One of the many reasons I love my husband...

We recently threw out the couch we have had for the last ten years. The couch was a hand-me-down from my parents, who had already had the couch for several years. It was smelly, had a hole torn in it from our dogs, and had been with us through about 19 greyhounds. It was definitely time to say good bye to that couch, but because Mary, our 13.5 year old greyhound, loved it, we had held on to it for too long. We finally had to give in and get rid of it.

Two weeks is how long it has been since we got rid of the couch, and this is what our living room tends to look like at night.  Mary is in the chair on the left, and 12 year old Daisy is in the recliner on the right.  The old girls love the chairs in the evening...I think it is easy on their old bones.

 

 

I love my husband for many reasons, but one of them is that instead of shooing the old girls out of his chairs, he let them stay comfortable.  He was tired and ended up laying down on the very expensive therapeutic floor pillow we had gotten for the beasts.  He promptly fell asleep.

The generosity and love this man displays for our "children" is amazing and I am blessed to be a part of his life.

Love you baby!

Pork with Apricot Sauce

In my continuing quest for variation in our diet, I came across this recipe in the 2002 Quick Cooking cookbook.  Unlike the original recipe, I cooked the pork in the crockpot while I was at work and just made the sauce and added it later.  I think by looking at the picture, you can tell which plate is mine, but at least I did eat some nasty broccoli.

 

We liked this sauce a lot and will definitely be making it again.  We thought that it kind of tasted like the duck sauce you can get in packets at fast food Chinese restaurants.  Kind of sweet and kind of sour, but nothing overwhelming.

 

Apricot Sauce

10 oz of apricot preserves (I just eyeballed it)
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup ketchup (I used a mix of 2 fast food packets and some hot and spicy Heinz)
1/4 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon of cornstarch of arrowroot powder

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan or pot and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Stir until sauce is thickened. 

Happy Eating!

Homemade Sesame Chicken

I LOVE Chinese food...I mean, I really love it.  One problem, I am highly sensitive to MSG (monosodium glutamate), a food additive that is often added to Chinese food and most flavored potato chips, premade queso dips, and some frozen foods.  I usually get a migraine within two hours of eating it when it is added to the foods listed above.  Because of this sensitivity, I have had to stop eating frozen foods (no big loss), flavored potato chips (good bye Cheetos), and I only eat Chinese food rarely.  (Even though soy sauce has a small amount of MSG in it naturally, I seem to be able to tolerate it).

 

Well, last week I had Chinese food three times!  My boss took me out to eat to a local Chinese restaurant that does not add MSG to their food.  I really enjoyed my lemon chicken, but did save half of it for James to have as lunch the next day.  More importantly I made Chinese food at home twice last week.  I made General Tso's Chicken one day using this recipe I found on Yahoo.  The General Tso's Chicken was good although it was a little different from the traditional recipe.

 

On Saturday night, I made Sesame Chicken, using a recipe I modified from the 2003 Quick Cooking recipe book.

 

James and I really enjoyed this recipe, and yes, for those of you who know me, I did eat the broccoli.  It almost ruined the meal for me, but James has asked me to start cooking with more vegetables and we all know I will do almost anything for that man.  The original version used the marinade to make the sauce, and James is sensitive about using marinades that had raw meat in them for sauces, so I just made a double batch.  Also, the original marinade was really tart, so I added some brown sugar and honey to even out the tartness when I made the sauce (not in the actual marinade). Here's my version of the recipe:

Sesame Chicken

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 Tablespoon canola oil
2 teaspoon cornstarch or arrowroot powder
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup chicken broth
1-2 T sesame seeds, toasted

1.  In a glass bowl (or resealable plastic bag if you use them), mix together half the amounts of each of the following: the soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, and ginger and all of the canola oil.  Stir with a fork or whisk to combine.  Add the chicken, cover, refrigerate, and marinate for 8 hours or overnight.

2.  Remove chicken and grill until juices run clear.  Meanwhile, discard marinade.  Mix the rest of the soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, and ginger in a sauce pan.  Add the cornstarch, water, brown sugar, honey and broth until smooth.  Bring to a rolling boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes until thickened.

3.  Dice the chicken into bite size pieces and mix with sauce.  Add the toasted sesame seeds. At this point, I also added some fresh broccoli I had cooked and cooked rice.

Happy eating!

King Arthur's Chocolate Breakfast Muffins and Baking Day

James was out of quick breakfasts so I had a baking session this morning.  I made banana bread, orange cranberry muffins, lemon blueberry muffins, and King Arthur's Chocolate Breakfast Muffins.

I have posted the recipes for the first three, but today was the first time I tried the chocolate breakfast muffin recipe.

 



King Arthur is a brand name flour maker.  I like their products, but can usually find a comparable brand for a better price.  I was browsing recipes on their website one day when I came across this recipe.  I thought..."Chocolate for breakfast, hmmm."  Of course, I bookmarked it and it has been sitting in that little folder for a long time.  Since I don't eat any of the fruit items, I thought I would try making these for a quick snack or breakfast for me.  As usual, I made a few changes to the recipe.  I made a half batch, sifted the dry ingredients together, substituted a mix of heavy cream and 2% milk for the 3/4 cup of milk, used the brand of unbleached, organic flour I had in the house, did not fill the muffin tins as much as indicated, and did not top them with sugar.  These were super tasty and very moist.  I loved the little bites of chocolate chips in the muffin (I used these yummy chocolate chips.)  These were the first "chocolate" muffins I have made that tasted more like a muffin than a cupcake.  I will definitely be keeping this one in my repertoire.

** Click on the link above for the recipe.**

All You's Chocolate Marble Cake Review

In the February issue of All You magazine there was a section titled, "Show Your Love with Valentine's Desserts".  The opening recipe was for a Chocolate Marble Cake.  The cake looked yummy and since I had the ingredients I decided to try making it.

Sorry for the bad pictures, I didn't use my good camera and the lighting wasn't the greatest.

Here's a picture of what it looks like sliced.  Yes, the plate is dirty, we just used our dinner plates for dessert as well.  Keeping it real.

 

 

Here's what we can say about the cake:  It isn't a bad cake but it isn't the best cake either.  We thought it would be better with ice cream and that it wasn't sweet enough.  Kind of tasted like a chocolate bread with chocolate ganache on top.  If I make it again, I will add another 1/4 cup sugar and switch to milk chocolate for the ganache. 

 

The other thing I did not like about this recipe was that it used so many bowls.  I felt like every sentence used a new bowl.

 

Chocolate Marble Cake

 

1-3/4 cups cake flour

2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

2/3 c plain, whole-milk yogurt (I substituted sour cream)

2 T whole milk (I used 2%)

1/2 t vanilla

8 T unsalted butter, at room temp

3/4 c sugar

3 large eggs, at room temp

1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 t instant coffee powder

1/4 c heavy cream

1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Mist a 9x5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  In a separate small bowl, whisk yogurt, milk and vanilla.

 

2.  In a large bowl (up to 3 bowls now), using an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time.  Add half of the flour mixture, then yogurt mixture, then remaining flour mixture, beating after each addition until nearly combined.  Remove 1 cup of batter to a medium bowl (4th bowl).

 

3.  Pour 1/4 cup boiling water into a small bowl (5th bowl).  Whisk in cocoa and instant coffee until smooth; let cool slightly.  Add to batter in medium bowl; stir to combine.

 

4.  Alternate spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batters in loaf pan.  Draw a knife through batters for a marbled effect.  Bake cake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.  Cool on rack 15 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

 

5.  Place cream in a microwavable cup or bowl (I used a measuring cup otherwise this would have been the sixth bowl).  Microwave until hot, about 25 seconds.  Add chocolate chips.  Let stand for 2 minutes; stir until smooth.  Let cool to room temp and then drizzle over cake.

 

Do you see what I mean about the number of bowls...crazy!  Happy eating!



Yummy Bread Machine Breadsticks

I read a blog called Money Saving Mom regularly, despite the fact that I am not a mom.  The blog has a bunch of interesting reads and I like her realistic view of life.  Awhile ago she had a recipe for homemade bread machine bread sticks and I bookmarked it.  Then the torn calf muscle happened and I haven't been able to cook.  Last night we  had meal planned for pasta Alfredo with roasted chicken and I thought the bread sticks would go great with them.

Of course, it was the end of the day and my leg hurt from the exercises I had done so I forgot to take a picture of the bread sticks, but they look a lot like they do in the link's pictures.  These bread sticks were so delicious.  Light, fluffy, sort of sweet but not overly so, and the melted butter on top was the right finishing touch.  Give them a try!

We are having Tritip steak and potatoes for dinner with some of the leftover bread sticks, so hopefully I will remember to take a picture tonight and add it on. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins



I was finally able to cook/bake for the first time since tearing my calf muscle...over a month and a half ago.  Since I tweaked my calf a little yesterday tripping over my dogs, I just took it easy with a muffin recipe I found on allrecipes.com.  These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins were so yummy and delicious.

 



 

 I changed the recipe a little by omitting the pecans since we didn't have any and adding about a teaspoon of homemade vanilla extract.  I also added vanilla sugar to the top of the muffins before baking them.

 

These muffins were moist, flavorful and light.  Now I will need to play with them a little and try to use some white whole wheat flour.  Happy Eating!