quickie

Spreadable Goat Cheese

Ingredients:
1 1/4 – 1 1/2 C Goat Cheese
1 C Plain Greek Yogurt
1/3 C Water

pulse all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

It’s my new fave spread now on sandwiches or bagels with fig jam…MMMmMmM~ 

Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice

Hubs and I went for a walk around Centennial Lake today since we have Patches this week. Of course, I was thinking about what to make for dinner the entire hour walk around the lake. =P

We hadn’t made Shrimp Fried Rice in a while so I suggested to hubs for dinner. He said ok…and then 10 minutes later…*BING* “let’s add pineapple to it!” Indifferent Hubs, just shrugged and said, “ok.” And Patches had no idear what we were talking about. She was in Doggie Heaven with all those new smells!

no head tilty this time!

 

Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice

Ingredients:
1 small can of Pineapple Chunks
2 C cooked white rice
1/2 C Frozen Mixed Veggies
3/4 C Frozen Shrimp
1 TBSP Butter
1 TBSP Soy Sauce
1 TSP Ground Black Pepper
Salt, to taste
2-3 Eggs

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over high heat.

2. Add Frozen Mixed Veggies and saute for 1-2 minutes over high heat.

3. Add cooked, peeled, deveined frozen shrimp. Saute for 3-4 minutes.

4. Add cooked rice, soy sauce, pepper and a pinch or so of salt. Mix very well, pressing the rice into the mixture as you go to get all of the seasoning and soy sauce coating each rice kernel. *you can also crack an egg in here ~see step 6*

5. Add drained pineapple chunks and saute for 5 minutes til pineapple is nice and hot.

6. Separate into bowls and add a sunny side up egg on top! *you can also choose to crack an egg or two when you put in the rice in step 4, I like this option most of the time because the egg coats the rice nicely and becomes fluffy!*

buon apetito!

bacon + pasta = <3 pt. 2

So Foodnetwork has come up with a spin off of their “Best Thing I Ever Ate” show, which hubs and I enjoy watching, late at night when it makes us hungry again even after eating dinner and nothing but what shows up on the show will satisfy us….ok I’m rambling…but it’s usually what happens. Anywhooooo~the spin off is “Best Thing I Ever Made” where the chefs who show off their eating escapades, get to show off their cooking skills…and now I am not understanding why I do not hate these two shows…possibly because they showcase delicious looking foods…

ok ok! I’ll get to the point! Last night we watched a show where Chef Anne Burrell made her Spaghetti alla Carbonara…as soon as she had finished making it, hubs and I looked at each other and said at the same time, “we have to make this!!”

now, Anne used pancetta, which is italian unsmoked bacon…I don’t have any…but since I run a Korean household…well..Samgyubsal is always on hand. =]

sorry for the head tilting again…don’t know why it won’t let me rotate pictures. =(
Penne alla Carbonara alla EStar

Ingredients:
2 strips Samgyubsal, minced
1 lb Chicken Tenderloin, 1/2 inch cubes
4 Eggs
1/2 C Parmesan Cheese
1/2 lb Penne, cooked per package directions
3 Cloves Garlic, minced

1. Boil Pasta according to directions

2. cook samgyubsal til browned.

 

3. Add diced Chicken to the pan and cook in the bacon fat, add minced garlic once chicken is browned.

4. in a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and parmesan cheese.

5. Turn off heat, set to the side, add the cooked and drained pasta and slowly whisk in the egg and parmesan mixture.

voila~this loverly creamy deliciousness appears and then disappears in my tummy~yummmmm

*notes: my eggs got a little scrambled because I didn’t take the pan off the hot stove before I poured the eggs in…=( but it was still yummmm not too scrambled. =]

buon apetito!

bacon + pasta = <3 pt. 1

My current Role Model in life is Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman. I want to be like her…no…I want to BE HER…she is absolutely amazeballs!!!!

So when she posted this recipe for Cajun Chicken Pasta I HAAAAADDDD to make it…because hubs’ fave dish at a restaurant I cannot name right now because I don’t remember is a Cajun Chicken Pasta of sorts!

Sadly, the first time I attempted this, I attempted without a cast iron skillet…big mistake…my pasta came out all watery because it wasn’t blackened enough…=(

so this second time, I bought a skillet and added bacon to her recipe…bacon makes everything better!! I also minused the veggies…hahahaha so unhealthy I know….I did roast some brussels sprouts with butter and some more bacon to eat as a side…does that count?

I apologize for the head tilting…for some reason wordpress won’t let me rotate them. =(
Cajun Chicken Pasta

Ingredients:
1 lb Chicken Tenderloin, 1-inch cubes
1 TBSP Cajun Seasoning
1 TSP Old Bay
1 TSP Ground Black Pepper
3 Strips Bacon, chopped
1 C Chicken Stock
1 TBSP Butter
1 TBSP Flour
1/2 lb Pasta of choice cooked per package directions
splash of heavy cream (optional)

1. Boil pasta per package directions. I used Penne.

2. Toss chicken, Cajun Seasoning, Pepper, and Old Bay in a bowl together and coat the chicken well.

3. Bacon into skillet and cook til crispy~

4. Drain crispy bacon on a paper towel.

5. blacken chicken in bacon fat!

6. Set aside the chicken and add chicken stock, butter and whisk in flour. aaaaaand reduce to a nice saucy consistency!

7. Toss in cooked and drained pasta and swirlllllllll~ if you want to add more decadence, add a couple splashes of heavy cream…hehehe which I did. =P

buuooooon apetitooooooooooo

Organic

So recently…ok…3 weeks ago…we went to an all organic restaurant in Arlington because they get their chicken from Polyface Farms. Now if you’ve read Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan or have seen Food, Inc., you know what I’m talking about.

My BFFL and I read Omnivore’s Dilemma for our exclusive Book Club and we were shocked and amazed and utterly disgusted and decided we needed to try this “chicken-ier chicken.” Which is why we found Restaurant 3 because they get beef, pork, chicken and eggs from Polyface.

Sadly, the only item on their menu that advertised Polyface was the Chicken Pasta. The pasta itself was really good…and creamy and delicious but light, amazingly…but….there was so little chicken in the pasta (it was diced into tiny pieces) that I couldn’t discern whether or it was a “chicken-ier chicken” =(

hopefully we’ll find another restaurant soon where we can really taste Polyface’s products. =]

 

the simple things…

Been slacking majorly. Got plenty of recipes…no pictures. =(

Miso Stir Fry

Ingredients:
Miso Glaze:
2 TBSP White Japanese Miso Paste
1 1/2 TBSP Soy Sauce
3 TBSP Honey
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1/2 TSP Pepper
1 TSP Light Corn Syrup

Stir Fry:
whatever the heck you wanna put in here…I used diced chicken and greens.

1. Heat Miso Glaze ingredients in a small saucepan, whisking together for 5-10 minutes over medium high heat.

2. Brown Vegetables and Meat in a wok/large pan in 1 TBSP Canola Oil until browned.

3. Add Miso Glaze and saute until evenly coated.

4. Serve with RICE<3

What to do with leftover Stir fry?
Chop it up into smaller pieces, heat in a large pan. Add 2 servings of rice, 1 TBSP Hot Korean Pepper Paste (GoChuJang), 1/4 C Chopped Roasted Peanuts, 1/2 C Chopped Kimchi and 1 chopped scallion (green and white parts) and mix well over medium high heat until the rice is toasty aka Korean Fried Rice or Bokkumbap!

yummmmm….we thoroughly enjoyed this dish for 2 nights…=]

been making a lot of simple things lately…

Comfort, fast and easy…not sure why though…I usually like to try and make more complicated things…but I guess I’m a pretty simple gal…

TWEAK TIME!

One of the most deliciously fun things to make is Monkey Bread! Roll up some Pillsbury biscuit dough, roll it in cinnamon and sugar, stuff into a loaf pan helter skelter and pour over melted butter and bake! easy peasy lemon squeezy!

What I never understood though…is why is it called MONKEY bread? So I added my own little tweak to it! I stuffed each biscuit with banana cream cheese! yummmm~

Thanks to my yujs for helping make this and helping to enjoy it as well~<3

Banana Cream Cheese Monkey Bread
Makes: 2 small monkey bread loaves

Ingredients:
2 bananas, mashed
1 8oz pack of cream cheese
1 orange, zested and juiced
1/4 C Brown Sugar
1 stick butter, melted
4 containers of pillbury biscuit dough
1/2 TSP Ground Cinnamon
1/4 TSP Ground Cardamom
1/4 TSP Salt
1/4 C Sugar
1/4 TSP Vanilla Extract

1. Mash Bananas, Sugar, Orange Zest, and Cream Cheese together in a bowl until smooth. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together Brown Sugar, Orange Juice, Ground Cinnamon, Ground Cardamom, Vanilla Extract and Melted Butter until brown sugar is dissolved.

3. Stretch a biscuit out a little and place a spoonful of banana cream cheese mixture into middle.

4. Seal in the cream cheese as best you can (*sorry didn’t refrigerate when I first tried this so the little dumplings kept popping open) and place into a loaf pan.

5. Pour over wet mixture evenly into each pan.

6. Bake at 350F until golden brown on top and toothpick comes out clean ~30minutes.

added a little bit of Nutella decadence to this loaf…MmMMmm~