Friday, March 30, 2012

Sugar cookies with too much butter in them

Make sugar cookies like normal, but put in way too much butter. The edges of the cookies will kind of carmelize. Also a little salt on the top is a good idea.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

P.F. Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients
3 tbs oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup water chestnuts
2/3 cup mushrooms
3 tbs chopped onions
1 tsp minced garlic
4-5 leaves iceberg lettuce

Special Sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs rice wine vinegar (we used half rice vinegar and half red wine vinegar)
2 tbs ketchup
1 tbs lemon juice
1/8 tsp sesame oil (we used olive oil)
1 tbs hot mustard (we used dijon)
2 tsp water
1-2 tsp garlic and red chile paste

Stir Fry Sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar (same as above)

Directions
Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice, and sesame oil. Mis well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve. (This is very runny and so we put it in a pot on the stove and added some cornstarch to thicken it a little and we liked it like that.)

Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well. (We just added this to the special sauce in the beginning.)

Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chile sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps. (We also added the garlic chile paste to the special sauce in the pan all together with everything else.)

Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan. Sauté chicken breasts for 4 to 5 min per side or until done. Remove chicken from the pan and cool. Keep oil in pan and keep hot.

As chicken cools, mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.

Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice wine vinegar together in a small bowl.

When the chicken is cool, mine it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are. With the pan sill on high heat, add another tbs of oil. Add the chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts, and mushrooms to the pan. Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and sauté the mixture for a couple of minutes then serve it in the lettuce "cups". Top with Special Sauce.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Peanut Butter Frosting

  • 1 cup confectioners' sugar
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.