Thai Basil Chicken, done my way

Ingredients

1 lb chicken tenders

snow peas (couple handfuls)

1 large sweet onion, sliced thin

thai chili peppers (to taste, i use big handful)

sri racha (red chili sauce)

2 tbsp chopped thai basil leaves

soy sauce and/or teriyaki (the sweet soy sauce kind, not the thick stuff)

1-2 tpsb oil (peanut or vegetable)

1-2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp fish sauce

chopped garlic cloves (to taste)

bean sprouts for topping

limes, quartered

Mmmm this is my favorite thing to eat. I had tried a thousand ways to make this but none came close to tasting authentic until central market started selling jars of thai basil leaves (check out the asian isle) and thai chili peppers in produce. I'd made it with regular fresh sweet basil, Jalapeno and lots of sri racha, and it was good, but it wasn't thai. Now it is. You can totally substitute peppers (or omit them altogether) and use normal basil, but its worth the extra effort to get the real stuff if you consider yourself a connoisseur of thai food. Like I do.

Everything else in this dish is pretty much "to taste". Changing the amount of garlic or peppers is not going to mess with the cooking process.

My method for getting this so good is to marinade it for hours and cook it all in one of those "oven bags". It's just a plastic bag you bake in, Reynold's makes it but HEB's generic is cheaper. These things are so worth it-- the meat is super tender and you don't have to clean out the baking dish. After its baked, the chicken easily cuts into pieces and then I stirfry it all together.

Here's the steps, enjoy:

1. throw into an oven bag the chicken tenders, snow peas, and thai peppers with the stems pulled off. Unless you love pain a LOT, you're going to want to leave these whole as to easily avoid them when you're eating. They hurt. They are very, very hot. They're just there for flavor so be careful!

2. add chopped garlic, fish sauce, sri racha and then pour a few cups of soy sauce on top until all the chicken and veggies are submerged in liquid. let this sit for a few hours.

3. while cooking rice (I do brown rice in the oven) chop the sweet onions and sautee them with a splash of peanut oil and the brown sugar. I cook them til they're browned but still snappy.

4. place the oven bag in a baking dish at bake at 375f for 30-35 minutes.

5 cut a hole in the corner of the oven bag and let the liquid drain out

6. put the chicken on a cutting board and cut it into pieces. snow peas too if you want them in smaller chunks.

7. throw chicken and veggies in with the onions with the flame on high. sautee for a few minutes and serve over rice, with lime juice and bean sprouts :-)

Oven-Baked Sweet Potato Wedges

Sweet potatoes are soooo delicious. They are very different than their fellows in the potato family, both in flavor and methods of cooking. Oven-roasted potatoes are a nearly foolproof dish-- chop the potatoes, toss them in a bit of oil and spices, and bake at a high temperature, flipping once. Sweet potatoes aren't as simple; if you followed this easy method with them, they would cook in their own juices and be soggy, as opposed to crisp and delicious.
Though a step longer, the recipe for roasting sweet potato wedges is still pretty darn easy. First you need to dry them out, placing them (on a rack) in the oven at a low temperature. Then, toss them in oil and increase the temperature- bake on more time directly on the sheet, flipping once.




Ingredients

2 large sweet potatoes
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon brown sugar*
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

*note: sugar seems a bit redundant in a recipe for "sweet potatoes", but I find they don't brown as nicely and evenly without. With salt and pepper added, it shouldn't taste extra sweet.





1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line a cookie sheet with foil (or grease). Place a wire rack on the baking sheet.

2. Peel potatoes and cut them in half. Slice each half into 4-8 wedges, depending on the size of your potatoes and the thickness you prefer.

3. Arrange the wedges on top of the wire rack, not touching the cookie sheet directly. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until slightly shriveled and dry looking.

4. Place wedges in a bowl. Remove the wire rack from the cookie sheet, but put the cookie sheet back in the oven to stay hot. Preheat the oven to 475F.

5. Gently toss wedges with oil, salt, sugar, and pepper until all are evenly coated. When the oven is ready, arrange the wedges directly on the cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, flipping halfway through.

6. Enjoy!

Baked Purple Potato Chips

Behold! Purple potatoes.



Mmm, mm! Potato chips! Who doesn't love potato chips? And better yet, who doesn't love them when they're PURPLE!





Super easy recipe! Just slice the potatoes (I used "purple fingerling" ones, but any will do) with a mandolin slicer. Then in a bowl, combine with a hefty swig of canola oil and salt and pepper. Place the potato slices on parchment paper and bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes depending on how soft/crispy you want them. Then just try to wait for them to cool off a bit before you eat them all.

Nutella Swirled Bundt Cake

Interesting note!
When, at my parents lakehouse, I decided to make a bundt cake, my mom told me her bundt pan was the AUTHENTIC bundt, and she showed me the engraving on the bottom that said "Nordic Ware". Sure enough she was right! Nordic Ware trademarked the bundt in 1950. Read all about the history of this interesting-shaped cake here.

So, I chose to do a nutella swirl cake for two reasons:

1. I LOVE nutella, duhhh.
2. I have never "swirled" a cake before

For the cake recipe, I used the tried-and-true "Basic Yellow Cake" recipe from Martha Stewart (the "other" Martha, as my mom is a Martha, too.) The recipe can be found here. Her recipe calls for one 8-inch cake (about 3 cups of batter). To fit my authentic bundt pan, I doubled her recipe, but if your pan is bigger or smaller, you should adjust accordingly. I will print the recipe doubled as I executed it.



Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
2 2/3 cups cake flour (not self rising)
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup milk




1. Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs one at a time. Add Vanilla.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt
3. Add flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture in small, alternating increments


The Nutella Batter
4. Take 1 cup nutella, blend with one egg
5. Add about 1/3 or slightly less of the cake batter to the nutella mixture and blend



6. Now that you have two batters, marble them together in the bundt pan by layering them and swirling with a knife.
7. Bake at 350 for about an hour
8. Dust with confectioners sugar or, if you really want to go all the way, a thin layer of nutella :-D !!

Baked Apple Crisps

Little says "Hey, autumn!" like the smell of baking apples.

So if you don't have the time and wherewithal for an apple pie, try these baked apple crisps instead!



Mmmmm how yum do these look? They're super easy to make and disappear quite fast. The steps are simple... first, select an apple. I've tried this both with red delicious and teeny tiny gala apples.

Then, slice the apple with a mandolin slicer (Bed Bath and Beyond, guys. Not expensive and comes in handy for lots of kitchen tasks!)

Immediately put the slices in a bowl with water and a splash of lemon juice. The acidity keeps the apple from turning brown. Orange juice works as well, and adds a tangy flavor.



Place the apple slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, or anything else you might want.




Then bake them at your ovens lowest setting-- mine was 200 degrees-- for 1.5 to 2 hours, or more or less depending on how gooey/crispy you like 'em.

I know thats a LONG time to wait for apple chips but it has the added effect of making your home smell great!

Faux-reos

Okay! So yesterday was a lazy Saturday and I decided to indulge my sweet tooth. There's two recipes I've been wanting to try- one for homemade oreos over at the Smitten Kitchen blog, as well as a "cookies from cake" recipe from allrecipes.com. I decided to combine the two- instead of making the chocolate cookies from scratch, I made them from a box of cake mix. The EASIEST cookies EVER, and they turned out perfectly! I used to be a huuuge oreo fan (I ate them not by the cookie but by the "sleeve") but now, I can't bring myself to eat even one. Something about the trans-fat laden animal lard in the center... throws off my appetite. Well, these are still pretty fatty and sugary but nowhere near as disturbing to think about! So indulge!



What You Need


1 box chocolate cake mix (dark chocolate is preferable)
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil

8 oz cream cheese
1-2 cups confectioners sugar



The cookies! First, preheat your oven! 325 degrees F. Combine the cake mix, eggs, and oil in a bowl and whip it up! Since the full amount of cake batter is used with fewer eggs and less oil than the actual cake would call for, the batter will be SUPER thick and sticky! Place teaspoon-sized balls of chocolate-y gooey goodness on either a VERY greased baking sheet or parchment paper. Now, unlike regular butter cookies, these will not melt into shape in the oven. Gently flatten the balls with either a greased spoon or wet fingers as they will be sticky! Then bake 10-12 minutes or until slightly firm. They will firm up when they cool off so don't overcook them! Let them cool on a baking rack.

The filling! I was initially going to make a butter icing, but that is so plain and I've done it too much. So I decided to make a cream cheese frosting, it turned out quite nicely! Blend 8 oz of cream cheese with 1-2 cups confectioners sugar, depending on how sweet (or not!) you want them. Then, put a glob in the center of one cookie and press down with another. Voila! Creamy sandwich cookie.

try not to eat them all!

Cornbread

Ingredients
1 1/2 Cups Cornmeal
1/2 Cup Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon or more Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Soda
1/4 Cup Oil (not olive)
1 1/2 Cups Buttermilk
2 Eggs



1. Heat oven to 450
2. Place oil in pan and heat in oven
3. Mix dry ingredients and liquid ingredients in separate bowls
4. Carefully add the oil to mixture and pour back into pan
5. Bake 25-30 minutes

Auntie Ann's Kugel

INGREDIENTS

1/2 C Butter melted, reserve 2 Tbls for topping
12 oz Extra Wide Egg Noodles, slightly undercooked
8 oz Sour Cream
1 Lb Cottage Cjeese
2Tbls Sugar (or more!)
3 Eggs Seperated
handful of Crushed Corn Flakes




1. Mix all ingredients except egg whites and corn flakes
2. Beat whites until fluffy, gently fold into mixture
3. Pour into greased 9x13 baking dish
4. Top with cornflakes and drizzle with melted butter
5. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes