It’s been awhile since I had some Italian food and Chicken Carbonara sounded great, and indeed it was. If you are not familiar with chicken carbonara is it basically a type of chicken spaghetti. Pasta noodles, with chicken and bacon in a delicious parmesan sauce. Now does that sound good or what? When I first looked at the recipe I thought it was going to take along time but surprisingly everything went smoothly and I had it on the table pretty quick. The only other thing I added to the recipe was peas, but mushrooms and onions would be a great addition as well. Now the recipe does call for raw eggs in the sauce so what you are going to want to do is mix the sauce in the piping hot noodles right after you drain them. This will kill any bacteria. Serving with garlic bread is a must. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
1lb boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into bit size pieces)
½ lb bacon
12 ounces spaghetti noodles
½ cup parmesan cheese
2 eggs
¼ cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup white wine
¼ cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup frozen peas

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: In a small bowl mix together parmesan cheese, eggs, heavy cream, salt and pepper. In another bowl mix together wine, chicken broth and lemon juice. Set both aside.
Step 2: Bring a pot of water to a boil for cooking the noodles.
Step 3: In a large skillet cook bacon in batches until crispy. Drain on paper towels.

Step 4: Fry chicken pieces in bacon fat until fully cooked. Drain on paper towels.
 Step 5: Deglaze the pan with wine mixture scraping up any bits on the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 2-3 minutes. Place noodles in boiling water and cook according to package directions.

Step 6: While noodles are cooking crumble bacon slices into bits and in a large bowl mix chicken, bacon bits, wine glaze mixture, and parmesan/egg mixture. Drain noodles and shake to get rid of any extra water.
Step 7: Add peas and egg mixture to piping hot noodles and mix well.

I was feeling very lazy last night so I decided to go with something relatively easy to make – crab quiche. If you are not familiar with a quiche it is a French dish that typically consists of eggs, milk and a pastry crust and is baked in the oven. There are many ways to make a quiche but I found the crab to be most suitable to my taste. Crab meat, Swiss and green onions give it a nearly perfect flavor. You can also add salt, pepper and maybe a little cayenne pepper if you like a little heat. These are totally optional and should be added to your taste. For the crust I just used a box mix but you could make a home made crust from scratch or even get an uncooked one that has already been prepared. If you are in a hurry and want something easy to make, try this recipe for crab quiche. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
½ cup mayonnaise
3 eggs (beaten)
1 cup of crab meat (or imitation crab)
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ cup green onions (chopped)
salt (optional, to your taste)
pepper (optional, to  your  taste)
cayenne pepper (optional, to your taste)

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl mix together eggs, milk, flour and mayonnaise until well blended. Stir in crab meat, cheese and green onions. Pour over pie crust.

Step 2: Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

This is apparently a Panda Express recipe for their Beijing beef. How accurate this is to the original I don’t know but I decided to give it a try and I would say it turned out pretty good. Before seeing this on the Panda Express website I had no idea it even existed, which makes me assume this is not an authentic part of Chinese cuisine but rather more of a ‘made up’ dish. One thing I found interesting though is the beef is coated with corn starch and then deep fried giving it a nice and crispy texture. The sauce kind of reminded me of sweet and sour sauce only with a little kick from crushed chili pepper. The addition of onions and red and green bell peppers nearly went perfect in the dish. To leave the vegetables crunchy and the beef crispy I would recommend removing the cook vegetables from the wok before making the sauce and coating the beef with the sauce and adding the vegetables right before serving.

Ingredients:
1lb steak (sliced into thin strips)
6 tablespoons cornstarch (for dusting)
oil (for frying)
Marinade-
1 egg
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water
1  tablespoon cornstarch
Sauce-
4 tablespoons water
4 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons vinegar
¼ teaspoon crush chili pepper
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Vegetables-
1 teaspoon garlic (minced)
1 medium red bell pepper (diced)
1 medium green bell pepper (diced)
1 medium white onion (sliced)

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Cut beef into thin strips . In a bowl of sealable bag combine all marinade ingredients and mix well. Add beef slices and marinate for 15 minutes.
Step 2: While beef in marinating mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and refrigerate.
Step 3: When the beef is done marinating coat the beef slices with 6 tablespoons of cornstarch. Remove any access cornstarch and deep fry (either in a deep fryer or wok) beef slices in batches until floating or golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Step 4: Add a couple tablespoons of oil to the wok and add minced garlic and stir fry for 10 seconds. Add red and green bell peppers and onions and stir fry for 2 minutes. Remove vegetables and set aside.

Step 5: Pour sauce into the wok and heat until boiling. In a serving dish add beef and vegetables and coat with the sauce.

It’s that time of year for garden zucchini and what better use for zucchini than to make zucchini bread? If you grow zucchini you probably have more of them than you know what to do with. If so, that means its time to give this recipe a try! If you have never had zucchini bread it is very flavorful and moist… Oh and did I mention it’s delicious as well? J This recipe is how to make a basic version of it but you could add many things such as nuts, chocolate chips and many other things. The best part about making this is its very inexpensive, takes little time and is very easy to make. The hardest part about it is grating the zucchini and that only takes a couple minutes tops. Other than that its just mixing ingredients and the oven does the rest of the work for you.

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
3 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 cup oil
2 cups zucchini (grated)
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup nuts (optional)
3 teaspoons cinnamon

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine all of the ingredients and mix well.
Step 2: Pour mixture into 2 greased loaf pans and bake for 1 hour.
Step 3: Remove from oven and allow bread to cool before removing.
Tags: cooking, recipes, food and drink, recipe, baking

Here I have for you another version of fried rice – chicken fried rice. This is a great way to make use of your leftover white rice. Make sure the rice you are using for this recipe is at least one day old, leftover rice that is even older than that would work even better.  This is much similar to the recipe I posted for Chinese Fried Rice with just a few changes and I’m going to give you a couple additional tips for making fried rice. Once again, ingredients such as soy sauce, garlic and oyster sauce should be added to your taste. In this version I decided to add oyster sauce in the mix and I felt it gave the fried rice great flavor. When adding the rice to the wok with the sauces, make sure the wok is heated enough to sufficiently fry the rice and absorb the flavors of the sauces into the rice. For the pieces of chicken all I did was sauté them in oil and drain on paper towels.

Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into cubes)
4 cups white rice (cold and at least 1 day old)
2 large eggs
2 minced garlic cloves (or more add to your taste)
1 cup frozen peas and carrots
1 white onion (diced)
½ cup soy sauce (or to your taste)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce (or to your taste)
Sesame oil (for stir frying)
Vegetable oil

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: Fry chicken pieces in oil until fully cooked or golden brown. Drain on paper towels and set aside. Beat eggs and fry in oil or butter and scramble. Remove from pan and set aside.
Step 2: Add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and one teaspoon of vegetable oil to the wok. Stir fry diced onion and garlic for 30 seconds, add peas and carrots mix and stir fry until vegetables are done to desired tenderness.

Step 3: Add a little more oil and then add the rice and stir fry for a couple minutes. Add soy sauce and oyster sauce to the rice while stir frying.
Step 4: Add the scrambled egg and chicken pieces and mix well. Heat thoroughly and serve.
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And the moment you’ve all been waiting for – a recipe for black pepper chicken.  If it’s well seasoned black pepper chicken is probably one of the best things you can find at any Chinese buffet. Normally thigh meat is used for this type of recipe but I decided to go with chicken breasts instead. If you enjoy dark meat chicken be sure to use boneless skinless chicken thighs! The sauce is truly outstanding, both black and white pepper and a little sake give it just the right amount of kick. There are also a few vegetables added to this recipe such as white onions, peas and carrots. Normally on the buffet tables they have white onions and green bell peppers and I have also seen celery in it before so just feel free to add whatever vegetables you like. You might want a little extra sauce to go with your rice, if so make sure to double or even triple the sauce depending on how much you want. Let me know how it turns out.

Ingredients:
1lb boneless skinless chicken breasts (or thighs)
6 tablespoons cornstarch (for dusting)
1 white onion (diced)
1 cup frozen peas and carrots
oil (for drying)
Sauce-
¼ cup oyster sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon sake or rice wine

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1:  Mix together all of the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Step 2: Cut chicken into ½“cubes and dust chicken pieces with corn starch until fully coated.
Step 3: Deep fry (or fry in a wok) chicken in batches until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Step 4: Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in the wok and stir fry diced onion for a minute or two. Add peas and carrots and stir fry for another minute. Add sauce mixture to the wok and heat until bubbling. Add chicken stirring to fully coat with the sauce. Serve with white rice.

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There are so many good ways to cook fish, pan fried, baked, deep fried, or grilled. So many ingredients to enhance the flavor, there are even some really good box mixes out there, but this is better. Last night for the first time I tried Parmesan fish and it was great. The fish is first rolled in bread crumb/parmesan cheese mixture and then deep fried but you can easily sauté in the pan if you don’t have a deep fryer. The real highlight of this recipe isn’t in the breading though; it’s in the delicious lemon sauce – A simple yet great tasting sauce consisting of lemon juice, lemon zest, mayo and basil. This recipe will work with many different types of fish including tilapia, cod, cat fish, bluegill, crappie, bass and many more. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
5 medium fish fillets
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup dry bread crumbs
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 eggs (beaten)
½ cup white flour
1 pinch salt
1 pinch pepper
Oil (for frying)
Lemon Sauce-
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon basil

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: For the sauce – In a small bowl combine mayo, lemon juice, lemon zest and basil. Mix well cover and chill.

Step 2: On a pie plate combine bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and cayenne pepper. Mix well. On a separate plate combine flour, 1 pinch salt and pepper. Mix well. Beat eggs in a shallow dish.
Step 3: 1 at a time coat each fillet by rolling in flour, then dipping in egg mixture and then rolling in the bread crumb mixture. Make sure fillets are fully coated evenly.

Step 4: Deep fry 2 pieces at a time at 350 degrees in a deep fryer. Deep fry for 2-3 minutes or until fillets are golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve with lemon sauce.
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I haven’t baked in awhile and I had the craving for some cookies, butterscotch cookies that is. This is a simple and very easy recipe that uses butterscotch chips, butter and sugar to give the cookies great flavor. They were so good that as I am writing this article there is none left! This recipe uses crispy rice cereal to make the cookies perfectly crispy with a little crunch but yet still slightly chewy making the texture great. Be sure not to over bake them because they will get kind of hard if you do. There are so many great ways to make cookies and if you haven’t tried butterscotch chip yet give this recipe a try! Enjoy.

Ingredients:
½ cup butter (softened)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 cups crisp rice cereal
1 cup butterscotch chips 

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Add in vanilla and egg and mix well. Add salt, flour, and baking soda. Mix well. Stir in the crisp rice cereal and butterscotch chips. Step 2: Drop dough by the rounded teaspoon onto a greased cookie sheet.
Step 3: Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

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Tonight I decided to go back to my grilling ways with BBQ Chicken Pizza. I have seen this type of pizza at a few places and it seems to be pretty popular. After all, chicken, barbecue sauce, cheese and red onions are a great combination! You can basically make a pizza out of almost any dish and I’m always on the look out for creative ideas. Unfortunately somehow I accidentally deleted about ¾ of the pictures I took off of my camera so there are no step-by-step photos. You can either use a store bought crust and maybe tweak it to your tastes or make your own all together. This is very easy to make and absolutely delicious. Try and get some good BBQ sauce because it makes a big difference in flavor. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
1 store bought or homemade pizza crust
Sauce-
½ cup barbeque sauce
¾ teaspoon honey
Toppings-
1 boneless skinless chicken breast (grilled)
1 small red onion (sliced)
½ cup grated gouda cheese
½ cup grated mozzarella cheese

Cooking Instructions:
Step 1: Grill Chicken breasts  until fully cooked and cut into small strips. Set aside. In a bowl mix together honey and barbeque sauce. Set aside.
Step 2: Prepare pizza crust and press down and shape onto a pizza pan. Top dough with barbecue sauce and spread evenly over the crust. Top the sauce with a layer of Gouda and mozzarella cheeses. Then add sliced chicken and red onions on top of the cheeses.
Step 3: Bake in the oven at 485 for about 10 minutes or until crust in browned.
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