Chicken Kebabs, Hawaiian Style

Makes 10 kebabs 3 pieces of chicken each

2 large chicken breast, cut in bite size pieces
2 bell peppers cut in big pieces (any color you want)
1/2 cup red onion chopped in chunks
1 1/2 cup pineapple chunks or 1 8-ounce can pineapple
1/2 cup pineapple juice (if using can pineapple, you can use the juice in the can)
1 large lime
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chilli powder
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon ground black pepper
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
1tablespoon fresh thyme
 wooden skewers or metal skewers.

Combine the chilli powder, salt, black pepper and cumin. Set aside.

Season the bell peppers with a tablespoon of olive oil plus a tablespoon of the chilli mixture, rub the oil and seasoning all over the peppers and set aside.

Season the pineapple with 2 tablespoons of lime juice plus 1/2 tablespoon of the chilli mixture, set aside.

Season the onions with 1 tablespoon of lime juice plus salt and pepper and set aside.

Season the chicken with 2 tablespoons of the chilli mixture, plus 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1/2 cup pineapple juice, garlic, ginger, 2 tablespoons of lime juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary and fresh thyme. Rub all the ingredients all over the chicken and refrigerate for about 20-30 minutes. (more, if you have more time, overnight will be perfect, but 20 minutes is good enough).

Turn on the oven on broil. (This recipe is also great for grilling, but I don't have a grill :( )

If you are using wooden skewers make sure to soak them in water for about 20-30 minutes to prevent them from catching on fire...

Grab a skewer and start building your kebabs as you please. E.a.  1piece of onion + chicken +bell pepper + pineapple + chicken, bell pepper, onion, pineapple, chicken and bell pepper... and so on...

Continue to build the kebabs until you are done... Broil in the oven for about 10-12 minutes. Or grill for about 4-5 minutes on each side. You are done.

Serve with white rice and garnish with some parsley! Enjoy

To watch my Video Recipe click HERE

Strawberry (or Raspberry) Cupcakes

photo from realmomkitchen.com

Okay, funny story.  I had my back turned when Jake first tried these.  The noise he emitted scared me.  I turned around, very worried, and asked if he was okay.  His eyes were shining and he had an ethereal look on his face.  Then  he cried.  No, I'm kidding.  But he did say these were it--I mean IT!  His favorite!  **I'm not a huge fan of strawberry as the original recipe called for so I did raspberry.  I'd do it again just to see Jake's face.

Strawberry Cupcakes
Recipe from realmomkitchen.com
Cupcakes:

• 1 white cake mix
• 1 (3 oz) box of strawberry gelatin
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup of frozen sliced strawberries in syrup, thawed
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 eggs

Frosting:

• 2/3 cup frozen sliced strawberries in syrup, thawed
• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 6 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tins with 24 cupcake liners.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the cake mix, gelatin, oil, 1/2 cup of the strawberries, and water until combined.  Then beat in the eggs 1 at a time until well incorporated.
3. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full with batter, do not over fill.  If you have extra batter then make a couple more cupcakes because if you over fill the liners the cupcakes will spill over the edges and you will have more of a flat top cupcake.
4. Bake at 350 for about 16 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Allow to cool.
5. Place the 2/3 cup of strawberries into a blender and puree.  Place the butter in a bowl and using a mixer beat until smooth.
6. Add half the powdered sugar to the butter and beat until all combined and fluffy.  Then beat in the strawberry puree until well blended.
7. Beat in the remaining powdered sugar until combined and fluffy.  Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes.

Old Fashioned Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are such a classic appetizer, although to be honest, in our house, they're more often a snack food than an appetizer since my husband likes deviled eggs more than he likes entertaining. As a military wife, there are plenty of opportunities for me to make and take dishes to functions, and this is a common one for me to take.

Now, I know these days, there are all kinds of fancy schmancy deviled egg recipes out there, and I've tried a few, but both my husband and I always come back to the old traditional version. It's simple and straight-forward but, oh, so delicious. I like a really creamy filling, so I press mine through a sieve before piping, but you can certainly skip that step... and the piping, for that matter. I just sometimes enjoy the art of cooking as much as the rest of it.

Old Fashioned Deviled Eggs
Yield: 2 dozen egg halves

12 eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp white vinegar
salt to taste
paprika and chives for sprinkling

Place the eggs in a large sauce pan and cover with cold water. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, reduce to a simmer and start a 15 minute timer. As soon as the timer goes off, pour off the hot water and immerse the eggs in cold water with lots of ice. Let eggs cool until they are easily handled. Peel eggs and slice in half.

Remove the yolk halves from the eggs and place in a bowl. Smash the yolks with a fork and then add the mayonnaise, mustard, and vinegar. Mash together until the mixture is smooth and evenly mixed. Add salt to taste. For the best texture, press the mixture through a sieve. Using a star tip, pipe the filling into the now hollow egg halves. Sprinkle with paprika and chives to garnish.

Raisin Bread

Please note that I since writing this post, I have posted about soy flour, specifically the fact that I did not realize there were two kinds on the market: regular and defatted. You want to be sure to use defatted soy flour in this recipe. For more information, click here.

My carb induced dreams never tasted as good as they did the first time I made raisin bread from scratch. Those ritual breakfast muffins took a backseat for five whole days while I polished this bad boy off. What's great about raisin bread isn't just the raisins, although they're nice too, it's the subtle spice of the dough. It isn't just bread with raisins in it, it's raisin bread!

This dough has a mixture of white bread flour and whole wheat to give the strength of the bread flour's gluten with the heartiness and tastiness of the whole wheat. It also has a little bit of soy flour in it. Soy flour helps you end up with a loaf that is more moist and tender and it also helps the loaf to have better shelf life. If you can't find soy flour or would rather not use it, you can simply substitute bread flour instead.

This particular recipe utilizes a process called autolyse (pronounced "auto-lease"), where after a few minutes to mix the ingredients, the dough is allowed to sit for a bit before finishing the kneading. This short rest allows the flour to more fully absorb the moisture allowing the gluten to develop more fully. The raisins are added at the very end. Let the dough rise, covered, in a warm place until doubled.

After the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a lightly floured counter. Knead a few times to degas the dough. Using your hands, press the dough out into a large rectangle as wide as the longest dimension of your bread pan. In the photo here, I divided the dough into two smaller loaves and placed into two 4.5 x 8 inch pans, but I wasn't a fan of the proportions of the final loaf. The next time I made this bread, I made a single loaf in a 4.5 x 12 inch pan I picked up at IKEA a few years ago. If you don't have access to a pan like that, I would recommend going for a single 5 x 9 inch loaf pan. Roll the flattened dough up and then pinch the ends down and under to make a tidy log shape. Place in greased loaf pans, pinched sides down. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again until slightly more than doubled.

Gently remove the plastic wrap and place the loaf into a preheated 375° F oven. Bake approximately 30 minutes, until the crust is nice and browned and the loaf has a nice hollow sound when tapped. If you are unsure whether the loaf is properly baked, you can stick an instant read thermometer in the middle and look for a minimum temperature of 200° F. Remove from the pan immediately onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely (or as much as you can) before tearing into the loaf. It will be hard... I'm telling you, this loaf smells goooooood when it's baking!


Raisin Bread
Yield: One 4.5"x12" loaf or one 5"x9" loaf

1 TBS instant yeast
2 1/4 cup bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup defatted soy flour
1/2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 cup raisins

Mix together the first eight ingredients (through the sugar) until incorporated. Add the oil, egg yolk, and water and mix together. Knead by hand or with a dough hook in a stand mixer for 7-10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Finally, gently knead in the raisins, just until they are evenly distributed. Mixing too much with the raisins in the dough can start to break the gluten strands, so go easy.

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until double, about an hour. Dump dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Gently knead a few times to degas the dough. Press out into a flat rectangle 9 or 12 inches wide, depending on the loaf pan you are using. Roll the loaf up and pinch the bottom seam together. Then pinch the ends together and down so that from the top, the loaf has a nice shape. Place seam side down in a greased 4.5"x12" or 5"x9" loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until slightly more than double, about another hour.

When the loaf is about half risen, start preheating the oven at 375° F. When the loaf is properly risen, carefully remove the plastic wrap and bake in the center of the oven for approximately 30 minutes. When done, the loaf should have a nice golden crust, sound hollow when thumped, and have an internal temperature around 200° F. Remove from the pan promptly to cool on a wire rack. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days or over a week in the refrigerator.

NOTES: You can use one package of active dry yeast instead of the instant, but you will need to activate it in the warm water first for five to ten minutes. Therefore, the yeast will be added to the dough with the liquid and not with the dry ingredients. If you do not have soy flour, bread flour can be substituted.

Definitely Worth the Effort: Dried Thyme

In these hectic modern days, it seems every decision is a cost-benefit analysis... is the end result worth the time it takes to do it yourself? In many cases, the answer is yes for me, especially when it comes to the kitchen. However, sometimes, life starts making some of those decisions for you. The other day I mentioned how we had to leave our little Ohio farm behind a few years ago. When I had my farm, I don't think I ever purchased store bought herbs for any reason... I grew them all myself.

Now days, I have to be a little more selective about what I plant. I currently have only 64 square feet to work with. That's less than one half a percent of the garden space I had in Ohio. This deficiency leads to some hard choices. Which crops are so much better home grown that they deserve some of that tiny little space? While I grow a number of fresh herbs in pots on my patio, I've recently realized that growing a few thyme bushes in my garden so I can have enough to dry my own is definitely worth the effort.

I came to this realization when I bought some thyme at the grocery store a few months back. Can you tell in the picture above which I bought and which I grew? Yeah, me too. Today, while I was shopping for some spices, I saw a jar of ground thyme that was brown. I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure thyme isn't supposed to be brown. One other benefit of home dried thyme? It actually smells like thyme. I know, you've probably started to forget that dried thyme actually has an aroma, haven't you?

Fortunately, thyme is super easy to grow. In fact, in Ohio, I started regretting planting all five thyme plants because by the third year, I had more thyme than I could eat, store, or sell. Drying thyme is also easy. I use my dehydrator because it dries it so quickly, which helps to retain that beautiful green color, but you could dry yours just as easily in an low oven or simply hanging in a warm, dry place. Once it's dried and stripped from the stems, it will last for years in an air tight container, provided you protect it from too much light exposure.

French Toast

French Toast:
Serve 4

Ingredients:

1 French Loaf, sliced in 1 1/2 inch slices.  (1 -2 days old preferably)
1 cup milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1-2 teaspoon Cinamon
1/4 teaspoon ground Nutmeg
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

powder sugar (optional)
maple syrup or favorite syrup. (to finish it up)

Whisk the milk, cream, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla extract. Whisk well until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined. 

In a large skillet, melt 2 or 3 tablespoons of butter.

Soak the bread into the milk mixture and sautee in the melted butter for about 3-4 minutes on each side, until golden brown.  (add more butter if needed)

Keep your bread warm in the oven until you are finished sautéing all of your bread.


Serve with your favorite fruit, add some butter and maple syrup to taste, and dust with some powder sugar if you want to!

Enjoy!

Watch my Video Recipe HERE 

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes

photo from 52cupcakes.blogspot.com

Yes, Martha Stewart makes me wan to pull my hair out too.  However, she does have some good recipes.  So putting aside that this comes from her, just think about oreos and cream cheese.  Then humble yourself and make these--for someone else, of course.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes
From Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
Makes 30 (Note: I halved this recipe and it was very easy, 30 of these cupcakes would surely be the death of me)

• Ingredients:
• 42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
• 2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
• 1 cup sour cream
• Pinch of salt
1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.
   
   2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.
   
   3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.
   
   4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.