tiggerprr’s scratching post

Because I clearly spend way too much time writing things at this blog (yes, that’s sarcasm! LOL)…I have become a contributing writer to Hello! Food. I haven’t written anything there yet, except a couple comments. So don’t feel neglected, I’m neglecting my duties there moreso than the ones here. I’m just incapable of saying, “No!” to my friend Yoshi.

Anywho…go visit, there’s yummy recipes and lord knows, lots of talk about food. Yoshi has the power…the power to make me hungry within 10 sentences. He does it every time I talk to him…it’s a wonder I’m not as big as a house!.

You’ll also notice that my good friend, Mert of Almost Somewhat Positive, is also a contributing writer. She’s such a busy bee in the blogosphere!

Today is a nasty, rainy day. You know, the kind where you just want to toss a movie in and lay around in bed, ALL DAY? I had decided on something to prepare for dinner from a cookbook my husband unearthed yesterday. But it requires going to the store. I guess we won’t be having that today since I don’t want to melt. Maybe tomorrow. So I need to figure something else out. That’ll be fun. (Seriously!)

I have a billion things I need to do around the house. Hubby spent a good part of yesterday doing stuff around the house while I sat on my butt ripping CDs into my iPod. It hardly seems fair, does it? So, I want to get some stuff done around here today to make myself feel better about it. LOL

I have a squillion few subscriptions to magazines that I enjoy reading. Incidentally, that’s how I knew when I became “old”, I suddenly felt the need to cancel my long standing subscription to Cosmo and replaced it with subscriptions to Redbook, Woman’s Day and Good Housekeeping. The information in those three are far more useful to me now than “20 Billion Ways to Satisfy Your Man”. When the boys in Cosmo start to look like they could be your daughter’s friends, it’s time to step away.

In my new found reading material, there’s a ton of recipes that I want to keep. I haven’t decided how to best organize them, so the magazines are in a giant plastic tub. I really need to figure out what to do, before I have an entire room of plastic tubs with magazines in them. What do y’all do with recipes from magazines? Computer programs? Notebooks? Just order take out every night?

I was not in the mood to cook a complex dinner tonight, so I decided we’d try these frozen Chinese dinners that hubby and I bought at the local Wallyworld. I didn’t hold out a lot of hope that frozen Chinese would be all that great but it looked good on the box. Aren’t those usually some famous last words? I made a pot of rice in my trusty rice cooker. This rice cooker rocks btw!

Each box of the Innovasian Cuisine dinners claims to have 2 servings. We had planned on each trying a little bit of each flavor: Sweet & Sour Chicken w/ Vegetables, Spicy Beef & Broccoli and Orange Chicken Breast. We were a bit skeptical of their serving amounts so I decided to make all three packages in their entirety. Also contributing to this decision was the fact that there isn’t a distinct division between the two servings and the sauce is in one packet.

They give you the option to microwave the meals. I wouldn’t reccommend this option because the breading would turn to mush and meats don’t microwave well IMO. I chose to use the pan fry method. Surprisingly, the food more than exceeded our expectations.

Hubby and I liked the Spicy Beef and Broccoli the best. The sauce is very tasty. The spiciness, it’s a creeper so if you’re not a big fan of spicy foods this may not be the best choice. But wowee, it was good! The Hubby and I were almost happy that my daughter didn’t like the beef. She was grossing out over the broccoli, so that probably hastened her dislike. More for us!

The Sweet & Sour Chicken and Vegetables was REALLY yummy! I was amazed at the crispness of the chicken. I was certain that it would be the mush that leftover Chinese tends to be when you re-heat it. It wasn’t at all and the sauce was really good!

The Orange Chicken Breast. Ditto on the crispness. The sauce was okay but I’ve definately had better. The orange was a little artificial tasting but it was still very good.

As further evidence of it’s authenticity: I got the munchies a couple hours after we were done eating. hehe

We’ll be keeping a stock of these foods and will try the other offerings from Innovasian Cuisine. I wanted to share our experience with you all, and I encourage you to try it! It’s tasty and fast to make!

Surprisingly, this was NOT a paid endorsement. LOL

Slackermommy over at Slacker-Moms-R-Us started this lil Recipe Sharing meme about 8 or 9 weeks ago…it appears that we’re all slacking a little bit since this is only my 6th recipe. Perhaps it’s just that we’re all busy slaving away in our hot kitchens cooking! Or, maybe we’ve ALL got a little Slacker Mom in each of us. I present to you the recipe for my Aunt Faye’s Coconut Cake. It is INSANELY easy, and INSANELY good. Make one, and watch it dissapear!

1 Butter Recipe Yellow cake Mix
1 small can of Cream of Coconut (or about half can of the big ones or more if you like your cake gooey, I sure do!)
Enough water to add to the above cream to make total of 1 1/3 cups of liquidy goo
1 Small package Instant Cream of Coconut Pudding
1 stick butter, melted
3 eggs

Mix all ingredients together in large bowl. Pour into a greased and SUGARED bundt pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

The sugar coating on the greased pan gives the outside of the cake a sugary crust that is to DIE for. She forgot to tell me about the sugar when she gave me the recipe, until I complained that for some reason my cake didn’t taste as delish as hers so don’t skip that step! She also made this cake one year for a family reunion and put a whole large can of the cream of coconut in one cake. The middle of the cake “fell” and it was GOOOOEY…it also got gobbled up very fast. I tend to err on the side of putting more goo in, everyone likes goo, right?

If you post a recipe to share, please add your link here!

(Yeah I know I”m late…I slacked! In honor of Slackermommie’s return. ::nod:: Hey, it works for me. LOL)

Now that things are starting to cool off around here…Curry rice is a great way to warm your family up. You can usually find the House brand Vermont Curry at any Asian store or in your grocer’s International/ethnic or whatever they’re calling that these days section. in Mild, Med Hot or Hot. The flavor really sets in the second day just like spaghetti sauces get more flavorful the next day. The Mild…is really mild…so if you or your family has an aversion to spicy food with a little spice heat in them, this may be for you. I prefer the Med. Hot myself. It’s got a kick to it, but not too bad. With that being said:

1 pkg House brand Vermont Curry

*You may only be able to find another brand, it’ll be in a rectangular box. S&B Golden is another one I see frequently here in the States.

1# of lean stew meat (you can also use chicken breast cut into 1inch cubes)
2 medium carrots sliced in circles (as for stew)
1/2 onion cut into 1 inch squares (as for stew)
2 medium potatos cut into 1inch cubes (as for stew)
cooked white rice (enough for the number of people you’re feeding)

If I have all day…I crock the meat in a crock pot on low until I am ready to start preparing the meal…it makes it fork tender and the juice really adds a nice flavor to the curry. If you don’t have all day, it’s no biggy just boil the stew meat in a large stockpot with about 6 cups of water until it’s tender (about 30 mins).

Add vegetables to the boiling water and boil until tender. (If you crocked your meat, add this to the mixture at the time as well.)

Remove from heat, break up the curry roux squares, add to mixture and gently stir to melt the roux and the sauce will thicken. If it gets too thick, add hot water to thin it down. It should be a thick stew consistency, just not paste. hehe

Ladle over rice, and serve! This is great on cold days, and It’ll clear your sinuses if you’re stuffy.

**A Yummy Variation added for my friend Jon…. In lieu of using stew meat or chicken, you can make tonkatsu (fried pork) and use that for meat instead.

1 pound thin cut boneless center pork chops
1 pkg Japanese Bread Crumbs (Panko) (I put this in a plastic bag for easy cleanup)
1 egg, beaten in a bowl large enough to soak meat
flour for dredging (I put this in a plastic bag for easy cleanup)

Put chop in flour bag and lightly coat the chop, dredge through egg mixture, put in panko bag and shake, ensuring even coating.

Pan Fry in about 1/4 inch of oil until browned and cooked through. Drain on paper towels.

Make Curry as directed above with only the veggies.

Slice 1 or 2 of the cutlets into thin strips…and neatly arrange over a bed of white rice, spoon curry over the top and enjoy!

This picture isn’t as appetizing as I’d like it to look, I’ll have to take my own snapshot when I make it next…which I’m thinking will be soon…since now I have this monster craving for curry. Didn’t see that one coming.

If you’re posting a Recipe for Food for Thought Friday - Please link here! Thanks again to Slacker-Moms-R-Us for starting us on this weekly recipe exchange!

With the Holidays coming up…here’s an easy, yet delicious, side dish recipe my Aunt Faye gave me:

2 Large Cans Cooked Sweet Potato, mashed
2 eggs
1 stick margarine, softened
2/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Mix well and put in baking dish.

Topping
1 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup margarine, melted
1 cup chopped pecan

Mix well and spread on top of potato mixture.

Bake for 35 mins @ 350.