I was Featured at Our KRaZy kitchen #5

You guys are making this tougher and tougher each month to pick a winner so now we're picking several and are still having a tough time narrowing it down because you are all winners. That said we have some awesome recipes to award the March I WAS FEATURED AT OUR KRAZY KITCHEN to:

Marcia and her Cucumber Salad

Sara and her Shrimp Melts

SnoWhite and her Ham & Asparagus Lasagna

Tifanee with Grandma's Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Go check them out and congratulate them for a great job.

Fire Day Friday - Grilled Lettuce Wraps

Welcome to the inaugural Fire Day Friday!


Yes, I know, not a very original concept for me, "Gee, Chris is going to cook something on a grill? I'm SOOOOOOO shocked!" [sarcasm inflection]

But I am going to take a different approach with this theme than on Nibble Me This. There I'm just having fun on my grills without regard to whether someone else could replicate it. Sometimes I am cooking something on a grill to prove it can be done (like recent spaghetti).

Fire Day Fridays are about cooking something with live fire that anyone else can make on any other type of grill. No Big Green Egg required. No special equipment. Fire Day Fridays are about inspiring and getting people to use their own grills.

So it is Friday night, you have gotten home from work and you are ready to relax. You want to enjoy the evening in your back yard spending quality time with your favorite adult beverage, not spend all night in the kitchen, right? Here's a quick and very easy "Friday night bites".

Grilled Lettuce Wraps

source: Chris of Nibble Me This

Ingredients

3 ea chicken breasts or thighs, boneless, skinless, cut into 1" cubes

bbq skewers (if using wood, soak for 1 hour in advance)

8 oz can whole water chestnuts

1 cup Mr. Yoshida's sauce (or sub a teriyaki sauce)

6 Tbsp chunky peanut butter

2 ea dried red chili pepper (sub 1 Tbsp of red pepper flakes)

2 tsp sesame seeds

1 head bibb lettuce, leaves separated and washed

2 cups cooked sweet jasmine rice

Instructions

Whisk together the Yoshida's sauce, peanut butter, sesame seeds and chili pepper. Don't be afraid of the pepper, it isn't really that hot in the final product. Divide the sauce into 3 portions. You will use them for a marinade, a glaze, and a dipping sauce.

Marinade the chicken with one portion for an hour. If you're in a hurry, you can skip the hour marinade time, just toss the meat in the mixture.

Skewer 3 pieces of chicken, a water chestnut, and 3 more pieces of chicken. Repeat. TIP: If using thick round skewers, you might split the water chestnut if not careful. Spin the skewer as you push into it so it drills rather than pierces.

Preheat your grill to 350f. If you are using a gas grill, that's about medium. Place the skewers over the direct heat for 2 minutes. Turn them 1/4 turn, and cook another 2 minutes (4 total so far).

Turn and cook another 2 minutes (6 total so far). Brush with sauce and cook another 2 minutes (8 minutes total cooking time).

Remove from the grill. (You could serve these just as kebabs at this point with the rest of the sauce as a dipping sauce.)

Serve each kebab with a bibb lettuce leaf filled with about 1/4 cup of rice, dice the water chestnut, and top with some rice noodles. Serve with the rest of the dipping sauce.

Then sit around on your patio or deck and enjoy the evening with your family and friends as you eat these. They are a bit messy to eat after the third bite so have plenty of napkins on hand!

The Last Hurrah: Lovin' From the Oven/What Did You Bake Today

This is my farewell post here on Our Krazy Kitchen.  Life in the Harried Homemaker's world has gotten busier than ever and although I hate to do it, I am cutting back on my "extra curricular"  activities.  Please continue to visit me over at my blog.  I so enjoy the friendships that I have made during my sojourn here.

As my swan song, I am simply posting pictures of all of the recipes I have posted here.  You can find them under either of the titles I have used for these Friday posts (Lovin' From Your Oven or What Did You Bake Today).  Happy Baking, Friends!!!

Banbury Tarts:

Cream Puffs

 

Clover Leaf Rolls

Whole Wheat Flax Bread 

 

Monkey Bread

Banana Bread

Southwest Biscuit Casserole

Blueberry Muffins

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

Autumn Cake

Molasses Cake

Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Mummy Cookies

Spoon Rolls

 

Bread Pudding w/ Caramel Sauce

Lemon Pudding

 

Lemon Meringue Pie

Chicken Bundles

 

Crockpot BBQ Turkey Breast

Yellow Cupcakes

 

Banana Cake

Lazy Daisy Oatmeal Cake

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

 

Donut Muffins

Raspberry Muffins

Easy Strawberry Shortcake

Deep South Caramel Cake

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Pizza Casserole

STRETCHING a side dish for two to a SNOW PEA MEDLEY FOR FOUR

Greetings again...  Occasionally, I have a dish that is so good, I can not wait for Thursday to roll around so that I can share this with all the OUR KRAZY KITCHEN folks.  This dish was the best thing I made this week.  And the surprise came because it was a "need to do something" dish.

OK, let's start with my problem... I screwed up.

Not uncommon.

This week, we had friends from home visiting.  It has been a week of menu planning, showing off a bit and dining out a couple of times!  But, one evening, I discovered I had screwed up... I planned on a simple sautéed snow peas as a compliment to a Rum Braised Mahi Mahi (the fish so nice they named it twice).  I thought the contrasting colors would make for a nice plate.  My problem was the brain fart I made when shopping.  I can buy these by weight instead of pre-packaged.  When I was shopping, I am so used to shopping for just Jackie and myself, I only bought 1/3rd of a pounds worth.  Just enough for two.  But I had to feed 4 people, and the 4 mile round trip walk to get more was not really an option, due to time restraints and laziness (you decide).

I considered making a cornbread, but I had my heart set on snow peas (a favorite).

So, after spending several minutes staring into an open refrigerator (for the cool breeze, I know what is in my fridge), I pulled out some extra veggies to make a melange...

So, another "not really a recipe", more of a technique post...

Here's what I did...

I had...

 1 Red Pepper (diced to the size of the snow peas)
1 Sweet Vidalia Onion (diced to the size of the snow peas)
1/3rd pound of Mushrooms (diced to the size of the snow peas)
1/3rd pound of Snow Peas
5 cloves of Garlic (minced)
2 TBS Olive Oil 

First step is to heat your oil with the minced garlic.  Olive Oil will burn easily, you do not want this too hot.  I set my electric burner to 5.  It takes about 10 minutes for the garlic to infuse the oil.

Now, I was lucky enough to find true Vidalia Onions recently.  they are sweet as is, and when gently sautéed, they get even sweeter.  If I used a "standard" onion, or a red onion as I prefer, I would have sautéed the onions for as long as 40 minutes to caramelize them.  With the sweet Vidalias, there is no need to sweeten them up.

The onions and the peppers are a bit more dense than the peas and mushrooms.  It would take a bit more time to get them heated throughout than the peas and mushrooms.  So I put them in first and flipped them around to get them coated with the oil for only about 5 minutes...

Then I added the snow peas and the mushrooms and continued to flip and coat for another 5 minutes.

Gentle heat and a short cooking time, and they have a great snap to them.  Do not over cook, or they get mushy soft.

No seasonings, didn't need to add any extra tastes... just the veggies in oil... and the verdict was...

WOW, did this all work well together.  Some night soon, Jackie and I will just dive into a big bowl of this as a main course.  Snappy al dente texture, different vegetable tastes, plenty of flavor from the garlic oil.  I watched everyone eat, and this was the dish that disappeared from everyones plate first.

It was an accident and a rush to compensate for a shopping mistake.

What a lucky accident!  No one knew I was making it up as I went along.

Dave here from MY YEAR ON THE GRILL. What a shock ... I CAN COOK THAT! Anyone can!!! And anyone can make this winner...

1-2-3 Chocolate Mousse without Eggs

Get loads of recipes at Comfy Cook and My Sweet and Savory

Don't miss Giveaway at Comfy Cook - CSN - choice of  4 items

For the longest time, I looked for a chocolate mousse without raw eggs and could not find one.  Recently, I am seeing some popping up, and I will have to try them.  The first one I came across was from Nigella Lawson and I adapted that not only to be a chocolate mousse but to transform into many flavors.  There is no end to the variety of desserts you can get from this recipe.

Instant Chocolate Mousse or Ice Cream

This recipe takes minutes to make and it has no raw eggs which is very important to me. The secret of its success is the Marshmallow Creme or Marshmallow Fluff and a few miniature marshmallows.

Ingredients

• 3 cups mini marshmallows (I used 2 cups marshmallow fluff and 1 cup marshmallows since kosher marshmallow retain their shape. In the end, it looks nice, this way.
• 1/2 stick margarine softened
• 9 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
• 1/4 cup hot water from a that had recently been boiling
• 1 non dairy whipped topping or whipping cream  (8 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Put the marshmallows, marshmallow fluff, margarine, chocolate and water in the microwave.

Stop your microwave every 30 seconds and stir. I used a low to medium setting.

Meanwhile whip the cream with the vanilla until thick and then fold into the cooling chocolate mixture until you have a smooth, cohesive mixture.

Pour or scrape into 4 or 6 glasses or small dishes and chill until you want to eat. The sooner the better!

Try a New Recipe: Emily's Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

Don't forget to visit me at The Bad Girl's Kitchen for more fabulous recipes!

One day last Spring, I called my friend Emily and told her I had no kids. H-Bomb was in school and Sawed Off was helping his daddy on the ranch. She had her kids plus an extra, so she couldn't accompany me to the new thrift store in town. (Excitement-ville, I know). She said something to the effect of, "Do you want to cook dinner for me?" I immediately said no, but I did offer to come over and give her some ideas if she let me peruse her freezer.

When I got there, she had some ideas of her own. She had everything for this yummy soup that someone had made for her after the birth of one of her children. Everything, that is, except noodles. She did, however, have all the ingredients for homemade noodles mixed in the bread machine, a recipe she had never tried. "Let's do it," I said.

We had such a nice afternoon, making fresh pasta, cooking, talking. I did change the technique from her recipe, which called for boiling the chicken and then the vegetables (and then I changed it more when I got home). By the time the noodles and soup were put together, it was time for me to go pick up H-Bomb from school. And I had a fresh loaf of Emily's bread (she put 4 loaves in the oven when I got there) AND inspiration for my own dinner!

After a quick trip to the store for some celery, I came home and made this again! I had to find a different noodle recipe because of course our grocery store doesn't have the Semolina Flour Emily had picked up on a trip to the Big City. I decided on a recipe for Homemade Egg Noodles from cooks.com, mostly because I love egg noodles and the recipe didn't require any special ingredients.

This soup IS creamy and delicious, and I like it a lot. Thanks for a fun afternoon, Em!

I meant to put some fresh flat-leaf parsley in the soup tonight, but I forgot. Also forgot the garlic salt...Next time!

Emily's Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

1 stick butter

1 to 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken, cubed

1 large onion (about 1 cup diced)

2 large carrots (about 1 cup diced)

2 large celery stalks (about 1 cup diced)

1/2 cup flour

6 cups water

6 chicken bouillon cubes (or appropriate amount of granules for 6 cups water)

homemade noodles (or substitute 1 pkg frozen noodles or a few handfuls dried egg noodles)

1 cup milk

Melt butter in soup pot over medium heat. Saute onions and chicken, stirring and cooking until chicken is done and onions are translucent. Season with garlic salt if desired. Add carrots and celery, saute for a few minutes until bright and beginning to soften, add flour. Cook and stir until flour is incorporated (no longer white), about 2 minutes.

Add water and bouillon cubes, stir and bring to boiling. Add noodles, boil for recommended noodle cooking time, stirring in milk during the last 5 minutes of cooking.