Orange-Sesame Chicken

This is one of our favorite asian food recipes that uses stuff that's in your house...I don't have to buy a ton of bottles of crazy asian sauces to make this. It's great. I usually double the sauce recipe so that we have some sauce with our rice. I also usually stir fry some veggies (either a bag of frozen or some fresh) to go with it.

Orange Sesame Chicken

Found on blogchef.net

Verdict: Really good. It's not spicy in the slightest so might want to add some kind of chili flakes if that's how you like your food.

1.5lb Chicken Breast Tenderloin Strips (cut into cubes)

Batter for chicken:

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg beaten

2/3 cup water (or as much as you need to make batter smooth)

3 TBSP Cornstarch

2 sticks of Crisco baking grease (used to to fry the chicken in a skillet)

Sauce (amounts are already doubled):

1/3 cup ketchup

1/4 cup honey

4 tsp sugar

3.5 TBSP white vinegar

2 tsp sesame oil

1 cup water

juice of 1 orange

tsp garlic powder

sesame seeds (to sprinkle on finished product)

In a large bowl, combine batter ingredients and mix well. The batter should be thick enough to cover the chicken but thin enough for your chicken to flow easily in the bowl. 

Dump cut chicken pieces into large bowl of batter and mix chicken around making sure each piece is covered.

Deep fry chicken in heated Crisco oil for about 4-5 minutes or until cooked all the way through and golden brown.

In a medium sized pot, mix together sauce ingredients. Cook over low-medium heat until sauce is thick and bubbly. Mix in chicken pieces and top with sesame seeds.

Homemade Cookout Potato Salad

I'm not a mayonnaise person.. Let me say that again, I am NOT a mayonnaise person. At all. In fact, the thought of it is revolting. BUT- this recipe is really good. I love it and most everyone else seems to love it, too!

Homemade Cookout Potato Salad

3.5 lbs red potatoes cut into 1in pieces

8oz sour cream

1/2 cup mayo

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup chopped green onions

Boil the potato pieces for 10 minutes or until a fork can easily slip into the pieces.

Drain and lay them out onto a cookie sheet to cool while you get the sour cream mixture prep'd.

Mix mayo, sour cream, onion powder, garlic powder, sprinkle of salt and a pinch of pepper in a bowl. Mix in green onions.

Crumble and smoosh 1/3 of the potato bites and then hand mix them into a large bowl with the rest of the potato pieces. Toss in the large bowl with the mayo mixture. Allow to set in refrigerator for 30 minutes before serving.

Verdict: I really like this potato salad. My mother always had mustard in hers and had the potatoes all mashed but I really like the chunky potato pieces and (dare I say it?!) the fact that there isn't any mustard!

Gooey Caramel Brownies

I found a recipe for these on Pinterest....and decided to change it up a bit.

Gooey Caramel Brownies

1- 18.25oz box brownie mix

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (more if you are a choco-holic)

1-14oz bag of caramel candies (I used half a bag of these from Hammond's Candy Factory. Except I used just regular caramel instead of the Mitchell Sweets.)

2/3 cup evaporated milk separated

3/4 cup butter melted

 Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, stir together the brownie mix, melted butter and 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Pour and press (depending on how wet your mix is) half the batter into a greased 9x13in pan reserving the rest of the batter. Bake for 10 minutes in preheated oven.

Meanwhile, in a heavy saucepan, combine caramels and 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth and set aside.

Remove first half of the brownie mix from the oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips. pour caramel mixture evenly over the chips and Crumble (or pour) the remaining dough over the caramel layer and return to the oven to bake for an additional 15-18 minutes.

Cool in refrigerator to set the caramel before cutting into bars.

Verdict: These were super tasty and even got the thumbs up from a friend of mine's little boy. THAT means it's good! The taste of these was amazing. The only problem I had was the altitude. It messes with everything I bake and this was no exception. It didn't make it quite as fluffy and brownie-like. Instead, it was sticky but I'm not complaining...it was so good!

Sixty-Nine: Panko Fish Sticks

Panko Fish Sticks

Rating: Delicious

Location

1 cup whole wheat panko breadcrumbs

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 cup finely chopped pecans

1/2 cup all-purpose or whole-wheat flour

4 egg whites, lightly beaten (I have used less egg whites and was fine)

1 Tbsp canola oil

1 1/2 lb grouper or cod, cut into 1 1/4-inch (3 cm) slices

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 ˚F (200 ˚C).


In shallow dish, combine panko, paprika and walnuts. In another small dish, place flour. Whisk together egg whites and canola oil in third dish.

Season fish with salt and pepper and brush with Dijon mustard. Dip fish in flour, then egg and oil, and dredge in panko mixture, pressing firmly to coat. Place fish on lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until fish flakes evenly when tested with fork.

Review: These are delicious and one of our favorite dinner treats. It's the classic meal that takes you back to your childhood but definitely has an adult twist. The pecans just make it even better. The recipe originally called for walnuts, but I'm a pecan girl, not a walnut girl so I switched it up.

Sixty-Eight: Meatball Sub Casserole

Meatball Sub Casserole

Rating: Good

Online Location: http://www.brendascanadiankitchen.com/2011/05/meatball-sub-casserole.html

Directions:

1/3 cup chopped green onions

1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

3 T grated Parmesan cheese

1 pound ground beef

1 loaf (1 pound) Italian bread, cut into 1.5-inch slices

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 jar (28 ounce) spaghetti or marinara sauce

2 garlic cloves, minced

In a bowl, combine onions, bread crumbs & parmesan cheese. Mix in 1LB beef. Shape into 1-inch balls; place on a greased rack in a shallow baking pan. Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes until no longer pink.

Arrange bread in a single layer in an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish (all of the bread might not be used). Combine the cream cheese, sour cream, Italian seasoning and pepper. Spread over the bread. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzarella.

Combine the spaghetti sauce & garlic; add meatballs. Pour over cheese mixture; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Review: Tasted good. I made the mistake of using french bread and it didn't turn out as well as it would have had I used the Italian bread. Was really good and moist. Joshua and I both agreed that we'd make it again. Leftovers were gone in the next day.

Mini Ice Cream Sundaes

This was our dessert for our mean on Thursday! They were SO yummy and I got tons of compliments on them!
Mini-cookie icecream sundaes.
1 pkg pillsbury Ready to Bake sugar cookies (24 pack-break and bake)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (I used a shaker of sprinkles instead)
1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup seedless red raspberry jam (I didn't use this either)
1 1/2 cups vanilla bean ice cream
24 fresh raspberries (I used cherries instead)
1 can whipped cream

Grease mini-muffin/mini-cupcake pan. Place one cookie dough round in each muffin cup. Bake 12-14 minutes on 350F
In a small bowl, microwave choco chips uncovered for 80 seconds stopping and stirring every 20 seconds until smooth.
Let cookies cool in muffin pan about 20 minutes or so before removing. To remove-run knife around edges or cookie (I didn't do this because with the pan greased, they came out very easily)
Dip the rim of each cup into the melted chocolate and then sprinkle sprinkles around the edges. (If you were using walnuts, at this stage you would dip the cup into the chocolate and then dip it into the chopped walnuts)
In another microwaveable bowl, microwave jame uncoverd for about 15 seconds until melted. Spoon half a tsp into each cup. (I did not to this step)
Freeze on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes or until chocolate is set.
Spoon small scoops of ice cream into each cup. When ready to serve top with whipped cream and a cherry (or raspberry) on top.
I got this recipe from Pillsbury on the back of their cookie package and it was so very great. I changed it up a bit as the original recipe didn't even call for whipped cream, but seriously, how can I not have that?! I'm sorry I don't have a link for it! I do have a picture though!

Homemade Fresh Peach Jam

I have stolen a recipe. A delicious recipe. From: here. It's a recipe for homemade peach jam.
I made a white peach jam with this recipe and it turned out quite well.
Here are the steps in case you don't want to link over:
2lbs (or 8) peaches
2 tsp lemon zest (I didn't do this one)
2 TBSP lemon juice
2 cups sugar

-Blanch peaches.
[How to: put peaches in boiling water for exactly one minute, no more, no less. Remove and place peaches in cold water bath for one minute, no more, no less.]
-Peel peaches, cut out the seed and cut peaches in to slices
-Put peach slices, lemon zest and lemon juice in large pot on low/med heat.
-Cook for 15 minutes or so until the peaches are soft and juices have been released. Once peaches are soft, smash with a potato masher or spoon. (I used potato smasher)
-Once your fruit has been smashed into mush with small pieces, add your two cups of sugar and stir until dissolved.
-On Med-high heat, bring mix to a boil. Cook for 5 or so minutes, stirring constantly.
-After 5 minutes, reduce heat to low-med and allow to slow cook (not boil) for 40-60 minutes (I did 22 or so minutes).
-Remove from heat and allow to thicken.

Enjoy :)

All of it went as planned as said on the recipe except blanching didn't work on my peaches. Not sure if it was the fact that they were white peaches instead of yellow or if maybe my peaches weren't ripe enough (or overripe). The second thing that didn't go well was the last step: putting it on low heat and letting it stay warm, but not boil. I couldn't get my pot to stop boiling so after 20 minutes, I cut it off and it still turned out very well.. maybe a little more 'watery' than what they wanted it to be, but it's really tasty.

Now for the pictures!

First step, cutting and peeling the fruit.

My lovely chopped peaches!

Peaches in the pot

Slowly being smushed into submission :)

Just before I let it simmer over the stove....almost finished!!

Finished products. Just as delicious as it looks!

xoxo,
Hannah

Meatloaf

...I was going to take a picture, but then it was gone before I could! Ha :)
My meatloaf recipe probably is nothing special. My mom gave me a recipe and then Joshua and I just altered it to our tastes. On any given night, I can say "How about meatloaf for dinner?" And his response is always "Yeah!". Needless to say, it's one of our favorite dishes.

1 lb ground beef
1 egg
8-10 croutons crushed by hand
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup BBQ sauce

Preheat oven to 350F (180C)
Mix all together in a bowl. I usually add most of the Barbecue sauce but leave a bit left to drizzle on top.
Press meat into bottom of loaf pan and drizzle last of barbecue sauce on top of the meat mixture.
Cover loaf pan with foil. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 15-20 minutes.

My grandmother adds a can of Rotel tomatoes and peppers to her meatloaf. That would be a great variation to this already 'Texas style' dish but Joshua (and I!!!) are not spicy food type people so we veto this addition.

Om nom nom
Enjoy :)

Fifty

I had a ladies movie night at our house in Waegwan tonight. All the hubby's stayed home and kept their kids while we hung out. I tried my hand at popping pop corn on the stove top. (It was okay.. Some of it tastes a bit burnt to me, but oh well.) We ate chips and salsa, homemade popcorn and some cupcakes! I made some yummy cupcakes that I found the recipe for on the Kraft food website. They were white cake cupcakes with cool whip frosting then I cut up marshmallows and pieced them back together to make it look like pop corn on top. They were cute and I felt the need to share it with everyone tonight :)
I took a picture of them, so I will have to share soon :)

EDIT:

Caramel 'popcorn' (caramel dribbled on top of the marshmallows), Plain 'popcorn', Buttered 'popcorn' (half a cup of water and 3 or 4 drops of yellow food coloring brushed on top of the marshmallows give them the yellow color!)


There is one recipe that I have tried numerous times only to have it flop every. single. time. Pudding. Seriously, pudding?! How hard could it be, right? Well it was apparently difficult for my mind to comprehend.
When mom came to visit, I had her show it to me again. And finally it clicked! Now I have been on a rampage of pudding making. I have made it 4 times since mom left. LOL! That's 4 times in one and a half weeks!!
This was the ubber yummy banana pudding that I made!


All for now.
Xoxo,
Hannah

Tater Tot Casserole

Last night, some of the boys came over. We ate tater tot casserole. It was my first time making it. I couldn't find a recipe that I thought would be fabulous, so I just created my own. :)

Tater Tot Casserole

1 32oz. Bag frozen tatertots

2 cups cheddar cheese (seperated)

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 lb ground beef

2 green onion stalks

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1 Tablespoon garlic salt(we REALLY like garlic :))

Preheat oven to 350F

Brown beef

Cover the bottom of a greased 9x13 with the browned beef. Top with salts and slices of green onion.

Layer chicken soups and 1 cup cheese on top of beef.

^Meat and soups before cheese and tater tots

On top of soups and beef, press in tater tots. I didn't end up using the entire bag, just about 3/4ths or so.

Top off tater tots with 1 cup cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350F for 20 minutes or until tater tots are cooked and cheese has melted.

^The finished product before the oven

The boys LOVED it. Usually, they eat one helping and they're through. They ate two BIG helpings. I had to make them stop going back for more so that the others would have some left! This was definitely a hit and will be made again soon.

Yum!

Enjoy :)

xoxo,

Hannah

Breakfast Bake

My group of friends tend to get together about once a week or so and have coffee. Sometimes we just have coffee and other days we get to enjoy breakfast, too! This is what I bring a lot because it's so easy and fast.

7 eggs
2 frozen hashbrown patties
1 cup of shredded cheese (depends on how much cheese you want)
10 round slices of sausage
1 can cresent rolls

Preheat oven to 350F
Cover the bottom and sides of pan (or casserole dish) with the cresent rolls laid out. Make sure to press dough together so that the perforated lines aren't visable.
In separate mixing bowl, crack all 7 eggs and whisk.
Break apart frozen (or thawed) hashbrown into egg mix.
Cut sausage slices into quarters and mix in egg mix, as well.
Pour egg mix into pan or dish. Top with plentiful amounts of cheese! Yum!
Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. My oven in Korea has to bake longer because we are at such a high elevation, but basically you just want to make sure it's fairly firm in the middle of the pan (No raw eggs here) and the cresent rolls should be toasted- brown but not burnt!

Grown-Up Grilled Cheese

I don't/won't eat Kraft singles. Whoever coined the term that it was America's favorite lied! It's gross. Because I hate Kraft singles with such a passion, I tried to come up with a way to join Joshua's favorite food with my tastes. These are cooked just like a normal grilled cheese. On your stove with butter on the outsides of the bread. Basic, just with a twist. This was my recipe for it:

2 slices of bread
Plenty of butter
About 5 slices medium sharp cheddar cheese (from a block of cheese!)
A few pinches of garlic salt

It's the basic set up of a normal grilled cheese, we just use cheddar cheese slices and some garlic salt.
Butter outsides of bread. Place cheese slices (laid out in perfect symmetry, of course!) inside sandwich.
Sprinkle garlic on the side you first drop on the skillet. Once that side is dropped, then sprinkle the other side that way once it's flipped, it's already got all the salt necessary. I like a lot of salt so I just shake until I see enough.
Flip as soon as the other side gets a little crispy.
Voila! Grown-up grilled cheese. For those that have better taste than the icky Kraft! lol

One of our other grown-up grilled cheese favorites is from this link. It involves apples, cinnamon and cheese :) Delicious.

The other variation that I've discovered is using mozzarella cheese, pizza sauce and pepperonis. Yum!!

Cresent Stuffed Crust Pizza

One thing that Joshua and I eat a lot of is pizza. Frozen or fresh, it doesn't matter to us. One little experiment we tested was to roll out cresent rolls and use it for pizza dough.
Ingredients:
1 can cresent rolls
1 package string cheese per can of rolls
Jar of Pizza sauce (there will be plenty left over so get the jar kind so it can be resealed)
3/4 cup of cheddar or Mozzarella cheese
Toppings if desired: Ham, canadian bacon, pepperoni, etc.

On a cookie sheet, lay out the non-rolled up rolls. Keep them nice and flat. Lay them so that they form a big rectangle. On each cresent roll there are perforated lines, so make sure to 'seal' them up so your sauce doesn't run.
Cut each string cheese in half, longways. Place the two halves at the top of your pizza dough and roll the dough over the top of the cheese just enough so that it won't let the cheese bubble out.
Cook at 350F for about 4 minutes. Just enough to get it started cooking.
Take dough out of the oven and smother it in pizza sauce, cheese and whatever toppings you desire! Put back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so. It will be slightly brown and toasted when it's finished. It was slightly crumbly since the cresent rolls are flaky but the crumbles were delicious.

Mountain Dew Cake

For those that don't know, Mountain Dew is Joshua's all time favorite drink. In fact, it's almost the ONLY thing he drinks. If there aren't Mountain Dews in the fridge, sometimes he will drink a coke or maybe a glass of tea, but it's just never good enough for him. Mountain Dew cake is a delicious version of a lemon cake! A friend of mine from here in Korea gave me this recipe. It belongs to her mother. Thanks for the recipe, Ashley :)

Ingredients:
1 box of lemon cake mix
1 box of lemon pudding
1 12oz can of Mt Dew
3 eggs
3/4 cup of oil
Combine and bake in bundt pan for 40 minutes at 375F.
After 10 minutes, it's safe to remove the cake from the bundt pan.
When cake is only slightly warm, ice cake.

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 TBSP Water
1 tsp Vanilla
Mix together in sandwich bag, cut the tip and drizzle on the cake.

I couldn't find lemon pudding in our little px here so I just used one of the little premade cups of vanilla pudding. To supplement the lack of lemon in the pudding, I also squeezed some lemon juice from a fresh lemon in to the bowl. And of course, the cake was perfect. I couldn't stop stealing bites as I was trying to serve it to Joshua's friends! It doesn't necessarily tastes like Mountain Dew, it just has it in it. We loved it.

Granny's Pink Stuff

My first recipe to share is one of the easiest things ever. Seriously. This is my granny's recipe for 'pink stuff'. It's essentially an ambrosia salad. When I was small, they kept telling me the name of this junk and I couldn't ever remember so eventually I just kept saying "I want some of that pink stuff!"...well the name stuck. It's my favorite thing in the world.

1 can Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
1 can crushed pineapple (make sure to drain it so the juice doesn't water down the salad)
1 small can mandarin oranges (I made this alteration- granny's originally has no oranges. Make sure to also drain oranges.)
1 smaller container of Cool Whip
1 can strawberry (or cherry) pie filling
*Optional: Coconut and/or pecans

Mix with a spoon, chill and serve!

The kids in our family (aka me and sometimes my little brother Bradley) are picky... REALLY picky, so granny doesn't use coconuts or pecans. We love pecans, but she just keeps it strictly fruit for us! And I don't mind it one bit!
When I made this, I used fresh whipping cream and whipped it myself. It turns out just as well and maybe it's a tad bit fresher or healthier, but hell- when you throw in sweetened condensed milk, you kinda throw away any healthiness. We tend to use strawberry pie filling. I'm not a big fan of the 'fake' taste of the cherry pie filling, but I've had it both ways. It's good no matter what.

See? What did I say. Easy Peasy! Just make sure to drain the oranges and the pineapple!

Fourty-Seven

I've decided that I am going to add recipes to our blog. Recipes that I love (or that Joshua loves...or that his friends and family/my friends and family love!) with alterations or notes (and possibly even pictures!) to go along with them.
I always try to make the title of the blog post coincide with the number of posts total. This is my ONE (or maybe seven) exception(s).

xoxo,
Hannah

Fourty-Five

Don't have a long time to post today as I have my volunteering today and I've got to get lunch ready for when Joshua gets home from work since he only gets such a short time. We had a great Easter. We went to an Easter Egg Hunt/get together for Joshua's battalion. There were about 35 families there. Joshua and I just hung out with some couples that we knew. It was fun to watch all the kiddos run around. After we had lunch and watched the kiddos run after the eggs, we had a get together/cookout that afternoon with some couple friends of ours. They had a little Easter Egg hunt for their kiddos and then everyone cooked and brought lots of food. There was SO much to eat and it was all SO good! We never walk away from those cookouts feeling hungry, that's for sure! I am feeling quite blessed that I've come across this group of friends. They are all funny and so nice. I'm not sure how much I would be hating life right now if I hadn't found all these ladies.
Only 4 months and about 4 weeks until we get home! *whew* We are SO excited to finally be getting this close. I've only been here 4 and a half months and it already feels like a year! One of Joshua's closest friends found out where he will be stationed after Korea just recently so we keep hoping that we will find out soon!! We hope to go to Ft Bragg, NC or back to Ft Hood.... Those would both be ideal so we hope that's where they will send us!
Anyway, off to prepare some 'tuna cakes'. Recipe: here. Should be good....plus it's cheap! Win-win ;)

Xoxo
Hannah