I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
Juni Bug loves her mommy, and she definitely knows her mommy loves her too. When she is not being a pill and torturing her big brother or destroying the house, she follows Mommy around everywhere. She loves to follow me and help out in the kitchen too. Often times she is completely under foot and sometimes she needs a little nap and rests on her kitchen pillow or underneath the table in the in the breakfast nook.
Here she is saying “drop it, drop it, drop it. I will help clean it up, just drop it, please”.
I admit, I LOVE curries; all kinds of curries. But my favorite curries are those influenced by the Thai way of cooking. I love the lime and coconut combinations, with the hot and sweet accents. When I made my Panang style fried chicken Panang Style Fried Chicken I had some coconut milk leftover that I needed to use, so I turned it into a curried sauce. Dinner was curried shrimp that I marinated in lime juice, curry and cayenne pepper, served over curried vegetables and rice. To finish it off, I served a crisp, citrusy chardonnay on the side. I don’t really have a specific recipe here, but this is traditionally how I made a lot of Thai styled curries. Diner was delicious or Xrxy in Thai.
The first thing I did was to par cook the bacon in the oven for about 20 minutes. While the bacon was cooking, I marinated the shrimp. You don’t want to marinate the shrimp for too long because the citric acid will “cook the shrimp” and make it tough. I also par cook the bacon because the bacon and the shrimp cook at different temperatures and different times, and you don’t want to eat raw bacon. NO! I had about 24 shrimp, so I used about 1/4 cup of lime juice, about 1 TBSP curry and about 1 tsp of red pepper flakes. Play with it, and make it how you like it though. I LOVE curries, as I mentioned above, so I love a good, strong curry flavor.
I cut up all my vegetables, again using Asian vegetables like red bell peppers, jalapenos, carrots, onions, baby corn and green beans, along with some ginger and garlic.
I had about 1 1/2 cups of coconut milk left over that I combined with 2 TBSP lime juice, 2 tsp curry, 1 tsp red pepper flakes, and about 1-2 TBSP of honey.
Wrap the bacon around the shrimp. I used a medium/large shrimp, and a 1/2 piece of bacon was more than enough to cover each shrimp. Once the shrimp are wrapped with the bacon, skewer them and grill until both the bacon and the shrimp are completely cooked.
Cook the rice and make the vegetable curry sauce while the shrimp and bacon are cooking up.
Saute the vegetables in hot oil. Cook at a high temperature for about 7 minutes or until the vegetables are done, yet still have a slight crispiness to them.
Add the coconut milk mixture and some fresh basil and cilantro and combine well. Cook for an addition 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
When it is all ready, add the curried vegetables and sauce to the rice then add the bacon wrapped shrimp. I like to add a bit of additional sauce to the shrimp as well to give some extra flavor.
This dish is very versatile. If you don’t like bacon, or shrimp, use chicken instead. If you want to make it vegetarian or vegan, use tofu or tempe instead, though you probably would not be grilling those. You could cook those with the vegetables.
I guess I have been cooking a lot of Asian dishes lately to get ready for Chinese New Year, which will start nest week, on February 12. This year it is the year of the Ox. Those born under the sign of the Ox are known for intelligence, dependability, strength and determination.
Larry loves ribs. I am not a huge fan, but every now and then they hit the spot. Larry prefers the spare ribs, whereas if I am going to eat them, my preference is the country style ribs. I like them more meaty.
Ribs were pulled out of the freezer and it was time to cook them up. This time, it was the meatier short ribs. I have found slow cooking ribs is the best way to cook them. The longer you cook them, the more tender they become. This time I cooked them in a tomato and pepper sauce. I slow cooked them for about 6 hours and the meat literally just fell right off the bones. They were oh so good too. I served the ribs over pasta with some garlic cheese bread and a smooth red blend. YUM!
Ribs Cooked in a Tomato-Pepper Sauce
2 lbs country ribs
6 tomatoes, diced medium or 2 cans of diced tomatoes with juice
1 red bell pepper, diced medium
1 green pepper, diced medium
1-2 large jalapenos, diced fine
2 TBSP garlic
1 onion, diced medium
salt & pepper to taste
2 TBSP cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 TBSP fresh basil, chopped fine or 2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp hot pepper sauce, or to taste
1-2 tsp chocolate chili powder, optional
about 1/2-1 cup of water if using fresh tomatoes rather than canned tomatoes
Place the ribs in the slow cooker and add all the diced vegetables on top. Mix together all the seasonings and spices with the hot sauce and water if using, then pour over the vegetables.
Cover and crank up the heat and just leave it alone to cook, making sure to stir it every now and then.
If you want it to cook faster, crank up the heat to high and let it cook for about 4-5 hours. If you want it to cook slower, cook on low heat for 8-10 hours. I did a combination. I cooked it on high for about 4 hours and on low for about 2 hours. When you are ready to serve it up, serve it over a hearty pasta with your choice and a glass or two of a smooth red wine, and you are all set. This meat was so tender, it literally fell off right off the bones and just melted in our mouths.
Little Juni Bug is trying her best to keep up with her big brother Vinnie. She follows his every move and chases him all around. At the moment, he still has the upper hand, or in this case, the upper stairs, but it won’t be too much longer and she will be able to do everything he does. Vinnie is so good with her too. She plays rough and often uses Vinnie as a chew toy and his tail as a tug. As big as he is, he doesn’t put up much of a fuss and just lets her bite and tug. But when he’s had enough, he tells her, and if she persists, she had just better watch out. Juni Bug is a little pistol, that’s for sure and Vinnie is turning out to be a real gentle giant.
Juni has mastered the stairs, both up and down in the house, but this is her first attempt at the deck stairs outside.
You can see she’s just not sure of these stairs. They are different from the ones inside.
I love this picture of Vinnie. He just looks so majestic, looking out over his domain.
It won’t be too much longer and Juni will be right there at the top of the stairs with Vinnie.
At first, I thought it was going to be another peaceful, quiet walk without much to see. But as I hit the 4th lake, all that changed. There were gaggles of geese and teams or flocks or rafts of ducks just swimming about, enjoying life out on the lakes.
There were tons of Canadian Gees and a few snow geese as well.
The Snow Geese really stand apart from the Canadians. There is no way they will ever truly blend in and not be seen.
There were also plenty of ducks out and about as well. There were Mallards,
Hooded Mergansers,
and a couple of new ducks on the lakes too. One was a Common Merganser. He was shy.
And the other one was a Common Goldeneye.
I have seen so many new birds, ducks and geese lately. I love it. We definitely have a wide variety of life here on our lakes. There is always something new to see and new friends to make. 🙂
Usually when it is February I am thinking of warm comfort foods, not salads. But the weather was nice enough for a salad, and making a salad was a good way to use up the rest of my leftovers from my fried noodles and vegetables Fried Noodles with Stir-Fry Vegetables. I also got to use up the rest of my mango dressing. Curried Rice and Chicken Salad with Mango Chutney Vinaigrette. Believe it or not, I am currently almost completely out of leftovers. I get so excited when I can find new ways to use up all my leftovers. 🙂
It was really just a very simple salad that used up the rest of my leftovers. I marinated a chicken breast in lime juice, curry and cayenne pepper, then grilled it up and laid it on top of my salad once it was cooked.
This simple salad was just some romaine lettuce, a little extra sweet baby corn and the leftovers of my fried noodles and vegetables. I tossed the noodles and vegetables in the mango vinaigrette then placed it all on top of the lettuce and added the cooked, sliced chicken on top. I finished it all off with a sprinkling of the remainder of my chopped basil, green onions and cilantro and … voila! My salad was done. The only thing it needed was a glass or two of my favorite barrel aged Chenin Blanc and our simple, easy-peasy dinner was complete. We enjoyed the “summer-like” weather and a nice tasty salad as well before the colder weather came back to us once again.
Enjoy the sunshine while you can, for tomorrow, it just may snow, particularly here in Colorado. 🙂
Steak and potatoes. This is a pretty basic meal enjoyed by millions everywhere. If you allow it to, even steak and potatoes can get kind of boring too, particularly if you fix it the same way all the time. But it doesn’t have to be. Larry is most definitely a meat and potatoes kind of guy. And there is nothing wrong with this, I love meat and potatoes too. But I like to shake things up and liven them up a bit. With just a few simple additions, your steak and potatoes gets a whole new life and a whole new personality. Changing things up brings a new dimension to just plain old steak and potatoes.
I simply started out with creamy mashed potatoes and a grilled marinated steak. Then I added some sauteed spinach, garlic, shallots, mushrooms and tomatoes to make it more of a Tuscan or Italian style steak.
Adding the spinach mixture was the only thing I did differently, but the whole meal was transformed. It went from simple and delicious to simply WOW! The meal went from being a typical American meal to an exotic Italian delicacy with just a few simple additions.
To make the meal complete, I served it with some warmed bread and a smooth red blend, that was like liquid velvet. Perfecto!
Sometimes the best rule of thumb is the K.I.S.S. rule, and to just keep it simple. I’ve heard the second “S” stands for stupid, but I don’t like using that, so you can change it for whatever you like. 🙂 !Buon Appetito!
Juni Bug went in for her puppy exam yesterday. This is just something recommended for all puppies once they turn 8 weeks old. We had absolutely no doubt in our minds that Juni Bug was in excellent health, but it was more to get our vet acquainted with her and to get her used to going to the vet than anything else. The breeder we bought Juni Bug from did an amazing job with all the puppies. They were very well loved and very well cared for and all were current on their puppy shots. The vet was very happy with Juni bug and said she was doing great. She is already 16.5 lbs, and will continue to keep growing for quite some time. The vet said he is guessing she will be 100+ lbs when she is a full grown adult. We thought she would be about 90 or so, based on both her mommy and daddy’s sizes. We LOVE the big dogs, no doubt about that. The bigger the better in our book. The vet said Juneau is a “perfect pup”. Little does he know how much of a pill she can be though. If you could only see my poor carpet. It looks like a war zone. I need to steam clean the carpeting AGAIN today. Oh well, the new carpeting will come after we get Juni Bug fully house trained. We knew that already. 🙂
Here are some new pictures of my baby girl. I know you are all “bored to tears” seeing all her baby pictures. 🙂
She loves her toys. We have toys all over the house.
Juneau loves her big brother Vinnie. Vinnie tolerates her. He likes her a lot more when she is not using his tail as a tug.
When I made my Panang style fried chicken, Panang Style Fried Chicken I had to have side dishes to go with it. One of the things I made was some fried noodles that I topped with stir-fry vegetables. The jury is still out on the fried noodles. Some of us liked them, the rest of us would have preferred just regular noodles, but, hey that’s the fun of trying new things, right?! You just never know what to expect. I also made some potstickers, but those were store bought, so I can’t take credit for those. 🙂
Fried Noodles with Stir-Fry Vegetables
You can use any hearty vegetables you like, but I do my best to keep things as authentic as possible when I am cooking ethnic foods. I used baby corn, red, yellow and green peppers, onions, garlic, ginger, spicy red chili peppers, mushrooms and carrots. Then I topped them all with chopped cilantro, green onions and basil.
1 can baby corn, drained and cut in half
1/2 each green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, red bell pepper, sliced thin
1/4 red onion, sliced very thin
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, sliced thin
2 carrots, sliced in thin Asian style or at an angle
1 1 /2 TBSP garlic
1 1 /2 TBSP ginger
1 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste
sesame oil and vegetable oil for cooking
fresh cilantro, green onions and basil chopped for topping
I cooked them all in a wok in a combination of hot sesame oil and vegetable oil. Cook them at a high heat for about 5-7 minutes or until the vegetables are tender but still have a little crisp left to them.
In another deep pan with hot oil, fry the noodles. I used thin rice noodles. Put them in the hot oil in small batches. The noodles only need to cook for a couple of minutes, then remove them. If you want them softer, place them in boiling water for a couple of minutes. That is what I am going to do next time. Larry and I both prefer the softer noodles rather than fried crunchy noodles, but Suzanne and Elizabeth both liked the crunchy noodles. So a little something for everyone. I had never cooked these noodles before and I followed the directions on the package. That’s what happens when I follow directions; things just don’t always work out as well as I plan them to. I am much better making up and following my own directions than I am at following the directions of others. (This is true with most things too though). 🙂
When the noodles and the vegetables were cooked, I plated them up, noodles first, the topped them with the vegetables. Right before serving them, I added the chopped green onions, basil and cilantro. The vegetables are very good on their own too.
Enjoy and a happy early Chinese New Year or Gung Hay Fat Choi.
Ever since we brought Juni Bug into the family, everyone wants to come over and see the baby. We have become very popular lately. 🙂 Last night, my friend Elizabeth and and my friend Suzanne both joined us for dinner. It was a fun evening with good food, good friends and good fun, and of course, having a new puppy made it even better.
Usually when Elizabeth comes over, she is the one who is doing the cooking, since she wants to learn how to cook. She has an ever-growing list of things she wants to learn how to make. But this time, she was pre-occupied with Baby Juneau, so I did all the cooking instead. Elizabeth said she wanted to do something Asian, so of course, I obliged. Originally, she said she wanted Panang style shrimp. But we have already made that, so I decided to make something different. We made some Panang style fried chicken with fried noodles and vegetables and potstickers on the side. My orange cake was dessert. An Orange Cake. My friend Suzanne also wanted to meet the baby, so I invited her over as well. After dinner, we played games and had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs.
What is Panang style cooking? Panang (there are many spellings of Panang) style cooking is Thai style cooking that is usually made with a thick red curry sauce with bold, spicy flavors. Often times, it is is made with crushed peanuts and lime juice mixed in with the chilies and the curries. Panang curry originates from Thailand’s central region, but its popularity quickly spread as people moved to find work elsewhere. The earliest records date back to 1890, and call it phanaeng. There are two main theories on how the dish got its name. One is that it takes its name from the Thai word for cross, as in sitting cross-legged on the floor. Originally, Thai cooks would grill chicken by crossing the chicken’s legs and hanging it upright. They’d baste it continuously with a fresh, spicy paste to impart flavor, then add coconut cream before serving it. Another theory of how Panang style food gets its name is that it came from the city of Penang, on the west coast of Malaysia.
Panang Style Fried Chicken
This is very crispy, very flavorful way of cooking chicken. Part of what makes it so crispy is the “drying out” of the chicken before frying it. When done properly, this can take up to a full day or two before actually frying it. I did not do that this time, but next time I will. it was still delicious and a big hit with everyone.
3 lbs chicken pieces
salt to taste
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 TBSP curry powder
2 tsp dry mustard
3-4 TBSP coconut milk, mixed together well
2 TBSP ginger paste
1 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 1/2 TBSP brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
salt
1/2 cup cornstarch or rice flour
canola or peanut oil for cooking
Pat the chicken pieces dry with a paper towel, then rub the chicken pieces with salt.
Combine all the ingredients together except the flour, cornstarch and additional salt. Dip the chicken pieces into the mixture and coat completely. You can marinate the chicken for up to 2 days before cooking.
Drain the chicken pieces, shaking off the excess sauce and place the chicken on a baking sheet to dry. Let it dry completely for about 3 hours, or if you would like to speed up the drying process, blow it with a blow dryer until the chicken pieces are dried.
Mix the flour, additional salt and cornstarch together and completely coat the chicken pieces in the flour mixture.
Fill a deep pan with about 2 inches of oil and get to 350* F or 180* C. Then carefully place the chicken pieces in the hot oil, cooking it in batches. Cook the chicken until it is crispy and completely cooked, for about 15 minutes.
I sprinkled fresh basil green onions and cilantro on top of my chicken right before serving it.
The chicken and the meal itself were a big hit with everyone. The chicken was crispy and tender and full of flavor. This is most definitely a “do-over” dish.
A Jeanne in the Kitchen 