I found this recipe in a cookbook that I bought from a garage sale. It was in a prize winning recipe book, and the title grabbed my attention. At first I was skeptical of the ingredients, but after making it, I was so pleasantly surprised. If you don't have some of the spices, you can still make the dish and it will turn out. But the ones you WANT to have are cinnamon, turmeric, clove, and coriander. This is one of those dishes that is so easy, but people will look at you and say, "how in the world did you make this?" The leftovers are awesome, and reheat very well. Try this one, it is a winner!
Combine spices together in a small bowl. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, pat dry. Place chicken in a bowl and sprinkle all of the spice mixture onto the chicken, stir to coat all the chicken. Cover chicken with saran wrap and let sit for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. Heat wok or large sauce pan to medium high heat. using 1/2 tbs olive oil, saute garlic, onion, and jalapeno pepper until tender. Remove this mixture from wok, set aside. Heat 1/2 tbs olive oil over high heat, and add chicken, cook until brown, and cooked all the way through. Combine coconut milk and cornstarch, add to chicken, add onion mixture, and ginger. Bring to a boil until slightly thickened. Add fresh basil, add salt to taste and serve over rice. (Serves 4)
I love the flavor or chocolate and mint together, it truly is TDF. I love experimenting with different chocolate chips in my cookies, because I get sick of the same old same old. You will find the chocolate base of the cookie here. Now, you have two choices when it comes to the mint/chocolate chips. Nestle brand has semi-sweet chocolate chip mixed with mint flavored chips. These work beautifully. Andes Mint brand (usually sold at Walmart) crushes actually Andes mints into baking chips. These work awesome as well. Whatever you can find, buy it, and make these. They are so good, and so TDF...it's like eating an Andes Mint in cookie form....YUM!
I know what your thinking..."why would I make my own hamburger buns when I could buy them?" Well here are some reasons. They taste WAY better homemade, they do cost less, and you feel like you are eating a gourmet/snazzy meal even though you are just eating hamburgers for dinner. I found this recipe, and modified it slightly to provide more flavor in the dough. My family LOVES eating hamburgers or chicken burgers on these buns. They taste awesome, and don't get soggy or crumbly. I usually make up the batch and freeze half, so that I can pull them out of the freezer when I need them. If you are afraid of making bread or working with yeast, you are not alone. It has taken me some major practice to feel comfortable. Back in the day, cinnamon rolls were mistaken for hockey pucks. I have a Kitchenaid mixer, and I love it. I really wanted to conquer making bread, and so I told myself that I would start with pizza dough, because it is very forgiving. Then I moved on to a basic roll recipe from my mother in law (I will post that recipe soon). Once making these 2 bread recipes, I finally got to the point where I no longer needed a thermometer to check the temp on the water, and my bread comes out fluffy and a good texture every time. I swear that if I can do it, you can do it. It just takes practice.
Hamburger Buns
1 c. milk 1 c. water 2 tbs. butter 1 tbs. sugar 2 1/2 tsp salt 5 1/2 c. flour (more or less) 1 pkg instant yeast 1 egg yolk 1 tbs. water
In a glass measuring cup, combine water, milk, butter and sugar. Microwave until liquid is warm/hot and let the butter melt in the milk mixture (let mixture cool till very warm). In a mixing bowl, combine 3 c. flour, salt, and yeast. When milk mixture has come to a very warm temperature, add to dry ingredients. Mix until combined, add more flour to desired consistency. Knead for 8 minutes, adding flour if dough become too sticky. Placed dough in a greased bowl in a warm draft free place (in the oven works best). Cover and let dough rise for 1 hour. Punch down dough, and divide into 12 pieces. Grease a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. Roll each piece on dough into a ball, stretching it to make a smooth top, place in cookie sheet. Cover, and let rise for 25-45 more minutes or until almost doubled. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl combine egg yolk with water, and mix. Brush the tops with egg wash. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
To those of you that care....I have been on vacation, and have not had the time to post new recipes...rest assure, there are more to come. So please, keep checking the blog, for some delicious meals/desserts to come. Thanks to all my followers!
When I ate this dessert, my eyes were rolling to the back of my head, and I kept saying, "This is SO TDF!" I had to take a moment between each bite because this dessert is so decadent, rich, and fab tasting! I posted my recipe for Sheree's Chocolate Lava Cakes a while back on the blog. My mother found this recipe after trying the chocolate version of mine. We tried it out, and it was a HUGE hit. Do not be intimidated by this recipe. It really is more simple than making a cookies from scratch. You must serve this with either whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. It needs something creamy to cut the richness of the cake. Do not over bake, even if you think the cake needs more time. If you over bake then you will not get the oozy lava effect. If you don't have ramekins, you could use muffin tins, but you will need to adjust the time the cakes cook slightly. This is so, so, so, good, my mouth is watering just describing them!
Butterscotch Lava Cakes
cooking spray 1 c. butterscotch chips 2/3 c. butter 3 eggs 3 egg yolks 3/4 c. brown sugar 1/2 c. flour
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray 6 ramekins with cooking spray, and place them on a cookie sheet, set aside. In a bowl, melt butter in the microwave until really warm. Add butterscotch chips to the melted, warmed butter, let sit until chips melt (you may need to warm the mixture slightly in the microwave). In another bowl beat eggs and egg yolks until combined. Add brown sugar and flour, mix slightly. Add butter mixture to the sugar mixture, stir just until combined. Divide mixture evenly among the 6 ramekins. Bake for 12-14 minutes. When slightly cooled, run knife around the edge, and invert onto a plate, serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
