Shrimp With Snap Peas & Water Chestnuts

Posted on September 3, 2007 by Michie

I like to stir fry — it’s so quick and easy, and with just using one pan, cleanup is simple, too. 

The trick to making any type of food that can be cooked in a wok is to have every thing prepped.

  • Prepare the meat, whatever kind you are using, into bite sized pieces
  • Have your vegetables cleaned and ready to put into the wok.  Try not to put ‘wet’ vegetables into the wok, as this will cause them to steam, instead of fry. 
  • Use a plate or small dishes for other items such as garlic, ginger, spring onions, etc.  Then you can just toss them in when needed. 
  • Have any sauces you will use at the ready.. not in the refrigerator. 

 

Shrimp With Snap Peas & Water Chestnuts

1 pound shrimp, peeled and cleaned
Sesame Oil
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 pound snap peas, ends snipped
1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts, fresh if you can get them
1 tablespoon soy sauce

My version of this is very simple:

Peel and clean the shrimp.  Heat your wok or pan over highest heat possible.  Add the sesame oil and allow to heat until /almost/ smoking.  At once, toss in peas and shrimp.  Stir fry until the shrimp are about half done. Add the water chestnuts and soy sauce.  Stir in the ginger and garlic, and cook 30 seconds more.  Serve right away with rice.

Notes:

Make this with Snow peas if you like.  I just happen to prefer snap peas.

Make this with beef or chicken for a variation.

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The Best Macaroni and Cheese – The Lady's Cheesy Mac

Posted on September 2, 2007 by Michie

I’m not an overly huge fan of Macaroni and Cheese.  I grew up eating the Kraft-Powdered-Cheese-Add-Milk-Add Butter stuff.  Not the worst thing in the world to eat..but close to it ;P 

My mothers version was umm.. interesting.. a concoction of processed cheese and heavy cream….and well, tbh, “Velveeta Processed Cheese” isn’t high on my list either.  Mom’s version is okay, and it is cheesy tasting.  Just not what I always thought Mac and Cheese should be. 

Yes, I admit it. I never liked Mac and Cheese.   I’ve been told I’m just not a good American — what born and bred American doesn’t like Mac and Cheese?!?!!?!

I was at a friends house not long ago, and this is the recipe he made for his kids.  I was highly amused, as it is a Paula Deen recipe from her restaurant ‘The Lady and Sons’.  Apparently, her show on Food Network is one of his favorite shows.  He grabbed the recipe from the web site, and has been making it ever since.  I can understand his liking of Paula Deen — She is fun to watch, makes fun recipes, and always seems to make me hungry. 

I’m not sure what it is that makes this actually so good.  Butter, eggs and sour cream, probably. And the touch Paula Deen’s recipes always seem to have – that bit of homeyness which makes her recipes down to earth, and classy.

At least now I can now join the leagues and masses, and consider myself a Mac and Cheese aficionado. ;)

The Lady’s Cheesy Mac

Recipe by Paula Deen on “Paula’s Home Cooking”

image4 cups cooked elbow macaroni, drained
2 cups grated Cheddar
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Once you have the macaroni cooked and drained, place in a large bowl and while still hot and add the cheddar. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and add to the macaroni mixture. Pour macaroni mixture into a casserole dish and bake for 30 to 45 minutes. Top with additional cheese if desired.

Notes:

Mix some Panko (or crushed Saltines or crushed Crispbreads) with melted butter, 1/2 cup grated cheddar and 1/4 teaspoon Paprika  and sprinkle over the top before baking.

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Sage Breakfast Sausage

Posted on September 1, 2007 by Michie

Updated August-01-2008

To go along with the Hash Brown recipe I uploaded the other day, here are my favorite two breakfast sausage recipes. One is pretty much a standard breakfast sausage, one is by Bobby Flay. Both are really good.

Enjoy!

Sage Breakfast Sausage

1 pound pork, ground
2 teaspoons dried sage
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cloves or allspice

Combine all ingredients, except pork. Once mixed together, add to the pork and mix together well. I use my hands and smush the sausage and spices up until well incorporated.

Separate the pork into even portions. This recipe is for six patties, but you can make as many as you like. I usually make 8 to 10 patties.

Once you’ve shaped the sausage into patties, refrigerate for about 1 hour. Saute the patties over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes on each side, or until the sausage has browned and is no longer pink inside.

Notes:

I like to double this recipe, and then freeze the patties. Make the patties as usual, and then layer with waxed paper. One patty, one piece of waxed paper, etc. Place in a ziplock or a tightly covered container, and freeze.

If you cannot get poultry seasoning, use this recipe to make some. Then measure out, and use as above:

Poultry Seasoning

2 tablespoons Parsley
2 tablespoons Sage
2 tablespoons Thyme
1 tablespoon Marjoram
1 tablespoon Rosemary
1 tablespoon Savory
1 tablespoon Black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

Mix together, and store in an air-tight container for up to 6 months.

Variations:

  • Add 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram, 2 teaspoons brown sugar, and a pinch of red pepper flakes.
  • A variation that I like a lot is the one below, (the recipe is by Bobby Flay)

Sage-Mustard Breakfast Sausage

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 teaspoons whole fennel seeds
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage leaves
1 pound ground pork
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a medium saute pan or griddle over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until soft. Add the garlic and fennel and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, stir in the mustard and sage, and let cool for 5 minutes. Place the pork in a bowl, add the onion mixture, and gently toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Form the sausage mixture into 8 equal size patties. Cook on both sides until golden brown. Reduce the heat, cover, and continue cooking until just cooked through. Serve warm.

Update:

Cooks Illustrated recently posted a recipe for breakfast sausage that I thought I would share here:

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

Don’t make this recipe with lean or extra-lean ground pork: The resulting sausage will be dry, crumbly, and less flavorful.
2     pounds ground pork
1     tablespoon maple syrup
1     clove garlic , minced (optional)
1/2     tablespoon table salt
1/2     teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2     teaspoon dried sage
1/2     teaspoon dried thyme
1/4     teaspoon cayenne pepper
4     teaspoons vegetable oil

1. Spread the pork out in a large bowl and sprinkle with the maple syrup, garlic (if using), salt, pepper, sage, thyme, and cayenne. Using your hands, gently fold the flavorings evenly into the pork, then portion and shape into sixteen 2-ounce patties (about 1/4 cup each).

2. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add half of the patties and cook until well browned on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Wipe out the skillet, add the remaining 2 teaspoons oil, return to medium heat until shimmering, and cook the remaining patties.

Contents

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Simple Hash Browns

Posted on August 30, 2007 by Michie

My Grandmother (known as “Gram” on this blog from now on) makes these hash browns that are just.. amazingly good. They are light and crispy and were a total freaking mystery to me until about 2 years ago. There is a secret to hash browns. It’s not just the potatoes, salt, oil.. it’s the moisture.

I did not ever actually watch my Gram make hash browns. As I think back about the times I stayed at her house, it seems I never actually saw my Gram waking up. She is an early riser (as am I as an adult, for the most part). She wakes between 4 and 5 every morning, as she has done for the past 60+ years. As a child, when I would stay at her house, I was almost always awakened by the scent of food cooking..bacon, muffins, eggs, doughnuts, fritters, baked apples and the like. I would stumble, along with the rest of the kids, into the kitchen, plop down at the table as close to the heating stove as I could get, and wait until breakfast was actually ready. You know it’s never actually ready when you first are awakened by the scent.. you always have to wait.

Gram would set the hash browns, still in the cast iron skillet she cooked them in, right on the table. If you were unlucky, and didn’t get up when you first smelled food cooking, you were out of luck. Her hash browns didn’t last 2 minutes in the pan.

After I moved away, and out of Nebraska, my trips to my Grams house were very infrequent. 1 visit every year at first, then every few years, and then, as now, even less that that. So I experimented with making hash browns. She gave me step by step instructions.. how many potatoes, how much salt, oil, the kind of pan, how much heat, and they never once came out like hers. Mine were greasy, mushy, and heavy. No matter what I did, they were always that way.

A few years ago, Gram came out to visit. And one morning, as I was finishing making tea, she started to shred some potatoes for breakfast. I stood watching her, and when she spread the potatoes out on a tea-towel, and then pressed the moisture out, my jaw fell open. Ahhhaaaaa! Gram had told me what to use, how much to use, what pan to use, what oil to use, the kind of salt she used, but she had never, ever mentioned that the potatoes should be pressed to reduce the moisture. When I asked her about it, she said she never thought about it. It was just something you do when making shredded potatoes.

I’ve read since then a few articles here and there that suggest the same thing — something to press the moisture out of the potatoes. A potato ricer, leaving them overnight uncovered in a refrigerator, or putting them in the oven for a few minutes.

I just do what Gram did — a towel-paper-towel-shredded potato-paper-towel-towel sandwich. Place a thick kitchen towel on your counter top, place a thick layer of paper towel on top, add the shredded potatoes, another thick layer of paper towels, and another towel. Roll with a pastry roller, or press down hard. You just need to do this a couple of times, and it’s all good to go.

Now.. onto the incredibly easy recipe…

Simple Hash Browns

2 tablespoons oil
2 baking potatoes, shredded
1/2 small onion, diced fine
Kosher salt and pepper to taste

imageWash the potatoes, and using a grater such as the one pictured, shred the potatoes.

Using a heavy skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until they are caramelized. Remove the onions from the pan, and mix together with the shredded potatoes. Heat the remaining oil, and then add the potatoes to the skillet, in an even layer – -no more than 1/2 an inch. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until the potatoes begin to brown on the bottom — about 7-8 minutes. Carefully flip over, or cut in half and flip one part at time over.

Season again with salt and pepper and allow to finish cooking — until golden brown on the bottom, another 7-8 minutes.

Serve immediately.

Notes:

You do not have to peel the potatoes.

Add green or red peppers as a variation.

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Coconut Macaroons, plus variations

Posted on August 27, 2007 by Michie

macaroons

These are just.. yummyness.  One of the girls in my office brought macaroons in last week.. premade/packaged things.  They were okay, but.. well… incredibly heavy and greasy.  They made me in the mood for the ones I make.   They are just exactly what a macaroon should be – light and fluffy.

This recipe comes from a neighbor I grew up next to back in Nebraska.  She made amazing macaroons and did all sorts of lovely things to them (See the notes below the recipe for additions – some are hers, some are mine, some come from other people, but I don’t know who, as the additions were made to the recipe card over time).  Ruth made these at Christmas, and again in the summer.  Odd times, but when her grandson came to visit, she always made these, and she always had plenty for my brothers and I, too.

Granted, this isn’t a traditional recipe if you don’t live in the US, and even if you do, there are tons and tons of variations.  But one thing is the same – a coconut macaroon is not exactly a cookie.. but not exactly a candy…it’s a kind of cross between both, and that is what makes this particular cookie so good.  It has that sweetness to it a candy should have, but the body and crispness of a cookie.  I don’t know where this fits in exactly – a cookie — or a confection, but I do know that it goes amazingly well with a glass of milk.. with just the right amount of coconut left at the bottom of the glass to scoop out ;)

Enjoy!

Coconut Macaroons

14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large egg whites at room
temperature
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix together  the coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla in a large bowl.  

In a second bowl, whip the egg whites and salt on high speed until it makes medium-firm peaks.  I use a hand mixer. Then, GENTLY fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture, and fold together using a spatula, without crushing the egg whites. 

Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet lined with parchment.  You can also use a small ‘ice cream scoop’ – maybe 1-1 1/2 inch, or so scoop.  

Bake  for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Try not to eat them hot (or you’ll burn your mouth), allow to cool and serve.  Allow to cool completely, and cover tightly.  Store in the refrigerator for up to 10 days, or on the counter for 5. 

Notes:

I like to store these in a container in layers separated by parchment.

Variations and Additions:

Add a cup of the mini chocolate chips, or 4 ounces of melted unsweetened chocolate.

Push a chocolate kiss candy or a star candy into the top of the cookie right after you take them from the oven

Add 1 cup of chopped pecans and 2 tablespoons maraschino cherry syrup, and press a maraschino cherry into the top of the cookie before baking.

Dip in chocolate, or just dip part of the cookie in chocolate

Add 1/2 cup crushed macadamia nuts

Add 3/4 cup of raisins and 1 teaspoon rum flavoring

Change the vanilla to 1 1/2 teaspoons of almond extract

Add 3/4 cup of walnuts and 1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring

Add 3/4 cup of oats and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

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"Grownup" Crunchy Parmesan Chicken Nuggets

Posted on August 21, 2007 by Michie

Okay, so you use the Internet to find recipes – I just did a Google search for ‘chicken recipe’ and it came up with a total 6,260,000. Whooakay. I actually laughed out loud when I saw that number come up.

So, what I’m saying is this: There are lots of recipes for chicken. And the same recipe /name/ might be a totally different recipe, depending on where in the world you come from. Recipes, with totally different names, might be exactly the same recipe. Great Grandma Who’s so-secret recipe for sweet rolls, might be Aunt Mini’s sister’s aunt’s 3rd cousins recipe for cinnamon rolls, that she found in a 1974 Church of the Divine recipe book.

Recipes get changed, they live a life of their own, are handed down to family and friends – some die a quick death, never to be repeated (may I say that my Dad’s ‘Hamburger Surprise’ outwitted death by quite a few years, but has since been buried, as it should have been in 198-freaking-2), and some recipes, like the classic recipe for chicken nuggets gets changed around, as it has here.

This is one of my favorite chicken recipes to make – simple, quick and tasty. I called this “Grownup” because the first time I made it, my son was about 6, and he was very impressed that chicken nuggets could taste so good….they were, to him, very grownup. (Until he smothered them with ketchup, of course).

“Grownup” Crunchy Parmesan Chicken Nuggets

Olive Oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts (boneless)

For bread crumbs:

1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 1/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

Oil a large baking sheet well. And I do mean well. Unless you want the chicken to stick, of course ;)

Clean the chicken breasts of fat, if any. Slice into ‘nugget’ sized pieces, about 1 1/2 inch-2 inches or so. Put buttermilk into a fairly large bowl, and add the chicken pieces to it, and stir. Let it stand for about 20-30 minutes.

While the chicken is having a buttermilk soak, put together your bread crumb mixture. Add the parmesan and mix well.

Wait 18 more minutes. Wait however you like. Just don’t touch the soaking chicken.

Remove the chicken from the buttermilk and dredge in the bread crumbs, coating completely. You might need to press the crumbs onto the chicken. Place on the well oiled baking sheets, leaving a bit of space between.

Drizzle 2 tablespoons or so of oil over the chicken nuggets and bake until they are cooked through and golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.

Garlic-Balsamic Vinaigrette

2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper

In a medium bowl, mash the garlic well. Add salt and continue to mash it together. Whisk in the balsamic vinegar, and 1/2 cup of oil. Add pepper to taste, again whisking well. I keep this in the mixing bowl, until just ready to serve, when I whisk it well again, and then pour into a serving bowl.

Use the vinaigrette as a dipping sauce for the nuggets.

Notes:

Now, the first time I made this, I followed the recipe exactly — 500F for 8 minutes. Loved the taste..AFTER I pried it off the baking sheet, and left 1/2 stuck to it. I reduced the heat, and upped the time, and it comes out perfectly.

I included a recipe for bread crumbs, because, well, I’m a snob. :P Although I don’t mind store-bought seasoned bread crumbs, I find it simple to make my own, and have flavor by doing so. Store bought tend to be stale.. old herbs, long past their prime, in a tasteless mix overwhelmingly smelling of old garlic. 1 minute flat, and you can mix your own. Even if you buy the store-bought plain bread crumbs. The whole recipe is here, for those interested.

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