Panang Curry

I know you've all heard me rave about Yumprint many times before, but seriously, I'm just going to keep going on about it because it's amazing. Also, who doesn't love getting recipes from the people you love? So if you haven't joined, go do it. Now. And if you have and then forgot? Go. Now. Go. Go.

I will never lose my grocery list or menu again. A miraculous thing, for sure. {happy sigh}

I hopped onto Yumprint to check what's for dinner tonight and smiled. This recipe is just too great to not share.

My cousin sent it to me years ago and then often told me that she was making it for dinner. Because I'm an *ex-* cautious cook, I never made it. It had ingredients that I'd never used - foreign things like coconut milk and fish sauce. (Yes. I'm a wuss.) However, after joining Yumprint and spying a picture of it (I LOOOOOOVE Indian food), I gave it a go when I had company coming into town and wanted to wow them.

It is an amazing recipe.

Super easy, fast, and incredibly tasty.

A couple of notes: the one strange ingredient that it calls for is "kafir lime leaves". What is that? Who knows. Certainly not me or the cousin who shared it with me. Instead I just wing it and add a little bit of lime zest and a squeeze of fresh lime juice - IF I've got one on hand - otherwise, I just leave it out.

And second, a primary ingredient, curry paste, is essential. The recipe calls for Panang, but I've been informed that the red curry paste you can find at your local grocer works great as well. If you live in a city you can definitely find the panang paste at your local Asian market. {Next time I'm in Spokane, I'm going to have to track one down and stock up.} It's pretty inexpensive and with one can, I've made it probably 5+ times. After opening, I just store the extra in my freezer.

Without further ado:

PANANG CURRY SAUCE
2 pounds meat (beef, chicken, or pork)
1 diced bell pepper
3-5 diced green onions
1 can Coconut milk
Panang Curry paste to taste (start with a TB, it is hot) or red curry paste
2 TB fish sauce
2 TB Kafir Lime Leaves (definitely optional - but if I've got it on hand, I like to add a little lime zest)
½ cup Basil
2 TB sugar (I use honey instead)
Unsalted peanuts


Cut your meat into thin slices. Using a medium to large skillet, pan fry the meat until almost done, then remove it and set aside.

Sauté diced bell pepper and green onions.

Using medium heat, add four TB of coconut milk, and bring to a boil.

Add one TB of curry paste.

Put the meat back in and stir until it is thoroughly cooked.

Add in half the remaining coconut milk. Stir. Then add the fish sauce, sugar, and remaining coconut milk.

When the coconut milk thickens (We prefer it to have a more soupy consistency), add the basil and lime leaves. Taste it and adjust panang curry paste, fish sauce, or sugar depending on your preference.

Serve over hot rice and garnish with unsalted peanuts.

Chicken Chimichangas

If yesterday I shared *one* of  favorite foods, today I am sharing my all-time favorite. I think I requested this for dinner nearly every one of my birthdays growing up. Even now, when I am at home for my birthday, this is what I crave.

What's not to love about a burrito deep-fried to crispy perfection topped with creamy, limey guacamole and spicy salsa?

Most chimichangas I've ever eaten at a restaurant are just meat on the inside and while they are good, the addition of rice, red onions, and oregano in this recipe just blows all other chimichangas out of the ballpark. So yummy.

{sigh}

Sadly, no guac in this picture . . . my poor avocados sat too long. But I'm going to share my guac recipe too, because it's heavenly.


Chicken Chimichangas

Ingredients

2 lb. chicken breasts
4 c. chicken broth
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. wine vinegar or juice from jar of pickled jalapenos
1/2 c. rice, uncooked
1 Spanish onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 green chilies, fresh or canned, diced
1 tsp. oregano
12 - 15 tortillas

Instructions

Place chicken, broth, salt and vinegar in large saucepan. Bring to boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 10 mins. Remove from heat and let chicken cool in liquid.

RESERVING BROTH, drain cooled chicken. Chop chicken coarsely. 

Measure 1 1/2 c. of broth and bring to boil in same saucepan. Add rice, onion, garlic and chopped chicken. 

Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed, about 20 minutes. 

Add chilies and oregano to mixture and combine well. 

Place about 2 ½ Tb. of filling in center of warmed tortilla. Fold like an envelope and secure with a toothpick. 

Heat 2 inches of oil in heavy skillet until approximately 400 degrees. 

Fry filled tortillas envelopes until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels. 

Remove toothpicks and serve topped with lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, tomato and salsa.

Pic VIA

Guacamole

Ingredients

2 avocados, mashed
1 tomato, diced
½ tsp. salt
1 clove garlic, minced
2-4 tsp. lime (or lemon) juice
2 Tb. chopped hot or mild chilies
2 lg. green onions
½ tsp. cilantro, minced

Instructions

Combine all ingredients and enjoy!

Meatballs & Rigatoni with Red Hot Tomato Sauce

One of my favorite foods. Ever. Seriously, these meatballs are perfection, mouth-watering. I don't love big chunks of meat, but I could eat these everyday. They are perfect for whatever meatball recipe you are making, Italian, Swedish, Sweet and Sour . . . you'll never be sad that you took the extra time to whip them up. Not ever. And the marinara sauce is the best I've ever had. It's simple and a tad spicy - just the way I like it.

I'm going to plug again for Yumprint! It's the BEST recipe website out there - and it just keeps getting better. They recently added an option that makes your grocery list for you, based off of the recipes in your menu! I don't know how you do your grocery shopping, but that little perk just added about an hour to my week. I am constantly amazed at how much I use this fabulous website.

photo Via

Meatballs

Ingredients:

2 slices bread, crusts removed and cut into pieces
3 sm. Cloves garlic, minced
½ lb. ground beef
fresh parsley
½ lb. ground pork
zest of ½ lemon
¾ tsp. salt
1 Tb. olive oil
¼ tsp. pepper
¼ cup milk
½ med. Onion, finely chopped
1 egg, slightly beaten

Instructions:

Place bread in bowl. Pour milk over it.
In another bowl, mix veal and pork. Add onion, garlic, lemon, parsley. Add salt, pepper. Mix well.
Mash bread mixture to form paste and add meat mixture. Mix and add egg. Combine well.
Cover with plastic wrap. Chill 1 hour. Heat oven to 350.
Form mixture into 12-16 1 ½” balls.
Heat ½ Tb. oil in skillet over med. Sauté meatballs till brown. Place in oven to finish cooking about 20 min.


Rigatoni & Red Hot Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

3 Tb. olive oil
1 med. onion, diced fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 qt. tomatoes
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper (adjust to taste)
1 tsp. fresh basil, chopped
1 - 1 1/2 lbs. rigatoni (or penne) noodles
Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

Heat oil and saute onion and garlic. Add tomatoes, salt, and peppers. Bring to boil, turn down heat, and let simmer until thickened (the secret to amazing marinara sauce, simmer. simmer. simmer). Add basil.

Cook noodles according to package directions.

Add meatballs to sauce and serve with fresh grated parmesan cheese over noodles.

Pumpkin Waffles with Apple Cinnamon Syrup

Posting favorite family recipes to my blog so that I can save them to my Yumprint cookbook! Yumprint just added a new "search" feature so if you've joined recently, let me know so that I can find you!

Moist, delicious waffles and the perfect syrup to top them off!

Pumpkin Waffles

2 c. flour (to texture)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 Tb. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt 

3/4 c. pumpkin

3 eggs

1/2 c. oil

2 c. milk

1/4 tsp. cinnamon, opt.

1/4 tsp. ginger, opt.

1/4 tsp. nutmeg, opt.

Mix all ingredients together and bake in waffle iron.

Apple Cinnamon Syrup

1/2 c. sugar

1 Tb. cornstarch

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 c. apple juice or cider

1 Tb. lemon juice

2 Tb. butter

Combine dry ingredients, then add apple juice and lemon juice.

Bring to a boil over medium heat to thicken and then add butter.

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe and a bunch of Links

In response to a couple of questions:

The website that I got many of the Christmas presents for my babes and also has FREE GIFT WRAPPING (how cool is that?!) is ReallyGreatToys.com

I love toys that are a little different than what you'd typically find at Walmart and right now they've also got a 10% off coupon (until tomorrow) and free shipping over $65. I'm sure that next week they'll have some great deals, but I was pretty happy with what they had available right now. I bought my kids several of the Schleich World of Elves figurines. Like a couple pegasi (LOL!) for Elsie and a dragon for Lilie.

Christmas morning is going to be very mythical at our house. :)

I also bought a BUNCH of these little Safari animal "Toobs" for Violet. We'll have lots of new little animals at our house - which will be wonderful because the girls all LOVE them.

Now, yesterday I was also reminded that I've never shared my bread recipe with you. My reason for this is partly because I've only ever made bread with my Bosch and I know that most people don't own a Bosch. (But you should.) Also, I grind my own wheat and most people don't have their own wheat grinder. (But you especially should if you have wheat in your food storage.) The Bosch is great. It's a work horse that will last forever. It also easily makes 4 loaves at a time. I think a KitchenAid could handle a half recipe, but with a family of 7, nothing is in small batches anymore. :)

This recipe is easy, only requires a few ingredients, and only needs to rise once. Also, from start to finish - even with grinding my own wheat (unless I'm blogging at the same time :) - I can have the my bread made and rising in the pans with the counters cleaned up in 30 minutes. Making bread does require a little trial and error to get the consistency right. I think whether you're making bread loaves or cinnamon rolls, learning the consistency of bread is probably the thing that takes the most practice, but once you figure it out - you're set.

So here we go.

Whole Wheat Bread

INGREDIENTS:

6 c. warm water

2/3 c. oil

2/3 c. honey

2 Tb. salt

2 Tb. dough enhancer, heaping (opt)

6 c. whole wheat flour

2 Tb. SAF yeast, heaping

7-8 c. whole wheat flour

INSTRUCTIONS:

Place the water in your bowl. Temperature is important when making bread. I don't own a kitchen thermometer, so I go with good and warm, but NOT hot. (Don't want to kill your yeast.) Apparently about 115-120* is perfect.

Add oil next and then, using the same measuring cup, add the honey. Doing so makes the honey slip right out, with no scraping.

Add salt, dough enhancer, 6 c. flour, and yeast in order, mixing as you go.

Lastly, continue to slowly mix in flour until the dough starts to clean the sides of your bowl. I find it is usually about 7 or 8 cups, but does vary depending on how exact I was with my liquid ingredients (and maybe the phase of the moon or something). Take care to not add too much. Generally once it stops sticking to the sides of your bowl, it doesn't need much more. You want a dough that is still slightly sticky, but not gooey. It will take some practice to figure out the precise consistency that you're looking for, but honestly with this recipe, even the times I've added too much or too little, it's been very forgiving.

Knead dough for 7-8 minutes.

While dough is kneading, grease four large bread pans with shortening.

Once kneaded, dump dough out onto an oiled countertop. Divide into four equal parts, shape into loaves, and place into your greased pans.

Set your loaves in a warm area and let rise until about double the size. I go for about 1" above the edge of the pans.

Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes. 

When loaves are nice and golden, remove from oven and immediately slide out of the pans. (Leaving loaves in pans to cool will cause them to stick.) Set your loaves on a rack or clean towel to cool and butter the tops while they are still hot.

A couple of side notes: 

*I use a Bosch, which can handle 4 large loaves. If using a KitchenAid, half the recipe. 

*The use of dough enhancer IS optional. I ran out a couple months ago and have yet to buy more. However, using it produces a fluffier bread. You can find it at most whole foods stores or your local Bosch Kitchen Center.

*Since homemade bread doesn't have all the preservatives that store-bought bread does, it obviously has a shorter shelf-life. Once my bread is cool, I slice it up, bag it, and put my extra loaves in the freezer. Bread freezes beautifully. Bread bags can be bought at Walmart (packaged as Great Value Twist-Tie Bags) or at your local Bosch Kitchen Center.

*If you find that your bread is not rising as it should, evaluate whether the water you used was either too hot or too cold. Too hot and you can kill your yeast. If it was too cold, try setting your loaves in a warm dishwasher (not running, of course!) or in a warm oven - set to 200* with the door open. 

*The quality of your yeast can make or break your bread. My favorite is SAF instant yeast. I've been able to find it at a local grocery store in every city we've lived in. I know that Winco carries it for a very good price. Once opened, I pour the remainder of the bag into an airtight container and keep it in the fridge or freezer.

*I do believe this recipe could obviously be made by hand - but it would probably require more like 10+ minutes of kneading to achieve the desired elasticity. Kneading can't be scrimped on. It is what activates the gluten in your bread that holds it all together.

Happy bread making! And happy Christmas shopping!

Tex-Mex Skillet

On occasion, I'm going to be adding some of my personal recipes here - so that I can add them to my Yumprint Cookbook and have them in my menu line up.

This is one of those times.

This is a meal that was one of my mom's go-to recipes when we were kids and I've loved it so much that it's now one of the staples in our house. It's tasty, easy, flexible, nutritious, cooks all in one pan, and I almost always have all the ingredients.

What's not to love?

Over the years, I've adapted the recipe to my family's liking by adding a few things and removing the chili seasoning packet (at first because I didn't have it on hand, but then realized that I liked it better with the real ingredients). At the end, I'll add the original recipe in case you are interested. It's really good and almost the same, but has some differences that make it slightly quicker (and easier for those nights when you have a meeting and your 13-year-old daughter is saving the family from eating scrambled eggs . . . the only dinner that Dad comes up with --- not that I have any experience with that . . . {wink}).

Tex-Mex Skillet

1 lb. ground beef or turkey
1 large onion, diced
3 1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. uncooked rice
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 15 oz. can beans (kidney, black, pinto), drained
1 can corn, drained (optional)
1 Tb. chili powder
crushed red pepper (optional - add more or less to taste)
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. cumin
1 Tb. salt
1 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. black pepper
parsley, to taste
1 lg. green pepper, diced

Cook meat and onion in large skillet until meat is browned. Drain any excess fat.

Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT green pepper. Mix and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer and cover tightly. Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and checking to make sure there is still enough liquid to cook rice. Add a little more water, if needed.

Once rice is tender, remove from heat and stir in green pepper.

Cover and let stand 5 minutes.

**I often make this recipe using my pressure cooker by reducing the amount of water by a bit and cooking at high pressure for about 5 minutes, then letting the pressure come down naturally. I have also substituted brown rice for white when using my pressure cooker and changing the cook time to about 20 minutes.**


Easy Tex-Mex Skillet

1 lb. ground beef or turkey
1 large onion, diced
3 c. water
1 c. uncooked rice
1 15 oz. can kidney beans
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 pkg. chili seasoning mix
1 tsp. salt
1 large green pepper, diced

Cook meat and onion in large skillet until meat is browned. Drain excess fat. Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT green pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover tightly and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in green pepper. Cover and let stand 5 minutes.

Reclaiming Dinner with Yumprint

When Pinterest rolled into town it took me a while to look into it, but once I did I realized that it filled a huge hole in my life.

Seriously.

Well, seriously in a completely silly sort of way.

For years I'd had links upon links of bookmarks in my bookmark folders to many great and amazing ideas that I'd found in my internet browsing. It was hard to keep track of which was which, but it worked. Sort of.

Then along came Pinterest and it changed my life. :)

I spent two days going through all my crafty and shoppy bookmarks sorting through which were keepers and which were duds and "pinning" my little brains out. It was like reconnecting with old friends --- and now they were all organized and right in front of me for my great viewing pleasure as pictures.

SUCH a genius idea.

In every way but one.

Recipes.

How many people have I talked to that say something along the lines of, "Pinterest has such great looking recipes on it, but almost every one I've made has been disgusting!"?

Many, my friends. Many. And it's happened to you, too.

A dirty trick, to be sure.

Me? I just don't cook anything from Pinterest - even though they look good - because I'm a Cautious Cooker. I want to hear what someone else has to say about it before I'll jump into the deep end and use my time, resources, and taste buds to cook something that very-well may taste like cat food. (Unless that something is in the form of a brownie or somesuch. I figure when you're adding butter, sugar, cocoa, and flour together, how wrong can it really go, right?)

Also, I'm not going to take recommendations from,

"Another pinner says . . . "

Ya know what I mean? Not really instilling much confidence with what "another pinner" had to say. I want to know what my friends, family, or favorite food blogger thinks (not the creepy people who live across the street from my friend and people-watch the neighborhood from their open garage).

Enter  yumprint.

A fabulous website that is starting to save dinner at our house.

It's like Pinterest - for food!  (Only better!)  Be still my heart!

I can save recipes from anywhere on the web and organize them into cookbooks and MENUs! I can see what recipes my friends and others are saving and read their reviews. And if I'm super lazy, I can see what they're cooking for dinner this week and just copy them.

I love it.

I've had a few places that I trust and have become my "go-to" websites to look for new recipe ideas and I've also come across some tasty-looking ones on friends blogs. On a rare occasion I'll spend hours combing through recipes on websites like food.com or allrecipes.com. Wherever I'm looking, I'll always print off a couple (if I have ink) or I'll write down the recipe (on the back of my kids' coloring page) with grand plans of putting it into my "Recipes Binder", but inevitably (before or after I've made it) I can never find it again. It gets thrown in the trash by accident (because it looks like a coloring page) or gets left to fend for itself in the never-ending stack of recipes that I never look at again because Ican'trememberifIlikeditornotandrecipefilingisn'tthatmuchfun.

With Yumprint, I can save recipes right when I find them. I can even edit them and add my own notes. It's incredible!

Last night we had some new friends over for dinner. They're vegetarians (or herbivores - if you're Elsie) and while I have a few okay or so-so vegetarian recipes (you know, like quesadillas), I really wanted something to knock our socks off --- and I didn't want to spend all my cooking time combing the internet for something that looked good, but might taste questionable.

I went to Yumprint, clicked on my cousin's profile, found her Vegetarian cookbook, and found an incredible recipe that she and others had made and reviewed for Vegetable Tamale Pie.

And it was SO GOOD!!! I was seriously, doing a happy dance with how well it turned out. - And it was made even better because I was able to quickly read other reviews about minor adjustments that made it even better. Afterward I added my own notes, so that I can remember next time --- and there will be a next time.

Hooray!

After a year-long break from making consistent menus, I'm finally getting back in the game and having so much fun doing it! I am finally breaking out of my Family Cookbook and trying new recipes that I love.

Thank you, Yumprint, for filling yet another hole in my life that I didn't even know existed.

{{{happy sigh}}}

Now.

What all of YOU need to do is go to Yumprint and sign up! So that I can see what YOU'RE cooking and get even more ideas!

http://www.yumprint.com