Midnight Chicken Nugget Cravings

It's nearly midnight on a worknight and my husband has cravings for chicken nuggets. How do you satisfy those cravings when you are in your PJs? You make some home made panko crusted chicken nuggets of course!




Making these chicken nuggets were a lot easier than I thought they'd be. I took some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cut them up into bit sized pieces. In another bowl I mixed together panko crumbs, salt, pepper, garlic salt, chili powder, thyme, and melted butter. I tossed the chicken pieces into the panko mixture and then baked everything for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

They definitely helped satisfy my husband's craving and he'll go to bed happy tonight.

Kalua Pork

We are in the height of summer and what do you do when it is time to cook? You BBQ of course! It is really hot in the house and you don't want to turn on the oven, thereby making the house even hotter. The best cooking method is BBQ because you don't warm the house up with any additional heat and you still have a satisfying meal.

I love Kalua Pork. It is a dish of hawaiian origins but the first time I had it I was stateside. It is basically shredded pork which has a hickory/smokey flavor. My aunt made it for me and once I had it, I knew I'd eat it again and again.

The recipe is really simple and there isn't a reason why you shouldn't make it.

Kalua Pork
7 lb pork shoulder
2 T liquid smoke
2.5 T salt
banana leaves

Cut a few shallow slits into the pork shoulder. Pour the liquid smoke and salt onto the pork shoulder and rub it in. Wrap the pork shoulder in banana leaves. Once it is wrapped in banana leaves, wrap that in foil,making a packet.

Place the pork in a foil pan and pour 2 cups of water into the pan. Place pan over indirect heat in the BBQ, maintaining a temperature of 350 degrees.

Cook for 5.5 hours. Replenish the water in the pan as necessary. The pan should always contain some water.

Once finished cooking, unwrap the pork and shred it with two forks. Their should be plenty of cooking juice from the pork. Don't waste it!

Kalua pork is terrific on its own or eaten with Hawaiian rolls, any type of bread, in tortillas, over rice ... the possibilities are endless!

The banana leaves are essential since they help lock in the moisture and also impart a delicate flavor to the kalua pig.

Ernest Weil's Love To Bake Cookbook

Late last year I had the pleasure of eating a Coffee Crunch Cake. It was absolutely delicious and I wanted the recipe to try to duplicate it at home. Through research I found that Ernest Weil was the original creator of this amazing cake. What was even better was that he had a cookbook called Love To Bake which had that recipe plus many more.

I'm too young to remember the Blum's bakery and all the wonderful creations which came out of it. One of those creations was the Coffee Crunch Cake and it's a sacred cake mentioned with lots of fond memories by those in the Bay Area. I was lucky enough to score a copy of this cookbook and, when I got home, I realized that it was signed by Mr. Weil himself.

The book itself is a good read. It isn't like the modern cookbooks with tons of food porn. Instead, it reminds me of the older cookbooks with simple, no nonsense recipes with a few pictures here and there. It is a cookbook that could have been created 50 years ago and you'd never know the difference.

Unfortunately the cookbook is no longer available in print form. Apparently it has sold out everywhere and the only way to get it now is via PDF. I feel very lucky to have been able to get a copy of it.

I still have not made anything out of the cookbook yet but I am more motivated to do so now than ever since I know I have a limited edition cookbook

Chicken Pot Pie

Ming loves the crust on pies whereas I always discard it. I generally prefer the filling over the crust. We tried a new place called Pilgrim's Kitchen in Belmont this weekend because they are reputed to have good donuts. They didn't let me down and I quickly gobbled up my donut for breakfast. They also had homemade chicken pot pie. When I told Ming this he immediately had me buy one.

Neither of us have ever had homemade chicken pot pie (only the frozen stuff) so we were excited to try it out. It ended up surpassing our expectations and was really good. the crust was so light and fluffy that even I ate it all up. The filling was just right with big pieces of chicken and freshly cut up pieces of carrots.

Even though I didn't make this pot pie it was good enough that it warrants a post to talk about it.

July 4th Feast

For July 4th this year we decided to have prime rib. I had never made prime rib before and Lunardi's had a sale on it. Ming wanted to have plenty of leftovers so I bought a really big piece: 11lbs worth! We BBQed it and it turned out amazing.


All 11lbs of prime rib in its naked glory


Coated in an herb crust


Let's eat

I got the recipe from here: http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/ribroast1.html
I'll definitely make this recipe again. The fresh herbs and the wonderfully marbled meat were an exquisite combination. We also had a very tasty Peju cabernet but I forgot to take a picture of it before we finished the bottle.

More photos can be found here: http://mingandcindy.smugmug.com/gallery/3104480#169797519

First Wedding Anniversary

I haven't gotten around to writing about my celebration of my first wedding anniversary since I hadn't uploaded the photos until now. We celebrated our first year of being wed by Ming cooking a fabulous dinner for us. He cooked a red wine reduction steak, medley of sauteed mushrooms, and hainan rice.


We started off the evening by drinking some wine and eating some really amazing chocolate. You could say we went to Jamaica and Madagascar for our anniversary.


The flowers he surprised me with


Ming making dinner


The sauteed medley of fresh mushrooms (both crimini and shitake)


Dinner


The top tier of our wedding cake. It didn't taste like it had been frozen for a year. It still tasted fresh and it was quickly devoured

More photos can be found here: http://mingandcindy.smugmug.com/gallery/3104514#169801670