Oreo Truffles

Seriously quick and easy dessert.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pkg of OREO's (15.5 oz.)
• 1 pkg of cream cheese (8 oz.)
• 2 pkg BAKER's semi-sweet chocolate. melted (16 oz. total)

PREPARATION:

1. Crush entire package of OREO's. (Reserve about a cup of crushed cookie crumbs to use as topping for finished truffles.)
2. Combine remaining cookie crumbs with cream cheese. Mix until well blended.
3. Form mixture into 1" balls.
4. Dip into melted chocolate and sprinkle tops with reserved cookie crumbs.
5. Refrigerate until firm, approximately 1 hour. Store in airtight container in fridge. 

Jook or Rice Congee Starter

Jook, essentially a rice broth or porridge, to me is the equivalent to how I imagine most people feel about Chicken Noodle soup. It's what I want when I'm not feeling well. It settles the stomach and it's just a really nice comfort thing. Plus it's associated with all kinds of memories growing up when my Mom would make it for me and/or the family. One instance in particular stands out...when I got my wisdom teeth out and couldn't really eat much and my stomach felt all gross after the 'surgery.' (Does it count as a surgery if they put you out for it?) My mom made a pot of this when we got home and kept it on the stove for me for whenever I felt like I could keep something down. *Sigh* reminiscing...

But for the longest time I really had no idea how on earth to make it. I did try on a couple of occasions, but it always ended up a pretty ridiculously goopy mess usually with a thick layer of it stuck to the bottom of the pan. Definitely not what you want and nothing quite like what I remembered from when my mom made it. It wasn't until I tried doing the ratios from this blog that I got consistent results that actually tasted great.

So this is a basic variation of Appetite for China's vegetarian variation (she also has a chicken one) that originally came from the New York Times. I call it a starter because from this point you could add pretty much anything to personalize it to your taste. I usually add stripped up pieces of ham or something, though you could add pretty much any meat and anything else you might like to throw in there. I don't make as large of a batch as she does, mainly because we wouldn't be able to eat that much (serves 6-8 people) and I don't currently have a pot anywhere near large enough to make a batch that large. Now if only I could find the dried crumbled fish that my mom also used to have...think bacon bits, but with fish...sounds weird but it's fantastic on this!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup rice, uncooked
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 3-4 cups water
• 1 Tbsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Dash of white pepper
• 1/4 tsp sesame oil
• Green onion for garnish

PREPARATION:

1. Combine rice, stock, and water, bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for an hour and a half stirring on occasion and adding more water as necessary to keep essentially same ratio as when you started.
3. Add all remaining ingredients, except garnish, at some point during the simmering process depending on how strong you want the other flavors incorporated. I sometimes add it in right after reducing the heat to simmer. Sometimes not until later, in kind of just depends on whenever I get everything else all ready to go.
4. When consistency of rice is as desired (sometimes you want the rice a little more formed and sometimes I like completely broken down-I guess this makes more sense if you're familiar with jook and you've made it before...) serve hot, throw green onions on top and enjoy!

Brazilian Cheese Rolls

Ok, so this is officially my new favorite recipe. So I'd have to say one of my favorite foods is cheese, I LOVE it. Melted cheese in particular. So we end up eating pizza quite a bit around here, but sometimes it's a hassle either going out to get it or finding room to store it in our fridge/freezer. This recipe is perfect for cheesy cravings! I've been wanting to try it ever since I found it and even bought all the ingredients for it. But I didn't have a mini-muffin tin. So everything's been waiting patiently in the fridge for me to get one. We finally got one and made 2 batches in 2 days and I pretty much downed the 2nd batch all on my own. Yikes, right?

If you've ever been to a Tucanos (Brazilian style)  restaurant I'm pretty sure you've had them. They're the little cheesy bites they have over by the fried banana. Last time we went I was totally considering finding out how much it would be to get a side of them to take home. Anyways, this recipe is super super quick and easy to make. Original recipe is here. And I guess depending on your pan and oven you'll have different baking times. I found that for us to get the look she had on hers we baked at 375 for about 11 minutes. Our muffin pan is shallower than hers and I think a little darker. And I think our oven may run about 25 degrees hotter, so it's kind of a trial and error type thing. Seriously though, even when we overcooked our first batch it was still delicious! The only thing different was texture wasn't quite as chewy as our next batch. Anyways, here it is! Oh, and the only harder ingredient to find is the tapioca flour, which we got at our Winco over in the bulk foods from a bin. Over on the original Our Best Bites blog she goes into a little more detail about maybe where to find some. And sorry, once again no pictures, we finished them too quickly, ha! Would definitely recommend heading over there and looking at the pictures for it just to get an idea of what your final product should look like...

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 cup tapioca flour (sometimes labeled tapioca starch)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup *fine* grated cheddar cheese (preferably medium or sharp - we did this with sharp cheese and you can use a little more if you want. Also on the original recipe she says you can try different types of cheeses instead of the cheddar here)
• 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese (I would say not to use the powdered kind, we got a small container of the parmesan shards, for some reason I couldn't find the whole stuff, but definitely if you can get the stuff you can grate fresh)
• OPTIONAL: Extra cheese to sprinkle on top and or any extra herbs or flavorings you'd like to add. On our 2nd run we added about an 1/8 of a tsp. of garlic powder while blending and it was quite good. Blog recommends rosemary, which it turned out we didn't have, so haven't tired it that way yet....  

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Blend all ingredients minus cheese in blender until smooth
3. Add cheeses and pulse a couple of times
4. Immediately pour batter into mini muffin tins (spray pan if it isn't non-stick) filling each cup 3/4 of the way full. Can make anywhere between 16-24 rolls. (We made 24 each time, but once again that could be because our muffin pan is a little wider and shallower...she got 16-18 on hers. Also, pouring takes some practice, on the first try we had to go back with a spoon to even out how much was in each cup). 
5. Sprinkle any additional toppings, such as more cheese on top
6. Bake for 11-15 minutes until puffed and golden. Cool for a few minutes and serve warm!

Brownies

So this is a recipe I originally found on allrecipes.com and it is perfect for when you are craving just a little something and you really don't want to make a big batch. They are super quick to whip up and they are perfect for baking up in a toaster oven which is what I usually do. I love that I can just heat up something small instead of a large oven - it makes me feel like I'm cooking in a little Easy-Bake-Oven, ha! Also, when I went searching for Brownie recipes a lot of them called for actual baking chocolate you had to melt down first, which I never have on hand. For this recipe all you need is cocoa powder for the chocolatey flavor, which I always have, so it really is perfect and easy to do. The original recipe calls for a frosting/topping you can do, but I usually just leave them without, they really don't need anything extra. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder. 

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour an 8" square pan. 
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat in cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. Do not overcook. 

Chinese Soy Sauce Chicken

So when we were first out in Portland and stocking a new pantry we ended up with a lot of frozen chicken thighs. We discovered chicken on the bone doesn't tend to work out as well as just regular chicken breast when thawing out for recipes. At least the skin on it isn't really good anymore for baked chicken etc. We had it in the back of our freezer for the longest time until we came across this recipe and finally made use of it. It's a really simple recipe, just put everything in a pot and let it simmer. It may be an acquired taste for some but, we both like as we've had a lot of experience with Chinese food. :0) And of course it holds special memories for me being a Chinese recipe and all! Enjoy! Original recipe can be found here.

Oh, and a small note, the hardest thing for us to find for some reason was the star anise. We used whole cloves the first time around because we couldn't find it and it was ok. The smell was right but the flavor was weaker. It was on ok substitute. We ended up finding whole star anise though at a World Market/Cost plus for a really reasonable price and the taste was much better. To make a stronger sauce as well we ended up cutting down the liquid a little to concentrate the flavor of everything else - so usually 1 part soy to 2 parts water instead of the original 1:3.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup soy sauce
• 2 cups water
• 2 to 2 1/2 lbs chicken wings, drummettes and wings separated
• 1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 pieces star anise
• 1 scallion, shredded or chopped

*Maintain 1 part soy sauce to 2 parts water ratio so liquid covers at least 3/4 of the chicken

PREPARATION:

1. In a large Dutch oven or pot, heat the chicken, soy sauce, water over medium flame. Bring the liquid to a simmer. Reduce heat to very low and cover the pot. Make sure heat is as low as can be without turning off; simmering soy sauce can easily become rapidly boiling soy sauce, which can easily become a big mess to clean up.
2. Add the ginger, garlic, sugar, cinnamon, star anise, and sugar. Allow the chicken to simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, or up to an hour if you want falling-off-the-bone tenderness. Ladle the chicken and sauce into a deep platter. Garnish with scallions and prepare to enjoy some savory, succulent chicken.

Serves 4 to 6...or 2 with leftovers for next time :0)

Lola's Kopanisti Spread

So during the summer we spent in Portland we took a few days (due to a wonderful gift from some great friends) and spent sometime in downtown Seattle. One of the things we enjoyed the most was lunch we had at this Greek restaurant, Lola. It was sooooo great! Everything was wonderful, and we had a really great appetizer. Of course, I scoured the internet and hunted down a recipe similar to the Kopanisti dip we had. I tweaked it a little for our taste (the original recipe calls for wine, which I don't tend to use when I cook). Apparently this isn't a traditional Kopanisti style dip but this, at least ingredient wise is the closest to what we had! Can't wait to make it! Wonderful memories, and if you ever find yourself in the area-check Lola's out. It's fantastic! You'll probably need to make reservations... ;)

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 oz feta cheese
• 2 oz bleu cheese
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 Tbsp fresh mint leaves
• 1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• Blackberry/Marionberry Syrup
• chopped pistachios
• fresh mint infused oil (optional)

PREPARATION:

• Blend first 5 ingredients in a food processor.
• Slowly add olive oil until you've reached desired consistency - you want it to be creamy and smooth.
• Top with as much or as little syrup, chopped pistachio nuts, and fresh mint infused oil as you'd like
• Serve with the breadstuff of your choice - warm crostini, chunks of french bread, or our favorite, wedges of pita.

SERVES/MAKES: 1 1/2 cups approx.

Granola Bars!

The first time I made this was w/ Bernice at Char's house, and they were good! So good I got a copy of the recipe right then, and then haven't tried making it since. Until tonight. We bought a large thing of oats awhile back and haven't used much of it except on no-bake cookies, which are great, but definitely not on the healthy side so I went looking around the internet for something to use it up on. Turns out there's also a copy of this recipe on allrecipes.com which totally reminded me about this recipe and inspired me to finally get around to making them. And on the plus side, we had practically all the ingredients for it, just had to go out for the wheat germ.

Anyways, while I was looking around on the internet I saw an awesome photo of someone using a muffin pan to make pre-portioned pieces. Thought that was definitely a GREAT idea as I really hate cutting bars - it's messy and I forget about them and they end up too hard to cut etc. I was determined to make a whole batch  fit in 24 cups of our mini-muffin pan and managed to do it... But unfortunately I packed it in way too tight and we managed to forget to set a timer for it, so I really have no idea how long they were in there for for sure, but we're thinking it was probably close to the recommended half an hour. Which ended up being definitely WAAAAAAY TOO LONG! They were really dense and kinda hard. Still edible and flavorful, but not really enjoyable to eat. On the upside though, they really were the perfect size. So next time, no packing it in and probably will cook 10 - 15 min. only. We figured on this batch, if they start getting too dry we'll just crumble it in a bowl and have it with milk and eat it like cereal! Kinda fun having pre-portioned sizes like that. 

INGREDIENTS:
Dry Ingredients:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (Try with just 1/2 cup next time?)
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp. salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup honey (Increase to 1/3 to compensate for less sugar?)
• 1 egg - beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla

OPTIONAL MIX-INS:

• 3/4 cup raisins or 1/2 cup craisins
• 1/3 cup coconut
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup peanut butter

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13 pan. Mix oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, mix-ins and salt. Make well in center and pour in honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well and pat into pan. Bake 30-35 min. Cool for 5 min. Cut into bars and serve.