PW's Asian Hot "drumsticks"

Howdy. This was a fun and different dinner I made last night. I made a mental note while watching one of the Pioneer Woman's shows on the foodnetwork when she did Superbowl party food, including Asian Hot Wings. So the other day while at grocery I saw these beautiful big Chicken drumsticks on sale, and thought I'd love to make a dinner vs. appetizer with a similar recipe. Especially after I bought PW's newest cookbook, that has the Asian Hot Wings as well as Peach-whisky BBQ drumsticks. I used the "sauce" recipe from the wings, and the chicken cooking method from the drumsticks; served it with white rice and steamed zucchini --- and voila, a tasty meal, indeed. The drumsticks were cooked low and slow (300 degrees for 1.5 hours) and the result was a completely tender juicy meat. I will use this same method in future for drumsticks with just bbq sauce. The sauce was delicious, and I didn't have the guts to make it as spicy as hers. I used 1 tsp vs. 1 tbsp. of red pepper flakes. And I used 1/2 of jalepeno vs 3-4 whole hotter peppers. My sauce still had kick, but suitable for me and Pearce (our 2 yr. old).

I used half of the sauce and brushed it on the drumsticks before baking. By the end it had kind of melted all to the bottom of the pan. I saved the remaining sauce to spoon on top for serving.

Here is my adapted version of PW's Asian Hot Wings

10 plump chicken drumsticks
2-3 Tablespoons butter
3/4 cup plum jelly (this was really hard to find. I called 3 grocery stores before finding it.)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons chopped red onions
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2-1 jalapeno, minced

1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Heat butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Place chicken in pan skin side down. Brown both sides, then move to large baking dish.
2.  Add the plum jelly to a bowl. Then stir in the soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. Add the brown sugar, ginger, red onions, garlic, red pepper flakes and hot peppers. Stir to combine, and then pour it into a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the sauce until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Then turn off the heat.
3.  Brush/spoon the sauce over the top of each drumstick, reserving some sauce for serving.
4.  Cover and put dish in oven. Cook for 1 1/2 hours, then remove from oven.
5.  Serve chicken in dishes, and then spoon extra sauce over the top. Served with white rice and steamed zucchini.

Brown Sugar Pecan Salmon & Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Thyme and Garlic

almost shoulda coulda taken a pic of this tonight. i haven't even posted on this bloggie in forever, and i'm pretty sure the only people who have this on google reader is Elise and maybe Shannon. :-) So hello!!!

BUT -- this dinner was so flippin good, I was just gonna email the recipe to myself (which inevitably gets lost in my inbox) then I remember this blog, and thought this is a much better place to keep it to use for future. B/c this one will definitely get used again. Probably when we have company over for dinner and get a larger piece of salmon from Costco, vs 1 pound from local grocer.

Salmon Fillets With Brown Sugar Pecan Glaze
Adapted from SouthernFood.About.com

4 tablespoons coarsely chopped pecans
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon water
4 salmon fillets, about 6 to 8 ounces each
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Olive oil

In a small nonstick pan, brown the pecans lightly over medium-low heat for a few minutes. Add the brown sugar, butter, and water; heat until simmering (about 3-5 minutes). Set aside.

Heat oven to 425°. In an ovenproof skillet (I used an All-Clad pan, but I also read in the comments section that someone transfered salmon and olive oil from pan into glas baking dish) over medium-high heat; heat the olive oil. Once oil is hot, add salmon, skin side down and sear for about 2 minutes. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast the fillets for 5 minutes. Spoon glaze over salmon fillets and continue roasting for about 5 minutes longer, or until salmon flakes easily with a fork.  (We ended up cooking ours for about 15 minutes total, but it's because our fillets were pretty big and thick.) Turn the oven off and let salmon stand in the oven for 2 minutes.

Thyme-Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Adapted from Epicurious

4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, minced
Fresh thyme leaves from about 2-3 sprigs
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (for just a tad bit of kick!)

Preheat oven to 450°F. In large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and toss. Arrange potato slices in single layer on heavyweight rimmed baking sheet or in 13x9-inch baking dish. Place on top rack of oven and roast until tender and slightly browned, about 30-40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Also served plain white rice to round off the plate. :-) Those pecans with the brown sugar caramelized were seriously like candy. I wouldn't mind adding more of that topping.

Pumpkin Scones ** Starbucks copycat ***

 I've been craving Starbuck's pumpkin scones a lot lately. I don't get them often, even though I love them. And it doesn't help that we are 25 miles away from the closest Starbucks. I did a quick search for their copycat recipe, and found several sites that had the same recipe, so I figured it was probably a good one. 

These are so delicious, and taste sooo much better FRESH/home-made. They are much more moist and soft than at Starbucks, but still have that great pumpkin & spice flavor. They're kinda time consuming to make, but not too bad, the only part I don't like is cutting in butter. The recipe makes 6 scones, and only uses 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree, so I saved the reminder of the puree from the 15 oz can. I'm very tempted to make these again in the morning. They are soooooooo goooooood.

I found this blog had a good picture-by-picture play of the recipe.

SCONES:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup canned pure (unsweetened) pumpkin
3 tablespoons half and half cream ( I did 1 1/2 Tbsp of whipping cream and 1 1/2 Tbsp. of whole milk, because that's what I had on hand.)
1 large egg
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes

PLAIN GLAZE:
1/2 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
1 tablespoon milk (any kind)

SPICED ICING:
3/4 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
1 to 2 tablespoons milk (any kind)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of ground ginger
pinch of ground cloves

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. (I just rubbed some butter on a baking sheet.) Give it a light dusting of flour on top of that.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (through ginger).

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half and egg.

4. Use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut butter into the dry ingredients. Continue cutting until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

5. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then form the dough into a ball. The dough will be wet, but if it seems super sticky... just go ahead and sprinkle a little more flour into the dough until it's easier to handle. Remember, you want it to be somewhat sticky, and that's okay- but you also don't want it to stick to the baking sheet. Pat out dough onto the lightly floured baking sheet and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle that is about 9-inches long and 3-inches wide. Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal squares. Cut through the three squares diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. Gently pull the triangles apart, leaving about 1/2-inch space between each one.

6. Bake 14 to 16 minutes on prepared baking sheet. Scones should begin to turn light brown.

7. While scones are cooling, prepare plain glaze by whisking ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix until smooth.

8. When scones are cool, use a knife to cut them apart and then pull them apart so that they are ready for glazing. Use a brush to paint a coating of the glaze over the top of each scone.

9. As the white glaze firms up, prepare spiced icing by whisking the ingredients in another medium bowl until smooth. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone (or brush it on) and allow the icing to dry before serving.

Paula Deen's Choc Chip Zucchini Bread

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon orange zest
Whipped cream, for serving
Zucchini ribbons, for serving
Directions
Preheat oven at 350 degrees F. Grease (2) 9 by 5-inch loaf pans.

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, spices and baking soda.

In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, and continue beating until well blended. Stir in oil, vanilla, zucchini, pecans, chocolate chips, and orange zest. Stir in sifted ingredients. Pour into prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove loaves from pans and cool. Chill before slicing. Serve with whipped cream and ribbons of zucchini.

Birthday BBQ

Jeremy and I both LOVE BBQ. We had a little family birthday party for Jeremy, and I thought it was the perfect time of year for a BBQ menu. I originally wanted to make a home made bbq sauce and follow Tyler Florence's recipe for BBQ pulled pork, but once the day got here, I figured I should go for easy as well as tried and true. I had no idea what his BBQ sauce would taste like, so last minute I decided to just use our favorite "Sweet Baby' Rays Original Sauce"

BBQ Pulled pork sandwiches:

7 pounds of Pork shoulder (bone out) - [fed 17 people]

Salt/pepper

1 large bottle of Sweet Baby Ray'z Original Barbecue sauce

Potato roll buns (I like these because they are soft and a little bit sweet, and they are smaller size than large hamburger buns. Perfect size for kids, and for adults too with sides of potato salad and beans).

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Salt and pepper the pig on both sides. Put the pork in a roasting pan (fat side up) and roast it for about 6 - 6.5 hours. An instant-read thermometer stuck into the thickest part of the pork should register 170 degrees F, but basically, what you want to do is to roast it until it's falling apart. (We pulled it out a couple times and tried to start pulling meat apart with 2 forks, until it actually was "pulling apart" rather easily.)

While the pork is still warm, you want to "pull" the meat: Grab 2 forks. Using 1 to steady the meat, use the other to "pull" shreds of meat off the roast. Put the shredded pork in a bowl and pour the sauce over. Stir it all up well so that the pork is coated with the sauce.

To serve, spoon the pulled pork mixture onto the bottom half of each hamburger bun. Bon appetit!

Baked Beans (a mixture of my friend Kelly McDonald and Pioneer Woman)
3 Large cans (28 oz) pork and beans (I like "Bush's" brand) and drain a little of the liquid
1 med (sweet) onion chopped
1 lb cooked bacon cut up in pieces
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 - 3/4 cup brown sugar
a splash of cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard

Cook Bacon. Then stir together all ingredients, place in baking dish, cover with foil and bake for a long time maybe 1 1/2 -  2 hours on 300 degrees.

Loaded Baked Potato Salad.
I have this recipe posted here, and I doubled it for the amount of people we had over.

Baja Shrimp Tacos

I did a quick search for "shrimp taco" and the first hit I checked out was a short video of Gwyneth Paltrow making baja style shrimp tacos. She made it look pretty easy, considering you have to make beans, guacamole, pico de gallo, and still grill the shrimp. I took it just a step further, since Jeremy requested a "sauce" to go with the tacos. I pulled out my Our Best Bites cookbook and made "creamy lime-cilantro dressing", which is her knock off from Cafe Rio. The whole combination was really tastey. Jeremy smeared beans on his taco before layering everything else, and he really like it.

Baja Style Shrimp Tacos (Servings 4)
2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons olive oil
the juice of one lime
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 dozen corn tortillas
pico de gallo (see recipe below)
guacamole (recipe below)
lime wedges for serving
Creamy lime-cilantro sauce (see recipe below)
crumbled cotija or feta cheese or monterrey jack cheese (optional)

1. Preheat your grill (or frying pan in my case) over high heat.
2. Toss the shrimp together with the olive oil, lime juice and salt.
3. Grill until cooked through, about 2 minutes a side.
4. To serve, heat the tortillas in in the leftover frying pan right before ready to serve.  (Wrap them in a tea towel to keep warm.
5. Pile a few shrimp on top of each tortilla and serve with a bit of pico de gallo, fresh lime juice, guacamole, some cilantro lime sauce and a little of the cheese if you’d like.

Pico de Gallo
1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
2 tablespoons roughly chopped cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons finely chopped white onion
coarse salt
squeeze of lime
as many finely chopped serrano or red jalapeños as you’d like (optional)

Combine the tomatoes, cilantro and onion together in a bowl. Season to taste with salt and lime.

Guacamole
A lesson in simplicity—the best guacamole is a showcase for ripe avocados. A little salt, lime and cilantro go a long way. Again this serves four and is ready in 10 minutes!

2 ripe avocados
2 tablespoons minced white onion
3 tablespoons cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
1 lime
coarse salt

Cut each avocado in half. Scoop the avocado into a mixing bowl and mash gently with a fork—you don’t want it to be completely smooth. Stir in the onion and cilantro. Cut the lime in half and squeeze in enough juice to taste. Season the guacamole with salt, and either serve immediately or stick the pits in to keep it from browning (remove the pits before serving).

Creamy lime-cilantro sauce (curtesy of OBB)
1 pack (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
1C mayo
1/2 C milk
1 lime
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 C green salsa ( I used her recommended La Costena brand)

Place milk, mayo, and ranch mix in a blender. Juice the lime in there too, you should get about 2T juice. Toss in the garlic, cilantro and green salsa. Blend 'er up. Make it several hours ahead of time to allow it to thicken.

Black Beans

By adding a few aromatics to a can of black beans, you get that Mexican restaurant flavor without hours of soaking and cooking. Serves 4 as a side dish and will be done in 20 minutes.

1 can of black beans

4 cilantro stems

1 garlic clove, crushed

pinch of salt

Combine everything together in a small pot and simmer over low heat for about 15-20 minutes (I do this while I’m preparing the rest of the meal).

Be sure to simmer the beans long enough so that they’re not watery.

chicken chow mein

I got Jeremy the book "Jamie's Food Revolution" for his birthday. We both read through the whole book within a couple days of getting it, and we both wanted to make this dish first! We got some lovely baby bok choy at a local Farmer's market and we gave it a go! It is fairly simple to make and pretty quick. A couple days later I improvised the same recipe but was missing about 3-4 of the ingredients, but still tasted good. So what I learned from this, is that Jamie teaches you how to use a wok and basic components and you can start making up your own stuff with what you have in your fridge and pantry.
I highly recommend the book.

chicken chow mein (my slightly modified version):
[2 servings]

• a thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic
• a squirt of Sriracha sauce
• 1 large skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 green onions, sliced
• a small bunch of cilantro
• 1 bok choy (he says spinach is a fine substitute if you don't have bok choy)
• a bundle of medium egg noodles
• vegetable oil (if I had peanut oil, I would have used that)
• 1 heaped teaspoon corn starch
• a small can of water chestnuts
• 2–3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 small lime




To prepare your stir-fry
• Boil a pot of water (for the noodles and bok choy)
• Peel and finely slice the ginger and garlic
• Slice the chicken into finger-sized strips and lightly season with salt and pepper
• Cut the ends off your green onions and finely slice
• Pick the cilantro leaves and put to one side, and finely chop the cilantro stalks
• Halve the bok choi lengthways

To cook your stir-fry
• Preheat a wok or large frying pan on a high heat and once it’s very, very hot add a good lug of peanut (or vegetable) oil and swirl it around
• Stir in the chicken strips and cook for a couple of minutes, until the chicken browns slightly
• Add the ginger, garlic, chilli, cilantro stalks, and half the green onions
• Stir-fry for 30 seconds, keeping everything moving round the wok quickly
• Add your noodles and bok choy to the boiling water and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, no longer
• Meanwhile, add the corn starch, water chestnuts and their water to the wok and give it another good shake to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom
• Remove from the heat and stir in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• Halve the lime, squeeze the juice of one half into the pan and mix well
• Drain the noodles and bok choi in a colander over a bowl, reserving a little of the cooking water
• Stir in the noodles and bok choi, with a little of the cooking water to loosen if necessary, and mix well
• Have a taste and season with more soy sauce if needed

To serve your stir-fry
• Use tongs to divide everything between two bowls or plates, or to lift on to one large serving platter
• Spoon any juices over the top and sprinkle with the rest of the green onions and the cilantro leaves
• Serve with lime wedges