Honey Ginger Glazed Carrots

I've said this before and I'll say it again: if you don't like vegetables, it's probably because you're making them wrong. And not that it's your fault, you were probably shown wrong. But today is a new day! Vegetables, like any other food, need to be cooked well and seasoned well in order to taste good. Just steaming them and plopping some butter on there just isn't enough (in most cases). Imagine if you just steamed a piece of chicken and then sprinkled a little salt on there and that's it? Yuck...

So how do you add flavor? There are two ways:

1. Cooking method - grilled, braised, roasted, sauteed, etc.
2. Flavorings - compound butter, various herbs and spices, cheese sauce, teriyaki sauce, pesto, etc.

Honey Ginger Carrots

Makes: 4 servings

1 lb baby carrots

1 tbsp butter or butter substitute (I use smart balance)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tbsp honey

1/2 tsp ground ginger

parsley for garnish

• Saute the carrots in the butter and olive oil over medium high heat for about 10 - 12 minutes until the carrots are soft but still slightly crunchy - not mushy at all.
• Add the soy sauce, honey, and ginger and toss the carrots. Continue to cook for about one more minute. The sauce will thicken into a nice sticky glaze.
• Serve with some fresh parsley. I picked mine fresh from my garden! It added a nice delicate lemony flavor.

That's it! This is a nice quick recipe that you can pull together while you've got some chicken or fish baking in the oven. It will taste way better that those frozen deals with the pre-made sauces

*You could also use fresh grated ginger for this recipe if you want. Just remember to double the amount.

Loaded Sweet Potato Fries

I absolutely love sweet potato fries. I don't think there's anything better than a plate of sweet potato fries drizzled with some melted honey butter. Mmmmmm... Now, I know that sweet potatoes are really good for you and they have a lot of great vitamins and minerals. But, as the name suggests, this recipe is not meant to be health food haha! Don't say I didn't warn you! I had some left-over pulled pork so I loaded up my sweet potato fries with some of the left-overs. It was a match made in heaven!

Loaded Sweet Potato Fries
Makes: 4 servings

4 servings of sweet potato fries (that's 336g for those of you who use a food scale)
2 tsp honey
1 cup pulled pork
1/2 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese

• Cook the sweet potato fries by either baking them or deep frying them. I prefer deep frying; it makes them come out lighter and fluffier.
• Once the fries are cooked, pile them up on an oven safe plate. Then drizzle them with the honey.
• If you're using fresh pulled pork, sprinkle it over the fries. If you're using left-overs, reheat it first, then sprinkle it on the fries.
• Top the pulled pork with the shredded cheese. Place the fries under a broiler on high for about 2 minutes until the cheese is melted.
• Dive in!

Pulled Pork

If you've never made pulled pork before, it's truly the easiest thing you can possibly make. Just get a medium sized pork shoulder (sometimes it's called a Boston Butt roast), about 6 - 8 lbs, dump a whole bottle of sauce over it, then cook it in a slow cooker on low for eight hours. It's most commonly made with barbecue sauce, but you could use any kind of sauce you want. You could even make your own. For this particular one, I used Lowry's chop and steak marinade. It was really good! Once the pork is cooked, remove the bones with some tongs. Then, using the same tongs, rip apart the roast and kind of stir it at the same time so that it's eventually shredded. You could also do this with a pair of forks if you like it finely shredded (like us!).

Baklava

If you've never had baklava... I feel sorry for you! It's a Greek dessert made from layers of flaky phyllo dough and a filling made from chopped nuts, sugar, and cinnamon. The final product is then soaked in a simple syrup overnight. Yum! I know you must be sick and tired of phyllo pastries by now, but this is the last one! I promise! It's just that so much dough comes in one box and once you thaw it out, you have to use it. Not that I'm complaining because I love Greek food!

Baklava

Makes: 24 servings

Filling:

16 oz walnuts

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

Dough:

30 sheets of phyllo dough, thawed

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted

Syrup:

1 1/4 cups water

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup honey

• First make the filling. Grind up the walnuts in a food processor until they are very fine, almost a powder.
• Transfer the ground walnuts to a large mixing bowl. Mix in the brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
• With a pastry brush, butter the bottom and edges of a 13" x 9" baking pan.
• Lay down a sheet of phyllo dough in the bottom of the pan. Gently brush the dough with some butter. Continue until you have six sheets of phyllo dough stacked on top of each other, with butter brushed on each one, including the top one. This will make a nice thick bottom layer.
• Now sprinkle in about 3/4 cup of the nut mixture over the buttered phyllo dough.
• Place another three sheets of phyllo dough over the nuts, again buttering each layer, ending with butter on top. Continue this step until you have used all of the nuts. You'll probably get around five or six layers of nuts.
• For the top layer, you will again use six sheets of phyllo dough, buttering each one, ending with butter on the top.
• With a very sharp knife, cut the baklava into squares, then cut each square on the diagonal like so:

• Bake at 350° F for 45 minutes.
• While the baklava is baking, make the syrup. Combine the water, sugar, and honey in a medium sauce pan. Cook over medium high heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture starts bubbling. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes until it gets a little bit thick and syrupy. Be cautious not to overcook this or you'll burn the sugar. If you notice the color of the syrup turning darker at all, remove it from the heat immediately to prevent burning. Also, make sure you're using a wooden spoon to stir this. Anything else will melt from the heat of the syrup.
• Once the syrup is cooked, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool. Be very careful as this syrup is extremely hot and can cause very bad burns.
• Once the baklava is finished cooking, remove it from the oven. Immediately pour the cooled syrup over the entire pan of baklava. At first it will look like the pastry is floating in a pool of syrup. But don't worry, it will all be absorbed.
• Allow the baklava to cool. Cover it and allow it to sit at room temperature overnight. The next day, most of the syrup will be absorbed and the baklava will be delicate, flaky, and slightly sticky. At this point, you may find that you need to re-cut it. Just go over the same lines you made previously using a sharp knife.
• Enjoy!

Honey Lime Chicken

This is another one of those recipes that I just kind of pulled out of thin air. I wasn't sure what to make for dinner so I looked around to see what we had. Honey and lime are a pretty classic flavor combination. You see it a lot in southwestern dishes as well as Thai dishes. I went more in the Asian direction with this one and it was yummy! I made this with chicken breasts, but you could also use chicken thighs or even chicken wings.

Honey Lime Chicken

Makes: 4 servings

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup corn starch

1/2 tsp salt

Marinade:

2 tbsp lime juice

3 tbsp honey

1 clove garlic, finely minced

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sambal oelek or chili garlic sauce

• Combine the lime juice, honey, garlic, soy sauce, and chili sauce. Set aside.
• Cut each of the chicken breasts in half length-wise so that you have four thin chicken breasts.
• Pour half of the marinade into a plastic bag with the chicken and marinate it for 10 - 30 minutes. You don't really want to do more than 30 minutes with an acidic marinade like this because it will make the chicken mushy.

• While the chicken in marinating, combine the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.
• Remove the chicken from the marinade, then toss in the flour mixture. You want just a very thin coating on the chicken. This is going to create a thin, delicate crust.
• Deep fry the chicken at 350° F for 3 - 5 minutes total until deep brown and cooked through. Or cook in a heavy bottomed skillet filled with 1/2" of oil on medium heat for 3 - 4 minutes per side.
• Remove the chicken from the oil and allow to rest.
• While the chicken is resting, heat the other half of the marinate in a small sauce pan over medium heat for 4 - 5 minutes until the sauce bubbles and just starts to thicken. Remove from the heat.
• Plate the chicken then spoon some of the sauce over each piece. There will only be a very small amount of sauce but it's strong stuff so it will be plenty for four pieces of chicken.
• Serve the chicken over white rice, brown rice, rice pilaf, couscous, or quinoa. This dish pairs really well with some bok choy that has been chopped, sauteed until al dente, then tossed with just a little bit of soy sauce.

This was great as is but I can't wait to try it on the grill. I think it will be even more delicious!

Asian Wings Two Ways

Matt and I love chicken wings. Whenever we eat them, I'll make half with buffalo sauce and half with some other kind of sauce. Because you can't make wings without at least some of them being buffalo style. I'm pretty sure that's sacrilege. The "other" half of the wings are usually something sweet like sweet chili, teriyaki, barbecue, etc. A few nights ago I was in the mood to try making my own sauce. So, I thought I'd give it a try!

The Wings:
I actually prefer to bake my wings. Which may seem weird, but I've actually found that they come out crispier when I bake them versus deep frying them.

15 chicken wings cut into separate wingettes and drumettes (30 pieces total)
Cooking spray

• Preheat oven to 375° F.
• Lay chicken wings in a single layer on a baking sheet then spray with a very thin layer of cooking spray. This will help make the wings crispy.
• Bake for 45 minutes.

If you're unfamiliar with separating chicken wings, here's a quick tutorial you can watch: How to Cut & Separate Chicken Wings into Sections for Buffalo Wings
Bonus: the guy's glasses are pretty epic. Enjoy.

Chinese Five Spice Wings:

These are actually so simple I'm almost embarrassed to call it a recipe. It's really more of an idea for a flavor combination than it is a recipe. Anyway, here you go:

1/2 Tsp Chinese Five Spice
10 Chicken wings (5 wingettes, 5 drumettes)

• In a large bowl, toss the cooked wings in Chinese Five Spice as soon as they come out of the oven.
• There is no second step. I just wanted another bullet point.
• I guess the next step could be to eat them. Yes. Eat them. Eaaat themmmmm.

Hoisin Glazed Wings:

If you've never had hoisin sauce, it's sometimes referred to as Chinese barbecue sauce. Though it tastes nothing like barbecue sauce. But you can use it in the same applications and it's relatively sweet. You can find it almost anywhere in the Asian section. I got mine at Walmart.

2 Tbsp Hoisin sauce

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp honey

10 Chicken wings (5 wingettes, 5 drumettes)

• In a large bowl, whisk together the Hoisin, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and honey.
• Toss the wings in the sauce as soon as they come out of the oven.
• Return the wings to the baking sheet and bake for another 5 minutes.

What to do with the other 10 chicken wings? Toss them in buffalo sauce!!!

Compound Butter

We had some friends over this weekend to celebrate Labor Day. As one last hurrah of the summer, we decided to go all out with a steak and shrimp dinner on the grill. I marinated some zucchini and summer squash in my garlic herb marinade recipe from this post. Then I skewered some shrimp and sprinkled it with a little Cajun seasoning. For the steak, I like to keep that simple. I just sprinkled some salt and pepper on them and grilled them until medium. Then I put a garlic chive compound butter on the hot steaks as soon as they came off the grill. The butter melts with all the yummy herbs and combines with the juice from the steak to create a wonderful plate sauce that's just begging to be sopped up by a piece of crusty bread.

Compound butter is just butter that has yummy stuff added to it. You soften the butter at room temperature for about an hour. Then add whatever flavorings you like by mashing them into the softened butter with a fork. Here are a few examples of flavor combinations and what you might use them for:

• Honey and cinnamon - breads, grilled or baked fruits (especially peaches!)
• Garlic and chives - vegetables, chicken, fish, steak
• Bleu cheese, bacon, and chives or scallions - chicken, steak, breads
• Orange zest and cardamom - breads, chicken, grilled or baked fruits
• Lime zest, garlic, and cayenne - fish, chicken

This is definitely not an exhaustive list. But it's a great place to start!

Once you have mixed the butter with the herbs and spices, spoon the butter into a ziploc bag. Then snip off one corner of the bag and pipe out little portion sizes on to wax paper. If you're really against wasting a bag, you can just spoon the mixture onto the wax paper and smooth it out with the back of the spoon. Refrigerate the butter until used. Freeze any leftovers for later use.

Keeping compound butter in the freezer makes for a really easy weeknight meal. You can pick up some fresh fish on your way home from work. Broil the fish then melt some compound butter on top as soon as it comes out of the oven. Use the same compound butter to saute some red potatoes and green beans. Easy and delicious!