Main Course: Mu Shu Pork

1 pound boneless pork loin cut into thin one-inch strips
3 tsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. dry sherry
2 tsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. fresh grated ginger
2/3 cup water
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. chicken flavored bouillon
2 Tbsp. butter
4 eggs, beaten
1 medium onion, sliced in thin strips
2 cups Chinese cabbage (napa) sliced very thin
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
4-oz. water chestnuts, drained and sliced thin
8 tsp. hoisin sauce
8 flour tortillas

Combine pork strips, soy sauce, sherry, sugar and ginger in a bowl. Mix well and allow to marinade in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or overnight. In another bowl, combine water, cornstarch and chicken bouillon and mix well. Melt butter in large flat frying pan on medium-high heat. Pour eggs in frying pan and swish pan around so that the eggs evenly coat bottom of pan. Cook eggs for about 3 minutes or until done, turning once. Remove eggs from pan, place on plate and cut into thin strips. Add pork and marinade to pan and cook on medium high heat while stirring until done (about 4 minutes). Add onion and cook for about 2 minutes. Add cabbage, bean sprouts and water chestnuts and cook for about 2 minutes or until just crisp-tender, stirring often. Add cornstarch mixture and cook and stir until thickened. Add eggs and stir to combine all ingredients. Spread one tsp. of hoisin sauce on each tortilla, top with about 1/2 cup pork mixture, roll up tortilla and serve.

The Skinny: Use low sodium soy sauce and your favorite sugar and egg substitute. If you cannot tolerate alcohol just leave out the sherry. We use fat free tortillas and they are just great. You should be able to find hoisin sauce in the oriental section of your grocery store.

Tossed Broccoli

1 pound broccoli
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. fresh grated ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. red pepper flakes (the kind you sprinkle on pizza)

Wash broccoli and cut florets into bite-sized pieces. Peel off the tough skin from the stalk and cut the peeled stalk into thin slices. Steam broccoli for about 3 minutes or until just crisp-tender. If you don't have a steamer, put broccoli in boiling water for about 3 minutes until crisp-tender. With either cooking method, drain broccoli when done and immediately immerse in cold running water to stop cooking process. It is very important with this recipe that the broccoli remain crunchy and not cook too much and become soft. In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, sugar, and rice vinegar and stir until sugar dissolves. In a large frying pan or wok, heat sesame oil, then add ginger, garlic and pepper flakes and stir-fry for about 10 seconds while stirring constantly. Add the soy sauce mixture and cook for another 30 seconds while stirring. Pour sauce over the broccoli in a large bowl and mix well. Let broccoli cool in refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight. Serve cool or at room temperature.

The Skinny: Use low sodium soy sauce and your favorite sugar substitute.

Appetizer: Egg Drop Soup

3 and 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. corn oil
2 Tbsp. scallions, minced
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
6 cups chicken broth
2 Tbsp. rice wine
1 cup frozen peas
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 tsp. sesame oil

Combine cornstarch and water and blend well. Heat corn oil in large pot and then add scallions and stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Add the soy sauce, chicken broth and rice wine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Slowly add the cornstarch/water mixture while stirring constantly to avoid lumps and continue to cook also while stirring constantly until soup thickens. Add the peas and remove from heat. Slowly add the beaten eggs by pouring them in a thin stream around the edge of the pot to form streamers of egg. Gently stir in the sesame oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The Skinny: Use fat free chicken broth. We have never made egg drop soup with egg substitute but it may be worth a try.

One Bowl Chocolate Fudge

I like fudge.

Mom never made a lot of fudge, mainly because it always took a while to make and she and I were the only ones who would eat more than a piece or two. So when I found a little recipe booklet with a one-bowl microwave fudge in it – well, picking that up was a no brainer.

One Bowl Chocolate Fudge

Depending on how you cut it, this makes 4 dozen pieces of fudge.

2 8-ounce packages semi-sweet baking chocolate
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cup chopped nuts (optional)

Microwave chocolate and condensed milk in a large microwave safe bowl on HIGH for 2 to 300 minutes, or until the chocolate is almost melted, stirring halfway through the heating time.

Stir until chocolate is completely melted.

Stir in vanilla and nuts (if using). Spread into a greased 8-inch square pan. Refrigerate until firm and cut into squares.

Notes from the Hare

Know what I really like about this recipe? It’s modular. Observe.

Rocky Road Fudge

Add 1-cup miniature marshmallows with nuts and vanilla.

Peanut Butter Fudge

Omit nuts. Drop ½ cup peanut butter by teaspoonfuls on top of fudge. Swirl with knife.

Peppermint Fudge

Omit vanilla and nuts. Stir in ½ cup coarsely crushed peppermint candies.

Coconut Nut Fudge

Add 1-cup flake coconut, toasted, with vanilla and nuts. Garnish with additional coconut.

I’ve added M&M’s to it as well, with good results.

You can use any variety of chocolate you want – milk, semi-sweet, white, dark, etc – but if you plan on making peppermint fudge using white chocolate, it will turn pink (especially if you ground the candies in a blender instead of smashing them on the counter, producing a fine peppermint powder). Still tasty, it just looked a little odd at Christmastime. For Valentine’s Day, though, it would be perfect.

Spiced Chicken Breasts

Hello all, Ox here. Sorry I haven't been posting much of late, but I have been quite under-the-weather. No, it wasn't my stomach so, all is well in the kitchen, except for dirty dishes. Have you ever noticed how the dishes never really get done. They all seem to be clean for a max of an hour and then something gets dirtied again. Oh, well, thus is the life of anyone who plans on eating and does the cooking as well!

Here is a recipe I found off of Arcamax. I am trying it tomorrow and it just simply sounds devine, so I thought I would share.

Spiced Chicken Breasts

CalorieKing.com

Serves: 4 person(s)
Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 8 mins

Enjoy this simple chicken dish - with a touch of spice!

Suggestions: Sambal Oelek is a chili paste available from markets and Asian foods stores.

Chicken needs to marinate for several hours.Uncooked marinated chicken suitable to freeze.

Ingredients: 2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp sambal oelek
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
14 oz skinfree chicken breast fillets (4)

Directions: Combine chicken fillets, garlic, ginger, sambal oelek, turmeric, cumin, rind, sauce and sugar in bowl. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight. Chicken can be grilled, barbecued or pan fried. Cook on one side for 5 minutes, turn and baste with marinade; cook for further 5 minutes. Serve with a salad or steamed vegetables.

Microwave Directions: Combine chicken fillets, garlic, ginger, sambal oelek, turmeric, cumin, rind, sauce and sugar in bowl. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight. Place chicken in single layer around edge of a shallow microwave-safe dish, brush with marinade mixture. Cover and cook on HIGH 4 minutes. Give each fillet a half turn, cover, and cook on HIGH a further 4 minutes. Stand 5 minutes, sprinkle with coriander. Serve with a salad or steamed vegetables.

Variations: Serving suggestions and garnishes not included in nutritional analysis. Author: Family Health Network

Nutritional Info(Per Serving)
Calories: 153 cals
Kilojoules: 640 kJ
Fat: 5.0 g
Carbohydrates: 5.0 g
Protein: 22.0 g
Cholesterol: 90.0 mg
Sodium: 60 mg
Saturated Fat: 2.0 g
Fiber: 0.0 g
Calcium: -
Total Sugars: -

Note: A dash indicates no data is available.

I don't know about this one

Ever find a recipe that looks pretty good – but upon preparation, its not all that good?

I tried this one a while back, and the flavor combination just didn’t work for me. I’m not entirely sure what it is – I left the mushrooms out since the basket I picked up was a bit slimy, which isn’t good from what I’ve been able to gather (actually, I was kind of relieved – mushrooms are not one of my favorite things). The dish looked pretty good, mind you. The taste just turned me off.

I present this here in case anyone wants to give it a shot. Just because the flavor combinations didn’t work for me doesn’t mean they won’t work for somebody.

Pizza Fish Fillets

Serves 6

1 ½ pound fresh or frozen haddock, cod, or orange roughy fillets, ½ to ¾ inch thick
Nonstick spray coating
½ teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
12 ounces spinach fettuccine
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
¼ cup water
1 8-ounce can pizza sauce
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Thaw the fish if frozen and cut into 6 serving size pieces. Spray a 2-quart rectangular baking dish with nonstick coating. Place fish in baking dish, tucking under any thin edges so the fish cooks evenly. Sprinkle the fish with lemon-pepper seasoning.

Bake uncovered in a 450 degree F oven until fish just flakes easily with a fork (about 6 to 9 minutes per ½ in of thickness). Drain off any liquid.

While fish is baking, cook fettuccine according to package directions. In a medium saucepan, cook mushrooms, green pepper, and onion in the ¼ cup of water, covered, for about 5 minutes or until just tender. Drain and add pizza sauce. Heat through.

Serve fish on fettuccine. Spoon sauce over fish. Sprinkle with cheese.

Source: What’s for Dinner? From Better Homes and Gardens Books, Inc. © 1995

Notes from the Hare

Like I said, this did not work out for me. If anyone tries it, let me know what you think.

Cinnamon Apple Dumplings

It has been a while, hasn’t it?

Work hasn’t been taking up all my time this last week or so – travel has. I went to Kentucky to visit with Ox and her husband and celebrate Pascha with them – it’s the Easter celebration in the Orthodox Christian church. Since it is the end of the Lenten fast (which is a no meat fast at the minimum – Ox and her husband gave up most dairy as well, I believe), after the services on Saturday night there was a potluck banquet / feast. It was a fun and enlightening trip, and actually kind of relaxing considering how much time we spent running around. I would guess that was because Ox and I spent most of Saturday in the kitchen.

We cooked a lot of food. I myself made two pans of quick fudge and a batch of cookies. Ox made bread – a good sweet bread, to be exact – which took a little while to do, so some of the things she had hopped to fix were kind of pushed aside. Admittedly, so was my original idea, since I had wanted to cook a few batches of 40 Cloves and a Chicken but couldn’t find enough good-looking whole garlic to get the cloves I would need. Ox’s husband made this soup that he learned to make from somewhere, which was very tasty soup, but good luck getting the recipe out of him.

I’ll put the fudge and cookie recipes up a little later. For today, though, Ox has a request.

A few days before I went down, a new cookbook came in the mail, which I have not looked through very much as of yet. It’s specifically for small meals – one or two servings at the most – and it came with a little dessert booklet that had a recipe Ox asked me for. Since I forgot to give it to her while I was visiting, I’ll post it here for everyone.

Cinnamon Apple Dumplings

Serves 2

1 cup all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
3 tablespoons ice water
2 medium tart apples
3 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Half and half cream

For the Sauce:

1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons red-hot candies OR ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon cornstarch
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
Additional half and half cream, optional

In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. With a fork, stir in the water until the dough forms a ball. Roll out on a floured surface to a 14 x 7 inch rectangle, then cut pastry in half.

Peel and core apples. Place one on each square of pastry. Combine sugar and cinnamon and spoon into apples. Moisten the edges of the pastry and gather around the apples. Pinch and seal. Place dumplings into an ungreased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan, or a shallow 1 ½ quart baking dish. Brush with cream.

In a small saucepan, combine the first five sauce ingredients (sugar, red-hots, cornstarch, water, and butter) and bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Boil for 3 minutes. Pour sauce between dumplings.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and apples are tender. Serve warm with cream if desired.

Source: Desserts for One or Two, from Reiman Media Group, Inc. © 2003

Notes from the Hare

Nothing today – I haven’t had a chance to try this out yet.