Chicken Sate

This weekend we made Penzey's chicken sate. We used this exact recipe, plus the 2 dipping sauces. I've had Sate seasoning sitting in the spice cabinet for ages and finally got around to testing it out. We all thought it was great. We had rice, peapods and pineapple as sides and those flavors in combo with the dips were very refreshing on a warm spring night.

I of course did not like the spicy ginger dipping sauce as it was mostly made up of hot sauce. Mrblocko liked this the spicy ginger dipping sauce until he had it as leftovers today. He said "after he got done eating the sauce it felt like burning ash in his mouth." Who knows what was up with that. Could have been the brand of hot sauce or the fact that the chicken had been sitting in the hot sauce dip all day.

The first dipping sauce was delicious though. Blockette even liked it. She said, "Mommy, I love that black dip."

I'll make this again. When I do I think I'll try it with a peanut dipping sauce just to be different.


Penzeys Sate Chicken from the Penzeys Website
2-4 TB. SATÉ SEASONING
2 TB. water
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 TB. soy sauce
4 TB. peanut or vegetable oil
2 TB. rice vinegar
30 wooden skewers

Dipping Sauce 1:
1/4 Cup soy sauce
2 thinly sliced shallots (2 TB. minced dry SHALLOTS)
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. lime juice (the juice of 1/2 lime)
CRUSHED RED or JALAPENO PEPPER to taste


Dipping Sauce 2 (Spicy Ginger Dipping Sauce)
1/4 tsp. GINGER, powdered
1 tsp. GRANULATED GARLIC
1 TB. water
1 TB. soy sauce
3/4 Cup of your favorite hot sauce

Combine SATÉ SEASONING and water in medium bowl. Set aside to give flavors time to develop. Trim chicken of excess fat and cut into 3/4" cubes. Add chicken and remaining ingredients to bowl, mixing well. Cover and let marinate in fridge for 2 hrs. Before starting coals, place skewers in water to soak. Stack charcoal 2 deep across bottom of grill. After lighting the coals thread about 5-6 pieces of chicken loosely onto each skewer. Once the coals are very hot, grill the saté in batches, 3-5 min per side. The saté should be crispy brown on the first side before turning. High heat cooking is the key to producing the most delicious saté.

Dipping Sauce 1: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk.

Dipping Sauce 2: In a small bowl mix water, ginger and garlic, let stand 10 minutes so flavor can develop. Add soy sauce and hot sauce, mix.

"THE" King

Once upon a time, long long ago (the 1980's), in a land far far away (Minnesota), there was a fancy schmancy Chinese buffet. I mean a fancy one, where you dressed up to go eat there. Eventually, the owner made the restaurant into a fast food chain by the same name and you can dine there in your ugly grubbies. Sadly, I don't think there are any Leeann Chin's anywhere outside the Twin Cities. I keep asking myself why they don't branch out into other areas of the midwest...like say Chicagoland. That'd be nice.

My favorite dish at Leeann Chin's, aside from the potstickers, is their Peking chicken. It is the best Peking Chicken EVER. The sauce is tangy, sweet with just a hint of spiciness. (Back in the day I used to think it was fire-y hot, but that was when my Swedish tastebuds could barely tolerate mild salsa.) Now Leeann Chin's sells the Peking sauce by the bottle at their chain restaurants.

It's no coincidence the word Peking is composed of "Pe" and King". It's clearly the king of sauces and it's so good it makes you wanna pee. It would be better if they sold it by the gallon. I mean seriously folks, this stuff is made with crack--crack for people. I don't think there is a meat (or veggie) out there that this sauce doesn't taste good on. We bbq-ed some pork chops basted in Peking sauce and it was taste bud heaven.

Try this sauce if you can, but don't say I didn't warn you. One taste and you'll be hooked for life. Muhahahaha!

Have yourself a Merry little Monday

I made these little guys this weekend. Aren't they festive?

I saw the recipe for Peanut butter banana oatmeal cookies on Baking Bites and thought, why not. The great thing about the recipe is that it calls for only 1 banana. So, instead of freezing the black banana no one wanted to eat and waiting until I got another 1 or 2 over ripe bananas to make banana bread, I could have instant snacking gratification.

I was mixing this recipe up and I thought, "These cookies are going to be awfully bland if I don't add something else in." I checked the pantry....gasp...no chocolate chips!!!! How could this be? Aliens? Overlapping universes? Time shifts? I don't think we will ever know for certain. The lack of chips turned out to be a happy accident, instead I found a rogue bag of Xmas m&m's. Who knows how they remained hidden and unused all this time, perhaps that was also the result of Aliens/overlapping universes/time shifts.

I don't think these cookies would have been nearly as tasty without the M&M's. I definitely would make these cookies again when we have a lone black banana lurking about. Next time I think I'll try cinnamon chips instead of the M&M's, I think that would be a tasty combo as well.


Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies from Baking Bites
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup mashed banana (from 1 sm/med)
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk  flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, cream sugars and butter. Beat in egg til smooth, then mix in peanut butter and mashed banana. Working by hand or with a mixer on low speed, blend dry ingredients into the peanut butter mix. Stir in the oats. Shape dough into tablespoons and place on baking sheet, flattening each slightly with your fingers. Bake for 10-12 minutes, til cookies just begin to turn golden around the edges. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes approx 2 dozen.

oxo rocks!!!

I cannot remember who gave me my oxo good grips cookie scoops, but they totally rock. (I'll let you decide if I mean the scooper or the person who gave me the scooper.) It's basically a large ice cream scoop that holds about 3 Tablespoons. I have a small scooper which is equally nice, but I don't use it nearly as much as the large one. It is great for making drop cookies that are all the same size. No more fighting over who gets the bigger cookie.

This weekend I discovered a new use for the scooper... muffins. I read about it a while ago, but didn't realize how much of a time saver it would be. This has totally rocked my world. I always make a huge mess when putting the muffin batter into the pan. Not this time!!! The large scoop was the perfect amount for regular size muffins. (OOOH!!! I've just had a revelation... I bet the small scoop would be the perfect size for mini muffins!!!) If you like to make muffins but hate that bowl to pan step, get yourself a cookie scoop.

Garden: stardate 5.11.2009

So here is the garden at it's beginning stages this year. The plants were part of my mother's day present. The other part of my present was being able to plant them without tiny hands throwing dirt at me or tiny feet stomping on plants both in and out of the ground. The row closest to the window has perennials who's names I've forgotten. The Right side is herbs and strawberries. The middle is various marigolds and the front row are violas in white, yellow and orange.
This is a close up of the white viola. Ain't she perty? They are perennials so wish me luck at not killing them. They seem so dainty.
This flower was the main reason I decided on marigolds. These caught my eye and the flats of marigolds in the green house looked so cheery together. The downside is that the garden is really stinky because there are so many marigolds. I'm thinking once the herbs get going they will give the marigolds a run for their money, or at the very least the stink will keep the pests away. (And yes, pre-pubescent "ding dong" ditching boys are included in the realm of pests.)

Ugly fries

No photo this time for this recipe for Rachael Ray's Texas chili cheese fries. They look absolutely nasty on the plate. Chili cheese fries are not a glamorous looking food. Even the photo on Ms. Ray's site looks like something the dog regurgitated. While I do believe you eat with your eyes first, there is always an exception to that rule. This is one of them.

I got hooked on A&W chili cheese fries back in college when I worked retail. I absolutely loved them even though they looked disgusting, the fries were soggy, the cheese was processed goo, the chili was sparse, etc. This version is everything the A&W version is not. The fries are oven baked so you can make them as crispy as you want. The cheese sauce is made from...REAL cheese. The mustard somehow makes the cheese in the sauce taste more cheese-y. (I don't know how that works, but I'm glad it does.) The chili sauce is uber meaty. I mean 2-2.5 lbs of ground beef???? That's more than I use when I make a pot of ordinary chili. Plus you cook it in beer. I don't even like drinking beer. It's nasty to me. Cooking with beer, on the other hand, always results in a tasty meal.

The Blockette only ever tolerates this meal, and will never ever eat it for leftovers. Which, let's face it, is tragic. Good thing I am such a loving mother who is willing to make the sacrifice and eat her portion.

Texas style chili cheese fries from Rachael Ray
4 very large Idaho potatoes, cut lengthwise into 6 wedges
2 Tgrill seasoning
2 T plus 1/4 c EVOO, plus additional, divided
2 to 2 1/2 pounds lean ground sirloin, turkey or chicken
1 large onion, chopped
3 to 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
2 T chili powder
2 t ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons tomato paste
Hot sauce, to taste
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 bottle beer
3 T butter
3 T flour
3 T yellow mustard
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken stock
1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 450ºF. Place potatoes onto sheet. Sprinkle with grill seasoning and a good drizzle of EVOO. Toss to coat, then transfer to the oven and roast, until crispy golden brown, 40 min. Turn them once halfway through cooking time. While potatoes roasting, place large pot over med-high with 2 T EVOO. Add meat to pan. cook til brown, 6-7 min. Push meat to one side  and add onion, garlic, chili powder and cumin. Cook til veggies soften, 5-6 min. Season with salt and pepper. Add tomato paste  and cook 1 min, til smells sweet and caramelized slightly. Add hot sauce, Worcestershire and beer. Bring everything up to a bubble, then reduce heat and simmer chili til thickened, 10 min. While chili is simmering, place a med pot over med-high heat and melt butter. Sprinkle flour over melted butter and cook it for about a minute. Stir mustard into butter-flour mix, then whisk in milk and stock. Continue whisking sauce til thickened up, then remove pot from heat and stir in cheese til melted. Season cheese sauce with salt and freshly ground black pepper and reserve. To serve, divide the fries between four plates and top each one with some chili-cheese sauce.

Wingnuts or nuts for wings

I never used to care for chicken wings, maybe because I'd only ever had soggy Buffalo Wings drowning in hot sauce. (I'm not a big fan of hot sauce. I can't seem to get over the stinky stink.)That all changed last month when we got a coupon from Buffalo Wild Wings for free wings. I had never tried anything other than the hot sauce kind of wing. This time we had the Garlic parm and the Terriyaki. Nummers! I couldn't tell you which one I liked better. Ever since then I have been craving wings. I found this recipe for Savory chicken wings a while back and thought Mother's Day would be a great time to test them out. They were a big hit with the whole family. Even Blockette said they were "The Best"! High praise indeed.
We used frozen wings which is probably blasphemy. Whoop-de-doo is what I say to that. They were on sale and wound up being more meaty than the fresh ones. We defrosted them the night before, and in the morning added the marinade. They were cooked in oven first and then grilled, which got them nice and crispy. No soggy wings here! The marinade had a good mix of flavors, but I would have preferred if they had a tiny bit of heat. Next time, and there will definately be a next time, we make this we will be adding some zing to the marinade with crushed red pepper flakes.


JS' Savory Chicken Wings from Eating club vancouver
1 tsp five-spice powder
2 tsp garlic powder
4 tbsp ground coriander
1 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tbsp sesame oil
juice of 1 lime

4 lbs chicken wings

Combine all ingredients together (except chicken) and whisk. Pour over chicken wings and marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Cooking method can vary: Baked in the oven for 35-40 min at 350, then finished at grill.
OR Bake 45 min and broil at end for charred finish.
OR cook totally on the grill.