Zucchini Bread (or Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins)

Zucchini Bread

Description:
Got this from my mom's cookbook. It is LaVee Kawakami's recipe.

Ingredients:
1 c brown sugar
1 c sugar
1 c oil
3 eggs
2 c grated zucchini (or pumpkin or applesauce)
3 c flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c chopped nuts*
1 c raisins*

*optional

Directions:
Beat eggs. Gradually add sugars and oil. Combine dry ingredients. Add first mixture alternately with zucchini. Stir in raisins, nuts, and vanilla. Pour into 2 slightly greased and floured 9 x 5 loaf pans. Bake at 325 for 1 hour. Let stand 10 minutes before removing from pans.

NOTE: I don't care for raisins, so don't use them in much of anything. I like zucchini without any nuts. I like pumpkin with chocolate chips, so leave out the raisins and put in the same amount of chocolate chips. I didn't try the applesauce, but we made it for Enrichment tonight with raisins, and they liked it. This also makes good mini muffins, which need to bake between 20 and 25 minutes.

Note from Kathi 9/30/08: I made one loaf from this reciple last night. Had to use a little more flour than 1/2 of what the recipe calls for - you want the batter to be a little thicker than pumpkin pie filling! It baked up very nicely in about 1 hr and 5 min.

I also made a loaf using splenda instead of sugar and about 7/8ths of a cup of rice flour and 7/8ths of oat flour. Everything else (except the eggs), I just halved. It also cooked up quite nicely in an hour. It is very very tender, but it has a nice texture and tastes really good.

Number Of Servings:2 loaves

Preparation Time:10-15 minutes, plus 1 hour to bake.

What's in {Your} Oven?

I'm so bummed that this blog didn't take off and keep going like I'd hoped. I wasn't one of the initiators of it, but did enjoy participating when I could. There would be a new challenge ingredient every week, and we'd have the task of each trying a new recipe or creating a new recipe using that ingredient. It was fun and got me out of my cooking rut. There just wasn't enough participation, so the gals who started it decided to quit posting challenges. They're leaving the blog up, but I decided I needed to copy here all my favorite recipes I tried there, too. Re-reading them reminded me of a few I loved and will be making again. I don't know how many folks follow my dairy-free blog, but just in case you are inundated with all those recipes I just posted, I wanted to explain why.

Candied Garlic Chicken Wings

Ingredients
* 1 1/2 cups honey
* 6 tablespoons soy sauce
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 pounds chicken wings

Directions
1. Heat honey, soy sauce, and garlic in a saucepan until boiling.
2. Place the wings in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan, and pour the honey mixture over the chicken. Cover with foil. Marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.
3. Bake, covered, at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 1 hour; turn the wings after 1/2 hour. Remove the foil cover, and bake for 15 minutes. Take the wings out of the sauce, and bake on a rack for 10 minutes. Turn the chicken wings, and cook for another 10 minutes.

Comments
Hubby lurves wings, but I thought I'd look for a new recipe since I found some on a really good deal last week. Found this here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Candied-Garlic-Chicken-Wings/Detail.aspx

I doubled it since we had so many wings (4 pounds) and they are almost gone (and my daughter doesn't eat much meat and chose not to eat these tonight). I added 1 tsp red pepper flakes for a bit of heat to the marinade. Oh, and I lined my 9 x 13 pan with aluminum foil before I put the wings and sauce in so cleanup will be easier. I didn't follow the cooking directions exactly. I baked for 30 min with the foil on, turned them, did the other 30 min with the foil off. Then I took them out of the 9 x 13 pan and put them on a foil-lined cookie sheet instead of a rack and baked at 450 for about 10 minutes (this might have been too high as they "browned" very quickly). While they were in at the higher temp, I put the marinade in a pot and started it boiling again, adding about 2 Tbs balsamic vinegar to cut the sweetness a bit. My plan was to reduce the sauce to thicken it and then brush it all over them, but they cooked too quickly. So it did probably reduce a little but not much.

They are quite sticky. Our water heater sprung a leak today, thus leaving us without water for the evening ... if I'd known that was going to happen, I wouldn't have made these tonight but they were already going when I found it. I'll be washing the pans in the a.m. after it's fixed, but we had to use baby wipes to wash our hands. ha. Hopefully next time I make them, nothing like that happens.

I'd probably give it 5 stars -- if you're having a finger food dinner party sort of event. Otherwise, skip them and do something more elegant and less messy.

Tangy Pork with Tomatillos, Tomatoes, and Cilantro

I got the recipe here.

Ingredients
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
* 1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
* 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
* Cooking spray
* 1 cup chopped Vidalia or other sweet onion
* 1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
* 2 cups chopped tomatillos (about 8 ounces)
* 2 cups halved cherry tomatoes (about 8 ounces)
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
* 4 cups hot cooked instant rice

Preparation
Combine the first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add pork; toss well. Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray. Add pork; sauté 3 minutes. Remove pork from pan; keep warm.

Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté for 30 seconds. Add tomatillos; sauté 1 minute. Add pork; cover and cook 10 minutes or until pork is done. Add tomatoes and cilantro; cover and cook for 1 minute. Serve with rice.


Comments
I didn't use the cooking spray at all, just the small amount of oil. I made some baked country style apple/brown sugar pork ribs last night, so instead of the tenderloin, I used most of the leftovers of those. (I usually crock pot them and there are no leftovers, but they weren't as good baked). It added a really nice sweet component, and they were better in this than they were by themselves.

I added extra ground red pepper because we love spice, but it probably didn't need it. (as in, almost too hot for me). I also used two large fresh cloves of garlic instead of the bottled.

I probably wouldn't have used quite so many tomatillos and tomatoes, OR I would've added more pork. The ratio wasn't quite right for me.

My daughter is sick and hubby is asleep, so I'm the only one who ate it. I enjoyed it overall, but would probably only give it 3 stars to keep at home.

ETA: I like a little sauce on my rice and it seemed sort of dry, so I added about 1 c of chicken broth when I added the pork back in. I probably could've used a bit less, but it made a nice spicy sauce when served over the rice.

Also, hubby didn't care for it at all. hahaha. niiiiiiiiiice.

Chicken and Bacon Casserole

I went looking for water chestnut recipes and, like all of you probably, ran across a TON for bacon wrapped water chestnuts. Didn't sound like something I'd want to mess with since they'd be gone in about 30 seconds and were too much work for that (although they sounded yummy), so I decided to make a casserole sort of dish with bacon and water chestnuts.

1 package (12 oz) bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 yellow onion, diced
3 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 can sliced water chestnuts, rinsed and drained
1 c frozen peas

Saute the bacon in large skillet until cooked to desired doneness. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside. Add onions to drippings in pan and cook until translucent. Add chicken and cook until done. Add peas, water chestnuts, and bacon, and heat until warmed through. Serve over rice with a steamed vegetable on the side (because there's enough bacon you need more veggies so you don't feel guilty for eating all the fat).

*****

If you don't love bacon like my family, use just a few pieces for flavoring, but hubby and kidlet LOVE bacon, so I used enough so they could eat it. I didn't drain the bacon but probably could have -- it wasn't terribly greasy, but probably could've done without all the fat (there's a reason *I'm* fat). I'd probably also add another can of water chestnuts for a better ratio. It made enough I should have some leftovers for lunch. Hubby said it was delicious and filling and kiddo actually ate some and liked it. I'd only give this 3 stars, because it isn't fancy enough for a dinner party and is a little fussy for a potluck (serving over rice and all), and I might add some broth while it's cooking next time (there will be a next time) because I wanted some sort of sauce or something on the rice (but I'm like that).

Gnocchi

I love gnocchi. Decided to try making some. I found a bunch of different recipes, each claiming to be the "best" and "most authentic". Some used ricotta, some used eggs, others just potatoes and flour. I found this recipe in the comments section of some blog or other and didn't bookmark it -- the amounts were just super easy to remember. I roasted my potatoes instead of boiling to decrease the amount of liquid because they're not supposed to be super sticky, and then just put them through my baby food mill so they were very finely mashed. The techniques to add the little ridges on them were all different too; I chose not to add the ridges. They all disagreed about how to serve them too -- light sauce, no meat, marinara, with meatballs ... hahaha.

2 eggs
2 c mashed potato (about 3 medium russet potatoes)
2 c flour

Start a pot of water boiling. Mix all together. Divide into 4 equal pieces, then roll into logs. Cut into bite sized pieces.

Add the gnocchi to the pot of salted, boiling water and remove with a slotted spoon when they float to the top.

*****

The dough was still fairly sticky, so I might go with 1 egg instead of two. I served them with marinara and italian sausage. hubby liked them okay, kiddo refused to try them that night but has asked me to make them again so she can try them. I loved them. They were all gone the next day. I give it 5 stars because I probably would serve them at a dinner party, but I'd have to make a bunch.

Corn Flake Chicken Strips

I got the recipe here.

Crap, I just lit the kitchen on fire. Thank goodness for fire extinguishers. Ahem.*

Ingredients
4 cups crushed plain cornflakes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Lawry seasoning salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
(I added garlic powder too)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon water
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in thin strips
Vegetable oil
Instructions
1. Mix together cornflakes, flour, seasoning salt, pepper and poultry seasoning.
2. Beat eggs with water. Dip chicken strips in egg mixture and then roll in cornflake mixture. Press mixture firmly onto chicken to coat well.
3. Pour oil into a large skillet to a depth of about 2 inches. Heat oil to 250F. Fry chicken strips 6 to 8 minutes or until done. Serve warm with your favorite dipping sauce. Serves 6.


NOTES: I only used 3 chicken breasts and most of the coating was gone. I'd measured out 4 c of corn flakes and then crushed them; I'm assuming the recipe really wanted 4 c of already crushed corn flakes.

Hubby has been craving fried chicken, so I decided on this rather than on cookies (which I always crave) or anything else I found recipes for. I've never had cornflake fried chicken ... so ... yeah. Hubby loved them and asked for more (and probably ate 2/3 of them by himself). Kiddo is flu-ish and didn't touch hers (she was feeling better earlier today but got sick again, ugh). I rather enjoyed them too.

I only give it 3 stars because I am too lazy to fry anything for anyone who doesn't live here. hahahaha.

*I'm exaggerating; I had a whole chicken roasting in the oven as well and the pan was apparently too small because it dripped all over the bottom of the oven and then smoked like mad. We didn't have to use the fire extinguisher, but I feel silly anyway since I was typing this post and hubby caught it. lol.