce

SEASONING INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 bottle of Nori Komi Furikake

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat the oven to 250° F
2. Measure out all Party Mix Ingredients together on tray lined with parchment paper and mix to incorporate
3. Melt butter in sauce pan over medium heat. Once melted, lower heat and add remaining syrup ingredients. Stir to mix and continue stirring until sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. Pour warm syrup over party mix and using spatulas or gloved hands, toss chex mix until everything is evenly coated.     
5. Sprinkle Furikake evenly over tray and toss to incorporate
6. Bake for 1 hour, taking out pan and stirring/tossing mix every 15 minutes. If making multiple batches rotate trays in oven after stirring
7. Let cool and enjoy! Store in airtight bags/containers.

Baked Bean Medley

Received this recipe from Don's mom this past year. She won first place at a ward chili cook-off using this recipe many years ago when Don was growing up. Since then I've also had a sister-in-law also get first place at her ward chili cook-off too - so this is definitely an award winning recipe, twice over! We're still tweaking it a little to our taste but here are all the ingredients and the instructions for baking it in the oven from the original recipe. Last time we made it we just made it on the stove top and didn't bother putting it in the oven. I imagine you could also cook this in a slow cooker if you wanted to and it would be just as good.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 lb bacon - cooked & diced
• 1 lb ground beef
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 2 (31 oz) cans pork and beans 
• 1 (15 oz) can kidney beans
• 1 (15 oz) can red beans
• 1 (15 oz) can lima beans
• 1½ cups honey barbecue sauce
• ½ cup packed brown sugar (maybe only use 1/4 - 1/3 cup?)
• 3 Tbsp vinegar
• 1 Tbsp liquid smoke, hickory (optional) 
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• shredded cheese for topping

PREPARATION:

1. Cook bacon. Either dice and cook or cook whole and crumble bacon into medium size chunks. Remove and set aside. 
2. Cook ground beef and onion until meat is brown and onion is tender; drain fat
3. In a colander drain only one of the cans of the pork and beans, the kidney beans, red beans, and lima beans.
4. Add cooked bacon, all drained beans, the remaining whole can of pork and beans, all remaining ingredients to beef and onion mixture and mix well.
5. Bake covered at 350° F for about 1 hour or until heated through.
6. Serve with shredded cheese on top! 

Cranberry Sauce

Testing...

INGREDIENTS:

• 12 oz cranberries
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup brown sugar
• Optional: pinch of cinnamon and/or nutmeg

PREPARATION:

1. Over medium heat dissolve sugar in orange juice and bring to a boil. 
2. Add cranberries and cook until they burst. Continue boiling for a few minutes and remove from heat. Sauce will thicken upon standing. 

Perfect Family Favorite Pot Roast

Every now and then, usually late Saturday evening, I get a craving for pot roast on Sunday. The traditional come-home-after-church-and-the-house-smells-amazing pot roast. Ironically though, even though the house smelled amazing usually the pot roasts I had growing up were a little...dry? As for Don, he really didn't have pot roast growing up at all. I've tried various slow cooker recipes that have been hit and miss. Flavors were usually good but the meat wasn't usually consistent. Sometimes moist, and other times dry and tough- really dry and tough. Which is weird because it had just spent hours simmering in a bunch of liquid, right?

A couple of weeks ago the craving hit and I was determined to have the pot roast that I was envisioning - tender and moist. Something that lived up to expectations, ha! I did a search, looked over quite a few recipes, and landed on 2 that were incredibly similar from sources I trusted and that I've cooked from before, Pioneer Woman and A Bountiful Kitchen. 

So this recipe is a combination/adaptation of those 2 recipes, Perfect Pot Roast and Family Favorite Pot Roast. And, it truly is that, a Perfect Family Favorite Pot Roast. This 100% lived up to expectations, it was AMAZING! And it was one of those recipes where after tasting how it turned out I was actually 'proud' of the meal. Like, check this out, I've just created this from scratch and it tastes friggin' fantastic! :)  So, many thanks to both Pioneer Woman and A Bountiful Kitchen - I now know how to cook a wonderful pot roast! 

*Just a note about the pot roast - we've usually been getting a roast between 3-3.5  lbs for 2 of us and we usually have leftovers for 3-4 meals. For a larger roast the only thing that really changes is the amount of time you cook it for, you wouldn't necessarily need to add more of everything else, but you could if you wanted to. Also, I would highly recommend getting this from Costco, it was more affordable and they sell them in 2 separate portions so I can make this recipe twice :)

INGREDIENTS:

• Chuck Roast - 3 - 3½ lbs (Try and find one with nice marbling) 
• 1 large yellow onion, cut into wedges - ends up being about 2 cups precooked
• 3 cups of carrots, cut into 2" chunks -  we usually peel our carrots, but you could also leave them unpeeled and scrub them
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire 
• 2-3 cups beef broth
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Optional: fresh rosemary & fresh thyme (I tried this with dry and didn't love it because I couldn't just pull it out after. We ended up scraping quite a bit of it off and I was worried about it tasting strangely in the gravy we made from the drippings.)

PREPARATION:

1. Heat a large pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat and add olive oil. 
2. When oil is hot add onion wedges. Brown on one side, turn, then add carrots and minced garlic. Continue cooking until carrots are lightly browned making sure you don't burn the garlic. Remove all veggies and set aside
3. Preheat the oven to 275° F and move around racks if needed to accommodate pot/dutch oven
4. Salt and pepper roast generously. Add more oil to pan if needed and then sear the roast on all sides. About 30-60 sec per side and remove roast from pan.
5. Using about 1/2 up to a cup of broth, deglaze pot scraping up browned bits.
6. Remove pot from heat and add roast back. Add onions and carrots to the sides around roast. 
7. Sprinkle Worcestershire and balsamic on top of roast evenly. 
8. Pour remaining broth around the edges over the onions and carrots until it reaches about half way up the sides of the roast. Try not to pour the broth on top of the roast so you don't wash away seasonings and sauces. 
9. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top over the everything. 
10. Cover tightly with foil or lid.
11. Bake in oven for about 3½ hours. If time allows, let sit in turned off oven for an hour longer after cooking to tenderize. We usually use that time to make our mashed potatoes! :) 

FOR GRAVY:

1. Use equal portions butter and flour to start a roux. I usually get about 3-4 cups of liquid, after separating out the fat, based on the pan we use so I usually use 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup of flour. Also depending on how salty your drippings are you may want to use plain beef broth to work your way up to 3-4 cups liquid instead of using all drippings. 
2. Add half the onions to drippings and blend in blender until smooth. You definitely don't have to do this, but if you have the time and a blender, it makes for some pretty amazing gravy!   
3. Melt butter in small pot or pan. Add flour ans whisk constantly until incorporated. Keep cooking over medium heat until mixture changes to golden color.
4. Slowly whisk in liquids and continue to stir until mixture is smooth. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened.
5. Salt and pepper to taste. 

To troubleshoot your gravy Our Best Bites has a great recipe (that's where I grabbed my roux ratios from!) and some great tips and pictures to help you out.   

Basic 'Swig' Sugar Cookie

I can't remember when I first heard about Swig - but it was definitely after the fact. As in everyone else knew about them and loved them. I heard about them when I started hearing about Dirty Coke's last year and then I heard about the cookies. 

By the time that I heard about them last year there were Swig locations outside of St. George so Don and I went and and got Dirty Coke's and the pink swig sugar cookies. They were good, huge, but good. Just in case you were confused by that last statement - this is goofy, but I like smaller cookies. I'd rather eat 2 smaller cookies than one large cookie, but that's just me, ha! :) Apparently the current version of cookies are different from when they originally started serving them in St. George. The one that everyone initially fell in love with. Not to say that people don't still love their cookies - they're just a different recipe now. All the pictures I had seen of them previously had cracked edges etc and when I went to Swig they were clean edges and I had read in a couple of places that they didn't taste like they did before. 

And that made me curious to try the 'original.' Or at least try a cookie recipe based off of the original. I looked up recipes for 'swig' cookies - and I found a TON. Like I said, late to the bandwagon.  I'm going to say this right off. I've never been the biggest fan of sugar cookies. Something about the texture? But I like 'swig' style sugar cookies. They're kind of like a cross between a sugar cookie and shortbread? But I'd say they're less finicky to make than shortbread cookies. I like them. 

I've seen quite a few adaptations that have made lemon or lime ones, even chocolate versions. For the basic recipe you can add a little extract, which I'll be honest I don't always add, but I like the reminder to maybe put it in. I also separated out the wet and dry ingredients. I accidentally added the powdered sugar with the dry ingredients once and it did not turn out as well as when you mix it with the wet - the dough was super crumbly.

I'm not listing a frosting recipe just yet and that's simply because I haven't found one that I'm in love with. I need to experiment with a few others before I commit to one. But FYI, the 'original' recipe calls for a sour cream frosting. 

INGREDIENTS:
Wet:

• 1 cup butter - room temp, soft
• 1¼ cup sugar
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp water - on recipes with flavored variations I've seen this replaced with lemon or lime juice and then adding the zest of one lemon or lime
• 1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla or almond extract (optional)

Dry:

• 5½ cups of flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp salt - sometimes I half this or leave it out because I use salted butter

PREPARATION:

1. Cream butter and sugars together. Mix in eggs, oil and water and mix until smooth. 
2. Mix all dry ingredients in another bowl and add a cup or so of dry ingredients at a time into the wet ingredients. 
3. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
4. Form into balls and flatten with the bottom of a glass that has been dipped in sugar (and a teensy bit of salt if you like - that's from Vintage Revivals, I don't always do it because of the whole salted butter thing)
5. Bake for 7 - 12 min. This will vary depending on how chewy you want the inside of the cookie. The longer the bake time the dryer the cookie. 

NOTE: Makes approx 2 dozen medium cookies or 3 dozen small cookies

Drop Biscuits

This recipe is straight up from JOY of Cooking which is pretty much the encyclopedia of cooking. Seriously. When we first got this we played a game where we had to think of an ingredient or some crazy food we had heard of and then check to see if there was a recipe for it. And there was one every single time. It's a beast. There are no pictures but there is so much information that it's really helpful to have. We like these biscuits because we don't always have Bisquick and these are almost just as quick and we always have all the ingredients on hand. And every now and then we get cravings for biscuits and gravy and these are perfect for that. Also there is note that these can be bland on their own due to the fact they are made with oil instead of butter or shortening. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat the oven to 450° F
2. Sift the first 3 ingredients into a bowl. 
3. Add wet all at once and stir with a fork until the dough readily leaves the sides of the bowl. 
4. Drop dough in desired size onto ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake for 10 -12 minutes.

NOTE:  The original recipe states this makes 24, one and 1/2 inch biscuits. We like bigger biscuits so this makes 6 for us. You can double the recipe for a full dozen which works out well because we like cooking it in muffin tins. It just makes for consistent sizing and you get a nice outer crust.

Classic Waffles

So we got ourselves a Belgian waffle maker for Christmas this year, and it is fabulous!!! We love it! After we made our first ones we knew we'd be getting a LOT of use out of it. There was a recipe that was included in the instruction booklet for our Presto FlipSide Belgian Waffle Maker (just in case you were wondering what waffle iron we had) that we've used every time and they turn out really really well. I think probably a little doughier than you'd get from a mix? But it's still definitely a batter. I used to prefer pancakes growing up, but after these, I don't think I'll ever want a pancake again! :) 

INGREDIENTS:

Dry:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Wet:

• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

PREPARATION:

1. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Whisk wet ingredients in medium bowl. Whisk milk mixture into dry ingredients just until dry ingredients are thoroughly moistened. 
2. Preheat waffle maker. Pour 3/4 - 1 cup onto the center of bottom grid. Close top and flip waffle maker. Bake until brown, about 4 minutes. 

NOTE: Makes 4 Waffles

Shepherd's Pie

This is recipe is really nice coming into fall and winter. It's a comfort food that comes together pretty easily though there are quite a few steps involved. I've heard some people use instant mash potatoes to shorten prep time, but I've never tried it. Traditionally 'Sherpherd's Pie' is made with lamb, but that's not something we usually keep stocked... Someday we'd like to try it that way, but for now we just use ground beef. So I guess this is actually a recipe for 'Cottage Pie'?

This is an adaptation of a couple of different recipes that I think turned out really well. It was a combination of one recipe that fit in an 8x8, and another that fit in a 9x13. Our finished product fits somewhere in between those two, ha! You could put it in a 9x13 and it would be a little thin so you'd have to adjust the cooking time or add a little more of everything else. So this is just a starting place, easy to adjust for however much you want to end up with, just add more mashed potatoes, meat and vegetables. We ended up cooking this recipe in a 7x11 baking dish we had and it filled it completely. So Yummy!!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2-3 cups potatoes 
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp cream cheese - you could leave this out, but it does make the potatoes really thick and creamy, it's a nice touch if you've got it
• 1/2 - 1 cup shredded cheese - half for mixing in potatoes, half for topping finished casserole
• Salt and Pepper to taste

• 1 - 1 1/2 cups frozen vegetables thawed in water from boiling potatoes - use a mix of whatever you have on hand, peas, carrots, corn

• 1 1/2 tsp oil - you could use vegetable or oil, whatever you prefer
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1-2 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 3 heaping Tbsp flour
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp ketchup
• 1 can of low sodium beef broth - We used Swanson's 14.5 oz can, you could use a smaller can, just adjust the flour accordingly. You could also use regular sodium, I've just found it's harder to plan for that as you're seasoning your meat and you don't want it too salty. 

PREPARATION:

1. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still a little firm. About 15 min. Drain but keep water in pot, and mash. Mix in butter, cream cheese and half shredded cheese. Salt and pepper to taste and set aside.
2. Thaw frozen vegetables in potato water and set aside.
3. Heat oil and butter in frying pan. Add onion and sweat until translucent. Add ground beef and cook until half way done. Add garlic, flour and cook until fragrant. Add Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and beef broth and bring to a boil. Continue simmering until thick. 
4. Remove from heat and mix in thawed vegetables.
5. Spread ground beef mixture in an even layer in bottom of baking dish. Top with mashed potatoes and sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese.
6. Bake in oven preheated to 375 for 20 min. or until golden brown.

Gingerbread-White Chocolate Blondies

This recipe is from Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook. We love it. Bought the cookbook awhile back from Costco around Christmastime when they have a ton of different cookbooks stocked. Hands down we use this recipe the most! Granted we have only tried a handful of them... It's almost like we found this one and stopped looking, ha! 

The first time we made these we were in Portland and it was for a Sunday dessert after dinner with our friends Paul & Wendy. Didn't realize how many the recipe made until after the fact so there were a ton of leftovers and we left them for them to keep. They decided it was too much for them and Paul ended up bringing them into where he and Don worked. People started coming in from other offices asking about them!

Anyhow, they are fabulous year round, but particularly around fall because of the spices. I usually end up cutting them into triangles because the spacing works out better for me. I cut them into rows of 4 and then 6 bars per row then into triangles to get the 4 dozen. They finish up quick because you don't have to form individual balls, just spread it all out and bake it!  

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 3/4 cups plus 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yoke
• 1 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
• 1 3/4 cups coarsely chopped best-quality white chocolate (10 oz)

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 17" x 12" rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray. Line bottom with parchment cut to fit, and coat parchment. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
2. Beat butter and brown and granulated sugars with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs and yolk, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Stir in white chocolate.
3. Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake until edges are golden, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into 2-inch squares or desired shape. Makes about 4 dozen.

Basic Burger Patties

This is an adaptation of this recipe on Allrecipes. It's a good basic burger recipe! Makes 6 burger patties.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese (I've left this out on occasion and everything was still fine!) 
• 1 small onion chopped or 1/2 large onion - anywhere between 1/4 to 1/2 cup (On occasion I'll also leave this out if I'm planning on putting red onion or grilled onion on top separately...)
• 1 egg (Some people recommend halving or omitting the egg entirely, we've always done it with)
• 1 Tbsp ketchup
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat grill or frying pan. 
2. In a large bowl, mix together cheese, onion, egg, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and spices. Crumble in ground beef and mix together by hand.
3. Form into 6 patties and cook until well done.

Simple Sauce for Crispy Pan-Fried Noodles

I recently discovered crispy noodles that I can make at home! Aaaand, I've started making them more often. It's kind of been a trial and error on finding a sauce that tastes right to me for it. Finally found this one on rasamalaysia which I guess was actually a guest post from another blogger, Taste Hong Kong. Either way the sauce was perfect for it, and at some point I do intend to do the full on recipe as is. Lately I've just been making the sauce plain and pouring it over the noodles. So yummy!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 3/4 tsp sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp cornstarch
• 1 cup and 2 Tbsp water

PREPARATION:

1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly. 
2. Bring to a boil stirring frequently, usually just boil it for a minute or two.
3. Pour over noodles and enjoy!

Chewy Caramel Popcorn

Adapted from this recipe on Allrecipes. Really quick and easy to make, tried it for the first time this year and ended up making a ton of batches! 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 bag of microwave popcorn, popped

PREPARATION:

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. 
2. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt.
3.  Bring to a boil stirring constantly. As soon as first bubbles appear, allow mixture to boil for 3 minutes without stirring. 
4. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat. 
5. Spread out on lined cookie sheet, breaking apart into smaller pieces as you go and allow to cool. Enjoy!

Blueberry Balsamic Rosemary Chicken

We tried this recipe for the first time today, and it was awesome! We got some blueberries in our co-op basket and were trying to figure out what we wanted to do with them, other than just eat them as-is :), and I was thinking for whatever reason that it would be good as a sauce with balsamic vinegar. Went on the trusty internet and found a couple of various recipes which were pretty much identical. Turns out someone else had the idea before I did! 

This is a French dish and was incredibly home~y and rustic. I could totally see myself ordering it at a French restaurant or maybe even a pub somewhere. :) We had it with mashed potatoes, and it was a great Fall dish - even though it isn't quite Fall yet! One thing we did notice was that 10 min. definitely wasn't long enough in the oven to finish cooking. I would definitely do it for at least double that. We kept checking w/ the thermometer just to make sure. Maybe we didn't brown it long enough? Or it really does make a difference browning in a skillet vs a regular frying pan? We're going to try browning it longer next time, but really either way it turned out great and the flavor was awesome! If you want to retain some of your crispy skin after browning I would use a larger baking dish so that your sauce doesn't completely cover your chicken. 

We had ours with brownies for dessert, but during dinner we ended up talking about other desserts that would go really well with this, like a free-form apple tart, baked cheesecake, lemon pie...yum! We figured this would be great for company and easy to stretch out, recipe made quite a bit of sauce. We were thinking it would also be really nice with a green salad with feta too, if you decided to serve it in courses... Such an inspiring dish, ha! And it was fairly easy to do and the results were well worth the effort!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp pepper
• 4-6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts or 2 lbs bone-in leg and thigh (we used thawed frozen chicken thighs from Costco, 4 thighs in a pack, worked great) 
• 2 shallots, about 1/4 cup, thinly sliced (we substituted this with regular onion thinly sliced)
• 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen - we supplemented with frozen)
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup maple syrup (Used honey because we already had it! But I imagine it would be really good with maple syrup, want to try it that way sometime...)
• 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F
2. Heat 1 Tbsp each of oil and butter in a large skillet until hot and bubbly. Season chicken with salt and pepper, and sear over medium high heat until golden brown - about 1 minute per side or until a light crust forms. Remove to baking dish and set aside.
3. Add remaining oil and butter to pan and when hot stir in shallots and cook until soft and lightly caramelized - about 4 minutes.
4. Add blueberries to shallots and cook 1 minute. Add balsamic vinegar, honey or maple syrup, rosemary and salt and pepper. Simmer about 10 min, or until blueberries have collapsed.
5.  Pour blueberry balsamic mixture over chicken and place baking dish in top half of oven for about 10 min. (25-35 min. I would say start at 25 and check and then go from there), until the chicken has cooked to interior temp of 170° F 

Lamb with Rosemary Honey Mustard Glaze

This recipe is one that Don found from Allrecipes. It is the best recipe I've ever had for lamb and all the ingredients are items we have on hand with the exception of fresh rosemary, which we do actually get. Usually we substitute for dry, which I imagine you could, but it really is awesome with fresh if you can get it for a reasonable price. Original recipe calls for leg of lamb, but we have always done it with a lamb roast, which we get at Costco. I imagine you could do it with pretty much any cut of lamb and it would still be great. We like making extra marinade to use as a sauce, it really is that good! Can be served with pretty much anything, we've done it a couple of times with a quinoa recipe and the flavors went together really well. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard (We use the Grey Poupon brand)
• 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Optional: dash each of lemon juice and balsamic vinegar (Haven't tried it this way yet, but want to at some point. Some of the reviewers prepared it this way and it's supposed to be really good!)
• 2 lbs of lamb roast approx. (Original recipe calls for 5 lbs of lamb leg, but the roasts we get are smaller)
• 1 tsp coarse sea salt 

PREPARATION:

1. Combine the honey, mustard, rosemary, pepper, lemon zest and garlic. Mix well (some reviewers recommend putting it all in the blender to mix. I think if you want to make extra to use it as a sauce afterwards I would definitely recommend that b/c of the garlic cloves) and apply to the lamb. Cover and marinate in the fridge overnight. 
2. Preheat the oven to 450° F.
3. Place lamb on a rack in a roasting pan and sprinkle with salt to taste. Cover loosely with a foil tent.
4. Cook for 20 min at 450 then turn the oven down to 350 and cook for 1 hour. Remove the foil and turn the heat temp up to 400 and cook for another 10 - 15 min. (Consider simplifying, I don't know if all this is quite necessary...will double check the next time we make it and update this.)
5. Let the roast sit for 10 min and then carve and serve with extra marinade as sauce! Yum!

Char Siu - Cantonese BBQ'd Pork

Don and I made this for the first time just last month. Up until this point I thought the only way to make this was from pre-made powder sauce packets etc. It just seemed too complicated to try to make from scratch and I wasn't the biggest fan of the results from the packets. Then I found this post about it, on none other than our favorite Chinese food blog, Appetite for China! (I've been copying out more of her recipes recently b/c I've been having issues accessing her site for some reason. It' been glitchy and won't load...)I watched the video, and it turns out it wasn't so bad at all! I watched a couple of other videos and read a few other recipes for it, but this one still seemed the easiest to do without hunting down a bunch of extra ingredients. We tried them in sandwiches a couple of times, done up like the pork in this recipe(found the buns in the freezer section of our Chinese market, only a couple of dollars) and it was really a simplified quick and easy way to have a Cha Siu Bao without having to make everything else from scratch. :0) I liked them with the cilantro and we also did a couple with some sliced cucumber! Yum!
  

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb whole pork belly, skin removed (We prefer using pork loin, less fatty. I've read some people use pork butt for the same reason.)
• 2 Tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry (Found some cooking rice wine at our local Chinese market. I have heard you can substitute this for apple or orange juice. Also saw something about using vinegar sugar and a dash of lemon juice?)
• 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp sugar (I read one variation that used agave sweetener instead of sugar, wonder how that would taste?)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp hoisin sauce (This is a Chinese BBQ sauce, sweeter than traditional western BBQ sauces)
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder (Definitely can be found in Chinese markets - we got ours at a World Market.)
• 2 Tbsp honey 

PREPARATION:

1. Marinate the pork belly: In a large bowl, mix together the rice wine, dark soy sauce, sugar, garlic, hoisin sauce and fice spice powder. Rub the pork belly with the marinade mixture and marinate for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. (We usually set a large ziploc bag in the bowl and do everything in that instead, makes for less mess and much easier clean-up. Also makes it easier to 'rub' everything together.) 
2. Preheat the oven to 325.
3. Hold up the pork for a few seconds to allow excess marinade to drip off, then place the pork in a roasting pan. Brush the top with the honey. (Make sure to either spray and or line pan with tin foil, this can make quite a big sticky mess as it cooks.) Roast the pork for about 45 min, flipping over the pork belly half-way through and brushing honey on the other side. The pork is done when the outsides begin to crisp and blacken and the center of the pork belly strip feels firm.
4. Remove the pork from oven and let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into thin slices. Arrange the slices on a plate and serve.

Mapo Doufu or Mapo Tofu

This is an awesome recipe from one of our favorite go to cooking blogs for Chinese food. In fact I think this is the first recipe I ever cooked from her blog and was the reason I stumbled onto the Appetite for China blog in the first place. The flavors were spot on for what I was looking for and it was not ridiculously difficult to make. Ever since I've always checked her website for Chinese recipes first, and I've never had a problem with a single one! (FYI - she also has a cookbook out now!) It can be a little on the spicy side for kids, but I don't really have spicy tolerance and this has been just fine for me! Makes 4 servings but very easy to stretch out and make more of. Here's a link to the original recipe and site.
  

INGREDIENTS:

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon fermented black beans (or substitute black bean sauce)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2½ tablespoons chili bean paste
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry (We've made this for years w/o ever putting it in b/c we never had it and it had always tasted awesome anyways!)
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper (Awesome addition if you can find it, we found this at an Asian market as whole peppercorns. We have also made it w/o this and while it isn't as aromatic w/o it, it still tastes just fine.)

Other Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
• ½ pound ground pork or beef
• 2 leeks, white parts only, thinly sliced at an angle (Because leeks are usually harder to find and aren't regularly stocked in our 'pantry' we usually end up using regular green onion.)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• 1 block soft or medium-firm tofu (about 1 pound), drained and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
• 1 scallion, green part only, chopped for garnish

PREPARATION:

1. Prepare the sauce: Rinse the black beans to remove any grit. In a small bowl, mash the black beans with the back of a spoon. Combine the black beans with the chicken stock, chili bean paste, rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and Sichuan pepper. Set aside.
2. Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat until a bead of water sizzles and evaporates on contact. Add the peanut oil and swirl to coat the base. Add the pork and stir-fry until crispy and starting to brown but not yet dry, about 2 minutes, breaking up the pork with a spatula. Reduce the heat to medium, then add leeks, garlic, and ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Pour in the sauce and bring the liquid to a boil, the reduce to a simmer. The liquid should now have a nice red color. Gently add the tofu cubes, being careful to not move them around too much or else they will break up. Allow the sauce to simmer for about 2 to 3 minutes so the tofu can cook and absorb the the sauce.
4. Carefully push the tofu to the sides and create a small well in the middle. Stir in the cornstarch mixture in the center. Allow the liquid to simmer for another minute, until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Transfer to a deep plate or wide bowl, sprinkle scallions on top, and serve hot.

German Pancakes / Dutch Babies for Two!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 - 3 Tbsp butter for baking dish - not mixed in w/ other ingredients
• 2 eggs at room temp (can put in a bowl of warm water for a bit)
• 1/2 cup warmed milk (heat up for about 20 sec in microwave) 
• 1/2 cup sifted flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch salt
• Juice from 1 lemon and about 2 Tbsp powdered sugar for topping

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat the oven to 425° F 
2. As the oven is warming, put butter in 8x8 baking dish and let melt as oven preheats.
3. Place eggs and milk in blender, blend lightly until frothy. Add remaining ingredients and blend until just incorporated. 
4. Remove baking dish from oven with melted butter and pour batter in without stirring or mixing and return to oven.
5. Bake 20 - 25 min. until golden brown crust on top and puffy!
6. Top with lemon juice and powdered sugar and enjoy!

Broccoli Salad

So this past Easter we had a family lunch/dinner at my Sis-in-law Melanie's house, and she made this awesome salad. We got the recipe from her and as I was looking it over to add to the site I discovered I had one incredibly similar already posted from when I took my cooking class back at BYU. Who knew? 

I certainly hadn't been using it lately and I definitely fell in love the version I had at Easter so I decided to update and kind of mash the two recipes together, hence all the options for quantities! Seriously though, you can just eyeball everything and it will still turn out fantastic, it's that great. 

Hearty enough to be a meal on it's own with a side of rolls/bread/cornbread or whatever else you want! The dressing recipe included is the halved proportions. We found that the original had to much dressing for our taste. So if you like more dressing with your salad, it can easily be doubled.

INGREDIENTS:
For Salad:

• 1 large head (3-4 cups) of fresh broccoli, washed and trimmed
• ¼ - ½ cup red onion, finely diced
• ½ - 1 cup craisins or raisins

Optional (but highly recommended) Mix-Ins:

• 4 - 6 strips of bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
• ½ - 1 cup shredded cheese (I've used sharp cheddar and Parmesan before, both great) 
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup pepitas
• ½ - 1 cup cashews or chopped pecans or walnuts

For Dressing:

• 1 cup low-fat mayonnaise
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (can substitute w/ regular vinegar if it’s all you have)
• 2 Tbsp sugar

PREPARATION:

1. In small separate bowl, make salad dressing by combining all ingredients. Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours, preferably overnight.
2. Cut broccoli into small florets, peel the stem and cut into 1/2" pieces.
3. Combine broccoli, onions, craisins, nuts, bacon, and cheese.
4. Pour dressing over salad.
5. Refrigerate until ready to serve and toss before serving

Note: This salad can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for hours, even overnight.

Chewy Ginger Cookies

So this is the recipe I've taken to making lately when I make Ginger cookies. It has a few more spices than the previously posted recipe, (which I'm leaving up because it's Mom's original one) but for the most part though, they are incredibly similar ingredient and even measurement~wise. I've just found I prefer the taste of these ones...warm and chewy and filled with Christmas~y memories!

DRY INGREDIENTS:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt

WET INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp water (some people recommend using orange juice)
• 1/4 cup molasses

• 2 Tbsp white sugar for rolling cookie dough balls

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sift together dry ingredients and set aside.
2. Cream together butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg then stir in water and molasses. Gradually add sifted ingredients to wet ingredients. Shape dough into balls and roll in 2 Tbsp of sugar to coat. Let chill in fridge for an hour or so, even overnight if convenient.
3. Place cookies 2" apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake w/o flattening balls to get a crackle on top.
4. Bake for 8-10 min. in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet to settle, approx. 5 min. before removing to wire rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container.