Feeding the pre-Christmas stress with Chinese Chicken and Peanut Butter Cake!

It's December 8, only 17 days till Christmas.   Had planned to go shopping with a friend of mine, but cancelled to have a quiet day at home.
I was asked to feed dinner to my nieces, Sarah and Christine as well as my neighbour's daughters, Kate and Claire.  Last minute, my sister in law decided to join us, so dinner for 9!

It took a while to find a main course.  What is it about the 70's that required every meal to have a can of soup in it.  Finally decided to surrender to it and found a recipe for Chinese Chicken with a can of mushroom soup in it (Seriously? is this a staple in China?).  Oh well, thought it sounded interesting, so off we go!

Chinese Chicken (this is a doubled recipe)
9 chicken breasts
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 cans mushroom soup
1/3 cup vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
1 onion, minced

In a frying pan, combine soy sauce and oil.  Heat to high.  Brown chicken pieces evenly.  Combine all other ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Place browned pieces in baking dish.  Add pan juices to soup mixture and stir.  Pour liquid all over chicken and bake at 375 for 40 minutes.

The sauce - not very attractive

Review
Despite my reservations (food snobbery) about the mushroom soup, this was really, really good!  I served with some Chinese noodles (a quick recipe from Martha Stewart: http://www.marthastewart.com/337592/chinese-noodles-with-sesame-dressing ) and stir fried veggies.  The chicken had a sweet taste which is always popular with kids.  Sue commented that the sauce would also be very good with meatballs.  Forgot to take a picture of the finished product.


Dessert was an easy pick.  I found a recipe in the recipe box some time ago for peanut butter cake.  This was a big dessert at the Duke house (Oma's daughter, Lucy and her family) and I was looking for a big audience to serve it to.

Peanut Butter Cake
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
Cream butter and peanut butter and sugar.  Add egg.  Gradually add flour and baking powder, alternating with milk.   Pour into 2 greased and floured layer pans.  Bake at 350 for approximately 35 minutes.

Icing
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp milk

Cream butter and peanut butter.  Add vanilla.  Add icing sugar and milk and whip until very fluffy.  Ice cake and decorate with chocolate sprinkles, if desired.

Wilhelmina cleaning the peanut butter off of the spatula

Result
The kids inhaled it!!!   All loved it and all wanted milk with it.  I'm not a big peanut butter fan and really liked it as it wasn't overly 'peanut-y'.  Would totally make this again.

FABULOUS!

Sarah too busy eating to give a review. 

Advent starts - Plantation Chicken, Swedish Potatoes and Peanut Butter Cookies

It's the Christmas season once again. Yesterday was jam packed with Sinterklaas celebrations (Dutch Christmas party) and the Cavalcade of lights in Toronto.

Doesn't Wilhelmina look thrilled?

It was a fun day, but we wound up grabbing food on the go all day, so there was a need for a home cooked meal on Sunday!  Chose a straight forward, square meal which began with Plantation chicken.  In the recipe, it's also called "Baked Fried Chicken" and it is a recipe from Janet Dudek.  
Janet is an old friend of my Aunt Lucy's.  Apparently Janet and Lucy sat together in grade 9 and have been friends since.  The boy who sat behind them, Vic wound up being Janet's husband.

Plantation Chicken
Chicken pieces (I used a breast, split in two, 2 drumsticks and 4 thighs)
Flour and spices
Milk
Canola oil
lemon juice

The description of 'spices' is not included,  so I decided to look to the Colonel for inspiration and found a site that claims to have the 'secret 11 herbs and spices' recipe:
http://theinternettoday.net/pics/kfcs-top-secret-11-herbs-and-spices-revealed/

Soak the chicken in the milk and then dredge in the flour/spice mixture.  Heat oil on stove in frying pan.   Fry chicken pieces for approximately 2 minutes. It should be crisp and lightly browned.  Place in a roasting pan on the rack with a cup of water and some lemon juice underneath the rack.   Bake at 350 for 1.5 hours.   Good hot or cold and not greasy.

I was pressed for time and wound up using convection roast so I only roasted for one hour.  

Prepping the chicken

Good ole southern cooking

Swedish Potatoes
6 large potatoes, peeled
3/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tsp onion salt (I didnt' have this so used onion powder and salt)
1/2 tsp pepper
3 1/2 tbsp butter
3/4 cup bread crumbs

Boil potatoes and drain.  Add sour cream, onion salt, pepper, 2 tbsp butter.  Whip until fluffy.   Pour into casserole dish and top with melted buter (remaining 1.5 tbsp) mixed with breadcrumbs.  Bake at 350 for a half hour.






Results
Very, very good chicken. All of the kids liked it.  I would definitely make it again.  The water in the pan helped to keep it moist.    The potatoes were awesome!   I think I might make them for Christmas dinner this year as they can be made ahead.  Served with broccoli and cheese sauce (figured if I"m going for a heart unhealthy meal, might as well go with the cheese sauce!!)

Yum!!!

Eleanor embraces her inner caveman

Peanut Butter Cookies - by Sherran Poupore
1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp soda
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups flour

Cream shortening and sugars.  Add egg and vanilla and salt.  Blend in peanut butter.   Slowly mix in flour and soda.   Form into small balls and press with fork.  Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Philip took care of making these cookies

Results
Very, very yummy.   Very light tasting.  Sherran Poupore was a neighbour of ours and also taught me piano when I was young (she must have been very patient!).  She also, incidentally, was the one who dressed as 'Black Peter' for our Dutch Sinterklaas celebrations and would break into our houses and throw candy at us with a black stocking on her face.  Very politically incorrect, no?
Shame that due to peanut restrictions, I can't use these for lunches this week.

Dutch Pancakes and Christmas Rainbow Cake

It's November 17 and funny how all conversations turn to the topic of Christmas.  What to get kids, when to have family get togethers, Christmas pageants, baking, parties, etc.  So, rather than fight it, I decided to embrace it and make a Christmas dessert, a kind of test drive for the big day.  But what to have for dinner? Thought I'd stick to a family favourite around here, Dutch pancakes.  Technically not an Oma recipe, but Dutch in spirit, so off we go:

Dutch Pancakes (this makes 6 large plate-sized pancakes)
2 cups flour
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 eggs
milk
butter for frying pan
gouda cheese, sliced thin
ham, sliced thin
dijon

Mix dry ingredients.  Combine egg and melted butter and milk to make 2 cups.  Add to dry ingredients and mix.   Mixture should be quite thin (not as thin as crepe batter, but much thinner than traditional pancake batter).   Add more milk if necessary.   Heat large fry pan.  Add some butter and melt.  Pour a ladle full of batter on pan and swirl so it spreads out to the diameter of your dinner plate:

Flip pancake over (should be light brown on bottom before you flip).  As soon as it's flipped, add ham slices and cheese and let sit on pan as bottom cooks and cheese melts.   As I'm usually making many of these for the family, I slide pancake on plate and keep warm in oven at 200 degrees.  This will also help cheese melt more:

Serve with dijon, if desired.  Yum!!

Reviews always good for this one as it's a family favourite.

Christmas Rainbow Cake
1 package white cake mix
1 package raspberry jello
raspberry jam
1 package lime jello
2 cups boiling water
1 8 oz container cool whip

Grease and flour 2 round cake pans.  Prepare cake according to package directions.  Cool for 15 minutes.  Leave cake in pans and poke holes all over cake with a fork.
Dissolve each jello package in separate bowl with 1 cup boiling water.  Pour green jello all over one pan and red jello all over the other:

Let chill for 4 hours.  Soak bottom of 1 pan in warm water for a minute to unmold onto serving plate.  Top with raspberry jam.  Soak the other pan and invert on top.  Decorate the layered cake with the cool whip and christmas candy, if deisired.  Serve.

Funny Sidebar  - My sister in law gave me what I thought was a chip and dip platter many years ago:

One day, she saw me serving shrimp and cocktail sauce in it and said, "you're such a nitwit, it's a cake platter!!":

Review:  It was a very pretty cake.  The kids loved it.  Mike thought that the jello layers were too tart.  I would make it again, if only for the pretty factor:

Incorporating new challenges with Oma's Recipes - Boer Kohl, Paleo style

Once again, I am in the middle of a 30 day Paleo eating challenge through my gym.  Not sure what this means? Just google Paleo diet or check out www.robbwolf.com (the guru of the Paleo movement).

Basically, the premise is that our cavemen ancestors, in fact, lead a more healthy life as their diets did not include processed foods, grains, sugars or dairy.  By removing these foods from your diet for 30 days, you can see big results in energy levels, weight loss and workout results.

But enough about that.  Here is the dilema.  I wanted to keep going with the Oma project, but how could I take one of her recipes and make it 'caveman' friendly?      I decided to take a stab at one of Oma's most famous Dutch meals, Boer Kohl.   This is a family favourite!   It's very simple:

Mash potatoes with milk and butter.  Add cooked, chopped kale and put in a casserole dish and put sausages on top.  Serve with cider vinegar on the potato mixture and some dutch mustard for the sausages.  Sounds weird, but trust me, this is COMFORT FOOD!   I've even been able to convince my kids to eat kale this way.  

Kale, is a no-brainer.  It's a paleo approved veggie and is super healthy.  Sausage can also be acceptable as long as it's gluten free.  Our local butcher carries this.   The problem lies in the potatoes.

Solution????  -  Cauliflower!!!!    Multiple paleo recipes, including the cookbook that I've been using this challenge (Paleo Comfort Foods by Julie and Charles Mayfield),  swear that cauliflower, when cooked soft can be mashed to replicate mashed potatoes.

So I decided to give it a whirl:


Paleo Boer Kohl

• 1/2 head of cauliflower (only made half batch as was sure I wouldn't sell the kids on it) chopped into small pieces, stems also
• 1 cupChicken Stock
• Gluten Free Sausages  - Bratwurst if you can find it
• Tbsp Olive oil (can't use canola with Paleo)
• 1 head of fresh kale or 1/2 can of cooked chopped kale (I've done it with both fresh and canned and honestly, there is no difference in taste)

In a large pot, boil water and add kale.  It will cook down to a much lower volume.  When soft, about 5-8 minutes, drain and chop.  Set aside.  
In another pot, put 1 cup of chicken stock and the cauliflower.  Bring to a boil and cover.  Cook until cauliflower is very soft (watch that the stock doesn't boil away, if it does, just add some more).
In a fry pan, place sausages and olive oil and 1 cup water.   Bring to a boil and cover so that the sausages steam for about 10 minutes.  Remove cover and cook until the water boils off.   Once it boils off, oil will remain and brown sausages.
When cauliflower is cooked, mash it very well.  I used my food processor to get mash potato consistency.  Add chopped kale and mix.  
Put kale/cauliflower mix in a casserole.  Top with sausage.

You can then serve it, or if you make it ahead, cover with foil and warm in oven when you want to eat it at 325 for 25 minutes.    Seve with cider vinegar for kale/cauliflower and a good quality Dutch mustard for sausages.

Wonder veggie!

Caveman approved!

Verdict

FANTASTIC!!!!   It really tasted like the original thing.  The only difference was that it tasted 'wetter' than potatoes.   Even mike asked for seconds.  The kids turned their noses up at it, mainly because I caved and made them some mac and cheese on the side.   I would make this again, whether on the challenge or not.

Busy night - Emperor Jade Chicken and Peach "Uncrisp"

Picked a dessert that could work with peaches as I had a lot that were about to go bad.    Also, the dinner is a fairly simple stir fry with chicken and pineapple.    I made plans to go to Ikea (translation - The underbelly of Hell) with some friends, so I managed to get dessert and dinner prepped in the morning.  

Emporer Jade Chicken
4 large chicken breasts
2 cups fresh mushrooms
3 tbsp oil
2 cups sliced celery (only used 1 as I thought this was a bit much)
1 green pepper (used red)
1/4 cup sherry
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp corn starch
1 small can pineapple tidbits
1/2 cup green onion, sliced
1/4 cup slivered almonds
Saute chicken in oil until golden brown.   Stir in celery, mushrooms and pepper.  Book 3 minutes.  Drain pineapple and reserve juice.   To pineapple juice, add sherry, soy sauce, garlic powder and corn starch and mix well.   Add to stir fry and cook, while stirring, until thickened.  Fold in pineapple tidbits.   Serve with rice or noodles and add green onions and almonds on top.

Prepared at 10:00 am!

Dinner prepped ahead of time left more time at the worst place on earth!

Apple Crisp
In a greased baking dish, put 2 cups sliced apples and 1 tsp cinnamon.  Pour 1/4 cup water on this.   In a separate bowl, mix 3.4 cup flour, 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar.  Pour over top of apples.  Bake at 450 for 30-35 minutes.

My sous chef at work

Results

When you serve dinner and one of your kids immediately says, "What's for dinner tomorrow?", it isn't really a good sign.   Despite the fact that Mike and I quite enjoyed it, I wouldn't call this a hit.   My kids just can't embrace stir fry.  If I served all of the parts of it as separate items, they would eat it.  But God forbid that I mix them up!!  I did it with noodles as we just had rice the day before, plus I was feeding Claire and Kate who aren't big fans of rice.   They both ate it without complaint.  I even turned Claire over to the "Fruit in main course" side as she said that she liked the pineapple.  (Kate, not so much)  

Not a Harker kid favourite, but good, nonetheless

The Crisp?   Well a few problems.   Did I mention I did peach instead of apples?  Since peaches seem so much more wet than apples, I didnt' add the water that was called for.   Also, since I had slightly less than 2 cups worth, I only used half of the topping and saved the other half for another dessert.   I think this was a big mistake as what came out of the oven was a sloppy goo and not a 'crisp'.  Claire thoughtfully told me that her mom has a crisp recipe that always turns out, so maybe I could borrow it?   Thanks, kid.   So, I figured, oh well, must taste good and I stirred the whole mess up and served it on top of the ice cream and re-branded it as "Peach un-crisp sundaes!".  

Houston, we have a problem!

SOLUTION!!

Orange Chicken and Rice Bake with Strawberry Cake Mould

Monday night, and we begin activities.   Philip has Chess after school and Cubs at night and Eleanor has dance class after school.   Busy busy.   Need an easy quick prep dinner:

Orange Rice and Chicken Bake
1/8 cup butter
chicken thighs (could use breasts, I used 8 thighs)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup water
salt
pinch of cinnamon and ginger
1 cup rice
1/4 cup raisins
2 medium carrots, sliced

Preheat oven to 350.  Melt butter and add chicken.  Brown on all sides.  Remove chicken and add onions and saute.  Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.   Poor into sprayed casserole and top with chicken pieces.   Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Verdict
I thought it was very good.  Eleanor and Wilhelmina thought it was to 'Orange-y' tasting.  If I made it again, I'd use less orange juice.   It was such a breeze to prepare, so I'd be tempted to take another run at it.  Cheap, also.

Getting ready

The finished product!

Into the oven

Strawberry Cake Mold

1 small pack strawberry jello

1/2 angel food cake (No Frills didn't have this, so I substituted jelly roll cakes)

1 pint fresh strawberries

whipping cream (I used cool whip)

Tear cake into bite size pieces.  Slice strawberries.  Make jello according to package.   Arrange cake and strawberries into a mould.  Pour jello over this.  Refrigerate until set.  Serve with whip cream

I made this with my sous-chef, Wilhelmina.  She had fun making it.   I didn't have a mould, so I used a bundt pan which probably wasn't the best choice as it was hard to un-mould.   Still, it tasted very good.

the ingredients!

cutting/tasting simultaneously

Verdict!

Despite the hideous appearance caused by the fact that it didn't un-mould, it was very tasty.  Eleanor and Willy really liked it.  Philip, not being a strawberry fan, thought it was ok.   Easy for kids to make.  

Not pretty...

.... but tasty

Back to sanity - School is back - Beef Sate and Corn Cookies

Excuse the absence.  Something about summer that just causes all planning and structure of meals to go out the window.   If it wasn't fast and grill-able, we weren't eating it during July and August.

But, we're back to routine.   Something about September that just makes me want to plan.  This is evidenced by the 30 day meal plan that I made Sept 1 (clearly I have control issues):

yellow is regular meal, green is eating out,
blue is unknown and
orange is Oma recipe day Yes, I'm a freak!

I've been trying to plan on doing a rice table meal, but it is a very overwhelming task.  I didn't want to take it on this month as there is lots to do, but I thought it would be nice to have some Indonesian food for dinner tonight.  So the plan was Sate (grilled beef strips with peanut sauce), corn cookies and for dessert, fried bananas.   I managed to do the sate and the corn cookies, but the bananas got sidelined due to time constraints because of a last minute meeting this afternoon.   Both recipes are part of Oma's rice table instructions, but for the sate, I substituted a different recipe that I wanted to try from my Cook's Monthly magazine.  Here we go!:

Sate - from Cook's Illustrated

Beef
2 tbsp veg oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 flank steak halved lengthwise then cut on straight angle into 1/4 inch slices (I used sirloin)

Whisk first three ingredients and add beef.  Toss to coat.  Let stand for at least 30 minutes.   Weave beef onto metal skewers.

Basting sauce
3/4 cup coconut milk
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp veg oil
3 shallots
2 stalks lemon grass minced (I didn't have this)
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 tsp coriander, ground
3/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl.  Remove one third that you will use to brush the raw beef with (the rest will be brushed on as the beef cooks)

Put beef on preheated grill.  Brush with the 1/3 of basting sauce.   Cook for 3-4 minutes.   Flip and brush with rest of sauce.  Cook 4 minutes.  Flip one more time and brush again.  Transfer to platter and serve with peanut sauce (below)

Peanut Sauce
1 tbsp veg oil
1 tbsp red thai curry paste
1 tbsp packed dark brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter (I CAN'T stand chunky peanut butter, so used smooth)
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce

Heat oil in pan.  Add curry paste, sugar and garlic.  Stir for one minute.  Add coconut milk and simmer.  Whisk in peanut butter till smooth.  Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients.  Cool to room temperature.   Full disclosure - I didn't want to use more than one can of coconut milk as I'm cheap, so I used 1/2 can for the baste and 1/2 can for the peanut sauce.   Still turned out fine.

Marinating!  

curry paste/brown sugar/garlic sautee.  It smelled awesome!

Corn Cookies - From Oma's Rice Table Collection
1 small can creamed corn
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp unsweetened coconut
2 eggs, beaten
parsley, pinch
salt to taste
flour

Mix the first 6 ingredients.  Add enough flour to make the batter as thick as pancake mix.   Heat vegetable oil in a fry pan.   Fry small amounts in oil just like a pancake.   Serve immediately.

Sizzlin'

Results


It was a yummy meal.  I served it with basmati rice and a spicy cucumber salad (mixed equal parts of lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and hot sauce with sliced cucumber and crushed peanut).  The kids liked the meat, not fussy about the peanut sauce or the corn cookies.   Willy actually ate the beef, which she isn't usually into as she thought it was bacon as it was sliced so thin.   I'd make the sate again, but not sure about the cookies.

FYI-the cooks magazine spent 1 whole page discussing how to marinade the beef without it turning 'mealy'.  After what appears to be about 2 weeks of experimenting, the author realized that adding fresh ginger to a marinade is the culprit as it breaks down the beef's enzymes.   So now you know, don't add ginger to marinade!!

Not bad for 40 minutes work, huh?

yum!!

Special Chicken for Two and Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Well, it's 35 degrees and what better day to make roast chicken.  Seriously, I think I should have my head examined!   Found a recipe in the box called "Special Chicken for Two" and made it for 5.
For a dessert, kept it simple.  I had to dump 2 of my kids on a friend today, so I made some chocolate chip cookies as a bribe.

Special Chicken for Two
1/4 cup chopped parsley (didn't have this in stock)
1 tbsp chopped chives
1 tbsp finely chopped mushrooms (I used more like 1/4-1/3 of a cup)
2 tbsp finely chopped cooked ham (again, I used a bit more of this)
2 tbsp soft buter
3 lb roasting chicken

Combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl.  With fingers, loosen skin from chicken breast from neck down to drumsticks.   Spoon butter mixture into this opening and press skin back in place.    Press evenly all over the breast.  Sprinkle inside and out side of chicken with salt and pepper.   Cover with foil and roast at 325 for 45 minutes.   Remove foil and roast for 45 minutes more.

Filling prepared

Filling stuffed under skin, probe in, ready to go!

**I didn't use the temp/times that she called for.  As I was out all day and was very pressed for time to get dinner made, I put my oven on convection (425) and put my handy-dandy oven probe in the breast and programmed the oven to shut down once the breast reached 180 degrees.


Results
Yum!!   I make roast chicken often and usually go with a lemon shoved in the cavity and salt/pepper/butter smeared on top.  This was very tasty and the mushrooms kept it very moist.   I would definitely make this again.   I have a fair bit leftover and have decided to do a bonus Oma meal this week.  Tomorrow I will make Chicken Croquettes.

CRISPY GOODNESS!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies - The writing on this recipe card looks suspiciously like Aunt Lucy's (Oma's youngest daughter)

1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup nuts (didn't do this)
1 cup chocolate chips

Beat first 5 ingredients until smooth.   Add flour, soda and salt.  Stir in chocolate chips.   Drop onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Aunt Lucy, is this yours?

Results:
Have to admit that I had some misgivings as any time I make chocolate chip cookies, the recipe always involves butter, not shortening.  Also I am wondering if vanilla got missed on this.  But, turns out they were very yummy.   Took more like 12 minutes per batch.   A big hit with kids and especially for Philip who got to lick the beater.

THUMB UP!

Batch #1