Thai Food: Simple and Quick

 Funny how so many of us think "ethnic" cooking must be difficult.  But, it's really not.  I think people can easily become overwhelmed when they see a long list of spices/herbs, but think about it.  We're talking about taking some small bottles out of the cabinet and employing a measuring spoon.  Piece of cake, right?

Thai food is one of my favorite cuisines of the world.  I have a fantastic cookbook entitled Quick and Easy Thai. 

Its author spent 3 years in Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer.  Her book features an array of true Thai dishes but easy for American cooks.  One of my new favorites from her book is simply called "Chicken with fresh basil."  

Check how easy this is to prepare:

You saute some chopped onion and garlic in a bit of oil. As soon as it all starts smelling good, add in some chicken cut into bite sized pieces. I usually use about 12 oz of chicken breast. Get your meat browned then add some fish sauce, soy sauce, a bit of water and sugar, and a chopped up serrano or two.  Stir in about a cup of fresh basil leaves to wilt, then serve. Not sure, but I'd be willing to bet my vegetarian friends could do all this with firm tofu. 

It's great on its own, or over some jasmine rice.  In the photo above, you'll see that I accompanied mine with marinated edamame.  I warmed the edamame in some boiling water for a few minutes, then added it to a mixture of garlic and soy sauce to marinate for about an hour. 

Obviously, I had some prep work: chopping onion and garlic, cutting up chicken and chopping the pepper, but actual time to cook the dish was probably about 12 minutes.  If you want rice, remember to start it first, since you need to give it about 20 minutes to do its thing. 

If you're a fan of Thai food, go seek out this cookbook.  I freaking love it!  The recipes are literally quick and easy so that you can whip up great tasting Thai on the proverbial weeknight.  Here are a few of my other favorite recipes from this book: Pad Thai, Red Curry Shrimp with Pineapple, Mussamun Curry Beef with potatoes & peanut, Green Curry Chicken with zucchini, and Chiang Mai Curry Noodles. I could go on and on...

I hope you will seek out this book. It can give your everyday cooking repertoire a nice shot in the arm! 

Chicken and Waffles, My Way

 I've been away for quite some time.  Life since the pandemic has been hectic, chaotic, and sometimes just a pain in the ass. In the last year, we lost my mom, I've gotten divorced and my baby is now 18. There are too many adjustments to even count.  Through all this, I've never stopped cooking though. One major adjustment, along those lines, is learning to cook for two, or more often than not, just for myself. Now, I'm making the effort to commit to writing about my favorite subject again:  FOOD.

With it just being me and the kiddo most nights, we've gotten to where we just split meat. We share a chicken breast, tuna steak, a big ribeye; it's just enough for us.  Yesterday, I had some beautiful chicken thawed (I'll tell you another time about my newest meat source) and also had come Canadian bacon on hand. Time to work with what we've got.  

I still use, and love, my old GE waffle iron. My parents received this exact model as a wedding present in 1966. Thanks to thrift stores, I have two of them. They have removeable plates: waffle side and flip it over to flat side for killer grilled cheese or pressed sandwiches!  I made a simple waffle mix but added a bunch of cheddar.  Used a simple herbed, seasoned flour and fried up chicken breast, which I sliced into strips, of course.  Layered Canadian bacon on my hot, crispy waffle, chicken, a sprinkle of salt and then a drizzle of maple syrup.  What the what??  

Simple, easy and so yummy and most of this stuff, you probably already have.  If you're not a Canadian bacon person, use regular bacon, or sausage, or whatever you like.  

Enough Thanksgiving Leftovers!

 I love Thanksgiving as much as the next girl. I know people always talk about, look forward to and consume Thanksgiving leftovers. I'm not much of a leftover lover, but I did my duty and had them for supper last night, again for lunch today but I couldn't go for #3. So, I made CALAMARI.

Have I ever made calamari?  Hell no!  Have you? I was shocked when I discovered squid in the nearby Food Lion. I had to buy it. They stayed in the freezer for awhile because I was duly intimidated. But you know what? They are so simple to cook, I could teach a chimp to do it.  If only I had a chimp, which I don't.

Draining excess water from packaging

Sliced into rings

Taking a soak in milk for about 30 minutes

You thaw them under refrigeration. When I opened them up, I drained them before I sliced into rings. Then, I soaked them in milk for about 30 minutes. I've read some recipes that state you can soak up to 4 hours, if you want/need to.

I made my dredge with flour, 3 tsp paprika, 1 tsp kosher salt, a little cayenne and fresh ground black pepper. Once I drained the calamari from the milk, I just tossed them around in my seasoned flour. I don't own a deep fryer, so I just mixed some vegetable oil and Crisco and fried the squid in a saucepan on my stovetop. Since they are so small and delicate, you only have to cook them 30-40 seconds, or until they look right to you. 

I am feeling so accomplished! I guess that's not saying much since I just told you how ridiculously easy this is. Nonetheless, I had calamari in my own home, prepared by me.  Oh yeah, I made a simple lemon aioli as well. 

Enjoy your Thanksgiving leftovers. Some suggestions from my past: turkey enchiladas, turkey taco soup, and turkey paninis. Have fun!

Semi-Homemade Pizza Tonight

 

Remember that show? Sandra Lee with her semi-homemade dinners?  I loved it, except for her "table scapes." They were all inspired by Holly Hobby or something. 

Anyway...I am a pizza fanatic. New York, Detroit, thin crust, veggie, meat lovers, weird combos, you name it. While I love going out for a cheesy heart attack pie as much as the next guy, sometimes just making one at home for a quick dinner is what the doctor ordered.

So, yesterday I discovered I had half of a chicken breast half. What can you do with that? I decided on BBQ pizza. I've been known to say that I really don't think chicken has any place on a pizza, but I can make exceptions from time to time. 

The semi-homemade part is a pre-baked pizza crust. Most stores carry Boboli. These are good, but I prefer Mama Mary's Thin & Crispy. A) they are thin & crispy B) they come in a 2-pack and C) they cost less than Boboli. Here's what I did:

Ready for the oven

Ingredients

3 oz (or so) chicken breast

BBQ sauce of your choice

shredded cheddar mixed with shredded monterrey jack

3 slices store-bought fully cooked bacon, chopped

red onion, thinly sliced

fresh cilantro

1.  Cook chicken however you like then shred it. Mix it with a little of your bbq sauce.

2.  Cover your crust with a bbq sauce. Bottled bbq sauces tend to be rather sweet, so I use a thin coat here so that the sauce isn't overwhelming.

3.  Top with a mixture of cheddar & monterrey jack.

4.  Top that with your shredded chicken, bacon and onion.

Right out of the oven. Time for finishing touches

5.  Bake at 425 for about 10 minutes. Top with roughly chopped fresh cilantro and give it a drizzle of bbq sauce. 

Ready to eat!

So many of us are in need of quick weeknight dinners, especially on those days of after-school soccer, ballet, or karate practices. Keep some of these pizza crusts in your pantry, and whip up your own pie in no time. Remember, it's like my "kitchen sink" fried rice: try out any combo of ingredients that you find in your kitchen.

Pandemic Eats

 

 

The great COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, 2021...

It's been forever since I've written here. You would think after the world coming to a grinding halt, then slowly reopening, reawakening, rejoining society that I'd have nothing but time to write. But, living in these weird times has been harder than one might think. Many people in this country, and around the world for that matter, have lost jobs. They have lost family members and friends, lost retirement savings, lost hope. Many have gained anxiety, depression, fear of being sick. Many have been lined up at community food banks, even people who never thought they would be there. Thanks to schools providing meals to kids, selfless donations, food banks, churches and simply neighbors helping neighbors, people have been able to eat.

Living in isolation may have one silver lining. People are cooking again. We all know cooking at home is the way to go. Some people may think they aren't very good at it, but they've had lots of time to practice now. Cooking at home is less expensive than eating out or fast food. Since restaurants were almost made extinct, we all pitched in to support them by ordering take out whenever feasible. We were glad to do it. But, people are still cooking again. When you do it yourself, you can control ingredients, salt, fat, cost and variety. That American families have returned to home cooking and the dinner table is a good, accidental side effect of the pandemic.

Despite all that has been lost, the remaining challenges ahead and the healing that needs to be done, we must look for the positives and embrace them. Get your cast iron skillet out and Bon Appetit friends!

School Lunch

"School Lunch" by our friend John Henry, sometime in the '70s

I work from home, so lunch isn't my forte. Work-from-homers tend to just grab leftovers out of the fridge, or a quick snack.  Now that the kids are out of school because of the virus, I've become keenly aware of how ill-prepared I am to cook/create lunch for my girl here at home.

Our school district serves both breakfast and lunch.  The meals are free to ALL kids.  It's not based on parents' income; it's available to all.  Again, since we're all confined to home, the district has set up drive through stations for us to pick up meals for our kids. Each kid receives a package that contains breakfast and lunch for FIVE days.  Can you believe that?  I was so curious, I had to check it out.

On Monday, we went over to one of the elementary schools here in our neighborhood.  We drove up and the ladies placed the packages in our backseat and off we went.  I thought they were going to be packaging up meals from the district's central kitchens.  I was very skeptical because the school "bag lunches" have never impressed. Let's face it: school lunch has never been a fan favorite, right?  As we began investigating the contents, I became amazed. Look at this:

No central kitchen bag lunch here!  The items pictured are from a company called "Bake Crafters." In a nutshell, the kids did in fact receive all the provisions for 5 days of breakfast and lunch. Some examples are: turkey sub, turkey & cheese croissant, ham sub, chicken biscuit, waffle sandwich with chicken sausage, fresh cucumber, grape tomatoes, broccoli, squash and carrots, each with a packet of ranch; yogurt, juice, cinnamon roll, chicken sausage egg croissant...just to name a few.  They also included a day-by-day sample menu plan with instructions for heating particular items.

For their handling of this situation, I must give hearty applause to Richland School District 1. They found a healthy, convenient and (actually) tasty way to give our kids an alternative to what they would normally be eating during their school day.  Now, if we could just iron out the bugs with our "e-Learning" system...