Crispy Pork Balls

I am not sure exactly what happened with these meatballs. The cook time in the recipe stated 20 minutes at 200 degrees but it took these 60 minutes and I eventually upped the temp to 325 degrees. They taste good but the overall flavor of all the yummy ingredients did not last. So they overall tasted bland. Nice texture. Overall okay appearance. I did not make a dipping sauce for these but used Hoisin sauce instead.

Ingredients -
4 slices bread, no crust (or use bread crumbs)
1 tsp olive oil
8 oz pork, chopped
1/3 cup water chesnuts
2 fresh red chili's
1 egg white
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
2tbsp soy sauce


Sauce -
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp chili oil

Mix all ingredients together minus bread crumbs. Mold into balls and roll into bread crumbs forming a nice outer layer to the meatballs. Preheat oven to 200 degrees and cook for 20 minutes (see my notes above).

Rated  5 stars *****

Stuffed Chili's

I would say that these were a disappointment. The stuffing really shrank up when cooked and separated from the walls of the chili's. Good overall flavor but poor presentation. The recipe called for steaming these. I think cooking in the oven or broiling may have turned out better. The chili's themselves were a bit soggy, like over steamed broccoli. 


Stuffed Chili's
10 fat fresh green chili's
4oz lean pork, chopped (I used ground turkey)
3oz tiger prawns
1 tsp cilantro
1tsp corn starch
2tsp dry sherry
2tsp soy sauce
1tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cold water

Slice chili's in half and take out the seeds. Chop pork and prawns. Chop cilantro. Mix everything together in a bowl. Stuff peppers with meat mixture. Steam in steamer tray (I used rice cooker steamer tray) for 15 minutes or until meat is fully cooked.

I rated this a two star. ** Kurt rated it a three star. ***

Green Curry Puffs

So, this was the best thing that was made for New Year's Eve. Delicious! I added some left over pork and shrimp. 

Green Curry Puffs
24 small wonton wraps
1 tbsp corn starch or 2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp water
1 small potato, cooked and mashed
3 tbsp peas
3 tbsp corn
few sprigs cilantro
1 small red chili
1/2 lemon grass stock finely chopped (bought in store fresh in tube already chopped)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp green curry paste

I also added  - 1 tsp ginger, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots

 Place filling in center, brush sides with flour paste and deep fry. Yum!

Kurt rated this recipe an 8 star, I rated it a 9 star.

Thai Spring Rolls

 This is a picture of the stuffing just prior to putting the "spring rolls" together. They actually turned out to be more like egg rolls than spring rolls. In the stuffing there are lots of ingredients. I will list recipe below since it is one we plan on making again sometime.

These are the finished product. I have never fried anything before so this was a new experience. i found an electric fryer deep in my cupboard that use to be Kurt's mothers. This recipe made WAY to many egg rolls for even a family of 4. The finished product is not fully shown in the picture above.. I made about 8-10 more after this. So consider that when making this recipe. Great for pot lucks!

Thai Spring Rolls -
25 spring roll wrappers
2 tbsp flour
vegetable oil for deep frying (I used canola)
Thai sweet dipping sauce to serve with.

4-6 dried mushrooms
2 oz cellophane noodles
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic
2 fresh red chilies
8 oz minced pork
2oz prawns
2 tbsp fish sauce
1tsp sugar
1 carrot, grated
2oz drained bamboo shoots
1 cup beansprouts
2 spring onions
1 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
ground black pepper


Place noodles in bowl, cover with boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and snip into 2 inch long pieces. Heat wok and add garlic and chilies. Cook for 30 seconds and put aside. Add pork and cook until brown. Add noodles, mushrooms and prawns. Stir in fish sauce, sugar an pepper. Add other ingredients into bowl. Stir wok ingredients in with ingredients in the bowl. Stir flour in bowl and mix with a little bit of water to make a paste. Place a spoonful of filling in middle of wrap. Tuck in ends and roll. Brush a little of the flour past on end to seal roll. Heat oil in deep fryer (350 degrees) and cook rolls approx 1-2 minutes on each side.

Kurt and I rated these 7 stars *******. They were good when dipped in a sauce. Need a bit more spice added to make really good. Good blending of flavors.

Farm Fresh Eggs

We feel very fortunate to have farm fresh eggs everyday. Our chickens are free range and fed organic grain. We use eggs in lots of our cooking. In the summer we get about 18-20 eggs per day, in the winter we get between 6-10 eggs per day. We are able to sell some of our eggs to help pay for the cost of our chicken feed. Our goal is to be self-sustainable and this includes our chickens helping to pay for themselves.

Here are some of the ways we use our eggs -
Hard Boiled
Fried
Over easy
Sunny side up
Omlets
In our baking
Quiche
Scrambled
In stir fry's
Deviled
Eggs in breakfast burritos
Egg salad sandwiches
Egg breakfast sandwich

I have never attempted -
Poached eggs
Soufle
Meringue pie

Always more things to learn and try! Any ideas on other things to try with eggs?

Steel Cut Oatmeal

A friend of mine gave me a great tip on how to cook Steel Cut Oatmeal fast and efficiently. I love to eat oatmeal but frankly don't like to wait around to cook non processed oatmeal in the morning.

1 cup Steel Cut Organic Oatmeal
1 cup milk
2 cups water

Place in bowl. Place bowl in water bath in crock pot and cook on low overnight. The oatmeal was ready by morning and this made enough oatmeal for me to portion out into 4 servings.

This morning I added frozen raspberries to my oatmeal, yesterday I added 1 Tbsp of brown sugar, the day before I added 1/2 organic cut apple... many varieties and excellent source of healthy fiber & protein. My 6 1/2 month old baby loves this oatmeal as well. I feel safe giving her this for breakfast with me because it is organic and not processed.

This is the oatmeal at the beginning. Milk is not required in the recipe but this is how I like it.

Bundt Cake Pan and other goodies

This year for Christmas I asked for various kitchen goodies. My cookie trays are getting old, can opener is rusty, waffle iron went kaput and I keep hearing more and more about the negative side effects from using Teflon coated pans.

So I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond on my search for some good quality upgraded kitchen gear. My mom gave me a gift certificate for Christmas. To say the least I was a tad disappointed in what I found. I guess it has been awhile since I have shopped for kitchen gear. Most of what is currently in my kitchen was either found at a garage sale, handed down to me or picked up cheaply when I was in college. I haven't honestly upgraded anything, since what is not broke, I typically don't spend money on to fix.

My goal for shopping was 1. One 12 inch cast iron skillet. I have decided to go with cast iron because 1. No Teflon, 2. It will literally last FOREVER if I treat it right and 3. heat evenly and cooks well. There was one skillet available. It was branded by Emeril and I am sure sorely overpriced solely because his name is forever casted into the side of the skillet. I honestly don't like to pay for someone's name or branding. So that was a no go. Next isle, cookie sheets. Once again I have to say I was disappointed with what I found. Certainly they had cookie sheets however the quality of them were definitely lacking. I would be better off using my old, worn, blackened cookie sheets that I currently have... at least they are not flimsy. So that was a no go. Next isle, can opener. There were three choices to chose from...forget the 40 foot wall of other odd gadgets that they are hanging with. I want a good quality, no rust, going to last forever (at least for a few years) can opener. There was one good one. Brand OXO or maybe it was XOX?! anyhoo looked like a good one, priced at $17.99. I was able to whip out my Iphone and look up the cost at Amazon.com, customer reviews were excellent (people have a lot of time on their hands to write lengthy reviews about their can openers! Thank you!) and the price listed was $14.99. I think I will pass on Bed Bath and Beyond, save a few bucks and order from Amazon.

So, I ended up buying a good quality, sturdy bundt cake pan. Yes, typically this is not a highly needed item but several of my recipes in my Chocolate cook book call for a bundt cake pan. I purchased a silicone vegetable steamer. I have not heard of anything negative about using silicone to cook as of right now.. give society another 5 years and I am sure there will be something out there. I also purchased a griddle/grill for my stove top made out of Aluminum cast. My loving husband purchased an electric griddle for me for Christmas. It was a Black and Decker brand... pretty safe bet right for quality!? Not so much. This griddle was very flimsy, cheap plastic, falling drawers... so I broke my hubby's heart and asked to return the electric griddle for something not so flimsy. He concurred and we began the search. After looking at several stores I have to say that things are just not made to last any longer. My mother owns a fantastic electric griddle that is excellent life long lasting quality. I opted for the casted non-electric griddle based on its good quality.

Happy cooking! I will continue my search for good quality kitchen gear... may end up with old used appliances that are pea green in color from the 1970's which seems to be the time when quality mattered the most.

Rating Scale

Decided to rate each recipe on a 1 to 10 scale.
One being * - Gross needs to become dog food, won't eat leftovers
Three ***- Edible but won't cook again

Five *****- Edible and marginal

Seven *******- Good, may possibly make again

Ten being ***********- Add to family recipe book

Chinese Jeweled Rice

Chinese Jeweled Rice -

1 3/4 Cup White Long Grain Rice (subsituted Long Grain Brown Rice)
3 tbsp veg oil
1 onion (used organic red onion)
4 dried black Chinese Mushrooms (soak for 10 minutes in warm water)
4 oz cooked ham
6 oz crab meat (substituted shrimp)
1/2 cup drained canned water chestnuts
1 cups peas thawed (substitued bok choy)
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp salt


Cook rice. add 1/2 oil to Wok, when hot stir fry rice for 3 minutes. Set aside.
Add remaining oil, cook onion, add mushroom and rest of ingredients
Add rice and stir fry together for 3 minutes.

Kurt and I both rated this a 9 (*********)

Petit Pain Au Chocolate

Petit Pain Au Chocolate
Makes 8 rolls

Ingredients -
3 1/2 cup flour
3 tbl. sugar
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
1 cup + 1 tsp milk
3 tbl butter at room temp
1 egg lightly beaten
1 milk chocolate candy bar cut into 16 pieces

Combine flour, sugar, yeast and salt
Combine milk, butter in saucepan and heat over low till 120 degrees. Gradually stir milk mixture and egg into flour mixture
Knead for 8-10 minutes adding 1/2 cup flour to prevent sticking if needed
Shape dough into ball, place in large greased bowl. Turn dough over so top of ball is greased. Cover with towel and let rise for one hour or until ball has doubled.
Punch dough down, knead down for one minute on floured surface. Roll dough forming loaf. Cut into 8 pieces. Roll 1 dough piece into 6 inch round. Place 2 pieces of chocolate in center and fold over edges into center and place on greased baking sheet folded side down.
Cover lightly with towel and let rise for 20-30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Brush tops with remaining 1 tbs milk. Bake for 12 -15 minutes.

These turned out delicious!! The bread is a very nice light roll with a great mix with the melted chocolate. This will become a new favorite to make!

Rated - 10 Stars (**********)

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies-

Actually taste better cooled than warm. The texture is cake like and soft. I added two extra minutes to the cook time of the recipe in order to make them golden brown.

Ingredients -
1 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts (chopped) **optional

Heat oven to 375 degrees, grease baking sheets
Combine wet, combine dry and then combine together
Bake 10-12 minutes

Rated - 7 Stars *******

The Culinary Journey...

Here I am about to embark in a culinary journey. Inspired by the movie Julie and Julia I have picked two cookbooks: 1. "The Ultimate Thai and Asian Cookbook" by Deh-Ta Hsiung, Becky Johnson & Sallie Morris, 2. "Favorite Brand Name Best-Loved Chocolate Recipes" by Publications Internationa, LTD. I plan on working my way through each recipe in these books till I have cooked them all. Unlike the movie Julie and Julia I will not be cooking a new one each day but over the next two years would like to complete this project.