Cashew Chicken & Three Years!

On this day, three years ago, I started my blog. I remember how excited I was to get my first comment from Beccy at Peppermint Tea and since that time I have met a lot of friends and found so many amazing blogs. I look forward to many more years of trying my friends recipes and coming up with some simple ones of my own. Here's a recipe for Cashew Chicken I made last week...

Ingredients:

• 1 pound chicken breast, cut up
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• vegetable oil, as necessary
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 4 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper powder
  
• 1/2 - 1 cup roasted cashews
• 1 bunch spring onions, sliced, white and green parts separated
  
• 1 cup broccoli florets
  

Method:

Combine fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and white pepper powder. Heat a few tablespoons oil in large skillet. Add chicken, white part of onion and garlic and saute until chicken turns white. Add in sauce and broccoli and cook until chicken is done and sauce becomes a glaze and clings to chicken and broccoli. Add in roasted cashews and garnish with green onion. Serve with simple rice.

Chicken Pita Wrap

I found some restaurant style pita breads at the farmer's market perfect for making wraps...

So I chopped up a couple chicken breasts, green peppers and onions in big chunks... I marinated this in olive oil, salt and Thyme for a couple hours...

Meanwhile, I brushed each bread with a bit of Olive oil and Zatar and baked until warm and soft... Also, frying the chicken and peppers until chicken was done...

After the bread came out of the oven, I spread each with a bit of hummus, placed some chicken, peppers and onions in the middle, wrapped it up, and...

We enjoyed! :)

Baby Seal Slaughter in Canada

There are humane ways to keep and kill animals... Take the time to go sign this to help end baby seal slaughter in Canada... There is nothing humane or necessary about this yearly practice!

https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2929


Baby seals stand no chance against club-wielding seal hunters—pups must look on as fellow seals are bludgeoned to death only to then meet the same bloody fate. The commercial seal slaughter is an off-season profit venture for the fishing industry, and it accounts for less than 1 percent of Newfoundland's economy. The seal slaughter is not a subsistence activity for native peoples—Inuit sealing accounts for only about 3 percent of the annual slaughter.

The price of seal fur is plummeting as international outrage against the seal slaughter rises. The U.S. and the European Union have banned seal products, and world leaders such as President Barack Obama and His Holiness The Dalai Lama have denounced the massacre.

The annual seal slaughter will continue unless people like you speak out and take action to stop it, so please add your voice to the global outcry against Canada's shameful seal massacre. Please write to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Canadian ambassadors around the world to demand that they bring the massacre to an immediate end.

~"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them, that's the essence of inhumanity." - George Bernard Shaw~

~"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages." - Thomas Edison~

~"Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man." - Arthur Schopenhauer~

~"We have enslaved the rest of animal creation and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form." - William Ralph Inge~

~"I could not have slept tonight if I had left that helpless little creature to perish on the ground." (Reply to friends who chided him for delaying them by stopping to return a fledgling to its nest.) - Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States~

Pav Bhaji

I followed Sailu's procedure for making this Pav Bhaji and it was excellent! Unfortunately, I didn't have any beetroot and I imagine that's what gave Sailu's It's deep color. I will make sure to pick some up for the next time I try this. I used some store bought potato rolls for the Pav's... makes it simple :P Thanks, Sailu, for sharing :)

Oh, and thank you Mom for the hand blender which made making this oh so simple!!!

~"You know me, if there's one thing I like more than a refreshing beverage It's serotonin" - Sheldon (Big Bang Theory) ~

Bagara Baingan - Thank Goodness for Farmer's Markets!

I've been waiting all winter to get my hands on some good, baby eggplants... and I finally succeeded! One of the vendors at the local farmers market always has good, baby eggplants and I wait all winter so I can make Bagara Baingan. This time I tried Collaborative Curry's ... Do try it, It's a good one :)

~ "Science and law can both help us forecast the consequences of our actions, but neither can tell us how we ought to act in a moral sense" - Dalai Lama ~

~ "You know me, if there's one thing I like more than a refreshing beverage, It's Serotonin" - Sheldon (Big Bang Theory) ~

Mom's Beef & Vegetable Stew

This is a very open recipe, any vegetable may be added, any set of herbs or spices... It's up to you what broth or bouillon you use. Thanks, mom, for sharing another perfect recipe :)

Ingredients:

• 1 - 1 1/2 pounds stew meat
  
• bit of all-purpose flour to coat meat
• salt and pepper, to taste
• teaspoon sugar
• 2 - 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  
• 8 cups broth or water
• herbs and seasonings of your choice
• fresh or frozen vegetables of your choice... I don't measure, I just eyeball it

Method:

Bring 8 cups of water or broth, herbs and seasonings and raw vegetables (except potatoes, they will become too soft) to a boil in a large stock pot. Meanwhile, combine flour with some salt, pepper and sugar and coat the stew meat with flour. Fry the meat in a hot skillet with a little oil until browned. Set meat aside. When this is done, take some of the broth/water and deglaze the skillet. Add this to the stock pot, turn heat down to a simmer, and add the meat. Make sure that the water isn't boiling when the meat is added, or it will become tough. Let the meat and vegetables simmer for about 30 minutes.

You can now bring your stew to a boil and add in whatever else you may want. Frozen vegetables can be added at this time, and also potatoes. You may also add a bit of barley, rice, or noodles. Return to a simmer for 30 minutes, and then you may enjoy :)

This time around I used some McCormick's Grill Mates Montreal Chicken Seasonings and it worked well for the stew.

Uma's Capsicum Besan Curry

I really didn't expect when I bookmarked Uma's Capsicum Besan Curry to go so crazy for it, but this is one of the best recipes I have ever tried, EVER! The taste completely belied the simplicity of this recipe! It is a must try for sure and something I will go back to on a regular basis! Thanks, Uma for sharing :)

Garlic Eggplant & Honey Glazed Chilli Potatoes

I am so excited... Saturday was the opening day for the farmer's market here in Kalamazoo and it was super busy, the weather was great and the day was perfect! I think that alone will get me excited to cook again :)

Here's a recipe I cooked up for Garlic Eggplant after having it in a restaurant and wanting to recreate the taste... It turned out as good as I was hoping for!

Ingredients:

• 1 large eggplant, sliced in half, sliced again, and cut into half moons
• 1 onion, halved and chopped into big pieces
• 1 green pepper, chopped into 1-inch pieces
• salt, to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper powder
• couple tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Method:

Put cornstarch in a bowl and add soy sauce. Whisk until smooth, then add the sugar, vinegar and garlic... set aside.

Heat oil in a large skillet and fry onion and green pepper for a very short time, making sure they are still crisp. Add in eggplant with 1/2 cup water, cover, and steam the eggplant for about 5 minutes, making sure the eggplant doesn't stick to the pan. When eggplant is soft, add in sauce and white pepper powder and and cook until sauce is hot. Enjoy!

I served this along with Authentic Food Delights Honey Chilli Potatoes which were excellent :) I didn't have any green onions so I used a regular onion, which was fine... but next time I'll use green onions :)