Honey Peanut Chicken with Sesame Noodles

This recipe somewhat mimics a dish that Evan ordered the one time we went to Cheesecake Factory.  Except I think this version is better!  This recipe is from the Tasty Kitchen blog.  I had been wanting to try the Sesame Noodles from Pioneer Woman, and they match nicely.

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken

• 2 lbs. chicken, cut into chunks
• 1/2 cup soy sauce (maybe start with a little less; Evan felt it was too salty this last time)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 T lime juice
• 2 tsp. minced garlic (2 large cloves)
• 2 heaping tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 tsp. curry powder
• 2 tsp. Sriracha (optional)

Mix all ingredients together and marinate chicken 2-3 hours.  Cook chicken in the sauce over medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes or until chicken is done.  Reduce heat to medium low and add pre-cooked veggies if desired.  Serve with sesame seeds. 

Sesame Noodles

• 12 ounces thin noodles, cooked and drained (I cook a 16 oz. package of angel hair pasta, and give the kids the other four ounces with butter)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 T sugar
• 3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 T rice vinegar
• 2 to 3 T pure sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. hot chile oil (I use the Sriracha, not sure if that's what this is calling for, but it works!)
• 4 to 5 T canola oil
• 2 T hot water (this seems pointless, I've never added this)
• 3 to 4 green onions, sliced thin

Whisk together all ingredients (except noodles and green onions).  Pour sauce over warm noodles and toss to coat.  Sprinkle with green onions and toss again.

I had this recipe printed out forever before I actually made it.  It looked yummy, but it required me to to go out and buy three specific ingredients.  I try not to make things that require more than two novel ingredients.  However, the sesame oil and the rice vinegar keep well in the cupboard, and I have seen them in other recipes.  They might be handy to have on hand. These noodles are yummy enough I am glad I bought the exotic ingredients!

Breakfast: It's What's for Supper

I have had busy Wednesdays the last two weeks, so I made this both Wednesday nights. Lincoln thoughtfully tore the recipe into about eight pieces, so I decided to type this recipe up before I lose too many crucial pieces. I already lost an important piece after the first week, but it turned out fine the second time, so I must have remembered it correctly!

(I do not know Diane-- this recipe was in our paper with this title. "Breakfast Casserole" seemed a little vague, so I'm keeping the "Diane". Hi, Diane Van Der Woude of Central New York!)

Diane's Breakfast Casserole

• 1 package (16 oz.) frozen hash brown potatoes
• 1 cup cooked, cubed ham
• 1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup milk
• 5-7 eggs, beaten (recipe called for 5, I had seven left in the carton, it worked beautifully!)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 T dry mustard
• Dash cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup sliced onion (preferably green onion)
• Paprika, to taste

Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 13x9 pan. Spread defrosted hash browns in bottom of pan. Sprinkle ham over potatoes, then sprinkle cheese. Beat together milk, eggs, salt, mustard and cayenne pepper. Gently stir in green onions, and pour over cheese, ham and potatoes. Sprinkle generously with paprika. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Before cooking. It looks like there are WAY too few eggs in there...

But it bakes right up over all the chunky ingredients.

This recipe is very easy to make ahead of time, and is a delicious one-dish meal.

Another popular "Breakfast for Supper" around here is Baked Oatmeal from the Tidy Mom website. My kids love to sprinkle mini chocolate chips and heavy cream on it, or maple cream.

Baked Oatmeal with Peanut Butter

• 1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats (I always use old-fashioned, they work fine)
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 13x9 pan. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Spread in pan and bake 20-25 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Serve with milk, cream, raisins, chocolate chips, fresh fruit, maple syrup, maple cream-- use your imagination!

Pretzel Chicken with Mustard Dill Dipping Sauce

This is Cheyenne's favorite chicken recipe, she informs me. We've been having this fairly frequently; the dipping sauce is good as a salad dressing, too!


Pretzel Chicken

• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1 T Dijon mustard
• 3 cups pretzels (NOT low sodium!)
  
• 1 1/2 lbs chickens (I like using tenders)
• Black pepper

If using large chicken breasts, cut into smaller pieces. Crush the pretzels in the food processor until a coarse flour forms. (I like it still having largish chunks of pretzel.) Whisk the eggs with the Dijon mustard. Put the flour in a large shallow bowl, then the egg/mustard mixture in a second bowl, then the pretzel flour in a third bowl. Sprinkle chicken lightly with pepper, then dredge in the flour, then the egg mixture, then the pretzel mixture. Heat half a cup of oil (what the recipe calls for, I think I usually glug in more than that) in a skillet over medium high heat until hot but not smoking-- drop a little pretzel chunk in and it should immediately sizzle. (I have finally figured out how to fry things-- it takes the oil a long time to get up to heat, but it has to be truly hot for the frying to work. I generally start the oil heating before I start breading the chicken.) Cook on the first side until the pretzel coating is dark brown, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side about another two minutes. Serve with the mustard-dill sauce (essential!)

Mustard-Dill Dipping Sauce

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 T finely chopped fresh dill (or 2 tsp. dried dill)
• 1 tsp. honey
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/8 tsp. pepper

Mix all together.

Raisin Bars

The other day, I found of can of raisins that had been lurking in the back of the pantry until it was mighty near its expiration date. I knew I had made raisin bars one time that were a hit with the kids, but as much as I racked my brain, I could not think where I had found that recipe. Now, a week after making a ginormous batch of oatmeal raisin cookies, I found the recipe-- actually typed into my computer and ready to print. This only stiffened my resolve to try to actually get more recipes typed up and PRINTED OUT! And, hopefully, some up on here.

Raisin Bars

Filling:

• 2 1/2 cups raisins
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Bar:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 3/4 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium saucepan, heat raisins and water to boiling; simmer 15 minutes, then drain. Stir in applesauce, lemon juice and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, sugar and coconut. Cut in butter until crumbly. Press 2 ½ cups of the crumbs into a 13x9 ungreased pan. Spread raisin mixture over the crumbs. Sprinkle on remaining crumbs and press in lightly. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until light brown. Cool completely and cut into bars.

And, the oatmeal raisins cookies weren't a bad way to use raisins, either. And it's hard to improve upon the taste of this cookie dough. This is the recipe that is printed under the lid of the Quaker Oats cylinder.

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350°. Beat together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on sheet 1 minute; transfer to rack.

Biscuits and Gravy

I'm making this for supper tonight, and I wanted to type it up before I start cooking. It's an excellent recipe, but I never keep cake flour in the house, so I have to substitute a ratio of flour and cornstarch. Having to do math while cooking (and keeping children from ruining the house and/or killing each other) makes for a stressful kitchen experience. So I'm typing it up here with the flour/cornstarch substitution, and also breaking it down a little more so I don't try to add the wrong things at the wrong time.

(The recipe I am using is from the wonderful Noble Pig: here are the two different recipes as posted there-- Buttermilk Biscuits, including tips on how to make good biscuits, and Sausage Gravy .)

This recipe intrigued me because it used a stand mixer instead of cutting the butter in. Not that I've ever found biscuits hard to make, but I'm all for even easier biscuits!

Basic Buttermilk Biscuits

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. table salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda

Whisk together and set aside.

• 1 1/4 cup + 1 T flour
• 3 T cornstarch
• 5 T cold vegetable shortening, cubed
• 4 T cold butter, cubed
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 2 T melted butter

Preheat oven to 450°. Grease a cookie sheet, or use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Whisk flour and cornstarch together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, pulse this mixture with the shortening and butter until fats are pea-sized flakes. Mix in the other flour mixture just until blended. Add buttermilk to dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. The dough will be wet.

Turn dough onto floured surface and knead just until dough holds together. Flour your hands and pat dough into a 1"-thick circle. Use a 2" biscuit cutter to cut out 10 biscuits. Do not twist cutter.

Put biscuits on baking sheet and bake until golden, 15-18 minutes. Brush tops with melted butter during last few minutes of baking.

And, in the interest of having this recipe for the next time I make it for the Vaughan clan, here is the ingredient list when doubled.

• 3 cups flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. table salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Whisk together.

• 2 1/2 + 2 T flour
• 6 T cornstarch
• 10 T cold vegetable shortening, cubed
• 8 T (1 stick) cold butter, cubed
• 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 4 T melted butter

Sausage Gravy

• 4 strips thick-sliced bacon, diced
• 1 lb. pork breakfast sausage
• 1 T minced fresh sage (or 1 tsp. dried, in the dreary depths of winter)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 1/2 cups whole milk
• Black pepper

Cook bacon in saute pan. When bacon is nearly crisp, stir in sausage and sage, breaking up any clumps. Cook sausage until browned, 8-10 minutes. Transfer bacon and sausage to bowl; reserve drippings.

Sprinkle flour into hot dripping while whisking continuously. Whisk until mixture thickens and begins to brown. Whisk in milk. Cook gravy over medium-high heat, whisking until thickened and flour taste is eliminated, about 15 minutes. (That line always confuses me, since I don't taste the flour, but anyway, till it's nice and thick.) Season gravy with pepper to taste. Stir bacon and sausage into gravy; serve with biscuits.

Not that the buttermilk biscuits up top there are hard, but I do have a standby biscuit recipe that is even easier, and it doesn't require a mixer or pastry cutter. Biscuits are a great Sunday lunch item, since you can have them 15 minutes after you walk in the door.


Cook's Country Quick and Easy Cream Biscuits

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. table salt
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat oven to 450°. Line baking sheet with silicone mat or parchment paper, or grease the pan. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Stir in cream with a wooden spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gather into a ball. Knead the dough briefly until smooth, about 30 seconds. Shape the dough into a 3/4" circle, then use a biscuit cutter (or inverted glass) to cut out biscuits. You can also just cut them in wedge shapes, like a pizza. Place biscuits on the baking sheet. (Baking sheet can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 hours.) Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking.

Note: Since I started this post on a Wednesday afternoon and it is now Sunday evening, I have already made this recipe. It was much less stressful this time around, since I had the correct list of ingredients. I did take a picture, but trust me, seeing a picture of sausage gravy is not going to make you want to make it. It looks like something the dog would leave behind-- it is super yummy, though.

Granola

This is a recipe from my mother-in-law that I used to make a lot. Evan goes through breakfast phases, and this, covered in whole-fat vanilla yogurt, was a phase for a long time. Recently, my sister Tori was asking for this recipe. Time to make it again!

Granola

• 8 cups uncooked oatmeal
• 3 cups wheat germ
• 4 cups bran flakes (I use raisin bran, surprise, surprise!)
• 1 cup honey
• 2/3 cup cooking oil
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• Raisins (optional-- I use raisin bran so it's a moot point)

Mix well. Spread onto 2 cooking sheets. Bake at 300° for 20 minutes. To make softer granola, do it for a slightly shorter time; if you like the crunch, extend the time.

Oatmeal Flaxseed Rolls

These are the not-so-pretty rolls I brought to the Vaughan pig roast in September. And the rolls that I promised to post the recipe for THAT WEEK. It's been two months since then... but at least that's better than the time frame for my poor midwife. I told her I would e-mail the recipe to her about six months ago.

Anyway, these are worth the wait! These are great to have on hand for all occasions, but they are especially handy for car trips. My kids have gotten adept at catching rolls tossed by a driving parent!

Oatmeal Flaxseed Rolls

• 3 cups boiling water
• 1 3/4 cups oatmeal (I use old-fashioned oats)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
• 2 Tablespoons butter

Stir these ingredients together; cool to lukewarm temperature. Combine:

• 1/4 cup very warm water
• 1 pkg. (2 1/4 tsp.) yeast

Mix with lukewarm oatmeal mixture. Stir in:

• 5 cups flour (all-purpose or bread)

Cover and let rise until doubled in size. Pinch into rolls and let double again-- or, if you're in a hurry, bake them right away. They are NOT temperamental. Cook at 375° for 10-20 minutes, depending on size. I usually do them for about 13 minutes, I make them about 4 inches in diameter? Just break one open, and if it's gooey in the middle, bake them a few more minutes! This recipe makes bread, too, I've never tried it that way so you would have to experiment with (definitely longer) cooking times.

While we're on the subject of rolls, here's a very handy roll recipe from my husband's side of the family.

60 Minute Rolls

• 2 pkgs. (4 1/2 tsp.) yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 2 T butter

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Heat milk and butter 1-2 minutes in microwave. Butter won't be fully melted. Put milk/butter mixture in bowl and add

• 3 T sugar
• 1 tsp. salt

Mix in

• 3 cups flour

Add yeast mixture and stir thoroughly. Let stand, covered, for 15 minutes. Roll out on a floured surface and cut into rolls with biscuit cutter. Put on a greased cookie sheet. Let stand 15 minutes more. Bake for 10 minutes at 400°.

These are very handy for hamburger buns, or to serve with dinner. As the title suggests, they're a pretty quick yeast roll! That said, I find they are MUCH easier to work with if the initial rise is 20 minutes instead of 15. You'll need a lot less flour to keep them from sticking, therefore making them more tender.