Thai-nese Chicken Salad

Pardon the pun, I couldn't help myself.  ;)  It started out as a Chinese-inspired chicken salad, then peanut sauce started sounding good and it just veered off in a different direction all by itself.  Sometimes I like it when someone else drives, you know?

Thai-nese Chicken Salad

(serves 2-3)

Chicken:
2 chicken breasts
salt, pepper, 5 spice mix (pinches)

Sprinkle spices on chicken and pan fry over medium heat in a very lightly greased (or nonstick) pan until cooked through and golden brown.

Dressing:
2 T peanut butter (chunky or creamy, whichever floats your boat)
2 T olive oil
2 t sesame oil
1 T rice wine vinegar
2-3 dashes hot sauce
1 T soy sauce (use tamari if you need to stay gluten free)

Whisk until the lumps disappear.  Unless, of course, you used chunky peanut butter.

Spicy Sweet Peanuts:
1/3 C unsalted peanuts
1/4 t sugar
2 pinches 5 spice mix

Dry roast peanuts over medium heat 3-5 minutes, until they start to smell 'toasted' and brown slightly.  Sprinkle sugar and spice over nuts and stir frequently for another 30-45 seconds, until sugar melts and coats the peanuts evenly.  Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Salad:
3-4 oz baby spinach leaves
1 bundle rice noodles, soaked 10 minutes and drained thoroughly
3 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded & cut into half moons (you can leave the seeds in if you want - they just give me the creeps)
1 carrot, shredded
1 tomato, deseeded & diced (see creepy cucumber comment!)
1 serrano pepper, seeded & diced
1/3 orange bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 avocado, sliced
1 t toasted sesame seeds

Assemble in whatever fashion makes you happy.  ;)  This made two HUGE dinner salads and could easily have fed three.  Had I remembered I'd have to save room for dessert, I'd have held back a wee bit on the spinach.  I never have learned to make a 'small salad', though.

A Long Journey

A few months back, I was contacted by a friend of a friend who was in need of a custom costume.  Sure, I thought, that sounds fun, and hey, I have some slower weekends coming up!   Hahahaha!  Slower weekends, that's a good one!  :p

So inbetwixt and inbetween all the shows, projects, and general life stuff that keeps rearing its ugly head, I've been working on this for several weekends straight.  I admit that I had not ever seen the character before (or even the game), but there were fortunately some really great photos available and one kind soul had even listed instructions for the costume they had made as well as some rough scale pattern pieces.  I had to laugh on one of my many trips to the fabric store because the lady at the cutting counter played Journey and knew exactly what I was making!

This did have to be modified a bit to fit, which added quite a bit to the embellishment time.  As written, the pattern was a half circle cape, which I increased to 3/4 circle in order to close properly on the front.  The hood also had to be increased about 4" in diameter.

All said, I'm ridiculously happy with how the project turned out.  I'm also ridiculously happy it will be going to live with its new owner so I don't have to see any more bright yellow bias tape for a while.  ;)

(For those like me who aren't quite up on their video game characters, this is the main character from Journey PS3.)

Corn Roti

I've been threatening to make chicken curry for months and finally got around to it (mmm, spicy!).  I never think an Indian meal is complete without naan, but haven't yet found a good GF substitute.  These corn roti were modified from a non-GF recipe I found on Eating Well.  I'm happy with it, though it isn't quite as good at sopping up sauce as naan is.

Corn Roti

(makes 6)

1 C White Corn Flour
1/4 C Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Mix (or your favourite, I think most would work)
1/4 t salt
1/2 t fresh ginger, minced finely
1/2 t minced chipotle in adobo
1/4 C finely chopped red onion
1/4 C finely chopped baby spinach leaves
1/2 C + 1 T warm water
1/2 T butter
1/2 T olive oil

Combine flours & salt.  Add ginger, chipotle, onion and spinach; stir to combine.  Drizzle water over mixture, stirring to incorporate until it starts to come together and form a mass.  Knead until a soft ball forms, using more AP flour mix as needed to keep from sticking.  Divide into 6 balls.  Flatten to 4-6" diameter discs between two sheets of waxed paper (the dough will still be a bit sticky).  Pan fry in skillet lightly coated with cooking spray over medium to medium high heat, 1-2 minutes per side.  Coat each side lightly with butter-oil mix and sear 30 seconds per side.  This last step should brown them nicely.

I didn't get to test these as leftovers, as we devoured them all with dinner, but I imagine they would keep a few days and benefit from being reheated before serving.

Mediterranean Chicken & Rice

This is one of those standard weekday spur-of-the-moment meals that happen so often in my life.  There had been plans for the evening that fell through at the last minute, so I found myself in the kitchen, pondering the contents of the fridge (and shuddering at the mashed potatoes that were rapidly becoming a sentient life form).  One of the many skills I'm glad I gleaned from my mom is the ability to cook dinner out of juuuust about anything.  Growing up out of town, popping over to the corner store wasn't much of an option, so I learned to be creative.  I'll be the first to admit that sometimes the experiments turn out better than others, but I think this one was a keeper.  ;)

Mediterranean Chicken & Rice

(Serves 2)

Chicken:
2 marinated chicken breasts (I used the brine left over from a jar of marinated mushrooms, but I think Italian dressing would work in a pinch, or any type of light vinaigrette)
1 T olive oil

Rice:
2-1/2 C cooked brown rice (I admit it, I used minute rice)
1 tomato, diced & seeded
juice from 1 lemon
1/2 t lemon zest
8-10 green olives, chopped
8-10 marinated mushrooms, chopped
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 C pine nuts
2 handfuls baby spinach

Stir rice ingredients into cooked rice while it is still warm and set aside to rest while you cook chicken in large frying pan with 1 T olive oil.  Add marinade as needed until cooked through and golden brown (I found that adding the marinade gave the chicken a really nice crust.  Serve hot with room temp to warm rice.

This made just slightly more than 2 dinner portions, and I think it may have been better the next day for lunch!

Huevos!

First eggs of the season, aww yeah!

Between the late fall moult and winter, it has been about 4 months since the last fresh egg at my house, and I am one happy, happy girl! 

(That's an awful photo, but just imagine happy eggs.  For some reason, my camera really, really, REALLY did not want to focus on them.  Bugger.)

Braised Lamb Chops

Braised Lamb Chops

(serves 2, easy to scale)

7 cloves garlic, diced
1 leek (white only), chopped
8 oz button mushrooms, sliced
1 pint thin tomato sauce (if using commercial, mix 1/2 pint water with 1/2 pint tomato sauce)
4 lamb chops
1 T capers
rosemary salt
pepper
1/3 C red wine (I had pinot noir on hand)
2 T bacon grease ('cuz I'm fancy like that)
1 t dried parsley
1/2 t herbes de provence
1 T butter

In large sauté pan over medium heat, sauté garlic & leek in bacon grease 2-3 minutes.  Add mushrooms, salt & pepper and sauté until golden brown (about 2 minutes).  Scoot to sides of pan and add lamb chops to center.  Brown 2 minutes each side.  Mine were thick, so I did top, bottom, and both sides (8 minutes total).

Deglaze pan with wine.  Add tomato sauce, parsley, herbes and a pinch of black pepper.  Simmer 4 minutes.  Flip chops and simmer 2 minutes.  Remove chops to rest while you finish up the sauce.  Turn heat on sauce to medium high and cook until reduced by 2/3.  Add capers and 1 T butter.  Remove from heat and serve over chops.

I served this with some leftover mashed potatoes and it was incredibly filling and made the house smell delightful.  You could probably add another vegetable side and serve each person 1 chop and make this feed 4, not 2.  The cook time on the lamb with thicker chops left them just the pink side of medium, which I think was about perfect.  If you like your meat more well done, just increase the simmer time.