Teriyaki Chicken & Rice - 20 Minutes

Ever had one of those days when you just know that your not going to have time for everything on the to do list for the day, and a good dinner for the family... as well!  This recipe was brought about by one of those long overwhelming days.  I threw this dish together... it's a make it, set it aside and forget about it meal... just what you need for one of those kind of days. 

Ingredients:

Pre-cooked Chicken

(I typically keep grilled chicken in the freezer for stuff like this)

Rice

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Soy Sauce

3 Tbsp of Ketsup

1/4 cup water

Directions:

In a bowl, mix brown sugar, soy sauce, water and ketsup. Stir until well blended. Set aside. Measure out enough rice to feed your family. Pour it into a rice cooker. If you don't have a rice cooker, you can still do this on the stove, it just takes a little more watchful eye. Measure out the correct amount of liquid for your rice.

 

For example, I do 2 cups of dry rice for my little family. This means I will need 4 cups of liquid. I should have almost a cup of teriyaki sauce mixed in my bowl. I will then need approximately 3 more cups of water. If you want a stronger teriyaki flavor simply increase the amount of sauce you prepare and decrease the extra waterm accordingly. Pour the teriyaki sauce in the rice cooker. Add the extra water. Dice the chicken and dump it in the cooker as well. Set the cooker to cook and walk away. Serve when the switch flips from "cook" to "warm", at least that's what mine does. I usually serve it with steamed veggies or mix the veggies right in.. Super simple and prep time is like ten minutes max.

Scandinavian Spice Cake

 

Scandinavian food is usually mild and spiceless, but not this cake. The aroma of this cake is intoxicating. This traditional spice cake is great treat with the coffee and it's so easy to make. You need only one bowl to mix.

Dry Ingredients:

  2 dl Dark Farin sugar (Brown sugar) = 0.85 cups

0.5 dl White sugar = 0.21 cups

(Or just 1.5 dl white sugar with 1 dl brown syrup. Mix syrup with liquids) = 0.63 cups white sugar with 0.42 cups brown sugar

4.5 dl Flour = 1.9 cups

1 ts baking soda

1 ts baking powder

(ground spices into a fine powder)

2 ts Cardamom

2 ts Cinnamom

2 ts Ginger

2 ts Clove

1 ts Allspice (Pimenta dioica)

1 ts Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans)

2 tbls Dark cacao powder

1/2 ts salt

(*ts = teaspoon, tbls. dl = deciliter)

Liquids:

 

2 dl Buttermilk or yoghurt

2 eggs

1 dl Coconut Oil (Good quality.)

Other veggie oils are ok too, and definitely more "scandinavian style", but I love cold pressed coconut oil. Even if you hate coconut smell and taste, from these flavors it won't pop up.

Mix all dry ingredients well in big bowl with the wooden fork or spoon. And then, add all room temperature "liquids" once, and mix them well with the dry ingredients, but don't whip them too much. You just need to get smooth dough. Room temperature is really important with the coconut oil. If the dough is too cold, it solidifies. If that happen, don't worry. This cake is pretty much impossible to ruin. Just place your bowl over hot water bath and mix even.

Pour into oiled cake mold and bake in the oven 175° (celsius, it's about 350° in fahrenheit) 45 minutes.

And here comes the hardest part: Turn mold over and let the cake settle . I know, I know, you would love to eat it right away, but it's better when it's cooled down.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies ~ The Ultimate Peanut Butter Cookie

'almost flourless'

peanut butter cookies
 
 

1 cup smooth-type peanut butter* (no oily peanut butters!)
¾ cup dark brown sugar
¼ granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 TB flour
1 ts sea salt
Bittersweet chocolate chips, about ½ cup, optional
Sea salt for sprinkling, optional

In a small bowl add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix, set aside.

In a mixer or by hand, combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined.  Crack egg open in a small bowl and beat.  Add egg to the cookie mixture; add in the flour mixture but by sprinkling it over the cookie dough, not just depositing it in one large dump.  Mix till combined.  Cover bowl and let it sit in fridge for about two hours or more (mine did fine overnight).

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Roll into tablespoon sized balls and place on non-stick cookie sheets or greased cookie sheets.  With a fork gently make a criss-cross pattern with a fork.

Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. As soon as they come out of the oven sprinkle with just a bit of sea salt—this adds a nice peanut depth; this is optional.

(If you want to add in a chocolate topping like I did, don’t make a cross-cross pattern, but rather make a small well.  Bake those half way (about 5 minutes) then add in about 4 chocolate chips and bake remaining 5 minutes or so.  The chocolate part is optional, but luscious.)

Cool on a baking sheet for a while.  Should make about 23 – 25 cookies.

*Please use a creamy/smooth peanut butter, nothing oily. I used whole foods 365 organic creamy peanut butter, has perfect texture for these cookies.

Vintage Cookie Cutters from Around the World

I found a few cookie cutters from around the world that I just have to share with everyone.  There are many here below that are antiques from the USA and Canada, Japan, France, Germany, and Holland. 

These here are antique Japanese cookie cutters.  What a beautiful crane this is... I wish I could find one like this cookie cutter... I really like this one!  The other is an older style cherry blossom (sakura).... I suppose this could be a plumeria also! 

These are real nice vintage French pastry pans and cookie cutters.   

Here is some nice antique cookie cutters from Germany.

Vintage Christmas Cookie Cutter Ring with Cat, Dove, Bird

Here is a few vintage antique cookie cutters from Holland.

 

Make by EKCO - Tomado Holland

EKCO multi-sided animal cookie cutter from Holland

horse, bunny, elephant, squirrel, bear and chicken

I'm sure if one looked, they could find many more interesting vintage cooking cutters from this by gone era.  I love to see what kind of cooking utensils and baking accessories they used in other parts of the world.

Mini Custard Tarts

These no-fuss tarts actually look like you have been slaving over a hot stove all day.

Makes 20

 Now these little Mini Custard Tarts are pretty easy to make and just because the recipe is in milliters will make it any harder to make.  The only difference is that 250 mls is slightly more than 1 cup and 125 mls is slightly moe than a 1/2 cup!   So I really don't think that this is an issue, just use 1 cup and 1/2 cup. 

250ml thickened custard  ~ 250 ml = 1.05668 cup (US)

                                125ml double thick cream ~ 125 ml = 0.528344 cup (US)

1 pkt cocktail pastry cases of assorted fruit to top (such as blueberries, strawberries and kiwi)

Icing sugar, to dust

Gently fold the custard and the cream together, spoon into each pastry case.

Top with small pieces of fruit and dust with icing sugar.