Oriental-Themed Dinner Party?!

  We love oriental food at our house. My dad spent two years in Japan in the earlier years of his adult life and thus instilled in his children a love for the food. Lucky for me my hubby has an equal love of Japanese and Chinese food.

  One particular favorite is Gyoza; a wonton wrapper stuffed with a meat and vegetable mixture that is pan-fried and then steamed. YUM! 

  We stopped in to an oriental market over the weekend where I picked up the most inexpensive and fantastic-looking wonton wrappers (these can also be found at some supermarkets, but are a more inferior quality). The craving for gyoza was then set in motion. 

  I have put together an easy (although slightly time-consuming) menu that is great for an oriental-themed dinner party, or just because. Tonight is a "just because" kind of night!

  I would encourage you to prepare much of this in advance so your work is minimal in the few hours prior to dinner.

Gyoza

Filling:

1 lb. ground beef, ground chicken, ground turkey, ground pork (or any combination of the four)

1/2 head cabbage

1 carrot

1/2 yellow onion

1/2 tsp. sesame oil

1 egg

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. freshly grated ginger

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

black pepper to taste

16-oz. pkg. wonton wrappers

canola oil for frying

Egg wash:

1 egg

2 tsp. milk

  Either spend the next hour of your life finely chopping the vegetables or do like I do and shred the cabbage and carrot using the grater attachment on your food processor.

  Finely dice the onion. The food processor turns this into a liquid mess so I recommend using a knife.

  Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Using your hands, gently combine everything just until it comes together (over-working can make your meat very tough).

  In a small bowl, whisk together egg and milk to make the egg wash.

  Place approximately twenty wonton wrappers on a clean counter (working in small batches prevents the remaining wrappers from drying out). Using a small cookie scoop or spoon, scoop about 1 1/2 tablespoons of meat mixture in the middle of each wrapper.

  Using a pastry brush or your finger, brush a small amount of egg wash on two adjoining sides of the wrapper. Fold wrapper corner to corner and press to seal. Place gyoza on a parchment-lined baking sheet just overlapping each other.

   Place approximately two tablespoons canola oil in a very large frying pan that is set over medium-high heat. Place enough gyoza in the pan to fill the pan but not over-crowd it. Fry about two minutes or until golden and crispy. Flip gyoza and fry two minutes more. Pour about two tablespoons hot water into the frying pan and immediately cover with a lid. Steam two minutes. Serve with dipping sauce.

Gyoza Dipping Sauce:

1/4 c. soy sauce

1/4 c. water

1 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

4 tsp. sugar

  Whisk together sauce ingredients and serve at room temperature.

  Notes: 

  -Gyoza may be made the morning of your dinner and stored on the baking sheets in the fridge until ready to cook. However, DO NOT under any circumstances cover the gyoza with plastic wrap or anything of the sort. Covering the gyoza will cause them to become a mushy mess and you will be incredibly upset after all the work you just put into these delicious little beauties!

  -As the gyoza complete the cooking process we place them in a large oven-safe serving dish in a warm oven so everyone can sit down to enjoy the meal together and no one person is left standing at the stove cooking. 

Ham Fried Rice

6 Tbsp. canola oil

3 eggs, slightly beaten

1 c. white, long-grain rice, cooked and chilled

1 chopped green onion

4 oz. ham, diced

1 c. any combination: peas, broccoli, sugar snap peas, carrots

1/3 c. soy sauce

2 tsp. chicken bouillon

2 tsp. granulated sugar

  Combine soy sauce, chicken bouillon and sugar in a small bowl.

  Place two tablespoons oil in a wok or very large frying pan set over medium-high heat and heat almost to smoking. Add beaten egg and quickly fry, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon (I have a wooden spatula that works beautifully for stir-frying). Remove from pan.

  Pour remaining oil in pan and heat again almost to smoking. Add rice and fry three minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Add remaining ingredients (except egg) and heat through, stirring constantly. Add egg and heat through.

  Note: This dish may be made as early in advance as the night before and then reheated before serving.

Hunan Chicken Salad

(This is my version of a local restaurant's salad, which we absolutely love!)

1/2 head lettuce, shredded

1 cooked chicken breast, shredded

1 c. Maifun rice sticks (or other similar rice noodle)

2 Tbsp. finely chopped peanuts

2 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 1/4 tsp. prepared Chinese hot mustard

1 1/4 tsp. prepared Japanese wasabi

dash garlic powder

2 tsp. water

1/4 tsp. salt

canola oil for frying

  Combine sesame oil, hot mustard, wasabi, garlic powder and water in a small bowl.

  Heat canola oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until very hot. Place rice sticks in oil; they will puff up immediately. Flip noodles with tongs and continue cooking until they quit puffing and you can see that all noodles have cooked. Remove to paper towels.

  Just before serving, assemble all ingredients in a large serving bowl and toss to combine.

Just One More

  I have one more recipe to share today. This one I did not find on Pinterest, but my grandmother told me to try (which is fitting considering the name of the cookie). I have NEVER found the "perfect chocolate chip cookie" until now. Our family's favorite recipe has always been this one (the very first recipe on the page, titled "Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie"), which has an inclusion of oat flour in the recipe. The cookie is incredible, but sometimes you want a pure-flavored chocolate chip cookie without the taste of oats. Enter Jamie's "Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookies". Oh my goodness! This now my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe.


-I ended up adding 1/4 cup additional flour to the dough. 
-I also baked the cookies at 375 degrees then removed them from the oven to rest on the pan for 5 minutes before cooling completely on cooling racks. Although Jamie (from jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com) lives in Utah I still had a problem with the cookies coming out flat (a problem I typically only have when trying an out-of-staters recipe).
-I used "Private Selection" brand chocolate drops which I purchased at my local Kroger-owned store (Smith's). They are cheaper than Guittard, but are still a very large chunk of chocolate like the Guittard chips are. I love that these are extraordinarily large chips and most importantly, that even the milk chocolate drops melt (something I can't say for most milk chocolate chips). I used 3/4 bag each of milk and semi-sweet chocolate drops.

 Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookies

So You Don't Think I've Gone Completely Off The Grid...

  I thought I'd share some recent Pinterest successes. If you still don't know yet what the Pinterest craze is all about, check it out. You'll be so happy (and sorry) that you did. I have found some really incredible recipes and ideas through the pins my friends and family members have posted. The web address links go directly to each recipe. Hope you enjoy as much as our family has!

Click the button above to follow me as I discover lot's of new and incredible things!

                                                             

Chicken Salad French Bread Sandwich-cucinafamiglia.com

This is a spectacular warm sandwich!

Spring Asparagus Pancetta Hash-smittenkitchen.com

Delicious!

 Spicy Honey Chicken-ourbestbites.com

I've made this a few times since finding it and it "WOWs" us every time!

 Bacon Wrapped Smokies with Brown Sugar and Butter-tastykitchen.com

Mind-blowingly good!

 Hawaiian Lava Flow-thecoterieblog.com

Heaven in a cup!

sixsistersstuff.com

A delicious portable version of one of our favorite cakes!

 Homemade Nutter Butter Cookies-cookiesandcups.com

These were a home run! 

  A few notes: Because of the altitude difference, I had to add about 1/2 cup more flour. Also, I put quite a bit of frosting in between the cookies and still had enough for a double-batch of cookies. So if you want to make only one batch of cookies, cut the frosting recipe in half.

Sopapilla Bars-cucinafamiglia.com

These are crazy-good and highly addictive!

  We decided the filling would be perfect with 1 3/4 bars cream cheese.

Cashew-Caramel Cookies-marthastewart.com

Used homemade caramel...delicious!









  There are many, many, many more recipes we have tried that I could share, but thought I would start you off with just a few. Try them out, then come back and let me know what your family thought of them.

  I know I have not been very diligent in my posts lately. I attended a convention a couple weeks ago given by Shelf Reliance, a company for which I am an Independent Consultant. Check out my THRIVEwiththebasics blog if you'd like to learn more.

  I got past convention and was trying to get things back in order at home just in time to have my tonsils out. So, it may still be a while before you notice things happening here again because really, who wants to spend time cooking up something wonderful when they can't even eat it!
  Thanks for bearing with me.

Naan

  I decided to make one of our family favorites last night, Chicken Makhani. We love Indian food and that dish is a particular favorite. 

  When you visit an Indian food restaurant Naan (pronounce nahwn) is a must. There's nothing better than mopping up the delicious sauces than with a fantastic piece of flatbread. Traditional naan is slapped on the inside walls of a tandoor (clay) oven. The dough puffs and bubbles into a soft, chewy bread with a crispy exterior. Delicious!

  Since I do not own, nor do I plan to own a tandoor oven in the near future, I choose to bake my naan on a pizza stone. The results are incredibly close.

Naan

4-6 c. flour

1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. baking powder

1 Tbsp. salt

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 1/4 c. whole milk

1/3 c. whole milk plain yogurt

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 large egg, lightly beaten

4 Tbsp. salted butter, melted

  Combine 4 cups flour and remaining dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add milk, yogurt, oil and egg and knead 10 minutes, adding flour as needed. It is important to have a smooth, non-sticky dough.

  Preheat pizza stone in oven to 500 degrees.

  Place dough on a floured surface and allow to rest 10 minutes. Divide into 4-8 portions, depending on how big you want your naan (I like to make 4 large naan for the table to share). Roll one piece of dough into an oval about 1/3" thick. Brush the excess flour from the dough with a pastry brush. Place dough on hot pizza stone and bake 2 minutes or just until dough bubbles. Flip dough and bake 2 minutes more. Remove naan to a serving plate and brush both sides with melted butter. Serve warm.

Two New Treats

  I tried two new recipes recently; one I had reason to make and one I made for absolutely no reason at all, except that I wanted to...and that was reason enough!

   The first is a recipe for Lemon Pineapple Sherbet. We had family joining us from Arizona Sunday. Because there were a lot of us getting together, we decided we would have a turkey dinner (utilizing a turkey I had saved in the freezer from last November). Since we were having such a hearty dinner I thought it would be nice to have something light for dessert. This sherbet was an absolute hit! A note about the recipe-puree the pineapple in the blender first. The finer pieces of pineapple were much more pleasing in the sherbet. I will definitely be making this again, but maybe try orange-pineapple next time for a change; or maybe even orange-strawberry. The possibilities are endless!

  The second recipe I want to share is for the "Baked Brownie". This is a brownie from the Baked bakeshop in Brooklyn and is famous for being a rich, decadent brownie. There are a ton of blogs touting this recipe and I must agree with the conclusions-this is a delicious brownie. Give it a shot, tell me what you think.



  I'm going to let you in on a little secret. If you cut brownies with a plastic knife, you'll have zero tearing. The brownies will not clump on the knife and make a mess everywhere. You'll end up with beautiful, perfectly cut brownies.

Triple-Chocolate Cake Pops

  If you've been following my blog for long, you know I found encountered an obsession last year. That obsession is with cake pops. I have experimented with lot's of flavor combinations over the last several months and have only not posted them here because they never quite last long enough for a photo session, or I'm headed out the door to an event with them, or my camera is broken (the excuses go on and on). I made an excuse to make them last week and was diligent in taking photos, so I am finally posting again about cake pops!

  Here's a secret to making cake pops-when you bake a layer cake and have to cut the tops of in order to have a flat cake, place the cake tops in a gallon-size ziploc bag and place it in the freezer. As you accumulate cake tops of similar flavors keep adding them to the bag. When you're ready to make cake pops simply whip up a batch of your favorite frosting (or buy the pre-made stuff at the supermarket) and go to town! 

  Another secret to making cake pops-homemade frosting is worth the effort! Store-bought frosting tends to give the cake pop a really dense, soggy consistency. Homemade frosting leaves the interior sort of a cake-truffle consistency. Very delicious, and well worth the time.

  Crumble the cake into a large bowl. Add just enough frosting for the cake to hold together without crumbling. Too much frosting and your centers with be a gooey mess.

  Refrigerate 30 minutes.

  Line a baking sheet with foil or use a Silpat. Using a cookie scoop, scoop mounds onto the baking sheet. Roll the mounds into round balls. 

  When all the cake balls have been formed, cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for at least 3 hours or over-night.

  Dip sucker sticks in a small amount of melted chocolate (I buy dipping chocolate, but you can use chocolate chips and add shortening to it to thin it enough to use for dipping-about 1 Tbsp. shortening/2 cups chips). Push the stick about 2/3 of the way into the cake ball. Dip cake balls in chocolate and immediately into toppings (if using). Note: You can buy nifty little cake pop holders that hold them upright while they set, or you can go the cheap route and cover styro-foam blocks with foil (to catch the drips).

  My most recent attempt at cake pops last week led to chocolate cake with homemade chocolate fudge frosting. I dipped 1/3 of the pops in crushed Oreos (in honor of Oreos 100th b-day), 1/3 the pops in crushed Girl's Scout Thin Mint cookies and the last third in Heath pieces. YUM!!!


  Completely assembled cake pops store great in the freezer. Simply bag each pop (you can buy sucker bags at Walmart and most craft stores) and place the bagged pops in a gallon-size freezer bag.