Chicken Alfredo

I've always been wary of Alfredo recipes.  They always end up too heavy, too rich, and too nausea inducing.  Plus I have no reason to keep heavy cream in my fridge.  Except the obvious. 

Right off get some water boiling for pasta (with salt!)  I tried to scale this recipe down for just two of us but I still ended up with enough for four so use caution when planning with pasta!  It multiplies when you're not looking.

Then mince up a clove of garlic

and saute it for a minute in a medium sauce pan with 3 Tbs of butter.

And if you use the same knife that you used to cut the broccoli then you can leave broccoli bits all over your butter just like me.

Say that three times fast!  Broccoli bits all over your butter.  Broccoli bits all over your butter.  Broccoli bits all over you butter. Now we just need a cauldron and we're in business!
 

Drop in 1/2 a package of cream cheese.  Roughly 6 Tbs.  Mix this around with a whisk until the cream cheese is melted.

Warning!  This will look scary!  The cream cheese gets melty but it's not smooth.  It won't mix with the butter yet and you'll wonder if I've tricked you into making a demented version of cottage cheese.  But stay the course!  It gets better.  I promise.  (hee hee)

Now's a good time to get the chicken started.  Cut up 1 chicken breast into strips and give them a good dose of salt and pepper.  Place the pieces in a skillet over med heat with 5 Tbs of water and 1 Tbs of soy sauce.  The soy sauce gives a little flavor and the water lets you steam/poach/saute the chicken without the need for extra oil!  Hooray!  Keep a small cup of water on hand to douse the chicken if it dries out before it's done cooking.

Back to the sauce.  When the cream cheese is melted and at the height of it's scariness slowly pour in 1 Cup of milk while stirring.  That's right.  Milk.

The cream cheese should immediately start to blend with the butter and make your sauce a bit thin.  Keep stirring it over medium heat until it's thick enough for your tastes.

Now you can add 1/2 Cup of Parmesan.  I used shaky cheese.  It's almost the same stuff.

Next comes the seasonings!  Hooray for seasonings!

Black pepper is a must.  And lots of it.  A dash of oregano, basil and nutmeg and you're set.  Don't bother with salt, the Parmesan (shaky cheese) is salty enough.  Keep this warm over low heat while you finish assembling the rest of your meal.

Lightly steamed broccoli let you pretend that you're health conscious and smart.  That's why I always add it to my pasta.  Oh, AND it's delicious.

This is by far the best homemade Alfredo I've ever had.  It was creamy and flavorful but still light and not heart-attack causing.  And with the different parts all cooking at the same time it only took about 15 minutes to make!  Win-win-WIN.





Alfredo Sauce:
1 clove of garlic, minced
3 Tbs butter
6 Tbs cream cheese
1 C milk
1/2 C Parmesan cheese
black pepper, oregano, basil and nutmeg to taste

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and saute the garlic for 1-2 minutes.  Mix in the cream cheese and stir with a whisk until soft and melted.  Slowly add the milk and continue stirring until the cream cheese is completely combined with the butter, then keep it over medium heat for 5-7 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken.  Add Parmesan cheese and seasonings to taste then serve over warm pasta. 

Honey Mustard Chicken Salad

It was really hot here the other day.  And in our little apartment which has no air circulation it meant that it was hot all night long.  So when it came time for dinner it needed to be quick and cool.

Here's what I came up with.

I made an impromptu honey mustard dressing with 1 Tbs mustard (Dijon is great but we only had plain old yellow on hand) 1Tbs rice wine vinegar, 1Tbs honey, 1Tbs olive oil and a bunch of seasonings.  Basil, oregano, thyme and pepper.

If you have any of these available fresh it will make this a completely different experience.  But Part of the appeal of this meal was avoiding the store.

Next I chopped up some onions and some garlic, then added it to my dressing and put it in the fridge until I was ready.

I shredded up a can of chicken.  That's right.  A CAN.  I'm not ashamed.  It was hot and we were tired.

Then I thawed some peas, and chopped up about half a cucumber.  If we'd had any celery it would have been great, but the cucumber added a nice sweetness along with a crunch.

Then I dumped everything in the bowl, (technical I know)  along with some Parmesan and some pre-cooked bacon.  I wouldn't want this to be too healthy.

Pour on you dressing and mix it all up.   It's great if you can stick it in the fridge for a bit but we were happy eating it right away.

 I decided this needed a little creaminess to offset the tang of the mustard, so I spread a thin layer of cream cheese on each slice of bread before filling with the salad.

Ta da!  That's it!

This was really tasty and we paired with some berry smoothies to make the ideal cool evening meal.

Miyagi also requested that I point out my own ingenuity in unintentionally balancing the sandwich on a single pea.  Presentation is half the battle!

Hamburger Soup

This is one of my Mom's favorite recipes which I have now stolen and made my own.  So if anyone asks this is MY recipe.  MINE.

What makes it even more MINE is that after listening to my Mom recite the ingredients over the phone I promptly forgot all the measurements and kind of made it up as I went along.

This soup is surprisingly tasty.  It's like sneak attack tasty.  Not that anything I make isn't tasty, but after seeing all the ingredients in this soup you might think "meehhhh.  I don't know . . ."  But that's ok because you don't need to know.  You just need to believe.

Start by cooking up about 1lb of hamburger.  And please season it.  The world will be a better place if you do.  1/2 tsp salt and pepper should be plenty.  Drain this and set it aside.  Or cook it while getting everything else ready pretend you're Martha Stewart.

Also, cook up 1 C of macaroni, drain it and set it aside.  Teeny noodles are really great but if you recall we currently have an abundance of macaroni, so that's what we're using.

See that in the background?  That's celery.

Isn't it pretty?  Since I didn't have exact measurements I chopped up about 3/4 C celery.  Also, the recipe calls for carrots but we didn't have any so whatever.  After we ate dinner I thought "this would have been really good with some corn in it!"  Too bad.  It would have been good.*

*see note above re: everything I make is tasty, with or without said corn.

Now comes the fun part.  Get a big pot and add 4C of water.  Then add 1 packet of onion soup mix,

1 tsp basil, 1 tsp oregano (or to taste) 

1 Tbs soy sauce (remember the trust!), 1 8oz can of tomato sauce, and 1/2 tsp of seasoning salt.

Let this simmer for just a minute while you gather your wits and prepare for the final assembly!

This is also a good time to practice simultaneously blowing the steam out of the way while quickly snapping a picture so that you can get a decent photo of the steamy goodness.

Try not to pass out.

Then add in your hamburger and your macaroni.  If you're making this ahead of time (how proactive!) then don't add the macaroni until the last minute.  This will keep it from absorbing more water and turning to macaroni-mush.

Time for the last, tasty ingredient.  Parmesan.  About 1/2 C will do.  For once it's not worth adding more because it all kind of congeals at the bottom if you add too much.  But don't be fooled!  This really ties everything together and is essential for achieving maximum tastiness.

And if you really want to take it up a notch, add a notch of sour cream to your bowl!

That doesn't really work does it?

I was really hoping it would catch on and soon everyone would be saying "yes please, just a notch of sour cream for me." 

Is that really asking too much?

Cashew Chicken. Minus cashews.

I learned this recipe from my wonderful sis-in-law.  Since then Miyagi and I have managed to change so much that technically it's not even Cashew Chicken anymore . . .because neither of us feel like putting cashews in.  It's now known in our household as "hoisin sauce chicken" named after the main distinctive ingredient. Well we couldn't very well just call it "chicken" now could we!

It's simple.  Throw in some chicken, and whatever veggies you want, then slather it in hoisin sauce and you're good to go!  Oh.  And add cashews.  If you're into that kind of thing.

We probably made enough to feed 4 if you have some other side.  But we didn't.  And we like leftovers.  Here's how we make it.

Start with two chicken breasts cut into chunks. Marinate them for at least 1/2 an hour in some sesame oil and minced garlic.  You can even let this sit overnight if you're feeling ambitious.  The sesame oil gives a really nice flavor so try not to skip this.

While that's marinating you can chop up some veggies.  This is a whole red pepper, a whole yellow pepper, and about 1/2 an onion.  Whatever else you include I'd say these are the staples.  Start with these then add what you want.  I also like to keep everything chopped to about the same size because then when you're eating it all blends together into hoisin happiness.

Our extra veggie of choice is almost always snow peas.  Rinse them, cut off any nasty ends and keep them separate from the other veggies because we'll need to add them first.  Same goes for carrots or any other heartier vegetable. 

After the chicken has marinated for awhile throw it in a skillet and cook it up!  You don't need any more oil (hooray sesame oil!) and the sauce you add later will have plenty of salt.

Mine looks a little watery because I never manage to thaw my chicken all the way before cooking it so there's a lot more water to cook off.  You can fix this by being a responsible adult and defrosting everything thoroughly before cooking.  I just don't care that much.

When the chicken's mostly cooked through add in the snow peas (or carrots).  We want these to start cooking first because they take a little longer and this allows us to avoid getting mushy peppers while we wait for the snow peas (or carrots!) to finish cooking.

Let these go for 3-4 minutes or until they've become bright green, then started to fade again just slightly.

Throw in the peppers and onions . . .

Then almost immediately pour your hoisin sauce in.  You're going to need a lot of this.  I probably used at least 3/4 of a bottle.   This way the peppers and onions can cook slightly while the flavors work their way in. If you want to make ACTUAL cashew chicken now would be a good time to throw in some whole cashews.  Chop some up and you can sprinkle them on top to make this all fancy.

Chopped nuts is what passes for fancy in my house.

Here's the hoisin sauce I used but it was kind of sweet, so I added a little oyster sauce to even things out.  You can find hoisin sauce at any grocery store in the Asain foods section, but you might be limited on selection of brands if you're picky.

But only if you're picky.  If you're not picky then your store is sure to have dozens of brands to choose from.

Here's another picture of it done in the pan.

I took like 50 BAJILLION pictures of it all plated up and pretty, but I'd lost my light and so it looks like the dish is at the end of a dark, scary tunnel.

Don't believe me? 

This is what cashew chicken looks like to people with nut allergies.  See how it's creeping into the light?

Beware!  Look out!  When cashew chicken ATTACKS!

Baked Mac & Cheese

****UPDATE: I know hundreds of you have been trying to leave comments.  This has been fixed so feel free to leave dozens I MEAN HUNDREDS of comments from now on.


This is a recipe I got from Alton Brown.  Before this point I'd never had a baked Macaroni and Cheese that I actually liked, but I decided that if anyone could sway me, it would be Alton.

Also, we have a lot of macaroni.  A LOT of macaroni.  Like 25lbs of it.  I tried to take a picture but Miyagi said it didn't show it's true sized without something to compare it to.  So here is our macaroni stash compared to Miyagi's hands.  Oh, and this is only half our macaroni.  So . . .yeah.  We're pretty much going to be putting it in everything from now on.  Keep an eye out for macaroni popovers soon.

Unfortunately for this recipe we only needed 1/2 a pound, which rounded out to a little over 2 cups.  Go ahead and start this cooking in a big pot of salted water.  It doesn't really matter if this is done before the cheese sauce because it's all going to get baked together later.  I overcooked mine a bit but this would be better a bit on the under-done side.  Squishy noodles are never a good thing.

For the cheese sauce start with some butter in a large pot.  Large because we'll be combining everything in this pot eventually.  After the butter's melted add some flour and some dried mustard  and whisk it up good.

Check out my nifty black silicone whisk!  They're really good for mixing in hot pans without scratching them up.  They're also really good for flicking lava-hot cheese sauce out of the pan and on to your fingers.

Stir this around for about 5 minutes.  Keep the heat on medium-low and this will start to liquefy near the end.

While you're waiting grate a big pile of cheese.  The recipe calls for sharp, but we only had medium so  . . .whatever.  We like to live on the edge.  You can also use this time to chop up about 1/2 C of onions. I made Miyagi do it.  He's good with onions.

Add the onions, milk, paprika and a bay leaf to the pot and let it simmer for several minutes.  You'll notice it getting bubbly and thick.  We like bubbly and thick.  After about 10 minutes take the bay leaf out.  You don't want to get that sucker in a bite of mac&cheese so don't forget this step.

If you DO forget to take the bay leaf out, don't feel bad.  Give a prize to whoever finds it and play it off like it was intentional.

Now we're going to temper in an egg.  Yeah, I didn't know how to do this either.  When I saw this on the instructions I was like "Quick!  I have ten minutes to learn how to temper in an egg while the sauce is simmering!  THIS IS NOT A DRILL!"  Luckily it only took about 30 seconds to learn.  Because I'm so smart.

So here's what we do.

Grab the whisk attachment to your mixer because your real whisk is dirty and you don't feel like washing it.

Whisk up your egg in a bowl so all the white bits and yellow bits are friendly and cozy.

Scoop up some of your hot liquid and slowly drizzle it into the egg while mixing.  Basically you're trying to slowly introduce the hot liquid to the egg so that the egg heats up, but doesn't scramble.

Once you've mixed in the hot liquid you can slowly drizzle the egg mixture into the rest of the sauce.  It not really all that delicate.  As long as you add everything slowly and keep mixing you'll be fine.  The whole thing will take maybe a minute.

Now that you've tempered in an egg (way to go you Master Chef you!) add the cheese to the sauce, fold in the macaroni, and turn off the heat.

You're going to melt MORE butter in a pan (I know I know, just get over it) and add in a cup of panko crumbs and toss them around until they're all coated. 

For anyone not familiar with panko crumbs here are two helpful facts: 1) you can get them in the Asian section of your grocery store.  2) they're magic.  This is my first time using them and I'm already hooked.  Unless I need flavored bread crumbs I think these are going to be the new staple in my house and no one can say otherwise because what I SAY GOES!  Miyagi has no comment on the matter.

Layer everything in a baking dish; macaroni and cheese sauce, MORE shredded cheese, and your magic Panko crumbs.  Then pop this in the oven for about half and hour and you get . . .

This most amazing baked macaroni and cheese!  Ta daa!  Bet you didn't see that coming.

This made way more than Miyagi and I could eat.  And even though the recipe suggests saving left overs for fried macaroni and cheese I just don't know if I deep fry this in good conscience.  It's just too much.