Mu Shu!

Recently had mu shu pork at a new local restaurant, and it was so tasty I thought I'd try it at home. I had leftover cabbage from a coleslaw mix, too, so this made the recipe prep easy.

I got a recipe for mu shu pancakes (mandarin pancakes)at this new site.

Nothing wrong with them, but they were too thick; I couldn't roll them out thin enough like the restaurants do.

The actual mu shu chicken was the best part.  Soy, sherry, garlic, giner, hoison, cabbage, carrots, chicken strips...oh so good!  I think I'll serve it again just over a bed or white rice.

English Muffins in the SGV

I'm not sure why I didn't realize before that English muffins got their toasty outside from being grilled.  Weird!  Here's a recipe I found for making them at home. 

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup milk 2 tablespoons white sugar 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45

degrees C) 1/4 cup melted shortening 6 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in the sugar, stirring until dissolved. Let cool until lukewarm. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2.	In a large bowl, combine the milk, yeast mixture, shortening and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Add salt and rest of flour, or enough to make a soft dough. Knead. Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise.
3.	Punch down. Roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut rounds with biscuit cutter, drinking glass, or empty tuna can. Sprinkle waxed paper with cornmeal and set the rounds on this to rise. Dust tops of muffins with cornmeal also. Cover and let rise 1/2 hour.
4.	Heat greased griddle. Cook muffins on griddle about 10 minutes on each side on medium heat. Keep baked muffins in a warm oven until all have been cooked. Allow to cool and place in plastic bags for storage. To use, split and toast. Great with orange butter, or cream cheese and jam

Parmesan Crusted Chicken on a bed of Pesto Orzo

One of the easiest dishes, and still so good. Parmesan and mayo, spread it on the chicken, top with a tsp of bread crumbs, and bake @ 425 for 20 minutes. Yum!Homemade pesto too, thanks to Trader Joe's insanely good prices on basil and my inability to continue to grow it.

9th Birthday Cake

Aidan and I saw the cakes at the store, and we just decided it was much better to make our own, especially since we had the day off for Lincoln's Birthday. He decided on a Devil's Food cake with strawberry icing filling and white frosting with chocolate sprinkles. So here we go...

Gathering the ingredients.

 So here the cake mix goes into the mixer...

And then the vegetable oil.

Next up is the eggs.

And the water.

 Chef Aidan stars the mixer. 

Having learned how to butter and flour the pans,

we now put an equal amount of batter in each round pan,

and place them in the oven to bake. 

The strawberry filling done, time to frost.

Sprinkles!

Aidan adding his own name to his cake.

The final product.

 

News to me, but you evidently must pre-check the candles

to make sure they burn correctly on your cake. 

Or so I've been told.

SOS! SOS!

When I was a kid, we had 'creamed dried beef' every so often on weekend mornings. It's taken me almost two decades on the west coast [what is the California stand against chipped beef??!!], but I actually found dried beef at the store this week!  Thus, it was time for SOS today, aka "shit on a shingle" as my Dad called it post-1960's Marine Corps mess hall. It was a unique treat today, though, especially on a morning when I was feeling yucky with flu and wanted comfort food!