Orange Chicken Stir Fry

Hello Sunday! I must admit that I've always loved this day of the week. I know many people who can never seem to fully enjoy Sundays because of the specter of the work week that is "looming over us" with Monday just hours away. But isn't Sunday just a repeat of Saturday?? All the more reason to soak in some extra sleep, enjoy some coffee cake, French toast, or granola muffins, go for a hike, and read a new book (I just read The Boston Girl). Oh and of course watch Game of Thrones. Naturally.

Sunday is also a great day for testing out new dinner recipes. Since I am typically not rushing home from work, the gym, or other obligations on Sunday evenings, I find it's the perfect time to make something that A) I have never made before, or B) might be a little more time intensive. I recently opted to go with option A and made a version of this Orange Chicken Stir Fry. It was healthy, tasty, and best of all quick - which means it can safely be added to my weekday repertoire now that I know how fast it is!

Note that I also kind of winged this sauce a bit, and you can too if needed. I didn't have oyster sauce or rice vinegar in my pantry, so I just substituted them for a dash of fish sauce, sesame oil, and red wine vinegar. Same profile flavors, just a different way of getting there.

Ingredients:

Sauce:
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 large cloves garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
Optional sweetener like sugar, honey, agave, etc.

Stir-fry:
1 pound boneless skinless chicken, cut into strips/cubes
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons corn starch
4 cups chopped vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, green beans, snap peas, etc.
1/2 cup medium yellow onion, chopped
Vegetable or coconut oil

Directions:

1. Blend all the ingredients for the sauce in a blender or food processor for 10 seconds. Taste the sauce and add your choice of sweetener to your liking. Blend again for a few more seconds.
2. Heat the sauce in a large skillet on medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Carefully transfer the sauce to a heatproof bowl. Rinse the skillet clean and prepare to re-use.
3. If cooking rice, begin making it now.
4. If using fresh broccoli or green beans, boil in a steamer basket for 3-5 minutes until soft enough to pierce with a fork yet still firm.
5. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the corn starch and massage the chicken with your hands.
6. Heat approximately 1 tablespoon of oil in the skillet on medium-high heat. Cook the onion and chicken until the chicken is cooked through, approximately 5 minutes.
7. Add the remaining vegetables and stir-fry them together for 2 minutes.
8. Slowly add a few tablespoons of sauce while stirring the vegetables and chicken. Continue to add the sauce a few tablespoons at a time, allowing about 15 seconds between each addition to allow sauce to slightly cook down.
9. Spoon the stir-fry over a bowl of hot rice. Serve immediately.

Chicken Pita with Hummus & Veggies

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope your weekend has been fun and relaxing thus far. I'm having a laid back weekend at home as Stuart is attending a conference in Seattle through next Wednesday. I definitely wish I could have joined him, if only so I could revisit our old stomping grounds and binge on Mighty-O Donuts and Paseo Sandwiches. It's strange being home alone as typically I'm the one who's off traveling, working, or visiting family. Surprisingly, it's been a bit refreshing to be able to laze around, binge watch The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, go to Zumba three nights in a row, get ahead on work stuff, call all my friends, and eat super random "meals" consisting of weird snack items and leftovers. It's like I'm revisiting my "bachelorette" life!

To avoid living solely on the brown butter chocolate chip cookies I baked earlier this week, I've also been making this pita concoction lately. Nothing at all revolutionary here, but if you are looking to get out of your sandwich rut, pita bread is the answer. Smother a fluffy pita or wrap with the hummus of your choice, then top with sliced tomato, avocado, and grilled chicken breast. Add some lettuce or microgreens and a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and you have an amazingly tasty meal that's also extremely healthy. You could easily make this vegetarian by omitting the chicken and swapping it out for more veggies. The customizations are endless!

Ingredients:

Pita bread

Hummus (I used Trader Joe's Three Layer Hummus)

Lettuce/Greens

Cherry tomatoes

Avocado

Grilled chicken (I used Trader Joe's pre-cooked grilled chicken with lemon)

Salt & Pepper

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Hello! As you may have noticed it's taking me some time to get back into my regular blogging mode. After traveling to New York my blogging clock must have been turned off and I've missed the past couple of weekends. For shame! With that excuse in hand, I'm going to pretend that my internal clock is so off kilter that I have no choice but to go back to Fall mode with today's pumpkin based recipe. Yes, pumpkin. But I promise that this delicious pumpkin coffee cake can be enjoyed anytime of the year, no falling leaves required. Just think of a wonderful spiced batter dotted generously with hidden chunks of cream cheese, then topped with a perfectly sweet and crumbly oat topping. In general I'm stymied as to why pumpkin is relegated to November and Thanksgiving. Canned pumpkin is available year round, and in this case, it's exactly what makes this coffee cake moist and delicious.

This recipe comes from I Talk To Food, the blog of our family friend Aubrey. When she originally posted this recipe, Aubrey was living in New York City and attending culinary school. Today, she and her husband Tyler have an amazing catering business in the Lake Tahoe area called Butter + Salt. If you ever need a food event catered in Tahoe, I highly recommend you check them out! So without further ado, here is Aubrey's fabulous pumpkin coffee cake recipe. Despite the time of year, it was just too good to keep to myself.

Cake Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 eggs
½ cup butter, melted
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp allspice or pumpkin pie spice (if you have it)
8 ounces original cream cheese

Oat Topping Ingredients:
½ cup rolled oats
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup butter, cold and cubed
pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice
pinch of salt

Directions:
1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit
2.    ombine eggs, pumpkin, sugars, butter, spices, and salt in a medium bowl
3.    Stir in flour and baking soda until just blended
4.    Pour batter into a buttered coffe cake, pie, or bundt pan
5.    Push small chunks of cream cheese into the batter until all used
6.    In another small bowl, combine the topping ingredients. Sprinkle over the top of the batter.
7.    Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

 

New York City 2015

I just returned from an epic vacation that consisted of the following itinerary: SLO -> Oakland -> Boston -> Rhode Island -> New York City -> Oakland -> Nevada -> SLO. I've been a bit busy catching up on life and work, which is what I am going to use as my excuse for the overly long blog silence! We decided to take a more lengthy trip this spring because Stuart had his very last spring break of all time. That's right - he will be graduating from his master's program in June, so we decided to take advantage of these last built-in breaks while we can!

We took a red-eye flight to Boston and arrived around 7am, after which we had about 9 hours to explore the city before catching a train to our friends' house in Rhode Island. We ate breakfast at Flour Bakery in Boston, which is a great place to grab a delicious meal or pastry. We then explored Quincy Market, Cambridge and Harvard, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the shopping on Newbury Street. A highlight was stepping in from the cold (20 degree!) day to enjoy a cup of L.A. Burdick hot chocolate.

We then hopped on a train to Providence, Rhode Island where we met up with my good college friend Ashley and her fiance Arul. They met on a plane ride back from India (how romantic!) before getting engaged during her time volunteering for the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. Arul cooked us an Indian food feast the first night, and the second night we went to a wonderful Italian restaurant. In between we visited the Pawtucket Wintertime Farmers' Market, which was located in a very cool warehouse building with lots of goodies on display.

On Sunday we made it to New York City, our ultimate destination! I previously featured a NYC food guide after our first trip in 2013, but this trip was truly another decadent and food-centric adventure. I can't claim that these were "budget" foodie experiences by any means - they were vacation indulgences that would not have been possible without local knowledge (my sister, a resident of NYC) and generous family members (my grandma and Auntie Roz, who joined us for part of the trip). Here we go with a summary of the top meals...

1. Casellula Cheese and Wine Cafe We enjoyed a fabulous first meal at this intimate and affordable spot. Between six of us we ordered practically the whole menu, a sampling shown below:

 

 

Pork buns - one of my favorite dishes here

Bone marrow - not a fan but gave it a try!

"Pig's Ass" sandwich - yum 

 Stuart's sundae and my cheesecake, above and below

2. Ma Peche: Momofuka We had barely digested our dinner at Casellula when it was time for lunch at Ma Peche. This is part of a popular chain of restaurants and had some interesting dishes. My favorites here included the fried chicken and the spicy pork rice.

 Spicy pork rice

 Lobster rice

 Country fried chicken

 Chicken consomme

My sister enjoying some green tea

3. Briciola This teeny tiny restaurant in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood serves up some great Italian dishes and house made pastas. They don't take reservations, but by going around 5pm we managed to fit in our party of six easily. The burrata, pastas, and tiramisu were all excellent, and the ambiance of the little space filled floor to ceiling with wine bottles can't be beat. 

 Artichoke appetizer

 Burrata appetizer

4. Decoy This dinner was a standout experience. A local restaurant owner and family friend introduced Decoy, another tiny spot that features one big communal table. We opted for the pricey pre-fixe menu option, which required a reservation about a month in advance. With the set menu you get their signature crispy duck (limited quantity served per day), as well as the option to choose a number of main dishes based on the size of your party. It was so dark that the photos simply can't do the menu justice. Dishes included pickled vegetables and fried fish skin starters, plus amazing duck, vegetable fried rice, and pork/fish/meat entrees.

 Pickled fruit and veggie appetizer

 The delicious duck, above and below

5. Hell's Kitchen We were lucky enough to eat at family friend John's newly re-opened restaurant, Hell's Kitchen, which just moved to a new location in the neighborhood. The margaritas were strong and the tortilla chips and taco options were to die for!

6. Toto Ramen This place is right next to my sister's apartment and always has a line out the door. We finally decided to try the delicious ramen they feature, which included an involved system of putting your name on a list as soon as you arrive (even if they aren't open yet, the list is on the door), ordering your food while standing outside on the sidewalk (so that it's ready as soon as you sit down), and then eating quickly so that others in line can experience the ramen after you! Cash only.

 Miso Ramen with chicken

 Spicy Ramen with pork (my favorite)

Wow, what a week!! You can bet that I stocked up on fruits and veggies as soon as we got home. This little foodie needs a detox! NYC, I can't wait to see you again.