Here’s another great side dish to go with your Chinese dinner – a recipe for Oyster mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms are very good to eat and you should be able to find them at any decent market. They are commonly used in Japanese and Chinese cuisine as a delicacy. This recipe is very easy and is nothing more than a basic stir fry. Normally I just sauté my mushrooms in garlic and butter and that tastes great, but I think this is a lot better! Instead of just adding garlic and butter we are adding other ingredients such as soy sauce, white wine and rosemary. I was really amazing by the great flavor that the mushrooms had after frying them. If by some chance Oyster mushrooms are not available to you, I would think this recipe would go great with many other types of mushrooms as well. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
8 ounces fresh oyster mushrooms (rinsed)
1 tablespoon garlic (minced)
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon rosemary (minced)
1 teaspoon butter
2 teaspoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon dry white wine (or sherry)
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Slice mushrooms into pieces. Sauté garlic in olive oil for 15 seconds. Add mushrooms and sauté 3 minutes.   
Step 2: Add rosemary and butter and stir fry until butter is melted. Sprinkle mushrooms with flour and stir fry.
Step 3: Add wine and soy sauce and cook until liquid slightly thickens and the mushrooms are tender.
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Yeah, I confess, my sugar addictions are getting a little out of control. Last week I posted a recipe for The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies. Now I have for you non other than a recipe for the best peanut butter cookies!! I seriously don’t know if these recipes are really the best, but there one thing I can assure you of – they are definitely close! These turned out great and they had amazingly good flavor to them. I decided peanut butter alone wasn’t enough so I decided to add M&M’s as well. The M&M’s are totally optional – they still taste fantastic without them. Like most easy cookies recipes this will take very little time. The baking time differs depending on how chewy or how crunchy you like your cookies. Make a batch… or two of these and everyone is sure to love you J. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
½ cup vegetable shortening
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup M&M’s (optional)

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl. Beat butter, shortening, and peanut butter until smooth. Add white sugar and brown sugar and beat until smooth.
Step 2: Add the eggs on at a time and then add vanilla extract until blended. Use your hands or a spoon and add the flour mixture to complete cookie dough.
Step 3: One at time scoop dough with a teaspoon (can use a tablespoon for larger cookies) and drop dough in 1” balls onto a cookie sheet. Place 2 inches apart. With a fork dipped in flour flatten cookies. Then flatten in the opposite direction (so they cross).
Step 4: Bake in the oven for 9-10 minutes for chewy cookies or 11-12 for crispy.
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I had a few people ask me what to do with the pineapple salsa. Here is one thing you can do with it – serve it along side or on top of fish! This is a recipe for a delicious and spicy fish coating! For this recipe I used fresh crappie fillets but other types of fish such as tilapia or bluegill would go great as well. I felt the Cajun seasoning played an important role giving it just the right amount of heat. There are only 3 steps to this quick and easy recipe. The fish is first tipped in batter, rolled in a spicy cornmeal mixture, and then fried in the pan. This recipe is best served with Tabasco sauce, pepper sauce, or pineapple salsa.

Ingredients:
1 lb crappie fillets
1/2 cup milk
½ cup flour
2 eggs
1 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Mix together flour, eggs and milk in a bowl. In another bowl mix together corn meal, Cajun seasoning, salt, and pepper.
Step 2: Dip crappie fillets in the wet mixture to coat and then roll in the dry mixture.

Step 3: Fry fillets in oil on both sides until both sides are golden brown or until fully cooked.
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Egg drop soup is a Chinese soup commonly consisting of chicken broth, beaten eggs and green onions. This is another recipe that a lot of you might have had at a Chinese buffet. I don’t really make a lot of soups but I have always wanted to try a couple from the buffets and this is one of them. This actually turned out quite well – I felt the flavors were all there and nothing was to overpowering. Plus, dropping the eggs in the boiling broth is always fun. What really amazed me was how easy this recipe was and how little time it took to make. The egg drop soup can be made within only 10-15 minutes, and would go great as a side dish with just about any Chinese inspired dinner. Another plus about this recipe is that it has very few ingredients and it is inexpensive.  Let me know what you think – enjoy!

Ingredients:
4 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons green onions (chopped)
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
4 eggs
1 egg yolk

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Reserve ¾ cup of the chicken broth (it will later be mixed with the cornstarch). Pour the rest of the broth into a sauce pan.
Step 2: Stir in ginger, salt, and green onions. Bring to a boil. While bring to a boil combine the corn starch with the reserve chicken broth and mix well. Set aside.
Step 3: In a bowl whisk eggs and the egg yolk together with a fork.

Step 4: Slowly drizzle the egg a little at a time with a fork into the boiling broth. The egg will cook right away.
Step 5: Pour the cornstarch mixture into the broth and stir until its mixed well.  
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You might remember last week I posted a recipe for Chinese Lemon Chicken. Well this week I thought I would share the other version of lemon chicken – Chicken Piccata. Chicken piccata is basically boneless skinless chicken breasts dipped in egg, rolled in flour and browned in the pan. After browning the chicken breasts are then simmered  in a delicious lemon-wine sauce. This recipe is a little different than most with the addition of fresh sliced mushrooms. Although chicken piccata isn’t traditionally served with mushrooms I feel it only adds to the flavor. There are a few steps to this recipe so it may take awhile to cook. I think it probably took me a couple hours to get this on the table but I enjoyed it. As you can probably tell if you read my blog chicken is one of my favorite things to cook! I served this recipe with linguini and although optional I find sprinkling parmesan cheese on top of the chicken tastes great.

Ingredients:
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (pounded to an even thickness)
2 tablespoons butter (for frying)
1 tablespoon oil (for frying)
Breading-
4 tablespoons of milk
2 large eggs
¾ cup flour
1 ½ teaspoons seasoning salt
1 teaspoon paprika
¾  teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Sauce-
1 cup chicken broth
½ cup white wine
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1  tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon garlic (minced)
1 onion (chopped)
½ lb fresh sliced mushrooms
4 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped)

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Pound chicken breasts to an event thickness between two sheets of wax paper (if they are really thick cut them in half). In a shallow bowl or plate combine flour, paprika, seasoning salt, black pepper and garlic powder. Mix well.
Step 2: In another bowl beat eggs and milk together.
Step 3: Dip chicken first in the egg mixture and then roll in the flour mixture and coat thoroughly.

Step 4: To make the sauce- whisk together chicken broth, lemon juice, wine and cornstarch – set aside for now.
Step 5: Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the coated chicken breasts and sauté on both sides until golden brown but do not cooking completely. Remove chicken breasts from the pan.

Step 6: Add mushroom slices to the pan and sauté for 5 minutes. Add in garlic and onions and Sauté for 3 minutes. Pour the sauce mixture into the pan and simmer over medium heat.

Step 7: Add chicken breasts back into the pan. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 25 minutes or until fully cooked. Top with fresh parsley.
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Who doesn’t like chocolate chip cookies? After all, adding chocolate chips truly is one of the best ways to make cookies. I’m sure a lot of you have some great ways to make chocolate chip cookies, but if you don’t or would just like to try something different – here is my way. Like most of the recipes I post on this blog, these are really easy to make and will only take a few minutes to get into the oven. I made tons of these things just yesterday and they are almost gone already! They came out so moist and flavorful. I think that adding both vanilla and almond extract added a great deal to the flavor of the cookies. If you’re not a big fan of chocolate, you could add butterscotch chips instead. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
2  ¼ cups of all purpose flour
¾ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1  cup butter (softened)
¼ cup of sugar
1 (4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs (beaten)
2 cups chocolate chips

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl combine flour and baking soda.
Step 2: In another bowl beat sugar, brown sugar, butter, pudding mix, vanilla and almond extract. Blend well. Add in the eggs and mix well. Beat the flour mixture into the sugar mixture and stir in chocolate chips.

Step 3: Lay out cooking by rounded teaspoon full (or tablespoon if you want bigger cookies) on a baking sheet.
Step 4: Bake for 10-13 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
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Today I have for you a real treat for summer. A perfect slightly spicy, light, and colorful summer snack – pineapple salsa. Pineapple salsa is the perfect combination of fruits and vegetables with a little kick. This recipe also happens to be very good for you. Getting the right amount of fruits and vegetables everyday is very important in a healthy diet. This recipe is a great source of fiber as well. Cayenne pepper gives the recipe a little kick but if you like something even spicier you can add a minced jalapeno pepper into the mix. If you are looking for a great party snack, this could be the recipe for you. It goes great on chips, tacos, fish, and many other things. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
1 can pineapple chunks
1 onion (diced)
1 Red bell pepper (diced)
1 Green bell pepper (diced)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons coriander leaves (chopped)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 jalapeno pepper (optional)
salt (to taste)

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Combine pineapple, red bell pepper, onion, and green bell pepper in a bowl and mix.
Step 2: Add in cayenne pepper, coriander leaves, and lemon juice. Mix well. Let refrigerate until ready to serve.  
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I swear I’m going to turn this blog into a Chinese buffet, and I’m not even joking around either J. Chinese chicken, pork, steak, meatballs, green beans… what’s next? There’s so much more to come in the near future! Have you ever had those garlicky green beans at the buffet? Ever wonder how to make them? When I first tried them at the buffet I knew I had to make them at home. Today I will tell you how to make them at home with this recipe for Chinese green beans. The beans are first steamed for a few minutes and then stir fried in the wok adding delicious flavors such as garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes to add a little heat. They make a great side dish to go with any Chinese dinner, and the best part is you can make them in a very short time.

Ingredients:
1lb fresh green beans (washed with strings removed and ends trimmed)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger root (minced)
1 garlic clove (minced)
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon sesame oil
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
vegetable oil (for frying)

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Place beans into a vegetable steamer and place over boiling water. Cover and steam for 5 minutes. When finished drain and dump beans into cold water and drain once again.
Step 2: Add oil to the wok and add garlic and ginger and sauté for 30 seconds. Add beans and sauté for about 5 minutes.

Step 3:  Combine 2 tablespoons of water with cornstarch, soy sauce, brown sugar, red pepper flakes and sesame oil and mix well.
Step 4: Add mixture to beats and stir fry for 30 seconds to a minute.
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Here you have a very delicious, simple and easy recipe for taco salad. Many of you probably have a taco salad recipe very similar to this one. It’s perfect for parties. This is actually another recipe I made for a graduation party not to long ago. It’s funny because when I brought this there someone had nearly the exact same one sitting on the table. Oh well, mine got eaten up first at least :D. Unfortunately I was so busy preparing about 6 different things at once for the party I forgot to take step by step photos. Sorry guys, it won’t happen again I promise. I find this recipe is great with Doritos but you could use a lot of different types of chips if you choose. I also love this with Catalina salad dressing but once again, if you choose other dressing would work out great as well. If you’re looking for a fantastic recipe to bring to a party or event – give this a try!

Ingredients:
2lbs ground beef
2 packages of taco seasoning mix
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 red onion
1 yellow onion
2 heads lettuce (chopped)
4 tomatoes (diced)
2 avocado’s (peeled and chopped)
1 ½ cups block olives (sliced)
1 bag nacho chips
1 bottle Catalina salad dressing

Cooking Instructions:
Step 1: In a pan brown ground beef along with yellow onions. Add in one package of taco seasoning mix and water as directed on the seasoning package. Set aside.
Step 2: In a large bowl mix together tomatoes, lettuce, avocados, cheddar cheese, red onion, olives, and the other package of taco seasoning mix. Add beef mixture and toss until well combined.
Step 3: Right before serving – Toss with Catalina salad dressing and add chips.
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Why order take out when you can make your own Chinese lemon chicken at home?  There are a few different versions of lemon chicken out there, all coming from different countries. Probably the most popular type of lemon chicken would be baked in the oven. We all know baked lemon chicken is great but here is the Chinese version – just like take out or at the buffets.  The Chinese version varies greatly from that of other cultures. Like most types of Chinese chicken the chicken is first cut into small chunks, battered, and then deep fried and covered with a sweet-lemon sauce. I do have a confession to make, I used yellow food coloring to get the sauce that amazing bright yellow color. If you have some yellow food coloring on hand, just add a drop or two into the sauce before you heat it. This recipe goes great served with rice and broccoli. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
2 1/2lbs boneless-skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1” cubes)
Marinade-
2 tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon salt
Batter-
2 large eggs
¼ cup cornstarch
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch white pepper
oil (for frying)
Sauce-
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup chicken broth
1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¾ teaspoon salt
3 slices of lemon (peeled)
2 tablespoons oil
yellow food coloring (optional)

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Place cut chicken breast pieces into a bowl and mix with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and ½ teaspoon of salt. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Step 2: To make the batter – beat 2 large eggs with ¼ cup of cornstarch, a pinch of white pepper and baking powder.  Coat the chicken with the batter.
Step 3: Heat deep fryer to 350 degrees and deep-fry in batches until chicken is fully cooked. Drain on paper towels and set aside. You can also cook the chicken using a wok if you don’t have a deep fryer.

Step 4: Now, to make the lemon sauce – combine 1/3 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 cup chicken broth, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and ¾ teaspoon salt (if using food coloring you can add it now). Mix until well combined and add 3 slices of lemon to the sauce mixture.
Step 5: Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in your wok and stir in the lemon sauce mixture and heat until well mixed and sauce becomes clear. Remove lemon slices and pour the sauce over the chicken and mix. Best served with rice and broccoli.
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