Orange Chicken

• Sauce:
• 1 1/2 cups water(I use the juice from the manderine oranges and add water for the rest)
• 2 tablespoons orange juice(I use the manderine oragne juice from the can)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice( I use fresh squeezed)
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onion
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
•  
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons water
•  
• Chicken:
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• oil for cooking

3 eggs

1 T cornstarch

juice from half a lemon if desired

Directions

1. Pour 1 1/2 cups water, orange juice, lemon juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce into a saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Stir in the orange zest, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, chopped onion, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, and cool 10 to 15 minutes.
2. You can choose the size you would like to cut your chicken, but the smaller the piece, the more pieces you have to bread, so I cut the chicken into large pieces. Place the chicken pieces into a resealable plastic bag. When contents of saucepan have cooled, pour 1 cup of sauce into bag. Reserve the remaining sauce. Seal the bag, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
3. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, and pepper. Dip the marinated chicken pieces in egg mixture. Dip in flour mixture. I set on a cooling rack with a cookie sheet under it to let it dry. Once I have dipped all the chicken, I dip each piece again in the egg, and in the flour.
4. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken into the skillet, and brown on both sides. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels, and cover with aluminum foil.
5. Wipe out the skillet, and add the sauce. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Mix together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water; stir into the sauce. Reduce heat to medium low, add the chicken pieces, and simmer, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
6. serve with rice. Garnish with manderine oranges. 

Getting started

Hi, I decided to start working on my recipe blog again. I set it up to email to you all, but I have made a few mistakes and sent you unfinished posts. Sorry about that! I think I have it figured out now!

Cinnamon Rolls

This is a popular recipe I like to use. Let me know if you like it at the end of this post.

Dough
1 (0.25-ounce) packet active dry yeast
 1 cup warm milk, (105°F to 115°F / 40°C to 45°C)

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs

4 cups all-purpose or bread flour 

Let sugar, milk & yeast sit until frothy

Let rise 1 hr, then pat down

add remaining ingredients.knead 5 min,

Roll dough to 21x16

Sprinkle 1c brown sugar, 1.5 tsp cinnamon

spread 1/3 cup softened butter

Roll tightly and pinch opening sealed

Mark into 12 rolls. Use floss to cut.

Lay into buttered pan,

Let rise until doubled

Bake 20 minutes at 400( I overcooked)

Top with cream cheese frosting (Noah did this part!)

Cream cheese frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

4-ounce package cream cheese, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

* problem solving: It is cold out so my dough was rising very slowly. I had to place the dough in a warm oven(off) covered with a damp towel in order to get it to rise.

Mini Molten Chocolate Cake Recipe

This has become one of my favorite dessert recipes. It is fast and everyone always loves it. 

Makes 6 regular sized or 3 over sized cakes

• Ingredients
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for muffin tins
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for muffin tins
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted(I use 1 cup ghirardelli chocolate chips from the baking isle)
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
• Whipped Cream , for serving

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously butter 6 cups of a standard muffin tins or 3 large muffin tims. Dust with granulated sugar, and tap out excess(optional). Set aside.
2. Cream the butter and granulated sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low speed, beat in flour and salt until just combined. Beat in chocolate until just combined. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.
3. Place muffin tin on a baking sheet; bake just until tops of the cakes no longer jiggle when the pan is lightly shaken, 8 to 10 minutes for standard muffin tins and 10 to 13 for large. Tip: the less cooked they are, the more molteny they are, but beware, if they are undercooked, they are difficult to remove from the tins. Look for the beginning of small bubbles in the center as a sign that they are ready. For me the centers still giggle a little when shaken. Remove from oven; let stand 10 minutes.
4. To serve, turn out cakes, and place on serving plates, bottom sides up. Dust with confectioners' sugar, and serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Go here to see the original recipe

French Tartine

This was one of my favorite things to eat while I lived in France, and I had one just about everyday for lunch. I will tell you how to make two different versions. For bread, in France we would always use a french baguette. That is still my favorite way, but I also like it with homemade or bakery bed, but then I like to lightly toast the bread in the oven or toaster so that the bread is not limp and soggy.

The classic tartine which is what my employer would have was made with a piece of a baguette sliced in half. She would top that with thin slices of tomato, sprinkle that with salt, pepper basil(dry or fresh) and drizzle it with olive oil and top it with slices of mozzarella cheese (I like the whole milk mozzarella from costco because it is inexpensive, tastes fresh and delicious!)and then broil it for a few minutes until golden brown.

I personalized it a little and would spread boursin on my bread(this can be found at costco for about $7 for a pack of three. In grocery stores it is about the same price for one box.)

I would skip the salt pepper and basil since it is already seasoned. I would often add sliced avocado to the top after it was broiled.

This makes a great lunch when served with a small salad.

Raspberry Cheese Cake

With this recipe, I had enough to make one large cheesecake plus three mini cakes (large serving sized portions)

The Best Cheesecake Recipe
Cake:

6 eggs
1 1/2 C sugar
2 lbs. (four 8 ounce packages) cream cheese-cheapest option is to buy the block from Costco
1 cup sour cream- cheapest at costco
1 cup heavy cream-cheapest at costco
juice of one lemon
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 heaping Tablespoons flour

Crust:

1 1/2 C crushed vanilla wafers (you can also use crushed graham crackers, or digestive biscuits)
6 Tablespoons melted butter
1/2 C sugar

Preheat oven to to 425°.

Add eggs, sugar, cream cheese, sour cream, heavy cream, lemon juice, vanilla, and flour to mixer. Beat (on low to to low-medium speed) thoroughly, until completely smooth.

While cake mixture is beating, make the crust.

Mix crust ingredients together in small mixing bowl. Pour into 9" spring form pan, pressing into place with your fingers or the back of a spoon. Chill in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

When crust is cool, and cake is thoroughly mixed, pour batter into the pan over the back of a big spoon, so the batter does not disturb the crust. Let it rest for 5 or 10 minutes.

Bake in 425° oven for 15 minutes. Then turn oven down to 275° and bake for 1 hour. Turn off oven. Do not open the oven door for 2 hours! After the 2 hours are up, remove cake and refrigerate overnight.

(When I baked my cake it cracked down the middle. No worries! You are going to cover it up with yummy berries anyways!)

For topping you can use any berry or chocolate topping.

For berry toppings you basically just want to mix sugar with cornstarch to sweeten and thicken the berries, and then bring them to a mild boil. Here I use 24 ounces of berries with 1 cup sugar and 2 T cornstarch. Be sure to mix your cornstarch with the sugar before adding it to the berries. You can add more or less sugar depending on the tartness of your berries(these were very tart berries!)

Let the sauce cool slightly and then pour onto your cake and let set.

It would also be yummy with chocolate fudge sauce instead of or with the berries!

Here is my favorite recipe:

In a small saucepan mix:

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened chocolate powder

1/2 butter

1/4 cup milk

let boil one minute stirring often. Remove from heat. (the longer you let it boil, the stiffer it will be when it sets)

Add 1 tsp vanilla

Serve hot as a topping or let cool slightly and pour onto cake.

How to Make the Perfect Omlete

When ever I think of omelets I think of the scene in the movie "Defending your life" where the guy is in judgement city and orders an omelet. Within seconds he was served the most delisious looking omelete. He said, "Wow! That was fast!" "Fast and delicious!" said the waitress.
That is what I was hoping for when I first started making omelets, a delicious and eye catching breakfast that looks so good that it makes your stomach growl. Unfortunately my first omelet looked more like messy scrambled eggs. an omlete can be a messy and tricky task, and it is dissapointing when it doesn't turn out looking nice.
Here I will show you an easy way to make a picture perfect omelet.

In my example I am making a personal sized omlete, but it is the same techniques for a large family omlete.
First you want to pick out your ingredeients such as onions, peppers, mushrooms, green onions, ham, tomoato, chesese, ect... If you are using ingredients that need to be sauteed first such as onions, peppers or mushrooms, do this first in your pan with a little olive oil and set them aside in a bowl.

Now you are ready to start your omlete. First, preheat your pan at a medium to medium to medium high heat with a little olive oil.

Mix together two eggs, a little milk, salt and pepper and mixed well.

Next, pour the egg into your pan and turn the temputature down to a medium heat

cover with a tight fitting lid. Let cook for about 3 minutes or until the egg is completely cooked through(this will take longer for larger omletes, so if you are using more eggs, decrease the temp and cook longer so the bottom doesnt burn.




Once you see that the egg is fully cooked, flip your omelet. With a small one like this you can do it just with a pancake flipper, but I demonstrated here the method that I use to flip larger omelets and still keep them looking nice. (Sorry I burnt my omelet a little while waiting to get someone to film me)
Next you will add your toppings to half of the omelet.

For larger omelets I slide the omelet onto the plate and then fold, but for smaller ones you can fold it in the pan and then use a pancake flipper to put it on the plate!
Bon Appetite!