by jphilo | May 6, 2010 | Recipes
Teriyaki sauce is a versatile addition to any cook’s arsenal. I use it for chicken stir fry (pictured above) and to marinate chicken breasts before broiling or grilling them. I haven’t tried it on pork chops, but suspect it would be great with them, too.
At the height of grilling season, the sauce is a great marinate for beef or chicken chunks used for shish kabobs. A little meat goes a long way when skewered on a stick with peppers, onions, pineapple, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Don’t throw away the marinate when the meat goes on the grill. Bring it to a boil in a saucepan and serve it over rice as a side dish. Yum!
This recipe comes from Once a Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg, though I reduced the amount of sugar in half. They also suggest mixing 1/4 cup in a pound of hamburger before grilling them for a fun flavor twist.
Teriyaki Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce 1 medium clove garlic, crushed
1/4 cup sugar 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger or grated ginger root
2 teaspoons sesame seed oil 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Mix ingredients together. Marinate meat for at least 1/2 hour before grilling. You can also put meat and marinate in a ziplock bag and freeze for later.
by jphilo | Apr 28, 2010 | Recipes
Hmm…I noticed that the last four recipes posted on this blog have been for dessert. With shorts weather just around the corner, maybe you’d appreciate something tasty and healthy. So here goes.
A few years ago, Anne begged me to get the recipe for Cashew Chicken from her best friend’s Rachel’s mom, Joni Gainer. So I did, and the dish quickly became one of our family favorites. The vegetables in the recipe provide quantity guidelines, but you can swap those listed with whatever is in season. Try green or wax beans, cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini, summer squash, grape or cherry tomatoes, different varieties of peppers, and sugar snap peas.
The last time I made this, I’d just returned from a week of travel. When I went to the cupboard, the peanut butter jar was empty, so I substituted almond butter. The cashews were gone, so I used almonds instead. Conclusion: Jolene’s Almond Chicken is tasty, too.
Joni’s Cashew Chicken
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons sesame or peanut oil
1/2 cup cashews
1 whole chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 cups green onions, washed, topped, and cut into one inch slices
1 cup peeled carrots, sliced into thin, one inch pieces
2 cups broccoli florets washed and cut into bite-sized pieces
3/4 cup sweet red pepper, washed, seeded, and cut into half-inch pieces
2-3 cups pea pods, washed
Sauce: Combine soy sauce, peanut butter and honey in a 1 cup measuring cup. Heat in the microwave for one minute on high. Stir until peanut butter is mostly melted. Set mixture to the side.
Turn burner on high and heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add cashews and stir for one minute, until cashews begin to brown. Spoon them onto paper towels to drain. Heat another tablespoon of oil in pan. Turn burner to medium high and add chicken. Stir until meat is completely cooked and begins to brown. Spoon chicken into a bowl and set aside.
Heat last two tablespoons of oil in pan and add vegetables, one kind at a time, at one minute intervals. . Add chicken and stir until mixed. Pour sauce over all and stir until the stir fry ingredients are coated and sauce is bubbly.
Spoon mixture onto a bed of rice and sprinkle with cashews. Serve hot.
by jphilo | Apr 22, 2010 | Recipes
In the past few weeks, I’ve made these cookies twice for different gatherings. The recipe is a twist on traditional peanut butter cookies, is adapted from one published by Relish Magazine a couple years ago. The cookies contain generous amounts of almond butter and almonds, which are good sources of calcium. And oatmeal, even in a cookie, provides plenty of fiber.
Sometimes ingredient list convinces me that cookies are actually healthy, which might be true if I ate only one or two. But these puppies are addicting, and I can’t stop eating them. My solution is to send the extras with Hiram to put in the staff room at work. He and his co-workers would be happy to take any extras you might have, too!
Almond-Butter Oatmeal Cookies
10 tablespoons butter
½ cup almond butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
2 ½ cups quick-cooking oatmeal
¾ cup coarsely chopped almonds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and almond butter until light in color. Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir in oats and almonds. Drop batter by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake 10 – 15 minutes.
Baking Tips:
The more you cream the butter and almond butter together, the better your cookies will taste.
For chewy cookies, underbake by a minute or two. For crispier ones, bake a minute longer than suggested.
For more fiber, used old-fashioned rolled oats instead of quick-cooking oatmeal.
The original recipe called for cashews instead of almonds. Experiment with different kinds of nuts until you find your favorite flavor combination.
by jphilo | Apr 8, 2010 | Recipes
You know how you associate some foods with your family or certain celebrations? Well, of all the foods I can think of, Early Bird Coffee Cake is the one I identify most with my childhood home. Mom cut the recipe out of the Des Moines Register in the late 1950s or early 1960s.
It is different from any other coffee cake I’ve tasted. In fact, I’d never tasted anything remotely like it until two years ago at Family Camp in Idaho when Bishop’s Bread was served for breakfast one morning. The recipes are similar, but not identical, the biggest difference being the presence of both cinnamon and nutmeg in the coffee cake. That’s what gives it a distinctive, delicious flavor.
Try it and see what you think!
Early Bird Coffee Cake
2 1/2 cup flours 2/3 cup softened shortening
2 cups brown sugar 1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt 2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl. Cut in shortening. Remove one cup of the mixture and reserve for topping. Add eggs and buttermilk, stirring until batter is still slightly lumpy. Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle dry mixture on top. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes. Do not overbake!
by jphilo | Apr 2, 2010 | Recipes
A few years ago, I found a recipe for breakfast cake in Relish Magazine. It didn’t thrill my family the first time I made it. But the basic recipe used oatmeal, one of my favorite ingredients, I didn’t want to give up on it. So I took some of the sugar intended for the batter and used it to create a buttery, nutty filling. Once that happened, the fam decided it was a keeper. In fact, my daughter recently asked me to include it in the recipe book she wants me to make before her wedding in July.
Served with fruit, the cake makes a tasty and unusual breakfast. See what you think, and if you come up with any variations to make it even better, leave a comment below.
Oatmeal Breakfast Cake
Batter: Filling:
1 cup all-purpose flour ½ cup chopped walnuts
1 cup whole wheat flour ¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 cup old-fashioned oats ¼ cup melted butter
½ cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 12 cup bunt pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl, mix filling ingredients and set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flours, oats, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil buttermilk and eggs. Add to dry mixture and stir until combined.
Spoon half of batter into pan. Spread filling evenly over the batter. Spoon the remaining batter over the filling layer. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack and remove from the pan. Makes 16 servings.
by jphilo | Mar 26, 2010 | Recipes
A friend of mine said her husband enjoys the soup recipes I’ve posted in the last few months. So before spring and summer take over, here’s one more easy soup recipe that’s easy to modify.
A dear friend, Johnny Darling, gave me the recipe during the summer of 1982. We were staying with her and her husband in Bellevue, Nebraska while our son was in the University of Nebraska Hospital in Omaha. If you’re read A Different Dream for My Child: Meditations for Parents of Critically or Chronically Ill Children, she’s the woman who tries to get back at the squirrels in her yard by firing apricot pits at them with her slingshot. If you haven’t read the book, that tidbit of story should make you want to buy a copy, don’t you think?
Johnny was one of the most joyful, creative, free-spirited people I’ve known. She died of a fast-moving cancer about five years after Allen was born. Every time I make this soup, I see her smile and resolve to emulate her zest for living and her refusal to be bound by the expectations of others. I’m not always successful in those departments, but her soup recipe always turns out right. So without further ado, here it is.
Cream of Broccoli Soup
1 sixteen ounce can of chicken broth
2 cups milk
1 cup of chopped broccoli, cauliflower or celery
2 – 3 tablespoons butter
3 – 4 tablespoons flour
Melt butter in a saucepan and add vegetables. Saute for a minute or two over medium high heat, then add flour and stir until mixture is goopy. Turn down heat to medium and gradually add chicken broth, a couple tablespoons at a time. Stir well after each addition. Fill the empty can with milk and slowly add it. Heat until mixture just begins to boil, stirring constantly.
Options: You can add chopped ham or fried, crumbled bacon along with the vegetables. (There is ham in the soup pictured above.) Or add a 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese when the mixture begins to boil. Stir until cheese melts and serve immediately.
