Orange Chicken Egg Rolls

I cannot stress how amazingly yummy these Orange Chicken Egg Rolls are!  I set out two to eat, and ended up raiding the fridge for a 3rd.  So full... but so happy!

You will need:
3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
Egg Roll Wrappers
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 Tbsp orange zest (for mild sauce)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp corn starch
1/4 cup water
Vegetable oil
Small bowl of water

1. In a medium pot, dissolve 1 1/2 Tbsp corn starch in 1/4 cup water.

2. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, orange zest, crushed red pepper flakes and brown sugar and bring to a boil until sauce thickens.

3. Run sauce through a sieve to strain pepper flakes and orange zest.  This is unnecessary if you don't mind the orange bits or pepper flakes!  Then return sauce to pot.

4. Add shredded chicken to the sauce and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

5. Lay out an egg roll wrapper. Using tongs, lift a small portion of chicken and form into a line.  Be sure to shake off excess liquid.  If the sauce leaks out while frying, this will cause the oil to spit.

6. Fold the sides of the egg roll over and roll the egg roll, tucking one side underneath the filling to ensure a secure roll.

7. Dampen the end of the egg roll to form a seal, as this will act like a glue.

8. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry egg rolls, 2 or 3 at a time (careful not to overheat the oil, aka smoking oil = bad).  Turn them onto paper-toweled surface to soak up excess oil.

9. Serve with an orange slice and the leftover orange sauce.  These egg rolls are much  better fresh.  However, if you must store them, do so in an airtight container with paper towel inside to absorb excess moisture.

 

 

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Creamy Chicken Tetrazzini

Chicken Tetrazzini is a savory and creamy noodle dish.  This is the epitome of comfort food!  I served it to my family last night, and they scarfed it down with kudos.  This recipe should feed six, but they ate so much that this number was reduced to four!

You will need:
3 medium chicken breasts
3 1/2 cups flat noodles
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. black pepper
16 oz. jar mushrooms
Vegetable oil
3 cubes chicken bullion
1 1/4 cup sour cream
2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup
1 1/2 cups water
3 Tbsp. Sherry wine
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1. Boil the noodles until cooked and panfry the mushrooms in a bit of vegetable or light olive oil.

2. If possible, at the same time, cook the chicken (adding chicken and some water to a covered microwave dish for approx. 15 minutes on medium heat in the microwave works fine and is a quick method).  Once chicken is finished, chop into pieces and set aside.

3. In a fairly large pot, combine soup, water, chicken bullion cubes, pepper, paprika, Parmesan cheese, sour cream, and sherry. Stir until mix is smooth and heated.

4. Combine all ingredients in a greased casserole dish and sprinkle bread crumbs over the top.

5. Bake at 350 °F (approx 175 °C) for 30 minutes.

6. Serve with small bowl of breadcrumbs for added seasoning.

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Sweet Cream Cheese and Orange Marmalade Pinwheels

 

Sweet Cream Cheese and Orange Marmalade Pinwheels are aesthetically pleasing (because pinwheels are effing whimsical!).  More importantly, these breakfast (or dessert?) rolls are an insanely moist and sweet alternative take on traditional cinnamon rolls. 

You will need:
2 packages ready-made crescent roll dough (or whatever pastry you are comfortable with!)
8 oz. package of cream cheese, nearing room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
18 oz. jar of sweet orange marmalade
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg

Preheat oven to 325 °F (about 160 °C).

1. Over a small bowl, push the orange marmalade through a sieve to remove orange slices.
2. Add 1/3 cup marmalade, cream cheese, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and just a pinch of nutmeg to bowl. 
3. Beat mixture on high until ingredients are well-combined.  Mixture will be lumpy.
4. Lay out one of the tubes of crescent dough, tugging at the sides to stretch the dough a bit wider.  Be sure to close any cracks in the dough.
5. Spread mixture over dough.  Be careful not to overdo this, as the filling will get everywhere when rolling.
6. Roll dough (starting from one of the two smaller edges) into a long pinwheel.
7. Using a sharp knife, cut pinwheels into one-inch segments.  Work quickly as the moisture from the filling will cause dough to become limp.
8. Place the pinwheels, arranged in a circle, in 2 well-greased cake tins.
9. Repeat steps 4-8 for the second roll of dough.
10. Bake for 28-32 minutes at 325 °F (about 160 °C).

Orange Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup marmalade
2 Tbsp. milk

1. Combine all ingredients, mixing on high until icing is smooth.
2. Ice the pinwheels while still warm.

Tuck in!

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Turkeys In A Blanket (Also works with veggie hot dogs)

Turkeys In A Blanket is a modified recipe that comes from a cookbook I inherited, Betty Crocker's 1965 'Boys and Girls Cook Book'.

You will need:
10-12 Turkey Franks (although beef, pork, and vegetarian hot dogs work as well!)
4 cups bisquick
1 1/4 cup milk

1. Add half off the Bisquick (2 cups) and half of the milk to a large bowl and stir.  Add the second 2 cups of Bisquick and continue to add the rest of the milk until a dough mixture is formed. Stop adding milk at the point in which the dough can be formed into a ball (this should be about 1 1/4 cups milk).
Using your hands to mix dough together (as though you were making bread) speeds up this process but can be sticky!

2. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (approx 175 °C).

3. Place your turkey franks on a plate and microwave on high for 30 seconds.

4. Flour or lightly dust a surface with Bisquick and roll out 1/5 of the dough (this should cover at least 2 hot dogs).

5. Shape into a long rectangle, the width of 1 hot dog.  Dough should be about 1/4 of an inch thick.

6. Place a hot dog at the end of the rectangle and roll until it is covered.  Cut the dough here.  Then pinch the ends together.

7. Repeat steps 4-6 until all are covered and pop them in the oven for 10-12 minutes (flipping halfway through cooking time!)

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Tips for Picky Eaters! - Food processors unite against veggies!

 

 Photo by Kylie Fisher flickr

Ok, so this is how I felt about vegetables as a child... and to this day ----------->

So you don't like eating soups, pasta sauces, etc..., yet still feel the need to ingest vegetables too?
If it is the texture you detest, try investing in a food processor or utilizing your blender to break down some of the textures.
Give the vegetables hell in a food processor, and then you only have to deal with the taste!

If you are making your own dish and a recipe calls for chopped tomato, onion, garlic etc. and the thought of eating such things is just too much, simply blend them into oblivion.

It is also possible to make your own soups this way.  In fact, some soup staples are already made by blending away bits (and sometimes dehydrating and fun chemical processes), for example:
Cream of tomato soup
Cream of mushroom soup
Spicy Tomato Soup - Whimsical Cookery Recipe

As a tourist, I once stayed at a monastery and was fed cream of potato and broccoli soup.  The broccoli sent up alarm bells in my ears while fears of choking down dinner in front of a sweet elderly monk filled my head.  However, when I actually tasted the soup, it was completely blended to my liking.
Thanks to Brother Steven, I learned that potato makes an excellent thickening soup based!  Simply add potatoes and other offending vegetables to your food processor.  Then add some vegetable or chicken stock to make a very mushy, but very healthy soup.  Might I suggest dipping bread?  Yum!

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Heart Attack Wontons

And now for something disgustingly amazing...  care for a heart attack in a wonton?
Heart Attack Wontons are basically mozzarella cheese and spicy seasoned fries wrapped in a wonton and fried.  I highly suggest serving them with a dipping sauce, such as BBQ sauce (or a flavoured BBQ sauce).  Asian soy-based sauces may also be yummy!
Please take care when eating these, as they are tragically bad for your health... yet are small and addictive.

You will need:
1 package of wonton wrappers (not the larger egg-roll version).
1 package of frozen seasoned fries (I used Ore-Ida 'Zesties!' but other spicy fries or cut up curly fries would suffice)
1 medium-sized block of mozzarella cheese
Vegetable oil
Small bowl of water

1. Cook a few handfuls of the spicy fries according to the package directions - and how many wontons you wish to make.

2. Cut up your mozzarella and fries into pieces that may fit into the wonton wrappers (generally, they will be around 1.5in or 3.5cm when folded up).

3. Lay out a wonton wrapper and fill!

4. Fold the wonton up as though you would fold a burrito
            a.) Pull the short edges over and then wrap the long sides over.
            b.) You may want to dip your finger in the bowl of water and slightly dampen the
            surfaces of the wonton that need to connect (this will act as a glue to hold the
            wonton wrapper together).

5. Just before your last few wontons are filled is a good time to start heating your oil.  Pour your vegetable oil into a frying pan so that the entire surface is generously covered.  Be sure not to add too much oil and be sure not to overheat the oil (i.e. if your oil starts smoking!) as these can be fire hazards.

6. Using tongs, lower 3-4 wontons into the frying pan.  Turn the wontons frequently and cook until they develop small brown bubbles (this will take about 30 seconds-1minute).

7. Return wontons to paper-towel covered plates.

8. Make sure wontons are still warm when eating, as they are *much* better this way.  If they have cooled slightly, just pop them in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.

Enjoy!

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Red Velvet Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

So, I thought I'd start out with something INCREDIBLY SIMPLE...  Red Velvet Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting! 

Red Velvet Cupcakes:

1 box red velvet cake mix (and all required ingredients, see back of package)

1.  Prepare cake according to box’s directions.

2.  Line cupcake tins with 23 paper cups.

3.  Divide cake batter into 22 cupcake cups.  It is my experience that cake batters make 22 perfectly-sized cupcakes, not 24.

IMPORTANT: Scrape all leftover cake batter into a 23^rd paper cup to form a wee cupcake, as it will be broken up into crumbs later for decoration.  

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Cream Cheese Frosting

 

To generously frost 22 cupcakes:

½ cup unsalted butter

8 oz. cream cheese (full fat)

2 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp milk

3 cups powdered sugar

1.  With an electric mixer, whip room temperature-butter with cream cheese.  Note: Cream cheese should be somewhere between fridge-cold and room temperature for desired consistency.

2.  Add clear vanilla extract and milk at the point of a butter/cream cheese paste. 

3.  Beat in  powdered sugar (or add to your desired sweetness/consistency).

4.  Break up the small cupcake into crumbs and sprinkle over cupcakes for decoration before frosting sets.  NOTE: If the top of the cupcake is burnt, be sure to cut that off before crumbling the cake.

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