She cooks too!?

I know, shocking, right? This blog is going to feature something besides baking. I found this recipe for Thai Chicken with Cashews on Annie's Eats a few months ago.

Lately, I've been craving our favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Place. I absolutely love their Cashew Chicken. On Sunday, when I asked Matt what he wanted to eat, he told me he didn't really care. That left me and my google reader. I scrolled through, found this recipe, and never looked back.

When I served this, I didn't even have to ask how it was. Matt had a bite and immediately said "this is good", with a serious look on his face, I could just tell he loved it. I had my first bite soon after and knew exactly what he was talking about, this dish is awesome. It tastes exactly like the cashew chicken I get at Thai Place. If you like Thai Food, this is a must. You need to try it ASAP! We will definitely be making this often.

Thai Chicken with Cashews
Source: Annie's Eats

please excuse my crappy picture! This dark-by-7:30 thing is killing my pictures. I need to build a light box.

AM Edit: so besides the fact the lighting in that pic is awful, I didn't realize how bad the pic actually is. Apparently the glass err... bottle of wine I had with dinner impaired my judgement a bit more than a I thought.

Ingredients:

1 bunch scallions
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 ½ tbsp. finely chopped peeled fresh ginger (or 1 ½ tsp. dried)
¼ tsp. roasted red pepper flakes
¾ cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 ½ tbsp. soy sauce
1 ½ tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. sugar
½ cup salted roasted whole cashews
cooked white or brown rice for serving

Directions:

Chop scallions, separating white and green parts. Pat chicken dry, then cut into ¾ -inch pieces and toss with salt and pepper. Heat a wok or 12-inch heavy skillet (not nonstick) over moderately high heat until a drop of water evaporates immediately. Add oil, swirling to coat, then stir-fry chicken until golden in places and just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon. Add bell pepper, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes and scallion whites to wok and stir-fry until peppers are just tender, 5 to 6 minutes.

Stir together broth, soy sauce, cornstarch and sugar, then stir the mixture into the vegetables in the wok. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in cashews, scallion greens and chicken along with any juices accumulated on plate. Serve with rice

Doesn't this look good

It was my dinner Friday night (before the ginger soy sauce).

OK, that is all... carry on.

Success!

It happened. I successfully made rice.

We don't usually cook on Sundays, it's either fend for yourself or leftovers. Tonight was no exception, we had plenty of leftovers from last night's stir fry. I didn't want the exact same meal so, I decided to give rice a shot. At first I was just planning on having good old fashioned brown rice but after reading about Jules' "fried" rice I wanted to do something similar. This gave me a chance to use my $0.50 Tupperware Veggie Steamer I bought at a garage sale last summer and the delicious Frozen Sugar Snap Peas I had.

Easy Ginger "Fried" Rice


1 Cup brown rice
Carrots
Peas
Tomato (because we have a ton of them)
2 Eggs
Ginger Flavored Soy Sauce

Prep:
Cooked 1 cup brown rice
Steamed and chopped carrots
Cooked and chopped frozen snap peas
Chopped tomato

Cook 2 eggs in large skillet. When eggs are almost scrambled add rice, carrots, peas, and tomato. Stir in Soy Sauce to taste. I started out with a tablespoon but added more. Heat Thorough.

Here's the final product with the stir fry:

The Compromised Stir Fry

Tonight was very laid back. 5:00 mass, grocery store, and dinner. Ever since Sarah mentioned stir fry, I've really been wanting it. If you know me, you know that I'm an extremely picky person. I hated stir fry up until our honeymoon in Jamaica. Since then though, I've been a convert. Before we left for Church, we did an inventory of our food. M really wanted to use a bag of frozen veggies that we've had for a while. I really wanted to use fresh veggies. Well, we all know marriage is about compromise so, we decided to use the frozen veggies and throw some fresh ones in there too.


S&M Compromise Stir Fry


-1 green bell pepper
-1 red bell pepper
-2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
-1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 cup baby carrots
-1 bag frozen mixed veggies (ours had red potatoes, carrots, onions, green beans, and some unidentified yellowish looking veggie!?)
-1 can water chestnuts
-Soy Sauce
-Ginger flavored Soy Sauce
-1 tsp of oil
- 1lb of Beef Stew Meat

1) Saute onions in oil. Add beef and frozen veggies. Cook until veggies are no longer frozen.
2) Add fresh veggies and water chestnuts to mixture. Cook Through
3) Add a Soy Sauce to taste (we used a few "splashes")
4)Add Ginger Flavored Soy Sauce to taste (we used 9 or 10 "splashes')

Serve with rice or noodles. (I didn't feel like dealing with rice tonight so I just had the stir fry on its own). M decided he wanted some fresh corn on the cob with his. (Weird, I know)




A couple notes:
*This goes great with red wine. I had MonteVina Zinfandel. OHMYGOSH. Amazing.
*The type of Ginger Flavored Soy Sauce I used.... House of Tsang.
*Next time I'm adding baby corn. I'm so mad I forgot to buy it!