Cucumber Carrot thing...

So, sometimes you need that little extra side dish to go with the main entree
without it being something heavy in carbs or a regular salad.

You can whip this cucumber carrot thing together in a matter of minutes.
It's kind of a slaw, kind of a salad but basically one the easiest side dishes
you can make from scratch and pretty healthy as well.

Take a carrot and a cucumber
(one of each for the picture below-enough for 2-3 people)
and cut it, slice it, dice it, make cool shapes,
whatever and however you want the pieces to look.

Throw it into a bowl, add drizzle of rice vinegar (about 2 TBSP)
and grate in half an apple.

When it comes to flavors, you often want something tart/bitter/sour
to be paired with something sweet to counter balance each other.
In this case, the grated apple works really well with the rice vinegar.
Granted, you can add some sugar instead but let's be healthier and
grate in an apple- you can grate a pear instead if you'd like also.

That's all there is to it.

It always tastes better when you use fresh and whole ingredients and as you can see,
you can actually see the grated apple pieces as you eat your simple slaw as a side dish.

Triple Spicy Fried Beef..........yum

While I was dining out, I came across a dish I enjoy quite a bit.  I've been back
to the restaurant to order that same dish among other dishes BUT!

I've also made something close to it while still keeping it my own and original at home.
Now, if you enjoy beef, spicy beef, beef jerky, extra spicy dry beef...
you will almost positively love this dish!

First, heat some oil in a pan or turn your home deep fryer on.

Start with some beef, I usually go with the beef that is already cut into strips-
(it's usually marked for stir-fry, typically a type of chuck)
I usually take the strips and cut them in half to make them even more into
thin strips like the picture below.

By the time you've rinsed and cut your beef the oil should be ready.
I recommend washing/rinsing everything you eat and with that-
please make sure you pat the beef with a paper towel so that you don't splash oil on
yourself when the beef hits the oil. If there is water on the beef, it will cause a mean war.
I mean, MEAN WAR!

You are going to fry the beef 3 times. LITERALLY.
So, once your oil is ready, drop the raw beef in.
(If you have a wooden spoon or chopstick- you can stick the handle part in and
if the oil bubbles/fizzles or has any movement... it is ready)

The picture above is after frying it the first time.
The bottom picture is after it has been fried the 2nd time.

After you deep fry the beef 3 times, if your beef is a lot browner-
you are on the right track.
If your beef is very dry looking and tasting- you are even more on track!
Make sure you have some paper towels to drain the oil from the deep frying.
I usually enjoy salty things so I add a sprinkle of salt right after it comes out
of the hot oil as it is sitting on the paper towel.

As far as the marinating or adding flavor to the beef,
I add a drizzle of soy sauce  (maybe 1 TBSP)
and about 1/2 a TBSP on crushed pepper powder
(the Korean pepper powder works best)
Simply just toss the beef around in the mixing bowl so the soy sauce
and hot pepper powder gets evenly distributed among all the beef pieces.

I recommend using celery or green string beans for the vegetable in this dish.
You could use broccoli but I recommend using celery or
string beans because of 2 reasons.
1.  String beans are already long shaped and celery can be cut easily into
long match sticks to be a similar shape as the beef.
2. Both of these 2 veggies are on the sweeter side and a veggie like broccoli is more
on the bitter of the green veggies (that's typically why it's used in sweeter stir-fry dishes)

Being that my Triple Spicy Fried Beef is a spicy dish, the sweeter green veggie
will complement it better.

As far as the sauce, I usually don't add hot peppers to a sauce/dish.
I will usually just add the Korean pepper paste or hot pepper powder flakes
(associated in making Kimchi) BUT! I saw these peppers at the store and they
were labeled "Vietnamese hot peppers"  To be honest, I bought them because they
were cute.  Sometimes, the cute factor can over power things right...? ......right?

I mean, I even took the time to lay them out all cute on my cutting board and everything.

NOW, if you dare to use hot peppers in the dish...

I do highly recommend letting all tasters know the peppers are a cute factor and not

necessarily meant to be eaten.  (Or stick with all red/orange ones- 

so they can't get confused with a green bean- with the sauce it gets similar looking)

If you do end up with a hot pepper and the inside of your mouth feels like that there

is a Cali wild fire blazing... I recommend drinking some milk or anything that has 

dairy, yogurt, cheese etc...  It will calm the wild fire down. 

The sauce is equal parts of... (start with 3 TBSP)
3 TBSP  soy sauce
3 TBSP  Hoisin sauce
3 TBSP A-1 steak sauce
1 TBSP of rice vinegar  (white vinegar is ok)
honey  (about 1 TBSP  or 1 good squeeze of the bear)
pepper powder (start with 1 TBSP- add to desired spiciness)
sprinkle of sesame seeds (roasted/toasted only)

This is a sauce so it will change depending on how many people you are feeding/serving.
(This amount fed 3 people. )

You definitely want to enjoy this spicy dry beef dish with rice, white, brown, wild red,
or mix it up... whatever floats your boat or basically makes your stomach and eyes smile!

Baking Soda away your bug bites

As summer approaches us with the hot weather-
and with hot damp weather - we get approached by
mosquito bites and all sorts of bug bites for that matter.

A common ingredient we tend to have when cooking
and cleaning is baking soda.

I've recently found out that baking soda is a great inexpensive
remedy to use to ease and sooth your skin
AFTER you have been bit. Unfortunately.

All you have to do is add a little bit of water, enough to make a table spoon or 2
of the baking soda to become pasty.
Rub the pasty baking soda onto all the spots that are itching you
and your skin will stop driving you crazy!

If you ever come into contact with poison ivy or any type of
allergic reaction on your skin-
you can add 3-4 tablespoons of baking soda right into your bath water
and that will help ease your entire body!

Strawberry Banana Pudding Pops

The easiest frozen homemade popsicle to make is simply taking yogurt and filling your frozen pop container.

Another way is to take any fresh fruit and a pudding mix and mix them together.

Being that May is strawberry season, I decided to use strawberries and a banana cream pudding mix.

Not only are home made popsicles so easy to make but so much healthier the the flavors are endless LITERALLY!

Balsamic Beef Skewered Salad

As the weather gets warmer, cooking on the grill becomes more and more attractive.
I decided to make some balsamic beef skewers and top the beef on a really, really
simple salad.  As far as the salad...
it's just Romaine lettuce chopped up with some slices of sun-dried tomatoes
and fresh mozzarella cheese cut into little squares.
The dressing I enjoy most is Kraft's Greek Vinegarette. It is made with olive oil,
oregano and olives with feta cheese.  I enjoy it because it's light tasting and it doesn't
overpower the actual food.

A simple tip for salad is also:  mix or toss the salad with the dressing right before you
are going to eat it rather than drizzling it on the top.
It makes a HUGE difference when it is mixed thoroughly rather than just on top
almost like a drizzled dip.  

You can grill these skewers on a grill or you can broil them in the oven!
P.s. don't mind the sweet peppers grill/roasting in the background.
It's all about double duty or in this case- multitasking.  I had a huge bag of peppers
and roasting them in the oven or grill and then cutting them into strips allows them
to last longer but also good for sandwiches, salads and even pastas.

The recipe for the marinade:
sirloin or rib-eye cut beef is best for this
2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
2 TBSP of soy sauce
1 TBSP of worcestershire sauce
2 garlic cloves chopped up
1 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP dijon  mustard (I like the whole grain dijon mustard from Trader Joes)
1TBSP of any herb (I used basil, you can use, basil, oregano, thyme or Italian Seasonings)


Simply cut your beef into bite size squares, throw them into a mixing bowl
and then add the marinade ingredients in on top, stir it around or use tongs
to mix well together and then skewer away!
If you are using wooden skewers- please soak them AT LEAST 20 minutes
and if you don't soak the wooden ones... they WILL burn, turn black and break off.

Sit Back and Sip Some...

Sometimes after a busy day it's nice to sit back and enjoy a nice glass of something.
Some people go straight for the beer or wine.

Sometimes, nothing is better than a nice cold refreshing glass of water.
Water is great for our bodies and sometimes it's nice to enjoy it with a little something extra!

Have you ever seen the silicon trays for ice cubes?  They come in all different shapes
these days. Add some fruit and herbs to them and not only is it fun and cute but it adds
a little something extra to your water.

I took the star and x shaped trays and filled it with some strawberry and basil,
lemon and mint in another and some lime and mint in some as well.
I then took water from a water bottle and conveniently filled the few drops it needed
to fill the shapes.

It's great to make ice cubes out of your favorite drinks as well so your drinks
don't get as diluted when you add plain ice to them BUT! sometimes just a little water
with a little lemon and mint is great also!

            

 

Exotic Stir Fried Rice w/ Pineapple

I'm pretty sure everyone has eaten fried rice at some point.
The most popular fried rice seems to be pork fried rice. Although pork fried rice can be good- the slight negative is that-

A long time ago- only the people with money in China could afford beef- a.k.a. red meat.
So, long history short, people started to take pork and dye it red to make it more like beef.
You could say it was clever or you could say it was just to satisfy the mind.

Either way, I'd like to share my exotic stir-fried rice with chilled pineapple recipe.
It's still quite simple but fresher and definitely tastier.

 

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice (2-3 serving as meal)
2 carrots shredded, then chopped into small pieces
1 medium onion diced small
2 scrambled eggs
small handful snow peas chopped (maybe 10)
3-4 heaping tablespoons of crushed pineapple (added at the end as optional)

Ingredients for sauce:
4 TBSP soy sauce
1 TBSP ground mustard
1/2 inch grated ginger
2 Tbs molasses

Procedure:
1. cook rice, stir, set aside
2. make sauce, set aside (easy to have ready)
3. scramble eggs, set aside in bowl
4. shred, dice all veggies & fry vegetables
when veggies are almost completely cooked... stir in sauce and 
add cooked rice while mixing it all together, turn the stove off...
5. add crushed pineapples at the end and mix (pineapple is optional)