House Special Udon

Allen's brother Will is getting married tomorrow! He's staying with us till the wedding. He'd been talking about getting Chinese for lunch, but Allen and I were both tired of eating out (had Olive Garden yesterday after picking up the tuxes in Jackson). I still wanted some kind of Asian, so I started looking for a marinade.

Ginger-Soy-Lime Marinated Shrimp (and Scallops, and Chicken)

The inspiration for this came from Bobby Flay, modified to suit our needs and what we had on hand.

4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 c soy sauce
1/2 c lime juice
2 tbls sugar
1/2 c peanut oil
1 tsp red chili paste



I had some frozen shrimp and scallops to use up, but Allen doesn't like seafood. For him, I marinated a chicken breast. Marinated for 30 minutes and grilled. Served with udon noodles and veggies cooked in more of the marinade. 100% yum! I couldn't decide whether I liked the shrimp or the scallops better. Both were outstanding!

Barbecue Stuffed Baked Poatatoes

It's Memorial Day Weekend, and that means sales on meat! I got a 6 pound Boston Butt from Big Star for $1.28 per pound! Not bad! Loaded it into the crock this morning and added the remains of the nearly flat Dr. Pepper bottle (about 12 oz) and let it cook on low all day.

For the sauce, I whipped up a vinegar based sauce (our fave).

1 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon reshampati chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion salt
pinch garlic powder

The results--amazing! The pork was so nice and tender from cooking all day. And, of course, I loved having tons of leftovers! Allen separated them into quart bags for later. I can see all kinds of tasty things coming from this pork. If my freezer wasn't so full of wedding stuff, I'd go buy another roast to keep on hand! It sure was tasty!

Experimenting with Sausage Bread

When we were out in Texas in April for Grandmother and Grannyma's funerals, some sweet lady made us the most delicious bread! It was sausage, egg, and cheese, rolled up in a sourdough crust. Since Allen was having a wisdom tooth pulled today, he requested a hearty breakfast. I thought the sausage bread would be just the trick!

I didn't have any sourdough starter on hand, so I went with one of my favorite breads, potato bread, for the crust. Made 2 lbs of dough in the bread machine. While the dough was working, I browned one pound of sausage and mixed the sausage with 4 beaten eggs. Then I rolled out the dough and spread it with the sausage/egg mixture and topped with about a cup and a half of shredded Colby Jack. Then it went in the fridge to rise overnight.

This morning I got out the dough and let it rest while the oven heated to 350. Baked for 25 minutes or so, although I ended up putting it back into the oven (the middle was doughy in some places).

Notes for next time: 3 eggs would be plenty. Use 2 to mix with the sausage and one to baste the crust. Less cheese, and maybe cheddar would be better. Make the loaves smaller so that they'll cook more quickly.

All in all, it wasn't perfect. But it was a great starting point! I can't wait to make it again and work out the kinks!


Update: This bread was great reheated for breakfast the next day!

Cinnamon Rolls on a Rainy Morning

We woke today to a drizzly gray sky, but that didn't dampen our spirits! We had cinnamon rolls! I made the dough last night and let them rise in the fridge (only substitution was 2 cups of the flour with oats and adding 3 tbsp of milk to the frosting). Made for a super-simple morning. All I had to do was preheat the oven and let the cinnamony smell waft through the house!

Took some of nice warm rolls to Val for breakfast. Since she's moving back to Huntsville soon, I have to bake for her while I've still got her around. I'll miss you, dear!

Stuffing Ourselves with Stuffed Crust Pizza

Homemade pizza is a definite fave in our house. I don't know why it's never occurred to me to make my favorite--stuffed crust--till now. My pizza is the victim of endless variation and has never been the same twice. For tonight, I went with a focaccia dough. My handy-dandy bread machine helped tremendously with the dough...ok, fine. The bread machine did all the work. And to think, when we got married, all the ladies told me I'd never use the bread machine! Little did they know...

Ok, back to the dough.

1 c water
1/3 c olive oil
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 c bread flour
1 tsp Italian seaoning
1 1/2 tsp yeast

And since I can't seem to stop myself from adding things, I added a sprinkle of crushed red peppers.

For the sauce, I used Exquisite Pizza Sauce from allrecipes. Yum! The only changes I made were to leave out the anchovy paste and onion powder (none on hand). I think I also decreased the honey, since I don't like super-sweet stuff usually.

Rolled the crust out and used string cheese for the stuffed part. Topped with a blend of mozzarella and Parmesan. It was the perfect celebration for Allen being all through with class! We've been celebrating a lot lately...

Pigging out on Pork Egg rolls

All I can say is--mmm! Tonight's egg rolls were a great success (not to mention a great use of leftovers)! Earlier this week, I made pork with veggies in the crock pot. Needless to say, the two of us were unable to eat the entire pork loin in one sitting. So I bought some shredded cabbage and some egg roll wrappers and made my first attempt at homemade eggrolls. Outstanding!


First I sauteed some garlic in oil, added the cabbage and cooked for a few minutes. Added a bit of soy sauce, cooked a few minutes more. The kitchen was starting to smell really good at this point! Then I stirred in some of the pork mixture and heated just until everything was nice and hot. After that, I set the filling aside to cool so I wouldn't burn my poor little fingers trying to wrap the silly things.

In the meantime, I made some fried rice (and also baked some frozen mini quiches for the Graduation Fellowship at church). Mono-tasking has its advantages, but multi-tasking is necessary in the kitchen!

I used my deep fryer, which gets precious little use in this house, and heated the oil to 325 degrees. The egg rolls only took about 2 minutes to fry to the lovely golden brown you see above. We also made a tasty little dipping sauce using 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp white vinegar, and 1/2 tsp chili paste. Just hot enough!

Even though we each had 4 egg rolls (hey, I told you we pigged out!), there was still tons of the pork leftover. I stuck it in the freezer since we're going out of town Friday. There will be more pork egg rolls in our future!

Feta-ccinie

Tonight was my last final! It took about 15 minutes--we were out the door by 5:30. After prodding and poking the pantry, I fixed on pasta for tonight's meal. I was really craving something creamy, and we had a block of feta just crying out to be used. So I made alfredo with feta instead of Parmesan!

Half a stick (or so) of butter, melted
1 cup half and half
Feta

Couldn't be simpler! I added some chopped sun-dried tomatoes to the mix and blended with my stick blender. For the record, a stick blender is an essential kitchen tool! My brother-in-law, Will, got it for me a few years ago for Christmas.

Anyhoo, Allen really loved this pasta! I felt like it needed a little something. Garlic? A mix of cheese? Dunno. But something. Served with fresh brussels sprouts, our very favorite veggie.