Tasty Tofu Edit

Okay, so a few posts ago I tried to make pineapple chipotle tofu. It was good, but the taste just wasn’t there for me. I recently remade it with the advice of some of my friend on facebook (shout out to Carolyn). Anyway, it was so much better. The first time I didn’t dry the tofu out enough I guess, and I also marinated it in the sauce this time. Here is the post with the recipe:

https://thestumbleuponchef.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/is-that-food/
Things I did differently:

I cut the tofu into small pieces and let them lay on a towel to dry out for about an hour.

Marinated the tofu in the sauce for about an hour and a half.

Made a little extra sauce because it is hard to see the sauce thicken.

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Celebrating Qing Ming

This last week we celebrated Qing Ming (Clean and Bright). Qing Ming is a Chinese holiday for grave cleaning, which we celebrated by doing so. We went to the mausoleum with flowers and cleaned up around around my mom. It was nice to go since I haven’t been in a while, although I guess it should take a holiday to get me to go there. Anyway, for dinner we had a ghost feast and burnt ghost money. You can read more about the holiday here:

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1993-ching-ming-festival-a-chinese-tradition

We had a lot on the menu, at least a lot for 2 people, but we still managed to eat it all. I have this problem where if there is food in front of me…it disappears :P. Anyways, today you get 2 posts! Sweet Chili Sauce and Chicken and Rice Pudding.

Chicken:

http://www.sidewalkshoes.com/2008/11/chicken-with-sweet-chili-sauce.html

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of sweet chili sauce
1/2 cup of soy sauce
peanut oil (or whatever you want to use for sauteing)
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Method:
Mix 1/4 cup chili sauce and 1/4 cup soy sauce in a shall glass dish or zip lock bag, add chicken and turn to coat. Marinate chicken in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Add a tablespoon or two of oil to a pan and heat over medium high heat. Lift chicken from marinade and brown on one side for about 2-3 minutes (it may smoke a little from the sweet marinade). Turn the chicken over and brown for 2 minutes per this side. Cover with a lid, turn the heat to low and let it finish cooking for about 8 minutes.

Mix remaining chili sauce and soy sauce in a small pot and heat over low heat until heated through, about 5 minutes. Serve over chicken.

Notes:

I really like this sauce! LIKE REALLY LIKE IT! Haha, and for once I actually followed the recipe as written! I have some left over and I want to try to mix it in with fried rice instead of just  soy sauce. I’ll let you know how it turns out :D. The sauce can get a bit thick, so you may want to thin it out with a touch of water.

Rice Pudding:

http://wordstoeatby.blogspot.com/2009/06/rice-pudding-and-mango-parfait-modern.html

Ingredients:
3 cups whole milk [I used 2%]
2 to 4 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (see Note)
1⁄4 cup white basmati rice, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, crushed
1 ripe mango, peeled and diced

Method:

In a deep saucepan, bring the whole milk and condensed milk to a boil over medium heat. Stir constantly to prevent scorching.

Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the rice and cardamom and mix well. Continue to cook for about 50 minutes, until the milk has reduced by half and you obtain a creamy consistency [mine was done in about 35 minutes]. Stir frequently while cooking.

Remove from the heat and allow to come to room temperature.

Refrigerate, covered, for at least an hour.

Notes:

I really like rice pudding with mango. I’ve had it before at a restaurant, and even though I didn’t make it as a parfait it still came out really well. I tasted it with 2 tbs of sweetened condensed milk and thought it needed a little more sweetness, so I added another table spoon. I also put in about 3-5 tsp of vanilla because I accidentally poured too much in :). It burned a little bit on the bottom, but I found I like the burnt bits a little more :D. MmmMmm..burnty… Anyway, I served it immediately after with mango because when I ate it at the restaurant it was warm, so I figured this is what they did. Oh, and mangoes are my favorite fruit… you’ll have to guess the 2nd and 3rd 😉

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Making broccoli tastier

Broccoli is probably one of my favorite veggies. I eat it a lot (steamed, stir fried, raw…etc), and I like to find new ways to serve it. I stumbledupon this site a few weeks ago and instantly wanted to try this. The only problem was that I didn’t have any broccoli stocked, so I couldn’t. School basically piled up on me and I couldn’t hit the store to get any….sad days. Anyway, I finally got around to getting the ingredients (along with a few others)! You HAVE  to try this!

http://www.staceysnacksonline.com/2011/01/broccoli-bites-for-kids.html

Ingredients:

16 oz. package of frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and drained of liquid (I used fresh steamed broccoli)
1 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese
3 eggs
1 cup of seasoned Italian breadcrumbs

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.

With your hands, form small patties and lay on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake at 375F for 25 minutes, turning the patties after the first 15 minutes.

Notes:

I hate that I keep missing instructions…but at least everything turns out well :D. I didn’t see the part that says turn over after the first 15 minutes. I just baked it on one side for about 35 minutes. I also put 2 cups of cheese and a 1 and 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs. It may be different for you, but just feel the consistency of the mixture and see if you think stick enough to make patties. I added a touch of garlic powder, but the seasoned breadcrumbs are already pretty nicely season. Anyway, these little patties were really awesome. I like that I keep running into these recipes that just need everything to be mixed together with no order. What can I say, except I love simplicity :D. Alright, get those stoves fired up, ovens preheated. and oil heated to the perfect temperature! Happy cooking!

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Dump, dump, CAKE!

THE EASIEST THING YOU WILL EVER MAKE EVAAAR! Also, to my surprise it has impressed a great number of people. It looks professional and tastes like MmmMmm, so I can see why; however, the name dump cake makes people a bit weary when they first hear it. I mean who hears “Dump cake” for the first time and doesn’t assume the worst. Anyway, if you think people will be like “ew, gross” introduce it as easy as cake and tell them the real name later ;). Here’s the recipe:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/04/dump-cake-a-potluckers-paradise/

Ingredients:

1 can of crushed pineapples

1 can of cherry pie filling

1 box of yellow/white cake mix

1 1/2 – 2 sticks of butter/margarine

9×13 cake pan

Method:

1. Dump pineapple into pan with the juice 😀

2. Dump cherry pie filling into pan

3. Swirl the two into awesome goodness

4. Dump the cake mix on top of the mixture (fork the clumps if you want)

5. cut slivers of butter and place them evenly over the top of the cake mix

6. Bake at 350F for an hour (I usually check on it at the 30min mark and add butter to the places the butter didn’t melt too)

Notes:

I really like this because it tastes amazing and costs about $5 to make. I’ve served it with vanilla ice cream and that was really nice because the cake is warm and the ice cream is cold. Whip cream is also a nice little addition. When I made it this last time, I forgot whether to bake it at 350F or 400F, so I went with 400F. We also took it out at 30min (but still impressed like 5 of 8 people :P). I think next time I am going to try to switch out the pie filling or maybe the pineapples. Blueberry and cherry? Blackberry and pineapple? WHO KNOWS?! The possibilities are ENDLESS! As I contemplate the how to make the next dump cake I wish you well and happy cooking!

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P.S: I forgot to take a picture when I finished making the cake…so I took pictures of the leftovers. They still take great though 😀

Something Simple

I am a lover of chicken, and by that I mean I LOOOOVVE chicken. Any recipe that I find that deals with chicken is almost a must do, but it is even better when the recipe is SUPER easy. Today’s recipe comes from Frenchs.com

http://www.frenchs.com/recipe/frenchs-crunchy-onion-chickentrade-RE1309.html

Ingredients:

2 cups (4 oz.) FRENCH’S® Original or Cheddar French Fried Onions

2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

4 (5 oz.) boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 egg, beaten

Directions:

Place French Fried Onions and flour into plastic bag. Lightly crush with hands or with rolling pin. Transfer to pie plate or waxed paper.

Dip chicken into egg; then coat with onion crumbs, pressing firmly to adhere. Place chicken on baking sheet.

Bake at 400°F for 20 min. or until no longer pink in center.

This chicken was great and filling, but I do have a few suggestions if you are going to make this. When we were eating it seemed like the chicken needed a little salt and maybe it is because I went the cheap route and bought GV fried onion rings instead of the French’s version. So, when you are preparing the chicken to being covered in the crushed onions I would put some salt (maybe a tsp or tsp and a half) into the egg or directly onto the chicken. Also, after I crushed the onions in a baggie I added some garlic powder (about 2-3 tsp). All in all this recipe was great and would go great with some mash potatoes if you have some. Happy cooking!

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