Authentic Korean Stir Fry (w/chicken)

Recipe is scribbled on a scrap of paper- will transfer soon if anyone's interested!
SO SO good! My family craves this now!!

Did you know that most Asian people "wash" the rice before cooking it? I had no idea. Yep, they fill the bowl with rice and water, then squish the rice with their hands to get all that filmy stuff off of it (didn't know it was there til I saw this-whoa) and then, and ONLY then does it get cooked! (And I recently read that it lessens the amount of arsenic that is apparently rampant in our food supply. Great.)

And to be Korean food, you use Sesame Oil. And Korean soy sauce. Not Kikkoman or another. It's not the same. (Thai food is mostly peanut oil- and coconut milk-- just change those things and BAM, you have thai food. Well, almost.)

First: Buy Korean noodles from Asian Market store (see picture). Soak them for 1/2 hour in cold water
Second: Cut any meat you're wanting to use, and put in bowl or ziplock with a swig of sesame oil and a big glug or 3 of Korean Soy Sauce.
Third: Stir fry/Steam any and ALL (tons) vegetables you desire (broccoli, caulif., carrots, bell peppers, onions usually at our house) I love them slightly browned. Mmmm.

Cook up meat til 'done' and throw in with veggies. Season veggies with salt and pepper.

Lastly cook noodles for about 5 mins & drain. Then add a small glug of Sesame Oil, and a few glugs of Korean Soy Sauce, and sugar (or agave, or cane syrup, etc) I use cane sugar.. Keep using a fork or tongs to mix greatly. Must be eaten fresh or they just soak up the taste and are bland.

Baking Powder Biscuits- Jan Walker Style

Baking Powder Biscuits.- (I probably should have said don't forget the honey and jam. :))
2 c flour
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
1/4 c shortening
3/4 c milk
Mix dry ingredients. Cut in shortening until coarse crumb texture. Stir milk into mixture. Knead and roll out to 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Use cup to cut into circles. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
for Family size times it all by 3 I think and put on 10x15 pan. (salt was just 1 1/2 though)

Chicken Pot Pie

Awesome for leftover turkey and mashed potatoes! (Thanks Jana for sending the recipe to me in Germany!!)

Chicken Pot Pie
1/2 c butter
1/2 c flour
1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 c milk
2 c water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1and 1/2 c frozen peas and carrots
2-3 red potatoes, cashed(?) and thinly sliced
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cubed

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour, onion, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is bubbly Remove from heat and stir in milk, water, and bouillon. Heat to boiling stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Add pease and carrots, potatoes and chicken. Roll "super easy pi crust" pastry into 11x14 inch rectangle. Pour chicken mixture into 9x11 inch pan on the bottom crust. Place pastry over top and flute edges. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden.

Super Easy Pie Crust

1/2 c butter
2/3 c Crisco shortening
1 T. sugar
1 T nonfat dry milk
1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
3 c unsifted flour
1/2 c cold water

Pumpkin Bisque from Mormon Cookbook- SO GOOD!

1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups canned pumpkin (I used 2 butternut squashes and a leftover mini deco=-pumpkin)
2/3 cup sour cream
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups light cream
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sour cream, for garnishing
Chives, for garnishing

Sautee onion in butter. Set aside.
In a bowl, combine pumpkin, sour cream, chicken broth, cream, brown sugar, and salt.
Beat mixture until smooth.
Add onions and butter.
Cover and chill. (I stopped here and just ate it, but you can chill it)
When ready to serve, garnish with dollops of addt'l sour cream and chives.
If serving hot, warm slowly over low heat.
DO NOT BOIL.
Makes 6-8 servings.

*** My note: Tastes amAZing with German RYE bread (Roggenbrot) MMMMMM!!

Sweet Chili

INGREDIENTS:
1.5 pounds 95% lean ground beef (If you leave it out, it's practically unnoticeable!)
3/4 cup chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
3/4 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup thinly sliced celery
2 (16 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained
1 (16 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste (Tomaten Mark auf Deutsch)
2 cups water
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons dried sweet basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder (or the real stuff)
1 dash ground cloves
1 dash baking soda

DIRECTIONS:
1. Brown ground beef
2. Drain and return to pan
3. Add bell pepper, parsley, onion and celery
4. Saute until onion is clear, approx 5 minutes
5. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 1-1/2 to 2 hours

Add cheese?
Eat with cornbread?
YUM!!!

Easy baking powder biscuits

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
5 TBSP butter
1 (scant) cup milk

Combine flour, salt, and baking powder. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until largest crumbs are the size of a pea. Add milk, toss with a fork to make a dough. Fold it over itself a few times, not really "kneading", just combining. You want to maintain the layers of butter and flour to get a light, flaky biscuit.

Break off chunks into circles or squares or whatever shapes and slap on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 425 degrees approximately 15 minutes.

I use whole wheat flour, and like the flavor. Remember, handling biscuit dough for too long makes dense, hard biscuits, so if you don't mind an "ugly" biscuit it will taste better for the less handling.

Homemade Hamburger Buns, Fries, Burgers

We made this Sunday dinner almost entirely from scratch! About a week ago, I used the apple cutter to make a ton of potato wedges. I put em in the freezer and today we just threw them in the Fry Daddy and fwa-la! French Fries! Jared made hamburgers from scratch (not premade frozen patties) and is now an advocate for the Tupperware hamburger press! LOL. And the tomatoes are from our garden (which we really have little time for, but it gives to us anyways!) The jam we made over a month ago together for a family night, and tonight we had no hamburger buns, so I thought, "I'll bet the Walker Family Cookbook has it and ta-da, it did! They were super easy for a bread recipe and are so good I want them again! I was so excited at how pretty they turned out.The eclairs are overkill, I know, but I'd just made them for the ward dessert contest, (and got second place!) and had TONS of filling left (can't let pudding and whipped cream go to pot!) so I whipped up some more to gobble up tonight!

Taco Salad Night

Do it right and make it pretty! SO delicious on these HOT summer nights!

Eggplant, Tomato, & Bell Pepper Sauce

1.Cut 3 eggplants in half. Slather butter on the halves and sprinkle generously with parmesan. Fry in pan on both sides of eggplant, just till browned a bit.
2. Add a little olive oil then add chopped bell peppers and lift eggplant up onto them as they cook.
3. Add some chopped up onion (at least half of one).
4. Cover the contents of the pan in tomatoes (all sixes work fine- my tomatoes are little).
5. Add a few BASIL leaves, some thyme, organo, italian seasoning, a little garlic.

This is awesome for PIZZA SAUCE, SPAGHETTI SAUCE, PUPUSA SAUCE, MOZZ. STICK SAUCE.

So I zip-lock bag the sauce, then freeze it all flattened out. It stacks well this way and thaws out much quicker than brick-form.

3. Dump in TONS of tomatoes and

Sweet & Sour Chicken

This was to die for. And I winged it. HA!

I just dumped some corn starch in a bowl, then dumped in the raw chicken pieces (cut em with kitchen scissors ladies! Don't chop your fingers off!), coating them well.

The fry the chicken in some oil (4-5 T) on high with the lid on at first, then off at the end to brown it a bit. This keeps the meat moist.

Make the sauce in a separate pan while the chicken is searing:
Don't feel too restricted by these measurements! Do what you like best!
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. vinegar
1/2 c. chicken broth
3.5 T ketchup
1 T soy sauce
1 tsp worcestire sauce

Truthfully I just kind of dumped the soy sauce & Worc. sauce in! mmmm! Some people also add a little brown sugar and or garlic & ginger. I didn't. This time.


Then put the fried chicken into a bowl to the side, and just put in whatever vegetables you have on hand! I used things from my garden:
Tomatoes, green & orange bell peppers, green beans (blanch these first or just boil em for awhile and have them on hand ready to use), onion & pineapple!! Thinly sliced carrot would also be wonderful although I was out at the time!

Pupusa

This is EASY for a quick dinner that tastes AWESOME and is SO filling!
Get tortilla flour at WalMart. Follow the directions on the back for making the dough. (You knead it, let it sit for 15 mins, then roll out little balls, press em flat, fold up some CASO FRESCO inside, then fry em!

Whala! Dinner!

Just pile on your favorite Mexican toppings: taco-seasoned meat & tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, avacado, you name it!

Thank you Bonnie at prettydubs.blogspot.com for the great idea!

Shish-ka-bobs & Corn on the Grill

Bring on the shish-ka-bobs!

These were phenominal with just a little salt & pepper! MMMMM!
From our garden we picked tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant and we added onion and anything else we could find that would stay on a skewer!

My Favorite Chili Recipe

Emily's Chili

1/2 or 3/4 lb beef
fistful dehydrated onion, or one chopped onion
1/4 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove minced garlic

1/4 c chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can corn (take out a small bowlful for Guy to eat, the rest is for the chili!)

Throw the first three ingredients in the crockpot, turn it to high. Cook several hours (2 or 3 or until brown), then break up with a spoon. Take out grease if you care.

Add in the rest of the ingredients, cook on low 3 or 4 hours or until dinner time. You really can't go wrong unless you leave it on high for 8 hours and burn everything.

Serve with your favorite cornbread, fried tortillas, or corn chips.

Tom's Turkey Recipe- the bomb!

This recipe given to Jessica by Tom Allred, an Amry Sergeant in Mannheim, Germany.

If frozen- put in 1 inch water
If thawed- put in 2 inch water

Use oven bag! Then you don't have to do much at all after prepping the turkey!

Salt- in water around (1-2 TB)
Seasoned Salt- on turkey
Orange slices sprinkled with sage - inside turkey (pack that thing full)
Brown sugar (3/4 of pkg) on top of turkey, packed on
Christmas spice (nutmeg, ginger, & cinnamon) sprinkled on top

Close bag and relax for the rest of Thanksgiving while everyone else stresses about the side dishes, etc.

Pizza!

The Dough:

• 1 pkg active yeast (I figure that is a little less than 1 T or 2 2/3 tsp)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 T oil
• 1 c. warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 c. flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in remaining ingredients; beat well with spoon or fork. Let rest 5 minutes. Mix dough and place in cookie sheet. It takes some stretching, but keep trying.
*For one of those jelly roll pans I make 1.5 batches
The Sauce:
I use the sauce I've cooked down over the summer and frozen in zip locks in the fridge.  You can also cheat and use a can or bottle of prepared sauce (I like Bertolli's organic sauce)

If you search google for Pizzamaniac he has some good recipes and it is pretty interesting to see what he creates!

Roast Chicken à la Julia Child

Wash chicken rapidly in hot water, pat dry with paper towels. Season inside cavity with salt, pepper, and anything else you feel like stuffing in there (an onion, an apple, or fresh herbs are good choices). Salt all over and rub with soft butter.

Roast at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce oven heat to 350 degrees and cook for 30 minutes, and then an addition 7 minutes per pound of meat.

After 1/2 hour, if desired strew cut up onion and carrots and potatoes into pan to roast in chicken juices.

I roast my chickens in my dutch oven without a roasting rack.

Crispy Breaded Chicken (strips)

This is from America's Test Kitchen and is an AWESOME recipe that Jared & Jessica enjoyed their last week in Wymount. I use it to make chicken parmesan or just plain chicken strips.

1 cup flour (white or wheat)
2 large eggs
3 cups breadcrumbs
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed
Salt and pepper
3/4 cup vegetable oil (I just eyeball the amount)

Pound the chicken to 1/2-inch thickness. Season with salt and pepper.

Dredge in the flour, then dip into the egg, then coat with the breadcrumbs (use three separate dishes to hold the flour, egg, and breadcrumbs)

Heat the oil on medium-high heat until *just* smoking. Add two pieces of the chicken and cook until light golden brown on both sides, 4 to 6 minutes. Note: the chicken should sizzle when it hits the oil. And don't overcrowd the pan or it won't be as cripsy.

Drain on paper towels. For chicken parmesan, place in baking pan and spread with tomato sauce and cheese (swiss or mozzarella). Place in oven at 450 degrees for 5-10 minutes, until cheese is melted and browned. Serve over pasta.

Sweet Baby Ray's Pulled pork

2 lbs - Pulled Pork
3 c. - Sweet Baby Ray's Original Barbecue Sauce*
1 each - Onions Julienne
2 each - Red Peppers Julienne
1 T. - Cumin

Place pork in a large crock pot. Add peppers, onions and cumin.

Then add sweet baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce

Heat at 160 degrees. Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour minimum.

Keep at 140 degrees until served.

* You can probably use whatever sauce you want. I got this recipe off the packaging that comes with it at Costco, so I thought it best to give them credit!

Cheese Manicotti

Cheese Manicotti (serves 7-8, if you are a small eater, Evan and I eat half a recipe for one meal with a little leftover Ü)
14-16 Uncooked Manicotti Shells
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese (1 c.)
15 oz ricotta cheese
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
dash of onion powder
32 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce (I use a 26 oz. can)

Mix all cheeses and spices and egg together. Pour a small amount of sauce in bottom of a 9x13 pan. Fill uncooked shells with cheese mixture. (I find that a fork works really well). Line up filled shells on top of sauce and pour remaining sauce down the middle of the row. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Take out of the oven, leave foil on, and let steam for 10 minutes to finish cooking.

Variation: thaw some frozen chopped spinach and squeeze out excess water, add to cheese mixture.
Hint: ricotta is expensive but it keeps for quite a while unopened in the fridge (look at dates on carton), so I only buy it on sale, then you can keep it for a little while if you'd like and make it cost less.
Hint #2: This Recipe also freezes well. I frequently make a whole batch and divide it into two pans (7 shells in each) then I cover them in foil and put one in the freezer for later. When you bake it later either take it out of the freezer the day before or bake it a little longer.

Hawaiian Haystacks

2 (10 oz.) cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken broth
2 cups diced cooked chicken or turkey
4 cups cooked rice
chow mein noodles
3 medium tomatoes sliced (I dice them)
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1 (20 oz. ) can pineapple chunks (I like the tidbits)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup coconut
1 (2 oz. ) jar pimento drained and diced, if desired (I don't even know what these are)
Combine soup and chicken broth in a medium saucepan to make gravy. Stir to blend. Add chicken or turkey. Simmer about 8-10 minutes, until heated through. Layer all ingredients to preference. (This says it makes 8 servings from this recipe. I would say it probably really makes four. When I make it for the 8 of us I two and a half times the gravy and rice to make sure there is enough.)