Uh, what's for dinner?

http://theaccidentaldad.blogspot.com/2012/08/chick-fil-sandwich-2.html

Thin crust at 500F

Eat it with rice, vermicelli noodles, or as a sandwich??

For 1/2 lb of pork, you'll need:

1/2 lb of pork shoulder or butt, skin on or off according to your preference, sliced thinly3 cloves garlic, minced1 large shallot, minced2 tsp fish sauce, add more to taste2 tsp sugar, adjust to taste1 tsp salt, adjust to taste1 tsp ground black pepperSlice the pork as thin as possible. It doesn't need to be paper-thin, just thin enough to cook quickly. Add 3 cloves minced garlic, 1 large minced shallot, 2 tsp fish sauce, 2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp ground black pepper.If you plan to grill this, leave to marinate for about half an hour before cooking.http://wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com/2008/01/bun-thit-heo-nuong-tom-cha-gio.htmlThit Nuong-Vietnamese Sandwich with Grilled Pork with LemongrassPrintable Recipe1.5 lb pork butt or shoulder, thinly sliced just under 1/4 inch or so (not too thin as you do not want it to dry out when grilled. Ask your butcher to do this for you. Also, do not use lean pork as it will become dry.) 1/4 cup minced Lemongrass (xa bam). Many Asian markets will sell minced lemongrass in the freezer section. 1/4 cup sugar 2 tbs fish sauce 1 tbs ground pepper 1-2 cloves garlic, minced. 2-3 shallots, minced. 3 tbs sesame oil 1 tbs thick soy sauce (not regular soy sauce–has molasses, making it thicker and adding great color. If not available, can use caramel sauce. Both can be found at Asian groceries) http://www.theravenouscouple.com/2009/08/banh-mi-thit-nuong-vietnamese-sandwich-with-grilled-pork.html

Mongolian beef sauce but only with chicken instead.

Custard-like, essentially choux, fried up like a donut.

The recipe is written in the recipe book. Too lazy to post it here.

The recipe is in Lynn's head.

Just frozen HEB home-style meatballs with a jar of HEB sauce. Quick and easy.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
vegetable oil, for frying ( about 1 cup)
1 lb flank steaks
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 large green onions

Directions

Make the sauce by heating 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat.
Don't get the oil too hot.
Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches.
Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to about medium and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
Remove it from the heat.
Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4" thick bite-size slices.
Tilt the blade of your knife at about a forty five degree angle to the top of the steak so that you get wider cuts.
Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef.
Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks.
As the beef sits, heat up one cup of oil in a wok (you may also use a skillet for this step as long as the beef will be mostly covered with oil).
Heat the oil over medium heat until it's nice and hot, but not smoking.
Add the beef to the oil and sauté for just two minutes, or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges.
You don't need a thorough cooking here since the beef is going to go back on the heat later.
Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly.
After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels, then pour the oil out of the wok or skillet.
Put the pan back over the heat, add the water, dump the meat back into it and simmer for one minute.
Add the sauce, cook for one minute while stirring, then add all the green onions.
Cook for one more minute, then remove the beef and onions with tongs or a slotted spoon to a serving plate.
Leave the excess sauce behind in the pan.

Everyone in my family knows that pasta is my go to dish when I don't know what to cook for dinner. They also think that it's always a creamy pasta dish, but not always. I had tomatoes sitting in my fridge so decided to cook a pasta dish. Since we're trying to eat a little healthier, I was able to find a recipe that was tomato based with no heavy cream. It was a tear out from a food magazine from a while back. I also added sauteed mushrooms before tossing in the roasted tomatoes. I mixed everything and topped it off with some chopped basil for color. Also, it doesn't matter if you use McCormick's gourmet seasoning collection or not (I only had was McCormick's gourmet Italian seasoning). It still turned out delicious.

Once again I didn't know what I wanted to cook for dinner. Backup dinner was going to baked Milanese chicken, which I will post eventually. However, Barefoot Contessa was on the tube and she was making lemon chicken breasts today. Well, that sold me. Not only was it simple and quick, it was also light. We're still trying to eat healthy here in our house.

In the picture, it's just lemon chicken pasta, no mushrooms. We had leftovers so the next day for dinner, I added some sauteed mushrooms with the pasta.

Ingredients

1/4 cup good olive oil
3 tablespoons minced garlic (9 cloves)
1/3 cup dry white wine --> used 1/3 cup chicken broth (no white wine)
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons) --> cut rinds from 2 lemon wedges (no zester)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice --> juice of one fat lemon wedge from other people's recommendations
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 boneless chicken breasts, skin on (6 to 8 ounces each)
1 lemon --> 1/2 lemon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add the garlic, and cook for just 1 minute but don't allow the garlic to turn brown. Off the heat, add the white wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, and 1 teaspoon salt and pour into a 9 by 12-inch baking dish.

Pat the chicken breasts dry and place them skin side up over the sauce. Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle them liberally with salt and pepper. I didn’t coat the chicken with olive oil because the liquid was able to cover most of the chicken. I think it’s because my baking dish was on the small side. The chicken turned out good and wasn’t dry. Cut the lemon in 8 wedges and tuck it among the pieces of chicken.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until the chicken is done and the skin is lightly browned. If the chicken isn't browned enough, put it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot with the pan juices (I forgot to sprinkle salt and pepper, but the chicken still turned out flavorful).

We ate the lemon chicken as a pasta dish with mushrooms. First, I made the pasta and then sautéed the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms were done, I added cooked pasta to the mushrooms. Then I mixed in some liquid from the lemon chicken so that the pasta won’t be too dry. Also, I would add either fresh basil or parsley to the pasta dish. It'll add color and more flavor to the dish. The lack of green makes the presentation blah. You can also eat this with rice and a side of veggies of some sort.

2 pounds beef sirloin, cut into ¾-inch cubes

Marinade

1 teaspoon nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons canola oil

Lime-Pepper-Garlic Dipping Sauce:

2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 3 limes)
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic

Stir-fry:

3 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup soy sauce
Garnishes:
15 green or red leaf lettuce leaves
1 sliced tomato
Steamed jasmine rice, for serving

Directions

Combine all ingredients for marinade and add cubed beef. Allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes at room temperature, then pour off marinade.
Combine all ingredients for lime-pepper-garlic dipping sauce and let stand at room temperature.
Heat oil in a large sauté pan or wok at high heat. Add garlic, sugar and black pepper and allow to caramelize for a minute.
Add drained, marinated beef to the pan and stir-fry for 2 minutes. (If the beef can't fit comfortably in one layer in the pan, separate it into batches and divide the ingredients in step 3 accordingly.)
Add soy sauce and cook for 1-2 more minutes. Beef should be seared on the outside and medium-rare to medium on the inside.
Garnish a platter with the lettuce leaves. Mound the cooked beef on top. Garnish with tomato slices.
Serve lime-pepper-garlic dipping sauce on the side, or pour over the cooked beef just before eating. Enjoy with steamed jasmine rice.
Lettuce leaves can be used as wrappers for the beef.

I liked this recipe for several reasons. After I cooked it, it had a sauce to it. Normally this dish is sauce-less, besides whatever juices are coming from the meat. Or maybe I messed up but I like having saucy meat. Additionally it had a slight sweet taste too from the caramelized sugar. The recipe calls to make a lime-pepper-garlic dipping sauce but I disregarded that and just made the typical salt-pepper-lime to dip my meat. I will definitely try this again but add sliced onions.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

http://www.salon.com/food/recipes/2011/02/14/shaking_beef_recipe

I've probably made this recipe 5-10 times, each time tweaking the recipe or cooking technique. Below is the recipe for today's attempt:

1 lb pork tenderloin, sliced
3 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp minced garlic
[marinate for 30-60 mins]

2 Tbsp sugar
[in pan and heat until caramelizes]

1/2 onion, chopped
[add marinated pork and onion once sugar caramelized]

1 can Coco Rico
1 can chicken broth
5 hard boiled eggs (more or less, or none, your preference)
q.s. with water to cover meat (q.s. = quantity sufficient)
[cover and simmer for 30-60 mins]
[remove cover and reduce]

Okay, so I normally would have cooked it for a longer time but since I got a cut of tenderloin, I figured that I wouldn't need to cook it long as it's already tender. The drawback is that it didn't give enough time for the eggs to absorb the liquid and the eggs just tasted like well, eggs. I had previously made this recipe with tenderloin and cooked it for over 2 hours and the meat fell apart on contact. Depending on your preference, that could be a good or bad thing. I lean towards the latter. Next time I'll probably buy a different cut of pork. As for the liquid, I didn't reduce it that much, leaving plenty to soak the rice but it wasn't as flavorful as I'd like. (My taste buds tend to be on the saltier side.) This can easily be solved by reducing the sauce, making it more concentrate to the point where a little goes a long way. With this recipe, you can't really mess up. In all of my attempts, it pretty much tasted the same, never outright nasty.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

1 c. warm milk
1 pkt yeast
[dissolve and let stand for 5 mins]

1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 stick melted butter
[combine to above]

3 c. flour
[add and mix on dough hook for 5 mins]
[cover and let dough rise for 1 hr]
[flatten dough, cut into squares]
[fry in 350 F peanut oil until golden brown and flip to cover other side]
[dust with powdered sugar]

It's been awhile since I last made them so I don't remember if there were any issues then but this batch of dough was really sticky. To remedy that, I added a little more flour until it was easy to roll without sticking.

Beignets
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

6 pieces of chicken (thighs, legs, wings)
1 can cream of chicken
1 egg
seasoning salt
[mix all together and set aside]

1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. cornstarch
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
[mix together in large zip lock bag]
[add chicken one by one, shake, dust excess off, set aside]
[wait several minutes until the mixture on the chicken becomes doughy]

frying oil (peanut oil is best, if available), enough to cover chicken
[heat oil to 350F and fry 7-10 mins, or until golden brown]

It turned out fairly good. The skin was really crispy and flavorful. The chicken meat was kind of bland if eaten without the skin. But like with most fried chicken, the skin is the best part. There are so many recipes out there that I will probably try another. My next attempt will probably be a one that requires the chicken to soak in buttermilk, along with other spices, overnight. But who knows when that will be as I can't be eating this that often... I'd like to live past 40.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

1 lb pork short ribs (cut at each bone)
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp minced garlic
cracked pepper
[marinate 30-60 mins]

2 Tbsp sugar
[in pot on high heat, until sugar caramelizes]
[add marinated meat]

chicken broth, as needed
[add enough to cover meat]
[bring to a boil, cover, turn down heat and cook for 1-2 hours]
[uncover, bring back to boil, reduce sauce]

In this recipe, I used chicken broth since I didn't have any Coco Rico and added a little more sugar to get the sweetness I'm missing. You could probably use water instead of chicken broth. My intention was to leave it on the stove for 4 hours to get the meat really tender but I was getting too hungry. A little over an hour, the meat was already tender and fell off the bone. I reduced my sauce to intensify the flavor, so a little goes a long way. I learned my lesson with my first bowl, as my rice was drenched with the sauce... it was super salty.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

http://mustcooktoeat.blogspot.com/2011/07/shrimp-rolls.html

It's been awhile since my last posting. I've been too tired and haven't really had the urge to cook. However, I managed to do some baking for the Nesbitt's July 4th get together. I know it's been 3 weeks. There was a recipe for cherry hand pies in this month's Bon Appetit. Not too much of a cherry pie person, I decided to make apple pies instead for their get together. These were easy and quick to make. Next time I'll make these into squares as oppose to rectangles, less guilty popping them into my mouth!

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/02/food/la-fo-sosstrawberrycoconutcake-20100902

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