Comfort Food: Peanut Chicken

I had this idea that I was going to write this epic post about recipe that is a frequent flyer on the dinner circuit in my house. It was going to patriotic. It was going to be swoon worthy.  It was going to disclose the secrets of comfort food. It was going to involve peanut butter.  In fact I was going to make the recipe to make sure I had all my measurements to correct and that I wasn’t missing any steps, since I can make this recipe practically in my sleep.

Then tragedy struck.  Not major tragedy that change the entire course of lives, but more of a dinner tragedy.  My recipe of ultimate comfort food, the one that I could do in my sleep, I totally fucked up on. 

The problem was simple.  The soy sauce and the Worcestershire sauce are in the same shape bottle and they both have a red cap.  Being on auto pilot and not paying attention to what I was actually pulling out of the fridge, (because why would the bottle locations change) I totally dumped half a cup of Worcestershire sauce in my recipe. I then had to scramble to mellow to taste of Worcestershire sauce and make it be friends with the peanut butter.   It may have one of the least spectacular meals I have ever made.  It was a pretender to the throne.  One bite and you knew it wasn’t the infamous peanut chicken, but more of something that had aspirations of being steak and failed. 

The lesson here isn’t that you should always identify your ingredients before you put them in the sauce, but more of don’t become complacent.  Focus on what you are doing even if it something you have done a thousand times before, because maybe that thousand and one time will be different.

Peanut Chicken  

Use the big stir fry pan or a wok.  This is going to make a lot of food. 

2 1/2 Cups Chicken  Cubed

1/2 Cup Diced Onion 

1/4 Cup Diced Peppers

1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic

1/2 Cup Shredded Carrots

1/2 Tablespoon Chinese Five Spice

1 Tablespoon Chili Garlic Sauce

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

1 Tablespoon chili oil

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Sauté everything together until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots are limp. 

Add

1/2 Cup Soy Sauce

2/3 Cup Chunky Peanut Butter

1 Cup of Chicken broth (Water can be used in a pinch)

This should make a rather liquidy sauce.  If it is super thick, add more chicken broth.

Add

2 Cups cooked rice

Brown rice, white rice, doesn’t matter.  Perhaps not wild rice, that doesn’t hold the flavor as well.   Mix everything together until warmed all the way through and then serve.   The sauce should mix and cover all of the rice.  The meat and vegetables should be mixed in evenly, kind of like a fried rice. 

This is one of those foods that also holds well in a crock pot for hours if you were to make a double batch.   It is spicy, yet savory and has all the comforts of home. 

Nightmares Inducing Children's Movies

On occasion my friend, Erica and I will get together, catch up on what is happening with the families and watch a movie.  Last night we watched one of those movies that was a throw back to our childhood and you didn't realize how terrifying it is, until you watch it. The movies spurred conversation about other children's movies that have terrifying elements in it.  (And thus a list was born.)

Below is my list of 10 children's movies that are terrifying and wonderful.

1. Return to OZ
1. You can't tell me that the Wheelers aren't nightmare fuel. Or the head exchange. I don't think I had ever been so thankful for chickens, than in that movie. 
2. Alice in Wonderland (1985)
1. All monsters were the Jabberwocky in my youth. It was a manifestation of fear and could get you at any time. 
3. Willow
1. Bavmorta. She was creepy, but then again she was supposed to be.  Weird side note, the Actress that played Bavmorta was also in Return to Oz. 
4. Legend
1. Tim Curry when I was a child, because I thought that was what the devil really did look like.  I watched this not too long ago, and the thing that creeped me out the most as an adult is Tom Cruises smile. 
5. Secret of Nimh
1. Animal experimentation and extermination.  Rats and owls.  Loved the movie, and it always hits me as and awesome adventure, but the fear for the characters was real every time. 
6. Labyrinth
1. Goblin King.  This is a much loved classic for many people.  I missed it as a child and just found it creepy as an adult.  Babies. Goblins and a whole lot of puppets. 
7. Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
1. Theres now earthly way of knowing... which direction we are going...
8. The Peanut Butter Solution
1. I don't even know where to start on this on. The amount of weirdness and why is peanut butter the solution. The hair and the paintings were surreal. 
9. Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure
1. I love this movie, but when they are in the candy pit, it is a little psychedelic and trippy.
10. The Adventures of Young Sherlock Holmes
1. Ritualistic sacrifice- Need I say more?  This is a family adventure that is actually pretty tame, but probably geared for a little older audience than I was, when I saw it the first time.  I loved it, but ritualistic sacrifice still gives me the creeps. 

What movies did you watch when you were a kid, that looking back now makes you scratch you head and wonder? 

Peanut Chicken Rice

I just came back from a lovely trip visiting friends in Texas and I should be ashamed of all the food I ate.  There is so much good food out there, that I wanted to sample everything, since who knows when I will be in Texas again.  Once the rush of traveling wears off and I am ready to settle in and have some quality time with my husband and cats, I want some comfort food.  Traveling is great and I love trying new things, but there is nothing like home.  

 One of the favorite comfort foods in my home is Peanut Chicken Rice.  It is a filling dish that is easy to make, and is a cross between a fried rice and Thai chicken on stick with peanut dipping sauce. 

Ingredients 

2 tablespoon Olive Oil

1 teaspoon Chili Oil

1 teaspoon Sesame Oil

1-2lbs chicken breast cubed

3 cups cooked white rice

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup shredded carrots*

1/4 cup peas fresh or frozen*

1/4 cup frozen sweet corn*

 1 cup Chunky Peanut Butter

1/3 cup Soy Sauce

1  tablespoon Minced Garlic

2 teaspoons Chili paste

1/2 teaspoon Ginger Powder

1 tablespoon of Sriracha

1 teaspoon of Hoisin sauce 

1/2 Cup Water or Vegetable Broth

In a large sauté pan heat the oils and add the chicken, onions,garlic,ginger powder and chili paste until chicken is cooked and the onions are translucent.  Add the rest of the vegetables and soy sauce until veggies are cooked through.  Add the chunky you peanut butter, Sriracha, hoisin sauce and water/vegetable broth.  The peanut butter will melt as you stir everything together and will become a loose sauce.  If the sauce is thick, you will want to add a little more water or broth until it is smooth and loose .Add the rice and stir it together until it is all mixed well together.  Once the rice is coated in the peanut sauce, and the chicken and vegetables are mixed in, it is ready to serve.  

 *It may look like a bunch of ingredients, but most of the vegetables can be found frozen or you can use a frozen soup mix if you aren't opposed to green beans being in it.  Some people in my house do not like green beans, which is why I try not to use the frozen vegetable soup mix.

Rocky Road Fudge

It is that time of the year that my house overflows with sweets. One of the favorite sweets my mom makes every year is Rocky Road Fudge.  It is an incredibly easy fudge to make. It literally involves three ingredients, peanut butter, chocolate chips and marshmallows.

I don't normally make the fudge, because my mother will bring it with her tray off Christmas Cookies however this year I have been looking at some dairy free dessert options and this came to mind.  My mother normally uses milk chocolate chips, but that obviously wouldn't work for dairy free. I decided to try doing the recipe with dark chocolate and was thrilled with the results.

Rocky Road Fudge

12 ounces of dark chocolate chips
4 Cups of Miniature Marshmallows
1 Cup of Chunky Peanut Butter

Instructions:
 In a large pot, melts the chocolate chips with the peanut butter over low heat. When the mix is melted and smooth, remove from the heat and add the marshmallows.  Stir until everything is well gleaned and pour into a a greased 9x13 pan and cool in the refrigerator.  When it is cool, cut into one inch squares.

Tastes Like I'm Old

I never really thought much about my age and maturity until I realized that my taste buds changed.  There are just certain things that do no appeal to me now that may have appealed to me when I was a much younger lass.  One of those things is ice cream.  I feel like when I was younger, there were a lot less ice cream flavors than there are now.  I think as a kid it was neopolitan or rocky road, those were the two choices in the household freezer.  There may have been other flavors out there, but those were the only ones that existed in my world, unless it came off of the ice cream truck.

I don't think I realized I reached adulthood with my ice cream until I took my utterly charming yet sarcastic 14 year old niece to The Turkey Hill Experience.  For those people that are not locals,  Turkey Hill is a chain of gas stations that for some reason also sells a wide selection of ice cream, ice tea and lemonade.  They also sell it in grocery stores and I learned by from the presentation, it is accessable all over the country. The Turkey HIll Experience is a small factory like tour that is super kid friendly and for a small ticket fee, lets you eat and drink as much ice cream and ice tea as you want. There are enough activities to keep various age ranges amused.  

One of the most worth while things to do is the pay a little bit extra on the ticket and go into the test lab where they will walk you through how to flavor your own pint of ice cream.  This is where I discovered that I like a mature flavor in ice cream.

My niece, Hannah proceeded to mutter and laugh about how her ice cream was going to be the best one ever and she wasn't going to share.  Then she proceeded to put cotton candy extract into it, and my tastebuds retracted in fear.  If there was one flavor that does not appeal to me as an adult it is cotton candy.  I couldn't even tell you the last time I ate cotton candy. It doesn't exist in my world as a thing that I would want to eat.  As if the flavoring of cotton candy wasn't enough, she proceeded to at cotton candy sprinkles into the swirling white creamy mix, further distancing my inclination to steal her ice cream at a later date.  The icing on the cake  (of in this case , ice cream) was the cake batter icing swirl she added to it.  I don't think electric blue is a natural flavoring and cake batter icing sounds like something that would cause my dentist to whimper.   I am pretty sure that Hannah madeWhen it  the perfect ice cream that would leave me with no desire to ever try it, and that she loved. How I wish I could go back and ask 14 year old me if I would like cotton candy ice cream with cake batter swirl and cotton candy sprinkles. I wonder what my answer would be. 

When it came time for me to make my ice cream, I stuck to things that I knew my husband would like. (Honestly, I was a little ice creamed out from the one sample that I had.  It was good, but it wasn't even lunch time and breakfast wasn't that much of a long forgotten memory yet. I have never been a lets eat ice cream for breakfast sort of person.)  My boring adult ice cream consisted of chocolate and coffe flavoring with chocolate covered espresso beans and peanut butter cups with a peanut butter swirl.  I was informed by my niece that I was doing it wrong and then I proceeded to tell her that her uncle was going to eat her ice cream.  My brother, who was the referee in this adventure just rolled his eyes and made his own very adult flavored ice cream (cherry flavoring, cherry pieces and chocolate covered espresso beans.)

I would definitely be interested in doing the Turkey Hill Experience again, because it was fun. I enjoyed the different things to check out and despite realizing I am old and eat old people ice cream, it was fun to think about different flavor combinations.  Just maybe the next time I will be able to come up with something that her and I can both agree on is awesome.  I just hope it doesn't include any sort of cotton candy or icing swirls.