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Finally - Part III - The Ricening (where I made the Fried Rice ... right? Yeah ... dumb joke. But I'm still including it in the post). 

Now I've never actually made this before either, but the recipes online all looked pretty similar - pretty much all you need is cooked rice and chopped veggies. BTW, the veggies can be, literally, ANYTHING you have handy. I saw everything from frozen carrot/pea/corn packages to hand chopping whatever you had in the fridge. Personally, while I didn't take the super-cheap route of frozen veggies (not that there's anything wrong with that, we all have lives), I opted for some pre-cut soup veggies (and also more garlic). 

I pulled out my other medium fry pan, heated some more oil, then added the garlic until it was fragrant (about 30-45 seconds). Then I added the rest of the veggies. 

There was a little salt involved next, and I reduced the heat slightly, then covered the pan to let them start to sweat a bit. Roughly3-5 minutes later, I added the soy sauce. 

Next, the egg. I moved the veggies over a bit and cracked me an egg off to the side of the pan. 

I wasn't sure if only one would be enough, but just about every recipe I saw said you only needed one. I opted for faith in the interwebs. Then I scrambled it in like I was making breakfast. 

Next I added 2 cups of cooked rice, and more soy sauce. 

And in the end, well dang. It was pretty good. 

As I'm writing this, I'm starting to see how the biggest time eater with this process was the sauce - everything else seemed pretty reasonable. So maybe we'll play about a bit with it and see if I can speed it up a tad. But in the meanwhile, I hope you've enjoyed this as much as I have. Stay fat, friends, and happy fooding!

This is where we talk about the "chicken" part of Orange Chicken. 

If you remember, in our last thrilling episode, we last left our protein hero smothered in marinade, locked away in the bowels of my refrigerator - but now we shall make it free! ... ish. Out of the marinade and into the frying pan free ... that counts, right? 

I started with some oil. 

Now you could use a deep fryer too - in fact a few of the recipes I saw online called for exactly that - but I did not feel like dealing with them hassle that is a deep fryer, so we opted to pan fry. In goes the chicken... 

And while that was cooking, I cut up some broccoli and onion. 

I cooked the chicken in a few small batches, because lots of meat a only a regular sized frying pan. But it worked :) 

And I set it aside. 

Which left me with this: 

Which was perfect to dump the veggies in. 

Also, somewhere along the line, my band-aid gave up again. RIP Band-Aid Number 2 (I did not replace it this time). 

Once the veggies were all set, I added the chicken back in. 

Then that sauce that took so darn long to make 

And Poof! Now all we needed was the Fried Rice ... which we'll get to in Part III - Stay Tuned!

So as the title suggests, we're gonna do this in 3 separate parts. Why? Because (and please forgive me) this food creation was a BEAST! 2.5 hours and counting - not for the faint of heart! 

And while a staunch part of me has planted it's proverbial flag in the ground to declare that it will never, EVER attempt this maddness again ... now that's been a little time since I made it ... I'm not so sure. I'm wondering if there's not some way or some thing I can do differently or more streamlined that would still allow this dish to be made from scratch but maybe be a little easier to prepare? Possibly. 

Actually, I hope so, because it was really darn good and I'd like to give it another shot. But for now, here's the mountain path I plodded on down .. the first part anyway. So let's dive right in to 

... the SAUCE! 

... wait that's chicken. Right. Because I started with marinating the chicken first. 

First, I cut up the chicken breasts into roughly 1" pieces.. Then I took some flour, orange juice (freshly squeezed), and soy sauce for a very runny batter (aka marinade).

I mixed in the chicken bits, and set to the side ... in the refrigerator ... because no one likes food poisoning. 

And speaking of salmonella, once I was done with the chicken I washed up my work space, which is SUPER important. You don't have to be in a restaurant to understand the importance of keeping stuff safe. 

Ok .. NOW the sauce. I looked at a couple different recipes online before diving into this mess, and it seemed pretty simple. Orange Zest, Orange Juice, Soy. Garlic. Rice Vinegar (which I didn't have and couldn't find at the little grocery shop near my house on the way home, so I subbed out white vinegar because some of the online ideas suggested that one instead). 

BEHOLD! My team players ... 

... except ... except the sugar and brown sugar that I totally forgot about until later ... and the corn starch ... which I didn't have and had to improvise (but we'll get to those soon enough) 

I started by zesting the orange. 

.. and apparently, my thumb too. 

But in my defense, I've never used that part of my shredding contraption before. I had no idea how hungry the darn thing was OR how sharp. Lesson learned. Band-aid applied. The sojourn continues. 

So I zested up the oranges, 

Squeezed them, 

And added the soy sauce and vinegar (process not shown). Roughly, I started with equal parts of juice and vinegar, but quickly realized that I needed more orange in the mix. good thing I picked up a little bottle of OJ, just in case! Then the garlic... 

Now, I usually get my garlic whole and crush/mince it myself. I just like it better that way, but I supposed you could use jarred stuff too. Anywhoo, I started by peeling the whole clump (there's a technical term for this thing, but heck if it'll come to me right now). 

Also, Between the juicing and mixing and peeling, the band-aid came off. RIP Band-Aid Number 1. 

So I got a new one. 

But back to the garlic. If you've never minced your own before, all you have to do is peel the cloves, 

Place them one by one under the flat of your kitchen knife, 

Then smash them. 

Repeat for all cloves. Slide them together, then chop them up super fine. 

Once that was done, I added them to the mix and got some heat under it. 

I was stirring for a while when I decided to taste it again and it crossed my mind that I remembered Orange Chicken Sauce being sweeter .. at which point I was like, "OH CRAP! I FORGOT THE SUGARS!!!" 

The brown sugar isn't pictured, but it was a light brown sugar that I used. I began adding them (mostly the brown) until things started to taste more normal for what I remembered. But the sauce was still more runny than I wanted. I remembered asking myself if the sugar would thicken it, telling myself this was a dumb question and OF COURSE it wouldn't ... and promptly remembered the 2nd thing I forgot - the corn starch. 

Now I could'a SWORN I had some at home already, but either I was wrong or my corn starch is goram ninja. Either way, I never located it. So instead, I subbed with flour. 

Simple slurry - get some flour, 

Add water to flour, 

Mix it up and pour it in to whatever boiling liquid you're hoping to thicken. 

Honestly, it worked just fine. The biggest differences I've ever noticed between using Corn Starch and using Flour is that 1.) you need more flour than you do corn starch and 2.) corn starch keeps a clear broth/sauce while flour makes it a little more opaque/cloudy. 

But, finally, after adding more sugar/soy/OJ and a good few minutes of nail-biting, WE HAD ORANGE SAUCE. All in all, this took about an hour and 20-30 minutes. Part I was finally done. 

... I know usually I try to give amounts of the stuff I used at this part in the write up ... but I gotta come clean - I have no bloody clue. 2 oranges? roughly the same in vinegar but eyeballed? Plus more? some soy? 5 garlics? sugar I ... uh ... yeah ... there was sugar involved. Sorry folks no idea what the make up is. 

But I'm pretty sure some of my own flesh and blood is in there too ... cuz hungry zester. 

... and stay tuned for part II !

​
While making pork chops the other night, I needed a good side dish. I was out of cheese, so my usual go-to Macaroni and Cheese was out of the question, plus I wanted something kinda colorful. 

(... and if I'm being fair, I wasn't *completely* out of cheese, just out of the stuff to grate up. I hate using pre-shredded cheese for Mac & Cheese​ because it never melts up quite right for a smooth sauce ... but maybe I'll go over that another time.) 

Enter the tomato-herb rice I ended up conjuring -  it even got the Husband Seal Of Approval, so you know it's gotta be good. LOL 

Now I used to HATE making rice because I could never get it right. Either it burned it to the bottom of the pan OR it was still crunchy. I don't own a rice maker (cuz I'm cheap and folks made rice for thousands of years just fine), and figured I must be missing something. 

Well, I was - TOASTING THE RICE! Seriously, such a simple step at the beginning makes a HUGE difference in how the rice turns out. Here's how I did it: 

Roughly 2 tablespoons of butter, melted in my saucepan then one cup of plain white rice. Stir. Constantly. Do not falter! Do not step away. If someone is dying ask them to call 911 their damn selves - constant stirring is CRUCIAL! First the rice will start to look translucent, then opaque...

... And then it will start to brown. When all (or the vast majority) of the rice bits look like they're brown, toasting is done.

Add 2 cups of water (the first one you add will do this fun insta-boil thing with a nifty WSHHHHH noise - possibly one of my favorite parts of this process). 
 

If you've read any of my other posts, you know I'm a Knorr Bullion kinda gal - and this recipe is no exception. This time I chose the Tomato Chicken Bullion - stuff is fantastic! 

Also, if you've read any of my other posts, you know I don't really "measure" stuff - but I'd guestimate about 1 tsp of bullion per cup of water I use (cuz ratios) got added. Then it was time to choose the herbs. 

Garlic, onion, sage, seasoning salt - and that's it. I like to keep flavor profiles similar to whatever the main dish is (in this case the pork had all of those, plus oregano and pepper) so they complement each other. I added the herbs, brought it to a boil, stirred, dropped the burner down to med-low, and covered the rice. 

I read somewhere that you're not supposed to stir the rice while it's cooking because that'll make it clump up funny and have a bad texture. Personally, I ignore that rule, but your mileage may vary. I don't stir a lot, but every now and again. 

Usually I watch for the pits to just start forming - little divots where the water boils through the rice.

Once I see those, I give it one more stir, turn off the burner, and put the lid back on, letting it set for another 10 minutes or so covered, so the rice can finish cooking and sucking up all the water. 

And then that's pretty much it.

If you wanna try it on your own, here's the ROUGH breakdown of ingredients: 

2 tablespoons butter 

1 cup rice 

2 cups water 

2 tsp Knorr Tomato Chicken Bullion 

1/4 tsp seasoning salt 

1/4 tsp garlic granules 

1/4 tsp onion granules 

1/2 tsp rubbed sage 

 

 

Lemme know how it turns out! Happy Fooding!

The first time I ever had Chicken Marsala, it was with a group of performers when we went out for dinner after a day working the Renaissance Fair. It said it had mushrooms, and you know how sometimes something just jumps off the page on the menu? Well that’s what happened. When the plate came out and I tried my first bite … I. Was. In. LOVE. 

So much so that, not long after, I decided I wanted to try making it myself. I looked up recipes online and on Pinterest … and was super disappointed to see that I needed a special ingredient: Marsala Wine. Thing is, I didn’t want to make a special trip to the store just for one item for one dish. I figured I’d just remember one time while shopping. 

Fast forward about 2 years or … or so … yeah, for real. 

But I finally picked some up, and I’ve been on a one-pot-pasta kick for a bit, so I thought I’d see how Chicken Marsala translated to a one-pot dish. 

First, I took 3 medium sized chicken breasts and diced them up. They were still a little frozen – which I prefer because it makes the dicing easier – but still thawed enough to cut. A splash of oil in the pot, and then cooked until no longer pink in the middle. 

While those were cooking, I rinsed a package of fresh, sliced mushrooms and chopped up medium sized yellow onion. 

Once the chicken was cooked, I transferred the chicken bits to a bowl, leaving the oil in the pan. 

Then I added the mushrooms and the onions, added some seasoning salt, then covered the pot to let them cook until the onions started to become translucent. 

Here’s where things got a little dicey (and honestly, I was a little worried for a moment). I wanted nice, long fettuccini noodles. The challenge was that I was trying to do this all in one pot, so that meant no plethora of water to boil the noodles in. So I put in enough milk and water (roughly a 3/1 ratio) to cover the mushrooms and onions and let the finger crossing begin.

(Normally, if I had used a smaller noodle like penne or bow tie or even macaroni, I’d just add enough liquid to cover the pasta and call it good – but with long noodles they were gonna have to cook down from a standing position.)

So I watched them like a hawk, covering them with a lid to help "steam" them a bit.

Then I added the Marsala Wine (roughly 1 cup). 

And little by little pushed them down as they were soft enough to move. 

And added a bit more water or milk when I thought they needed it (but you gotta be super careful there because while it’s really easy to thin out a sauce, fixing a thin sauce to make it thicker is a LOT harder). 

Finally, they were able to move down to where they were mostly covered by the liquid in the pot. And I added a bit more water/milk just to be safe. I also added some loose chicken bullion (Knorr Brand - seriously the best loose bullion out there in my opinion).

At this point, I added the chicken back to the pot, along with some milk and water. And kept watching. Like Crazy. Because. 

But finally, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief, as the noodles cooked up just like they were supposed to, and everything looked fine. I added a little more milk, and the a bunch of Parmesan Cheese (about a cup of that too … eyeballed … cuz I don’t usually measure things … but you can see it was about half the container ... so maybe more than a cup? I dunno ... I really like Parmesan Cheese ... ) 

Once that was mixed in though, we were golden! It turned out wonderfully and was super tasty.

If you wanna try it yourself, here’s the ROUGH ingredient list: 

3 medium chicken breasts 

1 splash … (maybe 3 tablespoons?) of vegetable oil 

1 package of mushrooms, sliced 

1 medium onion 

1 package fettuccini noodles 

1 cup Marsala Wine 

1 cup Parmesan Cheese 

Knorr Chicken bullion ... um ... maybe a teaspoon or two? Not gonna lie I am totally unsure at this point how much I used ...

Enough milk/water in a roughly 3/1 ratio to cover the pasta once it cooks down from a standing position 

Salt/Pepper to taste 

 

So there you have it. If you give it a whirl, I hope it turns out as well for you as it did for me. Happy fooding!

Better late than never, right? 

So a while back I promised a good, hard, recreatable look at the French Onion Soup I made for dinner, and here it is! BTW, this stuff reheats really well too, so you can pack up the leftovers for a quick yummy lunch or take to work on a cold day. 

So let’s start with the obvioius: ONIONS! You’re gonna need a few. I wanna say I used 5 medium yellow onions. Cut in half and then sliced ¼ - ½ inch or so in thickness. They don’t have to be perfectly uniform. 

First I melted a stick of butter in the pan (because EVERYTHIG is better with Butter!), then dropped in the onions and brought the heat up to med-high. Add a little salt, stir frequently, and cover to let the onions “sweat” a bit. Cook until they start to become translucent. 

Now you’re ready to add the stock. I used the Organic Beef Broth from Walmart, but if you have a favorite beef stock, absolutely go with that one! Pour the stock over the onions, then cover and bring to a boil. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat and keep it at a simmer. 

Now if you love French Onion Soup, you know that there are 3 important parts, and we’re gonna talk about the 2nd right now: The Crouton! 

Can you just toss a piece of bread in there in a pinch .. well … yes … and it’ll work … but it won’t be epic. You gotta at least toast it first. But this time, I went all out and got a straight up fancy bread to make my own croutons – and they were amazing! 

And not too expensive either! Something like this costs $1-$1.50 at Walmart or your local grocery store: 

Slice it up and put it on a baking pan. Preheat the oven to 450. Then brush both sides with the oil of your choice (I used Sunflower Oil), and sprinkle on some onion granuels, salt, and maybe a little garlic. Then pop them in the oven. Once they start to look toasted, flip them and put them back. You’ll know their done when they look lightly toasted on both sides. 

We’re almost done! 

Check on your soup. The onions should be all separated and just about transparent by now. Pretty much all that’s left is to put everything together, so here’s how we do it: 

Put a few croutons in a bowl (depending on the size, you may only need one). 

Pour the soup over the croutons. 

Remember when I said French Onion Soup has 3 main parts – well that last one is soup-er important (see what I did there?) and it’s CHEESE! 

You gotta have that melted goodness over the top because … well … you just do! I prefer Swiss Cheese, but you can use Provalone (or even Mozzerella if you prefer your cheeses to be a bit more mild). Place a few slices over the soup and pop the bowl in the microwave for 30 second intervals, until your cheese reaches the desired melty-ness. 

(Now, for HARD CORE French Onion Soup lovers, you can buy special little crocks for your soup and then broil it to melt the cheese – also super good – but I’m poor and simple and ain’t got no fancy soup crocks lol. Maybe some day … but for now, my microwave works just fine.) 

And then, dig in and enjoy!

Best Western Inn - Mishawaka, IN 

I know, this is supposed to be a blog about food, so what are we doing listing a hotel? 

Because - Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and the Continental Breakfast at Best Western Inn in Mishawaka, Indiana deserves to be talked about. 

We travel a lot. We stay in a lot of hotels (because we're Princesses and love our AC, hot showers, and fluffly beds). And more often than not, we try to book hotels that have breakfast included. It saves us time and money in the long run. 

But let's be honest, there are a LOT of mediocre continental breakfasts out there. Whether there's not a lot of options or it's missing something important (like sausage!), or it just doesn't taste super exciting, they're not really anything to write home about. 

But friends, THIS one is an exception! 

We didn't snag pictures of everything on the buffet, but here's what I (Jenn) had for breakfast, and it's totally worth talking about. Well ... mostly ... 

Ok, before you chastise me for a lack of fruits and healthy stuff, understand that I was weak and totally went for the good stuff (except for a waffle, because I was too full afterwards). But overall, this food was impressively delicious. 

Let's start with the Sticks: 

These were pretty darn tasty, although two of them were crunchier than I would have liked, but not so badly that it ruined them. I felt like I was five again (I loved french toast growing up), and there's something satisfying about dipping foods in things. The syrup was pretty standard, and although I opted for maple, there was also an option for honey. 

I made this. I am very proud. 

While I realize that toastables are pretty standard for most CB's, a good CB makes something like this possible. I went with an english muffin, cream cheese, sausage patty, and half-folded egg round. The sausage was really darn good, not too spicy and certainly not bland. The muffin, was pretty standard too, so overall good. but what made it amazing was the egg. 

I have to admit, I was skeptical when I saw it. Eggs with things in them usually are a disappointment at best, but not this time. There were little bits of green pepper, ham, bacon, and cheese in each of these omletty masterpieces, and they were so good I ate the other half BY ITSELF! No salt. No ketchup. As is. And it was delectable! 

Did I mention they had chocolate milk? 

But alas, something had to be less than stellar, and I was so sad to find it to be the biscuits and gravy. 

I usually love this stuff. And while I might not care for it being overly peppery or even bland, I'll usually still eat Biscuits and Gravy because it's one of my favorite breakfast foods. Therefore, it pains me greatly to say that this one went unfinished. 

The biscuit was hard - but I realized this putting it on the plate. No worries, I thought, the Gravy will soften it up. 

This was not true. 

By the time everything else was finished, the gravy had barely made a dent in the solid rock that was that biscuit. But I can handle crunchy biscuits ... 

.. what I cannot handle is gravy that, hand to god, tastes like bologna. 

I don't know how that was even managed, but I was so sad. I tried different bites, and each one confirmed the original assessment - that gravy belonged, solidified, on a sandwich with lettuce and a smear of ketchup. 

... 

All of this said though, despite the disappointment of the Biscuits and Gravy, the continental breakfast was pretty darn good overall. I'll definitely eat there again (we like to book this hotel for shows in the area), and give it a solid 3.5 out of 5.