Showing posts with label water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label water. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

SUMMER FOOD FESTIVAL 2011!!

My apologies for being AWOL the past few days. It has been more than a little hectic around here and  a lot of it had to do with prepping for the Summer Food Festival that took place last Sunday at my house!  The whole day was filled with good friends who brought even BETTER food.

Spicy hot chicken legs, smoked brisket, spicy Southwest ranch beef which can be served on buns or with tortilla chips, pea salad, pasta salad, chilled cucumber yogurt soup, strawberry poke cake, Oreo dirt cake, raspberry peach cobbler, crab dip with crackers, risotto with Swiss Chard, fruit salad, frozen chocolate bananas, rum-spiked watermelon, and Portobello mushroom pizzas were all devoured equally.  Judging took place by a raise of hands and the winners are as follows: Michelle Borst won the main dish category with her Southwest Ranch Beef crock pot dish, Cindy Cassel won for the side dishes with her fresh and veggie-filled pasta salad, and Amber Douglass won the dessert category by a LANDSLIDE with Oreo dirt cake (Get it? Landslide?? Dirt?....sigh....)  Good job guys!

Not only was there good food, but there were nifty party favors for the guest to take home. They were given Chinese take-out boxes filled with Applewood Hickory Rub, Zaatar, Jamaican Jerk seasoning, Chinese Five Spice, and a fortune cookie.

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Friday, June 17, 2011

What's For Dinner? - African Chicken Stew

SPICY, HEAVY GOODNESS!! A really pleasant combination of peanuts, chicken, vegetables, and spice. Initially you taste the sweetness of the peanut butter, then the red pepper kicks in after a few seconds and really adds some zip! I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and the key to this one is keeping everything in one pan from start to finish (my dad and mom taught me that little trick). Deglazing the pan after browning the chicken and keeping all the yummys in the dish makes it that much better.

~Ingredients~

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1.75 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 large potato, diced
1 turnip, diced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp. salt
1 cup of water (keep adding if it thickens too much)
1 cup peanut butter
1 (15 oz) can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

~Instructions~

1. In a large metal (not Teflon or non-stick) skillet with a tight-fitting lid, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add chicken and brown quickly. Letting your infant think that she is orchestrating the whole ordeal is wise. No hurt feelings.



(That's some perfectly browned chicken!)


 2.  Chop up any other vegetables you wish to add.  I picked a turnip! Yum!  And it makes such a pretty picture!
3.  Remove chicken from the skillet. The bottom of the metal skillet should have brown crusty stuff that looks like it is stuck to the bottom of it.  These are the yummys.  Do not remove them.  Just go ahead and add a little more olive oil and add your garlic, onion, potato, and in my case, the turnip.  Saute for 2-3 minutes.
4.  Add the cumin, coriander, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and salt.
5.  Cut the browned chicken into bite-sized pieces.
6.  Mix in the water, but make sure you have a good scraping tool. Either a metal spatula or a pointed wooden spoon of some sort so that scraping the browned chicken off of the bottom of the pan is easier.
(It should be a warm brown color like this when the scrapings are in the mix)
7.  Add the browned chicken pieces.  Place the lid on the skillet and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
8.  Add the peanut butter and garbanzo beans and mix thoroughly.
9.  Let your infant experiment with radishes that you have prepared for a garnish. I was really prepared for her to spit them out and throw them across the room expressing that her mouth was on fire, but...
Radishes were a spicy success!!!
10.  Garnish your African Chicken Stew, serve with either rice or bread, and beverage of choice! After eating it with red wine, I would advise an ice cold beer instead.  But that's just my opinion.
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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Foodie Baby: BABY COLONIC EXPERIMENT!

I know it doesn't seem like food and poop should really be used in the same sentence, and I don't really know why I got the sudden urge this morning to clean my baby's gastrointestinal tract.  Maybe it's because she's just not one of those super poopy infants that blesses me with a ginormous pantload every day that had me feeling like I needed to get the gears working.  At any rate, the method I used is below.  Don't forget to click on THIS LINK to see a hilarious Saturday Night Live skit regarding blowing out your colon! I will get back to you all on the results...tick, tock, tick, tock....

~Ingredients~

3 whole pitted prunes
1/8 cup of rolled oats
1/4 cup of water

~Instructions~

1. Heat the rolled oats and water in a small bowl for 30 seconds on 60% power in your microwave.
2. Spoon the oatmeal into a food processor.
3. Plop the 3 prunes in the food processor as well.
4. Puree until a rich and creamy texture.
5. Make sure your baby eats all of it.
6. Wait for impending diaper explosion....or not...like I said, I'll get back to you.

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Monday, June 6, 2011

Foodie Baby: Grilled BBQ Chicken with Rice

Today for lunch, the adults ate the most mouthwatering charcoal-grilled BBQ chicken with baked beans and grilled zucchini on the side. I know Piper loves smoky flavored things because of a baby food version of an adult dish that I appetizingly call "Cowboy Slop" (which I will be posting soon), so I figured this would be a hit as well. I used some Basmati rice that was leftover from a previous dinner to add a little manganese and iron. Piper ended up loving the taste, but had a little issue with the texture of the rice which doesn't puree quite as smoothly as the meat.  It would be the only thing left on her tongue, and after a few inquisitive looks up at me as if I can swallow it for her, she figured it out. Enjoy, little foodie babies!

~Ingredients~

8 oz. chicken breast (one large one)
pepper
BBQ sauce of your choice
charcoal grill
1/2 cup of cooked rice
water

~Instructions~
1.  Sprinkle the  8 oz chicken breast with fresh ground cracked pepper

 2.  Grill on first side for 5 minutes.  Baste with BBQ sauce and flip so that breast is sauce-side down. Grill another 5 minutes.
 3.  Baste the other side again and grill for another 5 minutes.
 4.  Repeat and grill another 5 minutes.
5.  The chicken is grilled for a total of 20 minutes at this point and should have a nice crispy-red BBQ sauce layer.
6.   Remove from grill and cut into pieces.  Place in a food processor.
7.  Add 1/2 cup of cooked rice.
8.  Add a little extra BBQ sauce (your discretion, depending on your baby's taste)
 9.  Add water until you have reached the desired consistency for your baby.  The younger, the more smooth it should be. The older ones can handle their chunks pretty well. Maybe teeth has something to do with it?

10.  It should make 4 jars of smoky delicious baby food.
 11.  Your child should look something like this after the first taste.  ENJOY!

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