Standing Ovation! Kung Pao Chicken

Imust say that I have times when I am craving Chinese food. I get on these kicks that I have to have Chinese food NOW! The problem is, it is very hard to find decent Chinese around here, not the people, the food. The people are fine, it is the food that is the problem. Too greasy, too bland, to dry, to MSG-ish. You see my dilemma don't you? Or how about this one: too inconsistent. I will finally find a place that is very tasty then go back and have the worst meal of my life. I guess they do not follow the recipes to a tee.


My Dad is an engineer and had the pleasure of working with many nationalities, so I must say we ate well. The dinner parties were grand to say the least. And there was my Mom in all those ethnic kitchens making mental notes as she watched the ladies cook and answer her many questions. She collected some really nice recipes along the way. I have taken a liking to Kung Pao Chicken but she does not have a recipe for that one. I was on my own. Low and behold the other day I was looking through all the food galleries and came across Bobby's Kung Pao Chicken from blogchef.net and I have to say it is a really nice recipe. It was quick, tasty, juicy, and everything a Kung Pao should be. The beauty of stir-fry is that you can adjust the recipe to your own tastes. I only tweaked his recipe a little as I did add some more red pepper flakes, I like it to clear my sinuses, and increased the peanuts to 1/2 cup because I want a peanut or two in every bite. Love that crunch. He also stated that one could add some vegetables so I added some big wedges of vidalia onion. This dish served over a bed of rice wins a Standing Ovation! Thanks Bobby for filling my Kung Pao Chicken void.

Be on the lookout, your blog could be next!


PS- If you know of any good Chinese restaurants in the DC Metro area let me know so I can support my Chinese Food addiction. Oh our Dim Sum place closed too, so if you know of one give me a shout.

Standing Ovations! Carne en Palito

I have recently begun to write about recipes I have tried from other Food Blogs. I am now dubbing them Standing Ovations! You can see BRK's Recipe Index on my side bar for the Standing Ovations! I have posted in the past and have now properly tagged them as SO's! This week I am featuring some recipes from Laylita's Recipes. Layla has a beautiful blog highlighting her Ecuadorian heritage and the wonderful dishes she grew up eating. Lucky us. If you haven't been to her site, you must. I am getting quite an education in Ecuadorian cuisine and life. By making her recipes, I feel I have travelled far from my kitchen to sample some wonderful new foods. For this meal I made her Carne en Palito which was a huge hit with my entire family. They devoured these thinly sliced, tender strips of beef on a stick. The flavor was fantastic. I chose to try two of her sauces to serve with this meal. The Balsamic Chimichurri Sauce and her Salsa de Mani which is one of the best peanut sauces I have ever had. Both of these sauces went perfectly with this meal and both were so different from each other it is hard to pick which one I liked best, so I won't.


I served this meal with my Great Grandmother's style of making French Fries, very thin and very salted, I call them Potato Sticks. See my notes on French Fry making. The sauces were a great accompaniment to the Potato Sticks as well. This meal hit a big home run at our house, it was almost as good as the Grand Slam Home Run we saw the other night at the Bowie Baysox game. In that one play, they edged out the Erie Seawolves for the victory, sorry j*amy! Stay tuned for some more Standing Ovations! Your blog could be next.


Thanks Layla for your fantastic recipes! I give you a Standing Ovation!

Crash Hot Potatoes and Rotisserie Beef

Iwas in the mood for a nice dinner the other night. I didn't want kid food anymore as I have that regularly for lunch now that the kids are home from school. I was ready for a meat and potato dinner with a nice salad and rolls. I had purchased a four pound eye roast and cut it in half, placing the other half in the freezer for future use. I decided to rotisserie the roast but only after I rubbed it with something, but what? Then it hit me, I remembered my new Chicago Steak Seasoning from Penzeys. I was very generous with that smokey smelling spice rub. While it was cooking, the smokey scent was causing me some serious hunger pains as it reminded me of the smoked meat I used to enjoy in North Carolina. The two pound roast only took 45 minutes for medium doneness or 160 degrees. While that cooked I made The Pioneer Women's Crash Hot Potatoes. I did not use fresh herbs, even though I have them in abundance, I used Penzeys' Sunny Paris instead. It was a grand slam home run. What amazing potatoes. Creamy on the inside and crispy on the out. The Sunny Paris was absolutely perfect, what a great blend for potatoes. I served this meal with a garden salad, rolls, and fresh fruit.

I want to show you a picture of my Rotisserie in action. Can you smell it? This George Foreman toaster oven has to be one of my favorite appliances. We use it daily for toast, muffins, snacks, pie baking, small cakes, broiling, and rotisserie. I have had it for two years without any trouble. Genuflect. Spit. Spit. Salt over the left shoulder, or is it the right? Darn. I don't want to go jinxing myself, so I'll whisper. This is a great little machine. If you have been looking for an extra oven then give this one a try. Yes it is big but it does a great job. No, I don't own stock or get anything for this plug, if only.


Have a safe and happy Liberty Day! If you don't have any special plans, at least make those potatoes, really.

Thanks Pioneer Woman for the great Crash Hot Potato recipe, I give you a Standing Ovation!

Carmelicious Shortbread Bars

Layered bars do something to me. I don't know if it has to do with the pretty colors, taste combinations, complimenting textures, or the fact that I am getting a three for one deal, but I love layered desserts. While perusing some new food galleries out there I came across these Carmelicious Shortbread Bars by Velvet Lava. So after reading her story about making these and knowing that she had some trouble with the recipe, I still forged ahead for some carmelly goodness. Then like her, I found myself mad at these bars and muttering hateful words to my pan of caramel as it quickly separated on me, leaving a puddle of ghee on top. I said things like, "You have got to be kidding me! Separating? Don't you know, Ms. Caramel that sweetened condensed milk is $3.49 a can, so don't even think about separating on me. I said, don't do it. Oh no you don't. Poo, you had to go and do it." And my ramblings continued. Nothing is ever easy when it comes to caramel making on a hot day in Virginia. I should have known better. So I pulled that unruly Ms. Caramel off the stove, got out my candy thermometer, fired up the stove again, brought her up to 235 degrees while stirring madly and threw in three magical pinches of baking soda. Cured! Take that. You thought you could take me down.

Although this recipe has three major steps and messes up a few dishes, it was worth it. I cut the recipe in half and made it in an 8x8 pan, only because I only had one can of sweetened condenced milk. Next time I'll make the whole deal. The shortbread layer was exceptionally crisp and light with an excellent buttery taste. The caramel was perfectly thick, gooey, and creamy with a light caramel flavor. And who could go wrong with a whole Valrhona bar melted on top? Pure heaven. I did not have trouble cutting them, as I just let them "set" while sitting out on the counter which did take a lot of patience. I also put the chocolate right on top of the warm caramel and spread it once it was softened. I shared these bars with a friend who needed a little lift and she loved them on the first bite. This recipe is not for beginners, to say the least, since one never knows when caramel will go wonky. But do be brave and give this one a go, it is worth the maddening dialogue with a pan of caramel. I'll go there again.



Thanks Velvet Lava for this great recipe, I give you a Standing Ovation!

Lemon Barbecued Kebabs

You had me at allspice...

I am really enjoying this whole food blog thing. I visit my favorites daily, sometimes more, just to see what everyone is up too. I love seeing all that is going on in other people's kitchens, gardens, and lives. When I started this endeavor, it was my original goal to get every one of my recipes typed into the computer, but then I started seeing all these other wonderful recipes to try out. And I am ever trying out some good ones! I haven't had shrimp in forever and needed a good and different grilled shrimp recipe. So I turned to my Jersey Gal, eat! to see what she had up her sleeve and low and behold a recipe caught my eye for the sheer reason it had allspice in the recipe. Allspice. ALLSPICE! Yum! I made Lemon Barbecued Kebabs almost exactly like she did but I left out the chicken, had that last night. Sadly had to leave out the sesame seeds too due to nut allergies for my middle little, so other than those two things I followed her recipe to a tee. Everyone loved it! Very flavorful and we ate all but four shrimp, we were so stuffed. So give it a try. I have a few more recipes from some other sites I want to try out. Your site could be next.

Thanks eat! for this recipe, I give you a Standing Ovation!

Lemonades

Once Summer rolls around I am ready for some good lemonade. I grew up drinking Southern Sweet Tea because Daddy is from Texas and that is how he liked it. In the Summer, Mom added lemonade to the repertoire. She used equal parts lemon juice and sugar and added water to taste. But the lemon juice she used was from that green bottle and a few weeks ago I bought a Costco-sized bottle of the stuff and brought it home. Unfortunately I didn't read the label until I got home, sodium benzoate. Ugh. So no more of that until more studies are done. But lately I have made other versions of lemonade that I have come to love.

Giada's Italian Lemonade is fantastic if you are a basil lover and by July I hope to have plenty of basil for just that. This lemonade is refreshing but I did add much more water than she called for in the recipe.

Now if you want a lemonade that is quick to make and full of pucker power then may I fill you in on Laylita's Limonada. Whole lemons or limes tossed in the blender with some water and sugar and zingo a lemonade that could be president, or beat the Red Sox in the World Series, or put hair on your back. This is not for wimps, it is as if you are eating the entire fruit. Sweet, sour and bitter all rolled into one big delicious gulp. I do use one cup of sugar instead of a half cup. I'm a wimp, I know.


Old Fashioned Lemonade was given to me by a book club friend, who on her 52nd birthday went sky diving and has never turned back. She has 563 jumps and just became a member of the Pink Mafia Sisterhood by passing a Barbie Doll during a free fall with a current PMS member. I wonder how many Barbie Dolls have been harmed in the making of members? Jennifer is PMS #591. On to the lemonade. This lemonade has to be the smoothest tasting lemonade ever. It uses whole lemons as well but in a different way. First a lovely and very fragrant lemon sugar has to be made which I think I will try in a pound cake some day. Sound good? I think so. So see the recipe below for this sweet and lemony concoction that takes a little time but is very worth it.

Old Fashioned Lemonade
3 large or 4 medium Lemons
1 cup Sugar
1 quart hot Water

Peel the rinds from the lemons with a paring knife and cut them into 1/2 inch slices. Be sure not to get the pithy white parts. Pithy is a funny word. Set the lemons aside. Place the rinds in a mixing bowl and sprinkle the sugar over them. Let stand for one hour (or all day!) so that the sugar begins to soak up the lemon oil. After the hour is up carefully pour the hot water over the sugared lemon rinds. Allow the mixture to cool for 20 minutes. Squeeze the lemons into a strainer over a two-quart pitcher. Pour the sugar mixture through the strainer into the pitcher. Throw away the rinds. Add ice and water to fill the pitcher. Stir the mixture well every time you pour a glass. Store in the refrigerator. Serve with ice cubes and it's just delicious on a hot summer day!

Thanks Layla for the Limonada recipe, I give you a Standing Ovation!