Creative Cooking...Bourbon Chicken

Bourbon Chicken

A couple of the blogs I read mainly Babs in Blogland and Disco Diva, both raved after making this recipe for Bourbon Chicken. I actually had never heard of this particular dish, but was intrigued that folks loved the outcome of the recipe. Since I needed to add some more recipes to put on this here blog I decided to try it out myself. This simple recipe can be found on food.com.


Ingredients:

2 lbs of Chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces

2 tbs of olive oil

1 ½ tbs of minced garlic

¼ tsp of ground ginger

¾ tsp of crushed red pepper

¼ cup of apple juice

1/3 cup of light brown sugar

2 tbs of ketchup

1 tbs of cider vinegar

½ cup of water

1/3 cup of soy sauce

½ tsp of cornstarch with a tbs of water to make a quick slurry *

You see the Apple Juice mixture as well as the seasoned and cut into chunks chicken.

Bringing it back up to a hard boil

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add your chicken pieces and cook until brown. Remove chicken once brown and then add the remaining ingredients and on medium heat until mixed and ingredients had dissolved and add the cornstarch slurry. Add chicken and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over rice, which I used brown rice cooked with carrots, onions and frozen peas with a touch of soy sauce and a tsp of sesame oil.

A closer view of the finished product.

Verdict: When I initially tasted the dish, I was a bit unimpressed. Not that it didn’t taste good, I needed more heat and I made the mistake of making these Sichuan Wonton/Dumplings on the same day and I ate the dumplings for breakfast. So…my initial taste had me concerned the flavor profile would be mild instead of bold. I added the cornstarch slurry and only a small amount to thicken the sauce because to me it was just not thick enough for me and I wanted to drizzle some of the sauce over my brown rice. However, after it sat for a few hours and I ate it as my dinner I was pleasantly surprised because the flavors seemed to meld together after sitting for a few hours and it was very tasty, but I will say next time I will add more heat. I can’t wait until I eat lunch today because I am sure it will be even better.

Because I am trying to be artsy...

Because it makes me happy...Another post about my Garden!

Ugh!  Blogger is tripping...Anyway I thought I would give you an update on my garden in pictures and words.

This is my raised garden as of 7:45 am this morning.  What is amazing about this picture is the sun is shining, because that is becoming an extinct thing.  And yeah, my garden is so overgrown.  Too much stuff in the small enclosure. Who knew my tomatoes would grow taller than my fence and the zucchini and cucumbers would grow outrageously?

As you can see my Zinnias are doing just fine since their being sick right after my vacation.  I just wished I had the variety of colors I had last year.  I mean I had reds, whites, orange, purple and lavender.

I grew my basil in a pot this year because I plan to dry them for use during the winter and they seem to do better in a container.  Plus not as many bugs. 

I love my Marigolds this year because they are quite vibrant.  Not huge blooms but very pretty.

My pink roses are still hanging in there, this was today's bloom.  I really miss my Red Hybrid Tea Roses because they were much more sturdier than these.  My pink roses can't handle the heat and excess sun.  But the bloom is gorgeous.

I noticed my Sunflower was starting to bloom on yesterday.  I got so exited because as you can see this plant is well over my peasly 5 ft 2 in height.  But this morning, this is what greeted me when I went to water the plants...

Tell me this doesn't make you smile?  I was so surprised.  I went with a different variety of Sunflowers this year, because last year's just didn't do well.  This bloom made my day.  And guess what?  It still isn't fully opened?

Seriously, with all the rain we have been getting, I haven't been able to spend the time I would like in my garden.  Yesterday evening was the first day I was able to be out there for any length of time.  I took the time to add more soil and water and note where my cucumbers and zucchini were as well as pick some of the ripe grape tomatoes.  The rain has caused them to start splitting, so I am glad I was able to spend some time working in the garden.  Only problem were the damn mosquitoes.  OMG!  I looked down at my legs and notices there were at least five mosquitoes on each of my legs.  Needless to say I hurried back in the house.  So this sunflower bloom brought a smile to my face...and I hope it did to yours.

Have a great weekend~

Creative Cooking...45 Minute Whole Wheat Cinnamon Apple Rolls

45 Minute Whole Wheat Cinnamon Apple Rolls...



It has taken me months to sit down and write out this recipe and I really should have done it sooner, but I get lazy when I have to write/type out the recipe and then I have to put in the pictures. This means nothing more than me being lazy.


Being lazy makes this recipe a good one for people who on occasion just want to be lazy. These cinnamon rolls take a short period of time to make. I make cinnamon rolls usually twice a year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, homemade, succulent, white flour cinnamon rolls. But you know from previous posts I had 5 lbs of whole wheat flour to use and what better way to do so than a nice breakfast sweet to be enjoyed with one’s coffee. Plus, I had some yeast packages I needed to blow through as well from the ill-fated pretzel bites I messed up a while back. So from the simple recipe I got from Everyday Food Storage, I made this recipe and added the apples.

The prep time was 30 and cook time is 15, however, because of varying ovens this cook time may vary.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup of sugar

3 tbs of yeast (I used two packages)

½ cup of canola oil

2 eggs

1 ¼ cup of warm water

1 tsp of salt

5 ½ cups of whole wheat flour

¼ cup melted margarine or butter (I used margarine)

1 ½ tbs of cinnamon

½ cup of sugar

½ cup of nuts, raisins or apples (sliced into small pieces and coated in cinnamon and a touch of lemon juice) or all

Mix sugar, yeast, oil and water in let stand 15 minutes.

Add your eggs, salt and flour to your mixer with the hook attachment for about 5 minutes

Roll to a rectangle about ¼ inches thick.

Pour melted butter over dough and sprinkle sugar, raisins and apples. Nuts if you like, I didn’t.

Ready to go in the oven...

Roll your dough carefully and cut 1 inch slices with knife.

Placed on a greased pan (I used round pie pans) and let rest for 15 minutes

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes more or less depending on your ovens until they are golden brown.

Before I put them back in the oven for another 15 minutes or so.

I made a glaze using powdered sugar and lemon juice. You can use milk, but I like the lemon juice because it cuts down on the sugar a bit. Plus, I use it with my other cinnamon rolls.

Verdict: These were amazing. I did have to put them back in the oven because although they were golden brown, they were also still gooey in the middle so back they went for an additional 15 minutes. Other than that, they tasted amazing. The whole wheat dough didn’t taste all grainy and dry. The rolls were fluffy and full of flavor without being overly sweet. The apples added a new flavor and were a nice addition. I actually froze all I didn’t eat to have as a nice addition for breakfast or for overnight guests. They were as easy as my other homemade cinnamon rolls and I know I could have used my regular recipe, but I wanted to insure the whole wheat wouldn’t come out dry and such so I used this recipe and it worked wonderfully. Plus, my own recipe takes a bit longer. Let me know if you try out this recipe.

Look at that yummy goodness...apples and raisins and cinnamon!

“I don’t pop Molly, I rock Tom Ford.” Randoms

The picture is random, because I don’t remember if I posted it already and I am just too lazy to look and see.


Happy Belated Independence Day!

I did nothing much on yesterday. First of all, I feel like we are embarking on a Noah’s Ark existence because of the constant rain here. It has rained for a week and it doesn’t look like there is an end in sight. It is overcast and ready to rain right now. So, although I spent Wednesday evening going to Wally World and two of my local grocery stores, it almost was a wrap in me being able to grill my food. So I spent the morning in bed, frustrated and angry about a whole lot of nothing. I finally forced myself from the bed to finish retightening my head because I was too lazy to finish it like I was supposed to this week.

So about 1 pm, the rain stopped and I rain outside to get the coals going and check on my garden. And as soon as I got the coals on fire, I had to abandon ship because it began raining again. So I closed the lid and ran back in the house to fix me some damn dumplings because I was hungry and grilling was looking like a bust. Well, about 30 minutes later the rain slacked to a very light drizzle and I was able to see my coals ashen over and I put my meat on the grill. It wasn’t as hot as I like it, but in the end it was for the best. Everything was cooked low and slow, which created some very moist and tender meat. Yeah, I cooked up a slab of ribs, chicken wings, turkey burgers, turkey dogs, corn and firecracker shrimp.

My grilling in the rain...

So that was my 4th. I stayed home and wanted some ice cream so bad, but I just ate fruit. By the way I was going to grill some pineapple and peaches but the grill just was going too slow for me. Oh well, next time.

I have been making some great smoothies lately with spinach, blackberries, strawberries, peaches, pineapples, ginger and pomegranate juice. Yummy!

My folks are still traveling. My niece and my sister’s husband are driving from VA to Cali this week with a stop in ATL and then a stop in Texas. So far my niece has been driving like a boss.

Remember June's Supermoon...

I also looked cute on that Supermoon Saturday...

I do have some creative cooking spots to post one for Bourbon Chicken and the Dumplings aka Sichuan Wontons, which I devour because they are so good!

Sichuan Wontons

Bourbon Chicken

I need to work on my attitude. Seriously, I ain’t taking it from no one lately and I am letting them know. At manager’s meeting on my 2nd job, I was correcting and basically going off in a polite but over it way during the meeting. I will not allow you to lie on me or give an interpreted version of something I said. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. I think I am tired. Did I mention I had to pray hard before going to work that evening?

The Guy made me mad this week. He will not engage in my anger. Sighing…it still doesn’t make me less mad, but it does cause me to come to him with a more level head and not an emotional head.

No I am not PMSing.

My garden it doing a great job of keeping me feed with cucumbers, tomatoes and infrequently Zucchini.

I didn't realize I had a Zucchini until I saw this one and it was huge.  Sauteed with some onions and it was great. Those suckers are hard to see while growing, especially in my jungle garden!

My Red Hybrid Tea Rose is dead. It gave me one of the most beautiful blooms of the season early on and then it just started to die. I am glad I took pictures of it, next year I will plant a new one.

I didn’t plant enough flowers this year because of all the travel. I haven’t been able to make a bouquet at all this year.

We are in uniforms on my 2nd job and the shirts are so hot I feel like I am going to spontaneously combust.

Yes, I downloaded the Jay Z Magna Carta Holy Grail app and then the album. I am cheap and if having a Samsung Galaxy 3 garners me free stuff I am on it. So why did I wait up until midnight east coast time to try and download the album? And why didn’t it work? I went to sleep and woke up about 1:30 am and tried again and it still didn’t work. Ugh! Something told me to check the reviews and sure enough the large volume of interest crashed the damn thing or something. Anyway, when I woke up at 6 am to grill and couldn’t grill, I downloaded it then. Then being an ungrateful ass, I was mad I couldn’t play it on my music player. Well hours later I learned I needed to restart my phone and it would be there and it was. And my verdict? I like it there are several tracks I immediately liked because of the beats, but the more I listen the lyrics are very telling. Seeing the behind the scenes of the making of the album was also a bonus. So yeah, my ratchet side prevailed and I have Jay Z’s new album. What? I didn’t get compensated to say this either and getting it free was done for 1 million people. This is my opinion.

I need a vacation. I have been extremely tired this week and it is so strange to me to be so tired when I am normally going, going and going. I had a headache for 3 days straight not sure why and no my blood pressure is 120/74 average. I think I need some sleep and probably need to stay out of the garden because my allergies require extra meds.

I didn’t see Dark Girls or the BET Awards. Seems both were topics during a week of so much drama and loss of rights. Sighing…

I am currently reading Decadence by Eric Jerome Dickey for book club. The first couple of chapters started slow, kinda like Pleasure but the pace has picked up. I want to say more, but some of my members read this blog and I don’t want to do any spoilers.

RIP Francis Ray. She was one of the first African-American romance writers I enjoyed. I met her a few times and we had a good conversation at one of the NBCC about the opening pages of Eric Jerome Dickey’s Genevieve. Prayers for her family.

I still haven't seen the entire Being Mary Jane movie, I keep catching it during the last hour.  Da hell?  And what I saw was quite intriguing.

I am back watching Catfish.  This week's episode was a mess.  They were doing the most.  The guy that got Catfished, was angry at the other guy but he knew he had been lying to him.  I think he really was just angry at himself for his lack of self-esteem.  Next week should be interesting too...

To all the Gladiators out there, Kerry Washington pulled a Janet Jackson and got married on ya'll and you had to find out from the press.  I ain't mad at her because just be cause you are a celebrity doesn't mean you shouldn't have some kind of privacy in your life.  I know I was surprised.

I have been invited to a birthday party and the attire is dressy casual, but the colors are cream, white and red.  I don't wear none of those colors.  We shall see because the way my bank account is set up...I ain't buying a gift and a dress.  Why do I feel some kinda way about that, though?

The Trayvon Martin case...when it is over I will post about it.

I have no plans this weekend except trying to get some rest and get rid of some of this attitude.  Whoosah!  Enjoy your weekend...

Carson is driving...or he thinks he is...Which will be great for the clubs...

 

Lala and my sister.  She smiling right here, but Lala does the most...