Recipe Review - French Toast Bake

My wife loves breakfast, I mean she can eat it twice a week at night in addition to what I normally do for Sunday mornings. Me, I'm not as big of a fan by any means, I mean I can do pancakes and some french toast if it isn't completely soggy. The other thing is she sometimes asks for a casserole or something for her fellow teachers when they do a potluck. This one she thought looked simple enough to make and take.

This dish is a little more  difficult to 'set up' but in the end it's a pretty good dish. Not too heavy not too light and can easily be sliced up for a crowd. The main instructions can be found right here at Julies Eats and Treats. A couple of changes, I used Italian bread and not sourdough, although sourdough is probably pretty good and could offer up some different depth of flavor. I also used actual butter instead of the substitute but whichever you have could work easily. I topped it with some strawberries and some vanilla cream.

This is a really good recipe and would be great for upcoming holidays. This is one that will stay in the arsenal.

Rating: 5/5

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Recipe Review - Shrimp Fried Rice

In the interest of trying to do something different I have been all over pinterest and one recipe I found that seemed to be kind of simple yet different for our family is Shrimp Fried Rice. I took several recipes together but the mian one that I found was here on the blog Damn Delicious. I also looked at some other recipes and decided to use regular full size shrimp instead of the smaller ones that you normally get.

The shrimp I seasoned simply, and those aren't on the recipe I linked to above, but it was some salt, pepper, ginger, flour and a tiny bit of corn starch. Take the shrimp, peel and de-vein of course and  toss in the flour and seasoning and then remove so it can set up a little bit. It only takes a few minutes to cook the shrimp in a skillet with oil really quickly.

As for the fried rice, I made some white rice a little earlier and fried it but most recipes say to try and have it done earlier so that it can cool and have a slightly more 'fried' texture. It was pretty good but having rice done before hand would have saved a lot of time and probably improved this just so slightly. Overall this is a good recipe though.

Rating: 5/5

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Recipe Review - White Chocolate Mousse

So Valentine's day was around the corner and my wife doesn't care for chocolate covered strawberries unless it's white chocolate covered, and apparently it's ridiculously hard to get only those the week of valentine's day. I mean you can get them striped with regular chocolate or mixed with regular chocolate, but the simple white chocolate is a no-go for the most part. Even High end Wegman's at the godiva counter couldn't guarantee them so I had to improvise.

What I did was I had a recipe for chocolate mousse from Food Network Magazine All Access which I adapted using another recipe which I found in Sugar Rush: Master Tips, Techniques, and Recipes for Sweet Baking , which is a great book with a lot of good baking ideas. The mousse was really good and I topped it with some fresh strawberries which i topped with sugar and let sit for a while and a piece of puff pastry for texture. The recipe might be even better with a salted caramel perhaps, or a graham cracker layer to break up the texture, although the flavors with the berries and mousse are just perfect.

 First step was taking 9 ounces of white chocolate and melt it using the double boiler method. In my case I don't own a double boiler because using a bowl and a small pot works just fine.

 Melt the chocolate down until just melted and slightly above 95 degrees.

 Take 1.5 cups of heavy whipping cream and heat until just bubbled and warm then turn off. Mix into white chocolate a little bit at a time until completely mixed until it looks glossy.

 Take another 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream and beat until it forms soft peaks. Once that is done, fold it into the white chocolate mixture carefully.

 Put into vessels and cool off in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

 While the mousse cools take out some puff pastry and follow the directions for it to allow it to thaw. Then use a cookie cutter or a knife and cut out your shapes and bake in the oven at 425 for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Slice some strawberries and sprinkle with sugar and put in the fridge until ready to put things together.

 Take some cut strawberries and puff pastry to top your mousse and serve. Enjoy.

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Recipe - Cinnamon Roll Cake

Facebook always has an abundant number of recipes and my wife sill always tag me when she's something that she likes. that's where this recipe came from as something that is a hybrid cinnamon roll/cake. The idea is to bring you that great flavor with a lot less work because you don't have to roll and do as much to make dough.

For the recipe, (since I can't take credit for it) go over to Chef in Training  to get it and print out a copy for your recipe book at home.

My Assistant Concentrating

Mix Ingredients and then add melted butter on top

Pour into a greased 9x13 pan then begin to mix your cinnamon mixture

Drop in the cinnamon and swirl with a knife

Bake and add icing made of powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk and voila.

This recipe was a cinch to make and it turns out pretty good. I do think it might need a little tweaking to get maybe a little bit more 'chew' to it and I haven't perfected the art of making a good icing using only powdered sugar, vanilla and milk because the sugar never seems to dissolve properly to me.

Rating: 3.5/5

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Recipe- Bang Bang Chicken

Pinterest is great for finding new ideas to cook and the last thing I checked out on a whim was a new way to cook up some chicken since having it so often can get extremely boring. This recipe comes from www.damndelicious.net and is pretty much a creative spin on chicken breast nuggets. These are breaded in panko and what sets them apart is the sweet chili sauce that goes with them. You can find the specific recipe right here: Bang Bang Chicken Recipe

Now the one thing I will say is that Panko breading can be a bit rough on the mouth and the recipe should have specified some minimum amount of salt and pepper to get started with. That's the only real negative and here are my pictures- under normal non-studio light.


First the buttermilk batter:

 Then we have the panko bread crumbs

 Next up we fry in batches

 Then we plate and drizzle with the sauce

Now the sauce uses some mayo, sweet chili sauce, and honey and is pretty delicious really. It would be great on a lot of items.

This was a good recipe and it doesn't take too long to make. I will probably try this again. It was fairly easy and straight forward so even a novice can attempt this and make something pretty tasty.

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Recipe - Slow Cooker Whole Chicken

Sunday meals are perfect for slow cooking, or really, any day you have time to get your ingredients prepped and plopped into the cooker. This was a during the week meal and one I enjoy from time to time and decided to keep after experimenting because the wife enjoyed what the results were.

This chicken i get a rub together with some salt, pepper, onion, garlic powder and cumin. Take it, mix it together and rub it all over the chicken and let it sit at least 4-5 hours but if you can get 12 in you will be living the live. One thing you have to do is make sure you lift up some of the breast skin and put the rub down that part of the chicken.


Next morning, I tossed the chicken into the cooker with some better than bouillon chicken base, about 1 cup of water for a generous teaspoon and add that to the cooker to allow the chicken to really bask in moisture and flavor. I also added  1/2 cup of apple juice and a whole cut up apple for additional flavor and moisture. I didn't have a full onion which I normally use in the cavity with the apples but the spring onions filled in just fine as I dices a few up and sprinkled them in and on the chicken. They are a bit milder but it works for us. Set it on low and come back later from work and voila.

For us, we are a sauce loving family, and pulling the chicken is going to be a somewhat trying event if you expect to have the entire thing come out like you put it in. It won't but it is so tender and juicy even though you have to search with your tongs to get all of the goodies out. You can use the remaining liquid for a gravy if you like but we like to take the chicken, drizzle some sauce over it and throw it under the broiler for a couple of minutes to get the skin a little crispier thanks to the sugars in the sauce.

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Recipe - Chicken Lettuce Wraps

If you've been to PF Changs you know they are known for their Chicken lettuce wraps and my wife and I were smitten by them after going there once. Fast forward a couple of years later and looking for something different and a little 'healthy' these lettuce wraps are always a nice little option. now this isn't my own personal recipe as I got it in an issue of Food Network Magazine. You can get your own copy here.

Almost Famous Chicken Lettuce Wraps

The thing about this recipe is that you have to chop so many things up. The past few times I have made this recipe I hand cut the chicken breasts. Today I decided to use the food processor.

This was much easier than chopping by hand and it didn't get too fine like ground chicken, but it was more chunky, just like the restaurant version so I was very happy with it. Now you have to marinate the chicken in the rice wine corn starch solution so I suggest you might want to look to the right and take a peek at the Tupperware link over there and then send a message to my wife because if she has an online party going on you can get yourself a deal.

After that it's a simple process to cook up the ingredients and combine them to have a nice meal that is a little different from the norm.

This is a great recipe and one that made it into our family recipe book.

Rating: 10/10

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