General Tso's Chicken

I could eat rice every day. It's so good. I'm a big fan of Asian cuisine in general. Speaking of general, I can't get enough of General Tso's chicken. When we visited friends and family at Christmas, we stocked up on General Tso's seasoning mix. 

I'm surprised we got through security with the 10 packets I had stuffed in shoes and pant pockets. This little discovery in the International Food Section of my local Kroger made me happy a couple of years ago. Who knew I would be hoarding them in my suitcase to carry across the world? 

Sunbird Seasonings has a coupon on their website for the American viewers. 

Ingredients:
1 General Tso's Seasoning Mix
1/4 cup flour
1 lb. chicken, cut into chunks
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
rice

Directions:
Start cooking rice. Add flour to resealable plastic bag and toss chicken chunks to coat evenly. Combine seasoning, sugar, soy sauce, and water in a separate bowl. Blend and set aside. Heat oil in large skillet over medium high until hot. Add flour coated chicken and cook until evenly browned. Stir sauce mixture and add to skillet with chicken. Bring sauce to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until desired consistency. Serve over cooked rice.

E: 10
A: 9 - I don't have chickens running around the backyard
T: 10
HH: 10 - one of our favorites

Tuna Cakes

I found this recipe over at Kraft Foods recipe website. It's easy and fast.

Ingredients:
2 cans (5 oz. each) light tuna in water, drained, flaked
1 package stuffing mix for chicken
1 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese
3/4 cup water
1 carrot, shredded
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoon sweet pickle relish

Directions:
Mix all ingredients. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Spray nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Heat skillet on medium heat. Use 1/3 measuring cup to scoop portions of tuna mixture, in batches, to skillet. Flatten into patties with the back of your spatula. Cook 6 minutes (3 minutes each side) or until golden brown on both sides.

For your amusement, I would like for you to see the comparison between Kraft's photography and mine. Don't judge. They taste good and that's all that matters in this household.

Kraft paid someone to take this photo.

Clearly,  I took this photo.

E: 10

A: 10 - most of these items are kitchen staples
T: 10
HH: 10

Lamb Cutlets with Horseradish Potatoes

This meal is really simple and really good. I went to the library instead of the world wide web to find this recipe. I flipped real pages and checked out the library with my library card at the Surry Hills Library. Nerd alert.

Ingredients:
1 kg/2.2 pounds baby potatoes

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons horseradish cream

50g rocket/arugula leaves

salt & pepper

125 g lamb cutlets (we had 2 each)

4 slices of bacon

4 sprigs of rosemary

Directions:

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan of salted cold water and bring to a boil. Cook for 18-20 minutes until tender. Drain. Return to the pan and lightly crush. Add the garlic, lemon rind, and juice, olive oil, horseradish, salt & pepper and set aside. Wrap each lamb cutlet with a rasher of bacon and secure with rosemary. Heat a large frying pan over high heat and cook for 4 minutes each side for medium or until cooked to your liking. Serve the lamb with the crushed potatoes over rocket. We obviously had green beans too, but those were leftovers.

I found this recipe in the Donna Hay Magazine: Issue 54, December/January 2011.

E: 5 - tying rosemary? not easy.
A: 8
T: 10 - dinner was ready in 30 minutes
HH: 10 - Eliott claimed this meal as "restaurant quality"

fouratefive

One Saturday morning, the weather was absolutely perfect, so we decided to get brunch together.

Our pick was fouratefive which is located at 485 Crown Street (clever, huh?)

This little hot spot in Surry Hills is only a few steps from our apartment. We finally made it over there to see what the fuss was all about. Now, we know.

My stomach was growling intensely as I waited 30 minutes for our name to be called. It's worth the wait.

We ordered flat whites.

My brunch consisted of free range eggs served fried with organic sourdough bread and smoked salmon. Eliott ordered free range eggs served fried with organic sourdough bread and avocado.

If you come visit us, I'll take you here.

Olive Garden Salad

Olive Garden is well known for their breadsticks and salad. There are other great items on their menu too, but you can't go and not eat these two items. I usually order water at restaurants, but Olive Garden is one place where I get giddy thinking about the Peach-Raspberry Iced Tea coming my way. Eliott and I shared Stuffed Chicken Marsala and we left feeling stuffed. After flying back to Australia, we began to miss the American dining, so I made this Olive Garden Salad. Inspiration came from here.

Ingredients:
SALAD DRESSING
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated
2 tablespoons romano cheese, grated
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon lemon juice

SALAD
1 bag mixed greens (I added some iceberg to a bag)
4-5 slices red onion
3 banana peppers, sliced (can't find these in Oz)
1/2 cup croutons
black olives
cherry tomatoes
freshly grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
Blend all salad dressing ingredients together and chill until ready to serve. Place bag of salad in bowl and add iceberg lettuce to mixture. Place red onion, black olives, banana peppers, tomatoes, and croutons on top of salad. Pretend like you're the Olive Garden waiter/waitress and add parmesan cheese to the salad. Add plenty of salad dressing and eat! 

E: 10 - super easy and the dressing tasted even better for leftovers
A: 10
T: 10
HH: 9 - our breadsticks didn't come close to Olive Garden's, but we happily consumed the carbs

Salmon & Green Beans

I'm bad about choosing recipes that feed an army. We don't mind eating casseroles, but we don't love eating leftovers for 10 days in a row. This recipe serves 4 and it was fast, healthy, and fulfilling. It felt like we were at a restaurant when I decided to make a side dish. I tend to cook one-dish-dinners, so the green beans were warmly welcomed. We had two other friends over to share this meal with us and we all really enjoyed it. Cheers to friends and food!

Ingredients:

honey & pecan glazed SALMON

1/4 cup honey

5 teaspoons finely chopped pecans

1 tablespoon soy sauce

4 (6 oz) salmon fillets

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

GREEN BEANS with almonds & bacon

1 pound green beans

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup sliced almonds

3 slices of cooked bacon

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

salt to taste

Directions:

honey & pecan glazed SALMON

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking pan with foil. Combine honey, pecans, and soy sauce in a large Ziplock bag. Season fish with salt and pepper. Add fish to bag and seal. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. Remove fish and pecans from marinade, but don't throw the marinade away. Place fish on foil-lined baking pan and top with pecans. Bake for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Baste the fish twice with the marinade after 5 and 10 minutes of baking. 

GREEN BEANS with almonds & bacon

Snap off the tough ends and remove the strings from the green beans, then cut the green beans in half. In a large saucepan, place green bans in 1 inch of boiling water and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until tender (I started simmering the green beans when I put the salmon in the oven). Drain. Melt butter in a small saucepan and add bacon, almonds, garlic powder, and salt. Stir. Pour sauce over green beans and toss. Dinner is served!

E: 9

A: 9

T: 10

HH: 10

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Nothing says Happy Valentine's Day like a dessert. Eliott loves red velvet and I love cheesecake/brownies/food-in-general, so I thought this Pinterest find suited us perfectly. Speaking of... Eliott suits me perfectly. I love him and I love the way he loves me.

Ingredients:

RED VELVET MIXTURE

1/2 cup butter

2 oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons red food coloring

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

CHEESECAKE MIXTURE

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

I bought WAY too much chocolate. This is not a problem.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease. In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together on low heat. Stir until very smooth. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and red food coloring. Add in the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Add flour and salt into the bowl and stir until everything is combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.

To prepare cheesecake mixture, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until smooth. Drop in dollops onto prepared brownie batter and gently swirl two batters with a butter knife. Bake for 35 minutes. The edges will be lightly browned and an inserted toothpick should come out clean. Cool in the pan completely before slicing and serving. Happy Love Day!

Did I have fancy swirls like the Pinterest image? No.
Did they taste amazing? Yes. And that's all that matters.

E: 9

A: 8 - had to buy red food coloring, vanilla extract, & chocolate

T: 8

HH: 9 - 1 serving quickly became 2 servings