Double Crunch Sesame Chicken

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Oh Barry! Do you know what you have done? Created a monster!

A monster for Double Crunch Chicken. I believe you will recall that I made this recipe before, and loved it. There is something about the spice mixture in this recipe that sends me over the moon. Well the genius that came up with that recipe recently posted a similar recipe with an orange sauce instead (found here).

This got me thinking, what about other sauces? I have been thinking of trying to make a sesame chicken, because Chuck seems to love it so much from the Chinese food place down the road. That’s when I came up with this recipe; Double Crunch Sesame Chicken.

Can we talk about deliciousness? One of the things I love about this is the way the crust keeps the chicken moist, while also providing a strong base of flavor. I made the Double Crunch Chicken as per the directions, with one alteration, I swapped sage for garlic. As many of you know garlic is one of my favorite things in life. Then I made the sauce separately and served the chicken swimming in a pool of it, with a side of broccoli, also learning to tread sauce.

Could I have been happier? I don’t think so! I want to say I am a genius, but honestly I have to say it was all Barry. Thanks you!

I have to warn you, while I was making this I came up with another idea; Double Crunch Fried Shrimp anyone? Recipe for that coming soon.

Sesame Chicken Sauce

½ cup chicken broth

¼ – 1/8 cup vinegar

1 tbsp corn starch

½ cup honey

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 cloves garlic crushed

1 tbsp sesame seeds, garnish

Whisk together all ingredients (except sesame seeds) and bring to a boil. Boil until sauce thickens and turns clear, roughly 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low and serve warm.

The Warrior Wait

By Jessica

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This past weekend, one of my college roommates and I participated in the warrior dash, not that we did a whole lot of dashing. When we got there the place was a zoo, pretty much as expected, but what I didn’t expect was the lack of organization. Everything was kind of willy-nilly. There were no instructions for anything, and when you asked the volunteers, you know the people with the bright red “warrior dash” shirts on, where anything was you never got an answer, because they had no clue.

Any who we made it to our race heat and prepared to ~~run~~ ~~walk~~ hike up the side of Windham Mountain. In all honesty I probably could have pushed myself to run, but the idea of trying to run up the mountain with the mass of slow moving people in front of me was so unbelievably exhausting that I too just hiked it, nice and steady.

The first half of the course sincerely lacked any kind of obstacle besides hiking. The first few obstacles, aside from the mud pits, were pretty lame to be honest. Crawling under some fake barbed wire that’s 3 feet off the ground wasn’t even a challenge, I limbo-ed it. I liked the mud pits the best, mostly because it gave Carrie and I the chance to pelt each other with mud. It was pretty obvious that unless you tried you could very easily not get muddy at all until the last 3 obstacles.

Finally after what seemed like forever we got to a point where we could actually run, only to be met with… a line? Every single obstacle had a line, some of them included nearly a 10 minute wait! The best obstacles were jammed into the last 200 or so yards of the course, of course where the crowd stands to watch the participants finish. I will admit some of the obstacles were difficult for some people, not everyone has been hiking, rock climbing, and the like so watching some of the others I can understand that they can’t make the obstacles too difficult.

At the end, we got our free beer, and signed up for a free day lift pass, which was pretty cool, and then kind of stood around, while we finished our beer. In order to get food you had to buy tickets, and then trade those tickets for food. It looked expensive and I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with multiple lines. Other than that there really wasn’t much going on. So we left.

All in all I am sure the course was fun for many, and a challenge for some however I think that if you have any kind of athletic background it’s probably just a waste of time and money.

Am I glad I did it? Of course! If I didn’t do it I would know how it really is, I would always wonder. I can now say I finished it, without difficulty.

Rainy Day Italian Comfort

By Jessica

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A few days ago I was stuck at a cross roads. It was cold, rainy and gross outside. I had originally planned on having burgers for dinner, but the prospect of that did not appeal to me. Days like this require warm, thick, saucy, comfort foods. So I decided to take the hamburger meat that I had defrosted and switch my plan around to make a much more satisfying dish; my authentic Italian Ragu Bolognese.

It was a great way for Chuck and I to spend the evening. He helped me chop the vegetables, as well as a lovely little side salad with fresh veggies from both mine and my mothers gardens. It was the perfect rainy day evening.

Bolognese Sauce

2 tablespoons EVOO

1 yellow onion, diced

4 small carrots, diced

2 large celery stalks, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

4 strips of bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 cup red wine

½ cup milk

1 can diced tomatoes

1 cup beef stock

1 package spaghetti, prepared according to package instructions

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic with a good pinch of salt and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the bacon and cook until vegetables are softened and bacon cooked, roughly 10 minutes. Increase the heat and add the meat slowly, stirring constantly and breaking up the lumps with a spoon. This allows the water in the beef to evaporate, and brown the meat. Once no pink remains, allow cooking until all the water evaporates and the meat caramelizes slightly, about 10 minutes. Be sure at this stage that it is just browning and not burning. Reduce the heat to medium and deglaze with wine, scraping everything off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, while the wine reduces (2-3 minutes). Reduce heat slightly and add milk, tomatoes (with liquid), beef stock, salt and pepper, stir to combine and increase heat to boil. As soon as it begins to bubble lower the heat and allow simmering very slowly, until thick (about 20 minutes). Serve over cooked spaghetti.

Note: Typically this recipe uses 2 cups of milk and is simmered for 4 hours, I however don’t always have that kind of time, so over the years I have adapted the recipe to suit my tastes, and needs.

Oh added bonus: the total cost for this recipe (without the wine, you can use broth in its place) is roughly $6.75 and we got 4 meals out of it (2 dinners and 2 lunches), meaning that the cost per serving is about $1.69. AWSOME! With a $12 bottle of wine the total cost comes to about $10.75 or 2.69 a serving.

Asian Marinated Grilled Scallops

By Jessica

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I LOVE LOVE LOVE scallops. It’s definitely one of the things that I picked up from my mother because I always remember her cooking them up at home, of course at that time I thought they were weird and refused to try them, only later did I realize how much I missed out! Not only are they delicious but being made up of protein, omega-3’s, and a little sodium they don’t make me feel guilty at all!

Here is a scallop recipe that I love, the marinade is light, yet flavorful, and so very easy. I can basically make it out of stuff I already keep in the house anyway., so its perfect for a night alone. I find I like to have scallops and shrimp alot for my alone nights because they can easily be kept in the freezer and are quick to defrost and cook up, so I don’t have to plan anything until my stomach starts to rumble.

Asian Marinated Scallops

½ lb medium sea scallops

¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce

1tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/8 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp honey

½ tbsp ground ginger

¼ tsp Chinese five spice powder

1 tsp garlic powder

Combine soy, lemon, oil, sesame oil, honey, and spices in a
medium sized bowl. Add scallops and toss to coat. Allow the scallops to
marinate for 20 minutes, but no more than half an hour or they will become rubbery.
Skewer the scallops on soaked wooden or metal skewers and cook over a preheated
grill or broiler for 2-3 minutes per side. They should become firm and opaque,
but not hard. Serve immediately. (serves 2)

I like to make sure when grilling these bad boys that there is a little char on the outside to add a little more flavor. This recipe goes well over my basic Garlic Parmesan Pasta,or a salad with a soy-ginger dressing. I have also made this recipe and paired it with grilled steak and sides for a surf n turf dinner that will satisfy any crowd.

Try out this recipe for me and let me know what you paired it with!

Vegetarian=/= Salad!

By Jessica

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I was talking to my roommate from college the other day and she expressed great frustrations with food. She is a vegetarian; she does not eat meat or fish, though she does enjoy eggs, milk, and cheese. The thing that she was exasperated about however was salads.

This is a complaint I have heard from her before, people seem to think that because she’s a vegetarian the only thing she can eat is a salad.

When we lived together I didn’t find this a hamper on my culinary choices at all, in fact I don’t think I even made any real changes. Almost all my meals have vegies and/or a starch with them so she ate those, and skipped the meat portion. Does that sound difficult to you? Because it doesn’t to me.

Just off the top of my head there is: pasta and red sauce, alfredo sauce, pesto sauce, and about a million other sauces; macaroni salad, pasta salad, macaroni and cheese!

What about potatoes? There are red, white, purple, sweet; mashed, baked, scalloped, fried, or grilled.

Then there is quinoa, polenta, rice, beans, and soups, all kinds of soups!

And for every soup there is a type of bread, or muffin, scone, or other baked good.

There are just about as many sandwiches as well; I mean egg & cheese, cucumber, tomato and mozzarella, grilled cheese, artichoke and red pepper, peanut butter and jelly, just to name a few.

Just vegetables on their own can be a meal; obviously there is salad, but also grilled asparagus, squash, eggplant parmesan, stir-fries, and steams.

Are you getting my point?

Well in case you haven’t gotten it yet here is a hearty, delicious VEGETARIAN Pasta dish for you. That also happens to be clean.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I was with this dish. I had never made it before, but was very excited to use some fresh rosemary! It was so good. I ended up stirring in a bit of parmesan cheese early to thicken the sauce some, and I did not drain the beans for the same reason. It was delectable, creamy, with a soft flavor that made me go back for thirds and fourths. I think this will have to become a new staple.

Double Crunch Sesame Chicken

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