Sesame Chicken

I found this recipe on Cully's Kitchen and decided to give it a try.  I am so glad I did because it was really good.  It tasted like it came from a Chinese restaurant, but better because I knew exactly what was in it!  I loved it and will definitely be making this again.

I did make a few minor changes to this which I have noted below in the recipe.  I don't love the taste of ginger so I only put in half what the recipe called for and I think next time I will leave it out completely.  I also think next time I will use low sodium soy sauce to cut down on some of the saltiness.  Other than that this is a great recipe and definitely worth making!

Sesame Chicken
Source: Cully's Kitchen

Ingredients:

Sauce:

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup chicken broth
1-2 tablespoon sesame oil (to personal taste)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 dash red chili pepper flakes (I omitted this)
2 teaspoons cornstarch (or more is you want a thicker sauce) (I used 2 tsp and thought it was perfect)

Chicken:

4 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon sherry wine (I omitted this because I didn't have any)
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder (optional) (I omitted this)
2 drops sesame oil
cornstarch, to coat chicken
Vegetable oil or Peanut oil (for frying)
Sesame Seed (to garnish)
Sliced Green Onion (to garnish)
prepared Rice, to serve.

Directions

Combine chicken ingredients except cornstarch and let marinate for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.

Remove chicken from marinade and toss in cornstarch then cook chicken in hot oil on the stove or deep fryer until cooked through.  Keep warm in pan while making the sauce.

Combine all sauce ingredients EXCEPT cornstarch in a sauce pan and bring to a boil over med. heat.
Mix cornstarch with a little water (about 1/4 cup) in a cup until dissolved- then slowly add to the sauce mixture on the stove and heat until thickened to the consistency of gravy.

Add the sauce to the chicken. Heat thoroughly.  Serve over hot rice.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions.

S'mores Bars

These are definitely one of my favorite s'more treats.  I have made them twice and love them so much.  They taste just like a traditional s'more! 

S'more Cookie Bars
source: Baked to Perfection

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (approximately 7 full graham crackers)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 super-sized (5 oz.) dark chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.

Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. Two 5 oz. Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread marshmallow fluff evenly over the chocolate layer.

Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff. This is most easily done by putting the second half of the dough in a gallon size freezer bag. Use your palms to flatten it out, and then use scissors to cut down both long sides of the bag, so it will open up book-style. Open it up carefully, and the dough will stick on one side of the bag. Then place the bag, dough side down, on the other three layers. From there peel the bag up ad spread the dough where it is uneven.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars

Makes 16 cookie bars

Homemade Oreos

I've pinned a few recipes for homemade oreos and it's been on my "recipes to try" list for quite some time.  I finally got around to trying them!

I ended up changing a few things to the recipe I chose to use.  I did not change the ingredients, just the way I made the dough.  The original recipe called for putting the ingredients together using a food processor.  Not only did that seem a little strange to me, but I also don't own a food processor.  So I made the dough using my Kitchen Aid. 

This recipe was A-MA-ZING!  The dough was so easy to make - I had it done before my oven was even finished pre-heating!  Start to finish I think these cookies took about an hour, which was really so much faster than I expected!

These cookies are fantastically delicious!  I used my small cookie scoop for these but I think next time I will make them smaller so that they are a little more bite size.  I got 14 sandwiches of this size. 

Homemade Oreos
Source: Handle the Heat

For the cookies: 

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1/4 teaspoon baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 cup granulated sugar 
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 
1 large egg

For the filling: 
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature 
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar 
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

To make the cookies:

Preheat oven to 375F.  Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.  In the bowl of a mixer cream the butter and sugar.  Add egg and beat until combined.  Add dry ingredients and beat until well combined.

Drop teaspoons of batter onto parchment paper lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart.  Flatten slightly.  Bake for 9 minutes.  Do not over bake.  Cookies should look slightly undercooked in the middle.  Let cool on the cookie sheet for about 3 minutes to set up then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting:

Beat butter with electric mixer on low speed.  Add vanilla and blend well.  Gradually add sugar and beat on high for 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy.

To assemble:

Using a pastry bag or spatula, drop a teaspoon-size blob of filling into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press down to work the filling evenly towards the outside of the cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling.

Meal Plan Monday ~ Week of Jan. 16

Since today is MLK day we get an extra day off!  I'm in the process of going through my cookbooks and creating a spreadsheet of all the recipes I like so I think I'll be working on that on my extra day off.  

Last week ended up having lots of late days and not as much cooking as I planned.  Here is what we are having this week.

Sunday- Slow Cooker Rotisserie Chicken (new recipe)

Monday- Hamburgers, herbed steak fries (can't seem to get enough of these lately), corn on the cob

Tuesday- Burritos, rice

Wednesday- Au Gratin Ham Pot Pie (new recipe)

Thursday- I have to work late for conferences so Daddy and the kids are on their own.

Have a great week everyone!

Linking up to Org. Junkie

Fantasy Fudge

This is my favorite fudge recipe.  It is so smooth and chocolatey and oh so delicious!  This is a must have for your holiday cookie tray.  Or just anytime you want a delicious chocolate treat.  It freezes wonderfully so you can make it ahead and keep it in the freezer.  Just be sure to wrap it well.  I freeze mine wrapped in plastic wrap and then put those in a ziplock bag.

Fantasy Fudge

3 cups of sugar
3/4 cups butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 (12 oz.) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (if desired)

Combine sugar, butter and milk in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from the heat and add chocolate chips, mixing until melted.  Add marshmallow cream and mix until blended.  Add vanilla and stir in nuts.  Pour into a greased 9 x 13 in. pan.  Refrigerate until firm then cut into squares.

Meal Plan Monday ~ Week of Jan. 9, 2012

I'm actually writing this on Sunday because tomorrow it's back to school for this teacher!  As always the time went by way too fast.  But I feel like it was a great break full of all the things I love!  Plus I do believe I fulfilled everything on my winter break bucket list!  So now starts the countdown until Spring break and then SUMMER!

For some reason I had a hard time meal planning for this week.  I just felt so uninspired and nothing sounded good to me.  I know, weird right?  Well here is what I came up with.  Usually I start my week on Sunday but this week I began my meal plan on Saturday.

Saturday - Sesame Chicken  (recipe coming soon)

Sunday - Meatball subs and herbed steak fries

Monday - Hamburgers, fries, beans and corn on the cob

Tuesday - Stromoboli (new recipe), potato salad

Wednesday - Herb and garlic chicken, veggies and rice

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Mom's night off

Shared at Menu Plan Monday

Caramel Corn

This is the first time I have made caramel corn.  I love caramel corn but I guess I always thought it was difficult to make.  Since it was on my winter break bucket list I decided I needed to give it a try.

I actually made two different recipes for caramel corn in one day.  The first one was delicious but it wasn't quite what I was looking for.  I was looking for crunchy and it was chewy and more gooey than what I wanted.  It would be a great recipe for popcorn balls but just wasn't what I had in mind.
  So I searched for recipes and found this one on allrecipes.com.  One thing I love about that site is that you can read reviews of the recipes so you can kind of get an idea of what to expect before you make it.  This recipe is definitely a winner!  As I eat it I can hardly believe I made it!

Here is what you'll need.

Popcorn, butter, baking soda, salt, corn syrup (I used light), brown sugar and vanilla. 

 After you pop your corn you need to put it in a big roasting pan.  I used this one and it was perfect!  It's so big which made stirring it all up so much easier.

You'll put the popcorn in the oven while you make the caramel sauce.

Here's the caramel bubbling away.  By the way, as tempting as it may be do not stick your finger in the caramel to taste it.  It is hot and you will regret it. 

Once the sauce is ready you pour it over the popcorn and stir until it is evenly coated.  I used a spatula/spoon thingy from Pampered Chef that is great for this because the caramel didn't stick to it.

Next you'll put the pan in the oven for 45 minutes.  Take it out and give it a stir every 10 minutes.  Don't skip this step or it will burn and you will be very sad.

When it is done you need to spread it out on some foil sprayed with cooking spray to cool.  Luckily it doesn't take long because you won't be able to wait.

Once it's cooled just put it into an airtight container.

Warning:  This stuff is VERY addicting so be careful!

Classic Caramel Corn
Via allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

Cooking Spray
4 quarts popped popcorn
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Karo® Light OR Dark Corn Syrup
1/2 cup butter OR margarine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions:

Spray large shallow roasting pan with cooking spray. Add popcorn and place in preheated 250 degree oven while preparing caramel. 

Mix brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and salt in a heavy 2-quart saucepan. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat.  Boil 5 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat. Stir in baking soda and vanilla; mix well.  Pour syrup over warm popcorn, stirring to coat evenly. 

Bake for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven and spread on foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Cool; break apart. Store in tightly covered container.