Engagement Chicken
Posted: April 8, 2013 Filed under: meat recipes | Tags: chicken, engagement chicken, food, glamour, Meat, recipes 7 Comments »
engagement chicken
I know, I know, I know…. I’m back yada yada yada. And yes, I have been missing in action for quite some bit now but I AM BACK!! And why not make my comeback with the infamous engagement chicken from Glamour magazine!
This was my very first chicken roast, and it will definitely be something I plan on doing again but using different flavors and spices :)
Now, back to this chicken! Apparently, this is the chicken Howard Stern’s girlfriend (at the time) made for dinner one night and I guess the story is that days later he popped the question! But that’s not the true origin of the engagement chicken.
This chicken has been around for years, like yeeeeears!! This recipe was passed down to one of the assistants from one of the Glamour fashion editors. She made the chicken for her boyfriend, who a month later asked her to marry him. How romantic! And uhhh weird that a chicken led to marriage? :/
Of course, I am a true sucker for cheeseball stories, so I gave it try! I dub this my “ulterior motive” chicken :)
The recipe itself is very basic and easy, all you really need are lemons!
But I added in some veggies and potatoes for a more heartier meal. And to make things even easier, I went with the pre-chopped asparagus medley from Trader Joe’s! All I had to do was chop a potato into bite-sized cubes and season everything with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.
After that was done, it was on to the fun part! Washing and cleaning the chicken! PS, thank you Trader Joe’s for pre-cleaning the inside and taking out all of the inners and packaging them ever so neatly :)
Remake :: Simple Sesame Noodles with Pork Tonkatsu
Posted: June 18, 2012 Filed under: pasta recipes | Tags: Betty Crocker, Chili oil, food, Meat, menu, Momofuku, Pasta, Paula Deen, pioneer woman, pioneer woman's simple sesame noodles, pork, pork tonkatsu, remake, scallion, sesame, sesame noodles, Sesame oil, tonkatsu 3 Comments »
Hi everyone! Hope you’re all having a wonderful start to the week!
I love remaking some of our faves! Since we still couldn’t get over how amazing and super satisfying (and easy!) sesame noodles were, we just had to have it again for date night! And I decided to make pork tonkatsu with some chops I found in the fridge!
I’ve noticed that the more and more I remake a fave, it just tastes better and better the next time! The pork tonkatsu came out perfect! Way better than the first! It was super moist, crunchy, and a beautiful golden color! And much more flavor because I used Lawry’s instead of sea salt. Ahhh Lawry’s makes everything taste better!
nice and golden and fried to perfection
And the sesame noodles?! Well, just the best thing ever! This time around, I used whole wheat spaghetti. I do like that fact that it’s wheat but the quality of these noodles were just not that great compared to the Trader Joe’s spaghetti that I used earlier. And look, no scallions!!! A certain unnamed boyfriend used up all the scallions :). But all the flavors were all there (even sans scallions), hehe.
Some of my other favorites that I make over and over again (and great ideas for meals during the weekday) include:
- Paula Deen’s Old-Fashion Meatloaf
- Paula Deen’s Lots O’Meat Lasagna
- Momofuku’s Ginger Scallion Noodles
- DIY Potato Gnocci/DIY Homemade Pasta Noodles (boyfriend’s specialty!)
- Hot+Sweet Sriracha Wings and Baked Buffalo Wings
- Baked Salmon à La Mon Ami
- Betty Crocker’s Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
As you can tell, I’m pretty much Paula and Momofuku obsessed!
What are some of your favorite timeless recipes? Feel free to link below :)
xoxo, kat
Simple Sesame Noodles (from Pioneer Woman)
- 12 ounces, spaghetti noodles, cooked And drained
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 3 teaspoon hot chili oil
- 4 tablespoons grape seed oil
- 3 whole green onions, sliced thin
- red pepper flakes (optional)
Directions:
- Whisk all ingredients (except noodles and green onions) together in a bowl.
- Taste and adjust ingredients as needed.
- Pour sauce over warm noodles and toss to coat.
- Sprinkle with green onions and toss.
- Enjoy!
Pork Tonkatsu (original post here)
- slices of thin boneless pork chops
- flour for dredging (season with salt and pepper)
- two eggs, lightly beaten
- panko bread crumbs (season with salt and pepper)
- oil for frying
- Lawry’s seasoning salt (or salt) + pepper
Directions:
- Rinse chops and pat dry. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
- Dredge in flour, then dip in egg mixture, and press the panko to coat both sides.
- Heat a large skillet with about 1/2 inch of oil until hot and lay one or two cutlets into the hot oil. Fry for about 3-4 minutes per side.
- Drain the cutlets onto a paper towel and cut into bite-sized strips.
Related articles
- Garlic Jasmine Rice with Pork Tonkatsu and Tonkatsu Sauce (shecooksandheeats.wordpress.com)
Lemon Ginger Chicken
Posted: May 29, 2012 Filed under: meat recipes, pasta recipes | Tags: chicken, food, ginger, lemon, lemon ginger chicken, Meat, menu, noodles, pioneer woman, sesame noodles, snixy kitchen 8 Comments »
lemon ginger chicken
I love when I stumble upon recipes featuring ingredients like lemon, ginger, honey, and garlic because I love those types of flavors! So you bet I was super excited when I found this recipe for Lemon Ginger Chicken from Snixy Kitchen!
Continue reading for the full recipe and step-by-step pics…
Bacon Bits Quesadillas
Posted: April 18, 2012 Filed under: meat recipes | Tags: Bacon, bacon bits, cheese, food, Meat, menu, Quesadilla 4 Comments »
bacon bits quesadillas
Bacon. Bacon bits. Bacon bits infused with yummy melted cheese. Let me introduce to you the best lunch ever…the bacon bits quesadilla!
Let’s recount how this was created…
- Date: Monday, April 17, 2012
- Time: Noonish
- Location: she cooks, he eats official test kitchen with live-in guinea pig (ie, boyfriend’s house :)
I was saving myself for happy hour, but was suddenly hearing my loud tummy rumblings and feeling those intense hunger pains (kinda like right now while I’m writing this post, ugh this always happens…right foodie bloggers? :).
Anyways, cook some bacon on a pan! My dad use to deep-fry bacon for me as a kid, so I like to cook mine till its extra crispy…
Crumble the cooked bacon, then put handfuls of cheese onto the tortilla and generously sprinkle with bacon bits. Cook on a hot pan until the cheese is melted.
Add some kettle chips and an extra slice of bacon, and voilà lunch is served!
PS, we made it to happy hour :)
Have a wonderful day! And please let me know what you’re having for lunch!
xoxo, kat
Short Ribs with Ginger Soy Marinade
Posted: April 11, 2012 Filed under: meat recipes | Tags: food, Meat, menu, short ribs, steak 5 Comments »
ginger soy short ribs
Typical she cooks, he eats scenario…
While having Pinkberry, we were deciding what we should make for dinner. He mentioned that he had bought short ribs from Costco. So I quickly did a google recipe search for a marinade with a short marinating time and I stumbled upon this. Just looking at the title of that recipe got me excited! So we did a quickie grocery run to Trader Joe’s to get our missing ingredients.
When we got home and he showed me these big chunks of beef, I was a bit flabbergasted because they were nothing like my beloved Korean bbq ribs. So cooking time is way off from the suggested cooking time from the recipe and we had to use a meat thermometer to check to see if the meat was safe for eating.
Anyways, the marinade is the best part! To make the marinade, you will need 1/3 cup of grape seed oil…(I finally got measuring cup spoons! Not the cutest, but they’ll do for now ;)
Grate lots of fresh ginger! There really is no such thing as too much ginger for this recipe. If you love the flavors of ginger then use a whole chunk like me :)
Warm the grape seed oil in a small sauce pan. Add brown sugar and stir until the sugar has softened. Don’t worry if it looks funny because the oil and the brown sugar will still be separated, it’ll all come together when you add the soy sauce.
Garlic Jasmine Rice with Pork Tonkatsu and Tonkatsu Sauce
Posted: April 10, 2012 Filed under: meat recipes, sides recipes | Tags: food, Garlic, Meat, menu, pork, Rice, tonkatsu 7 Comments »
garlic jasmine rice with pork tonkatsu and tonkatsu sauce
For date night last week, I made pork tonkatsu! I’m very excited to blog about this because I did all the work myself…even THE. FRYING. PART. Simple ingredients, easy to put together…this is just such a great yummy homemade date night food :)
First, rinse the pork chops and pat dry. If the pork is moist and wet, the breading will end up being gunky and soggy.
Since our chops were on the extra thick side, I sliced them in half lengthwise and trimmed off the excess fat. Make sure it’s cut evenly throughout otherwise it won’t be cooking evenly throughout. If it does end up getting a little lopsided, feel free to pound it with a meat tenderizer.
Season both sides liberally with salt and pepper and set aside…
Mini Bacon Meatloaf Balls
Posted: January 31, 2012 Filed under: meat recipes | Tags: Bacon, food, Meat, meatballs, Meatloaf, menu, Paula Deen 8 Comments »
mini bacon meatloaf balls
This is an update to an old favorite! Growing up as a child, I was deprived of such simple and delicious meals like meatloaf. It wasn’t until my late teens that I finally had my first bite of meatloaf. And yes, it was love at first bite. Mmmmmm! Okay, what’s the point of this? Errr I don’t really know… I apologize :)
Anyways! New take on old favorite! Rather than a loaf, I shaped them into balls. Hahah, balls… Pourqoui Kat? Because every time I shape it into the most beautiful loaf you’ve ever seen in your lifetime, it always turns in a mountain of meat blob out of the oven. Not too appealing and photogenic, you know what I mean? And being my paranoid self, I am convinced that it is never cooked evenly, especially the middle.
To make these meatloaf balls, feel free to use your favorite meatloaf recipe but I am a tad impartial (and always will be) to Paula Deen’s Old Fashion Meatloaf. The key to making perfect uniform balls…a cupcake pan!
This next step actually came from a friend’s wife. He’s been raving about his wife’s meatloaf on Facebook for as long as I can remember and he and his wife were kind to give me their secret ingredient…bacon! Delicious, fatty, amazing bacon! Cover each meatloaf ball with bacon. Oh, please be generous with this step. I’m only thinking of you :)
Did I mention that my favorite part of meatloaf is the ketchup+mustard+brown sugar glaze? Sure, it doesn’t sound all too appetizing but when you mix them all together you get that delicious meatloaf sauce. I love Paula’s recipe for this sauce so much that I actually doubled it!
While the meatloaf balls were baking in the oven, I washed and peeled some veggies for roasting…
And added them into the oven with the meatloaf during the last half hour of baking.
An hour later, this is what you get… amazing perfectly portioned mini bacon meatloaf balls!
The best part about making these meatloaf balls is that they keep amazingly well in the refrigerator and taste even better the next day! Another fun way to adapt this into an appetizer for parties is to make them into bite-sized meatballs and serve with a toothpick… mini bacon meatloaf appetizer balls, how cute right!
xoxo, kat
ps. she cooks 12, he eats 3 :)
Mini Bacon Meatloaf Balls (adapted from Paula Deen)
makes 12 balls if using a cupcake pan
meatloaf:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 8 ounces canned diced tomatoes with juice
- 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
- bacon
topping:
- 2/3 cup ketchup
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Mix all meatloaf ingredients well.
- Brush a cupcake pan with oil. Scoop meatloaf into the cupcake pan.
- Cover each meatloaf ball with bacon. Feel free to cut the bacon slices.
- Mix ingredients for topping and spread onto each meatloaf ball.
- Bake in the oven for 1 hour.
