Archive for January, 2007

I’ve been looking for an excuse to use these cute new mini gravy boats I purchased last week. I was trolling up and down the kitchenware aisles in Target looking for that enameled dutch oven. No dutch oven, but I didn’t leave empty handed.

The mini gravy boats were on clearance for $1.48 each so I picked up the only three available. I now have to go find three more, but that’s another problem. I figured I’d whip up some salad dressing to break them in but as I was plating up the Mahi Tempura tonight, I got another idea.

Half way through making dinner I realized that we didn’t have any sweet & sour sauce. My husband loves his Mahi Tempura with sweet & sour sauce on the side. Empowered by my recent ricotta success, I grabbed my husband’s PowerBook and hit up Google for a good sweet & sour sauce recipe.

Now, I don’t know what really compromises a “good” sweet & sour sauce recipe but I found a recipe. It was a simple recipe that called for ketchup. We aren’t a ketchup family but I did have a bottle of shrimp cocktail that would have to do. It was… different. The rice wine vinegar left the sauce a little more sour than your everyday store-bought variety. It wasn’t candy apple red like your everyday store-bought variety either. All in all, not terrible. I’ll probably use ketchup next time and either increase the brown sugar by a tablespoon or decrease the vinegar by a couple of tablespoons.

I transferred the sweet & sour sauce into the mini gravy boats. Looked great, worked well – it was $1.48 well spent!

Sweet & Sour Sauce recipe (adapted from About.com)

Ingredients
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
4 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp ketchup
1 tsp soy sauce
3 teaspoons corn starch
4 teaspoons water

Bring vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, and ketchup to a boil in a small sauce pan. Whisk the corn starch and water, and add to the sauce pan. Return to a boil and remove from heat.

Everything is better when it comes in pink – KitchenAid mixers, iPods, and pasta sauces:

Ingredients
2/3 cup Vodka
pinch crushed red pepper
6 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup crushed tomatoes (canned)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Parm-reggi, grated

Add the red pepper to the vodka, set aside. Melt the butter, add the vodka, and bring the sauce to a boil. Add tomatoes and cream and return sauce to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Toss cheese and sauce with the pasta. Serve and enjoy!

As a newlywed, you get hit from all sides with free advice. The most important piece of advice I think every newlywed should know is that meat-stuffed meat = happy man. It’s pretty simple!

The last time we made stuffed chicken breasts was in March. One of my girlfriends bought a big new flat screen so the boys could watch some college basketball and us girls could drink wine in the kitchen while playing with fire. The menu was built around my husband, who just might be the most finicky eater on earth. He does meat, he does cheese, and he does pasta – and that’s it. We made stuffed chicken breasts, tortellini, and a whole bunch of other stuff… I really can’t remember what else – I blame the wine.

Forgo the wine if it’s a school night and serve the stuffed chicken on top of a mound of fettuccine alfredo.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
4 slices prosciutto
4 slices mozzarella, thickly sliced
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
EVOO
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425.

Pound chicken breasts thin, very thin, between two pieces of plastic wrap; cut in half. With chicken breasts skin (smooth) side down, sprinkle with salt and pepper, lay prosciutto and cheese on top and roll up tightly. Coat with EVOO and top with a few slices of garlic, salt, and pepper. Bake 20 minutes. The mozzarella will be oozy and and starting to brown.

You can stuff the chicken breasts with just about anything – asparagus also makes a good roll-in.