Addicted to Cookbooks...

Although I have moved into my husband's house for 3+ months now, I have not fully unpacked everything yet.  The house was a little bit messy so we decided to slowly organize/clean/decorate each room slowly.  The first room we tackled was our living room.  were boxes, books that were piled up in towers leaning against the wall.  It felt very, college-dorm-ish.  SO, a few weeks ago, we went to the local store and bought 2 bookcases for our books.  After spending 2 hours trying to decipher the "simple" all pictures instructions, we managed to put together our two bookcases.  I was very proud of us!  So now we have a his/her bookcases that stand side by side. I thought it was interesting that I have so many cookbooks---and notice that they're all different cusines.  I ADORE cookbooks with pictures and can't help but browse through a few every time that I go to the bookstores.  I love trying different types of food and would get bored if I am forced to eat the same type of food everyday...

Moving on now to some food...I was looking for an easy and delicious chicken dish to make for dinner.  Lo and behold look at what I've found --- May I introduce you to the best chicken dish ever?...ever?? BOURBON CHICKEN (but actually needed no bourbon to make.) This dish is ridiculously easy!!! DELISH!!! Fabulous with rice. I will divulge this fantastic recipe below. 

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1-2 tablespoon olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/4 teaspoon ginger

3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 cup apple juice

1/3 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup soy sauce

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet.

2. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned.

3. Remove chicken.

4. Add remaining ingredients, heating over medium Heat until well mixed and dissolved.

5. Add chicken and bring to a hard boil.

6. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

7. Serve over hot rice and ENJOY.

I feel like Chicken tonight...

Last week, I took advantage of a good sale on chicken at Fry’s and bought 2 packs of chicken drumsticks because they had a “buy 1 get 1 free” deal. I couldn’t resist FREE CHICKEN so now I have quite a bit of drumsticks at home but it was not a problem, I decided to make another chicken dish! I was thinking of making something Indian but Kar said “oh chicken curry like your mom made?” I thought about it and figure OK I’ll give it a try. It’s intimidating because my mom cooks without exact measurement. Her style is one learned from experience so a little bit of this and a little bit of that, to taste! It’s very hard for me to cook like that because I NEED exact measurements. Anyways, I was gamed and called my mom up for her secret recipe and of course, it was a little bit of this and that. Ultimately, it turned out just fine by some miracle. We ate it with a French Baguette but it can also be eaten with plain rice. Delicious, this curry was different than the previous chicken curry because it was slightly sweet, more similar to Thai-style curry. This time, Kar was super motivated and took the pictures of the food himself. He did not allow me to eat until he was done. I had to wait despite being so hungry!!!!!

After a long time...

It has been a long time since I updated this blog but it was because I was busy with exercising before. Now, I have time to cook again so I am beginning to experiment making different dishes. Monday, I was feeling ambitious so I decided to make sambar, prawns, and potato roast. This time the whistling pressure cooker didn't scare me so much...I managed to make decent food. The sambar was a little too thick so I need to add more water next time.





Tuesday was left over prawns, potato roast, and potato & chicken curry. Soon, I think I will make something Italian.


Other news, Kar is down with cold. He has been sick since last week, first jetlagged then cold. Poor fellow.

Japanese - Chicken Egg Rice

I have been interested in cooking Japanese dishes lately, cravings that developed from eating delicious (oishii) sushi two weekends ago. Tonight, I decided to make a simple Japanese dish, modified from a recipe in this book Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go by Naomi Kijima.

In the original recipe, it was Chicken-Tofu Rice but I have replaced the tofu ingredient with eggs because I don't have any tofu at home. This dish was pretty good but the rice was a little bit dry so next time, I need to add more water than the recommended. Served with Sriracha (Thai hot sauce), this dish earned 3.5 stars out of 5 by amateur food critic, Karthik. This dish was very simple to make, inexpensive, and healthy. All photos were taken by Karthik.