Sweet Breaded Chicken

Necessity is the mother of invention and this recipe came about when I realized I didn't have an egg to stick the breading to my chicken.  I actually prefer this method now.  I use this chicken either in stir fry or as chicken fingers with some fries.  I'm considering incorporating parmesan into the breading and garlic into the soy sauce next time I do this, and may update the recipe if that works out.

Ingredients
1 lb Chicken Cutlets
3 Tablespoons Flour
1 Cup Soy Sauce
3/4 Cup Plain Breadcrumbs
1/2 Cup Canola (or other vegetable) Oil
Pepper to taste

1. First set up your station so you're ready when you're hands are covered with chicken and goo- one bowl with flour, another bowl with the soy sauce and a plate covered in a layer of bread crumbs.
2. Cut the chicken up into either nugget size or finger size pieces.
3. Coat the chicken pieces with flour.
4. Dunk the chicken into the soy sauce but don't leave it too long so you don't lose all of the flour on it, this helps make it sticky for the next step.
5. Press the chicken into bread crumbs so they're completely coated. 
6. Heat up a pan over medium heat with the oil.  I don't deep fry, I just use enough oil to coat the pan and fry one side of the chicken at a time.
7. Don't add the chicken to the pan until the oil is nice and hot or the breading will just end up mush.  The chicken should sizzle a bit when you add it.
8. Pepper the exposed side of the chicken.
9. Leave the chicken alone while one side of it browns- the time will vary based on the size and thickness of the pieces, but the finger-sized pieces I did took about 4-5 minutes per side.
10. The chicken is ready to flip when the side that's frying is verging on dark brown - the sides should look lightly browned. Tongs are the easiest way to flip them.
11. Pepper the newly exposed side.
12. Brown the other side. 
13. Remove the chicken from the pan and let it drain on a plate with a paper towel beneath it.

African Groundnut Stew

I somewhat randomly selected this as our New Year's Eve dinner, and was happy I did.  This is based on a recipe from a slow cooker pamphlet I no longer have, so I can't properly attribute it.  Nor do I know for sure if it's actually based on an African recipe as was claimed.  Whatever, it's yummy.

Ingredients
1/2 to 3/4 lbs Chicken Cutlet

1 Medium Potato
1 Medium Sweet Potato
1/4 Medium Onion
1 Tablespoon Peanut Butter
1 Tablespoon Tomato Paste
1 teaspoon Ground Ginger (or dice up some fresh ginger)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut up the chicken, potatoes and onion into stew sized pieces.  Make the sweet potato pieces bigger than the regular potato pieces as they cook through faster.
2. Mix all ingredients into the slow cooker.
3. Turn on the slow cooker (I have a rather simple unit that's either on or off, but if you need a temperature setting, I'm guessing it will be about median of your options).
4. Let it cook at least 2 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Turkey Meatloaf

Another regular recipe, this always comes out moist. Learning to cook in small apartments, I make this on a cookie sheet as that used to be my only option. I've used the same recipe with ground beef (though sometimes I'll make that as mini-loaves wrapped in bacon).

Ingredients
1.3lbs Ground Turkey
3 tablespoons chopped Onions
1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard (spicy works as well)
1 egg
1 cup plain Breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
1/2 teaspoon Salt
4 tablespoons white wine (optional, but preferable)

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the turkey, onions, mustard, egg, breadcrumbs, pepper and salt in a bowl. The mixture should be sticky-moist, adjust the amount of breadcrumbs if needed or add more liquid (I'll sometimes use ketchup).
3. Gather everything up into a ball and plop it onto a cookie sheet lined with aluminium foil.
4. Shape the meat into the same shape as a bundt cake, with the hole in the middle. That hole is essential to ensure that the meat cooks through.
   
5. Pour the white wine into the hole in the center of the meat loaf. Optional, but I find this helps keep it moist and adds a nice flavor.
6. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
   

Platy Pesto

It was pointed out to me that my basil had gotten a bit tall. I decided to trim one stalk and pick all of the big leaves from the others and try my hand at pesto. Most recipes use pine nuts, but this was with cashews and came out nicely.

Ingredients
1 handful of Basil leaves
3 medium Garlic cloves, peeled
1 small handful of Roasted Cashews
1/3 cup of grated Parmesan Cheese

1. Take about half of the basil and two of the garlic cloves and chop them. This works best with a sharp, broad knife with a curved tip. You could also skip these steps and chop with a food processor, but I prefer the way the ingredients come out in varied sizes when doing this manually.
2. When both have been chopped to fairly small pieces, add the rest of the garlic and basil and keep chopping.
   
3. Add half of the cashews, chop.
4. Add the rest of the cashews, chop
5. Add the Parmesan cheese, you guessed it, chop. I spent maybe 15 minutes chopping.
6. When the ingredients are fairly small, transfer to a bowl. When you press everything together, be a bit pasty.
7. I added a splash of lemon, to taste.
8. Add about 3 tablespoons olive oil
9. When ready to use, stir and add pasta (or whatever). I added a little of the water in which the pasta (Campagnelle) cooked too.
   

Kyoto Salmon with Baby Bok Choy

This is a light, healthy meal, and I really like the sauce. I serve this over rice, but I'm not including the instructions for that. I'd give credit to whomever I originally took this recipe long ago, but I don't remember which one it was anymore, there's a few out there. I'll add a photo next time I make it.

Ingredients
1 lb Salmon, cut into 2 (this is enough for 2 people)
1 tablespoon ginger diced small (I substitute garlic if I don't have ginger)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds (could probably substitute jarred mustard for this)
Pepper to taste
1 cup orange juice
1 cup soy sauce (or enough to cover the salmon while marinating)
1 Baby Bok Choy, leaves separated

1. An hour or two before you want to eat, mix the orange juice, ginger, mustard and pepper in a bowl.
   
2. Add in the salmon and pour in enough soy sauce so it's pretty well covered.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
4. Heat a pan with some olive oil to medium high.
5. When the pan is hot, add in the salmon.
6. Pour the marinade in a sauce pan and heat to boiling, and then simmer while the salmon cooks.
   
7. Cooking time depends on how rare you like your salmon. I never time, but it's probably around 4 minutes on each side, enough to brown a little.
8. After one side has cooked and you've flipped the salmon, place the bok choy leaves over the top of the salmon (keeping part of the leaves elevated will keep them from getting soggy).
9. About 2 minutes into cooking the second side of the salmon, cover the pan, turn the heat down and cook for another couple minutes- this will steam the bok choy and cook the salmon through.
10. Serve over rice and spoon the sauce over the salmon and/or rice.
    

Turkey Sausage, Pea Pods, Sun-dried Tomatoes and Noodles

Quick and easy. As often happens, I didn't really measure on this one, but it's pretty hard to go wrong. I was cooking for two, so adjust accordingly.

Ingredients
4 links of turkey sausage (the big ones), sweet or spicy
Olive oil
1 clove garlic
Handful of snow pea pods
Half a handful of sun-dried tomatoes
A splash of white wine or rice vinegar
1/2 package of egg noodles (I know, that totally depends on the size of the package, but I forget)

1. Heat up some water for the noodles.
2. Cut the sausage up into bite sized pieces.
3. Heat up a frying pan on medium-high with some olive oil, roughly a tablespoon.
4. Add the sausage to the pan.
5. Cut up the garlic into small bits.
   
6. Add garlic and sub-dried tomatoes to the pan when the sausage has browned a bit.
7. When the water is boiling, add the noodles.
8. Add the pea pods (I cut the tips off of them first) to the pan.
9. Salt and pepper to taste.
   
10. Splash in some white wine or rice vinegar and cover the pan. (Told you I use that trick a lot). Let that cook for just a couple minutes.
    
11. Drain the noodles and mix everything together in the pan.
    

Sweet Potato Pie

I modified one recipe for the filling and one for the crust. Since this was the first time I've ever made sweet potato pie, I was quite happy with the way this came out.

Crust Ingredients
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 1/4 cups flour, and some extra for rolling
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons ice water

1. Soften the butter.
2. Mix the flour, salt, sugar and cinnamon.
3. Combine butter with the flour mixture. I did this by hand with a spoon, which is great exercise, but you can use a food processor as well.
4. Add in enough ice water so the mixture becomes doughy.
5. Kneed for a minute or two.
   
6. Refrigerate while you prepare the filling

Filling Ingredients
2 largish sweet potatoes (the original recipe called for 1 lb)
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Silk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Peel and quarter the sweet potatoes. Boil for 15 minutes or until softened.
2. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
   
3. Mash the sweet potato with the butter.
   
4. Add in the sugar, Silk, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla, mix and then add in eggs. It will be a bit liquidy.
   
5. Take out your chilled pie dough and shape into a ball, and press out into a circle big enough for a pie dish. If it's too sticky to work with, add more flour. I just did this by hand, no roller, and it came out great.
   
6. Press the crust into the pie plate and shape until it's evenly covering it.
7. Pour in the filling.
8. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. You should be able to insert a knife and have it come out clean when it's done.
   
9. Try to refrain from eating while the pie cools :)
   

Apple Stuffed Cornish Hen

You should make this if for no other reason than to experience how it makes your home smell while it bakes. It's essentially an apple pie with a chicken substituting the crust. I usually do this recipe with an orange, but today I had an apple at hand so I decided to try that, and I'm glad I did.

Ingredients
1 apple
1 Cornish hen
2 tablespoons butter, softened

1. Remove any plastic bags and hen bits from the Cornish hen. Do not forget this step.
2. Slice up an apple.
3. Coat the hen with the butter and stuff if full of as many apple pieces as you can. If you can't fit the whole apple, just set those pieces aside for when you bake.
4. Place the hen in a deep skilled with a cover at medium heat.
5. Salt and pepper the exposed side.
   
6. When the hen has browned a bit (probably at least 5 minutes for this), flip it and let that side brown for about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper the newly exposed side.
   
7. Flip the hen back over and then pour in enough white wine to cover the bottom and quickly cover. The old "wine and cover" trick.
   
8. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
9. If your pan has a metal handle, transfer the entire thing to the oven. If your pan has a plastic handle, for God's sake, don't do that and transfer the hen to a baking pan or pie plate instead.
10. Bake for 40 minutes, remove from oven. You could try adding broccoli and covering it for a few minutes right after removing the hen from the oven, that was my original plan but there was a small incident.
    

Sweet Potato Fries- half fried, half baked

This recipe works with regular potatoes too. The half frying, half baking process results in the best of both (crispy but not greasy).

Ingredients
2 sweat potatoes. Or yams, I always forget which is which.
Oil- canola works well for this since it heats to a high temperature.
Garlic salt and pepper

1. Cut up the sweet potatoes. I find these come out better if I cut the sweet potatoes to be somewhere in between the size of fast food fries and steak fries. Too small and they'll get mushy; too big and it's hard to cook them through.
2. Cover the bottom of a frying pan with oil and add the sweet potatoes on medium heat. I don't fully submerge fries when I cook them, since I finish the process with baking which cooks them through. Just enough oil to brown one side of the fries at a time.
   
3. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
4. Flip the sweet potatoes every few minutes until they've all browned a bit on more than one one side. So long as they don't char, don't worry about over-browning- the browning carmelizes them and makes them quite tasty.
5. Now transfer them for baking to finish. I have a vegetable steamer that opens up flat, so I put that in a baking dish and put the fries on top of it. This let's the excess oil drip down and gives them a nice air baking. But if you don't have a means of doing that, a cookie sheet will do too.
6. Garlic salt and pepper them.
   
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. I'll usually make burgers while they're baking.
   

Scallops with Saucy Noodles, Broccoli and Shallots

I made this just for myself, hence the small proportions, but it's easily scaled. I'm using handful as a measurement for this which may work quite well- if you have big hands, you can probably eat more.

Ingredients
.6 lb of scallops (I used fairly large scallops for this, and obviously the weight doesn't have to be that precise)
Handful of broccoli cut into florets
1/2 a handful of shallots, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
Splash of white wine (I used cooking vermouth)
Handful of noodles- I used a Thai linguini style, but any Asian style noodles would work

1. Start the water boiling for the noodles while you prepare the vegetables.
2. Start the noodles, the rest of the recipe will cook in the time it takes them to be done.
   
3. Lightly oil a frying pan on medium-high heat and add in the scallop- salt and pepper the exposed side. Scallops will get chewy if you cook them too long, so make sure the heat is high enough to brown the side that's cooking in no more than a couple minutes.
   
4. Once the scallops have browned on one side, flip them and then add the brocolli and garlic- make sure the scallops all still have contact with the pan. Salt and pepper again.
   
5. When the other side of the scallops has browned, splash in enough white wine to cover the bottom of the pan and quickly cover the pan. I use this technique with wine and vinegar in a lot of recipes- it steams everything, makes a nice sauce and also has a nice dramatic effect.
6. The noodles should be done by now, so drain them.
   
7. The wine just needs to cook long enough for the alcohol to cook off, but you still want some liquid- a minute or two will do it. Then add in the noodles, turn off the heat and mix.
   

Burgers

This is my go-to burger recipe. It's basic enough that I don't really need to document it for myself but thought I'd share, and maybe one day in my senility it will be nice to have it for myself. The mustard and onion idea I got from a Gordon Ramsey show- one of the older British ones when the focus was actually cooking and you could pick up some tips. Just two long, anecdotal-type instructions for this one.

A took this picture on a night when I hadn't had lunch that day and decided to do it up with a fried egg on top of the burger. Those are sweet potato fries on the side.

Ingredients
Ground beef - about 1lb. or slightly more (makes 3 hefty burgers)
1 heaping teaspoon of dijon mustard
1 egg
2-3 rounded tablespoons chopped onion
Salt and pepper

1. Mix all ingredient together. The egg helps bind the burger, says Ramsey, and it does hold together better than when I do it without the egg. The mix will be slightly gooey and that's fine- this lets you make some big burgers and the moisture burning off will steam the insides so it cooks through. If it's not slightly gooey, add a little ketchup.
   
2. Cook the burgers. If you have a grill and the weather permits, that's probably the best way to do it but I usually end up cooking these in a frying pan. I start with the heat a little above medium and cook them for about 4-5 minutes on each side, turning when they're well-browned. Don't mess press down on them or keep flipping them, just leave them alone while they brown. If you're not sure if they're done, press lightly on them with your finger (don't do this right after you flip them)- well done burgers are fairly firm. To some degree this just takes practice. If they do need more time after they've browned, lower the heat to medium low. If there's a lot of liquid in the pan, I'll sometimes tilt it by putting a wad of aluminum foil underneath one side of it and let it cook that way so they don't get soggy.
   

Roasted Salt and Vinegar Baby Potatoes

I'm sure this would work with other vinegars as well, and I'll definitely give it a try with balsamic, but the rice vinegar worked well for this.

Ingredients
Baby potatoes, sliced in half
Olive oil
Rice vinegar
Salt and pepper

1. Put enough olive oil in a skillet to cover the bottom, and put the heat on medium.
   
2. Place the potatoes sliced side up in the skillet (you don't have to be that precise, but it does help them come out more even).
3. When the potatoes have browned a bit, which will take 3-4 minutes, flip them so they're sliced face down.
4. Wait another 3-4 minutes for that side to brown lightly.
   
5. Hold the cover to the skillet in one hand and the rice vinegar in the other and splash the vinegar over the potatoes until the bottom of is lightly covered in vinegar.
   
6. Then put the top down to hold in the steam (and the burning vinegar smell) and let that sit for about a minute.
7. Turn the heat off and transfer the potatoes to a baking pan or cookie sheet.
8. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
9. Bake in the oven 20-30 minutes (I honestly don't remember, but it will vary based on the size of the potatoes).
   

Garlic-Lime Breaded Chicken Wings

These came out like fried wings even though they were baked, so it's relatively healthy. You don't taste the lime too much, it just gives it a little zest.


Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs chicken wings
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt
Pepper
1/8 of a cup of lime (or lemon) juice
1 egg
2 teaspoons corn oil

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Mix the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, pepper (to taste) and garlic salt in a large bowl.
3. In another bowl, beat the egg with the lime juice and just 1 teaspoon of olive oil (this helps crisp the skin of the wings).
4. Put the wings in the egg mixture and coat them.
5. Grease a baking pan with the remaining 1 teaspoon of oil.
6. One or two at a time, coat the wings with breading and place in in the baking pan.
7. Bake for 45 minutes for smaller wings, or 1 hour for larger wings.
   

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are amazing and are baked regularly, often with variations. It's loosely based on the Vanishing Oatmeal Cookie recipe on the top of the Quaker Oats container. To vary, use half chocolate chips, half dried cranberries (I highly recommend this) OR half chocolate chips, half raisins (we call these Raisinoats) OR go traditional and use all raisins. This recipe makes 2 dozen cookies.



Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick butter)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/2 bag chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix butter and sugar until creamy.
3. Add eggs and vanilla.
4. Mix in combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
5. Mix in the oats and then the chocolate chips / cranberries / raisins.
6. Optionally, refrigerate the dough for about half an hour to make it firm. The cookies will come out a little chewier this way, otherwise they'll be thinner and crispier.
   
7. Tablespoon the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes if you didn't refrigerate the dough, or 10-12 minutes if you did refrigerate it.
   

Eggplant Smoked Goudagiana

I made this one night when I was making eggplant and happened to have some smoked gouda, and was quite pleased with the results. It includes my standard tomato sauce recipe as well and makes enough sauce for 3/4 to 1 lb of pasta.

Ingredients
1 eggplant
Olive Oil
1/2 a medium onion, diced
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 small can of tomato paste
Wine or vodka
Salt
Pepper
Basil (fresh if you have it)
Pasta, your preference
Smoke gouda sliced- depends on how thick you want the slices, I used about 1/8 lb

1. Slice up eggplant about 1/2" thick and fry in a pan with olive oil over medium heat until both sides are browned.
2. Place them on a cookie sheet in the oven 325 degrees.
3. Put the diced onion and chopped clove of garlic in the pan, cook until soft.
4. Add diced tomatoes, a small can of tomato paste, enough wine (or vodka) to make it saucy, salt, pepper and basil (if it's fresh basil, don't add it until the pasta is done).
5. When you're ready to cook the pasta, spoon a little sauce on each eggplant slice and cover with thin sliced smoked gouda.
6. Put the eggplant back in the oven, start cooking the pasta and it will be ready when the pasta is done.