Pad Thai

My daughter found this recipe and modified it.  It's pretty quick to make and very tasty.  It needs "instant stir fry noodles", which I found under the brand name Six Fortune.  They are the kind of noodle you get in Ichiban or Mr Noodles, you could use two packages of that.


1-2 chicken breasts, thinly sliced
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped red, green and/or orange peppers
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 can coconut milk
1/4 cup cashews (or peanuts)
1 lime, juiced
4 tbsp fish sauce
5 tbsp brown sugar
red rooster hot sauce
3-4 cups water or chicken broth
1/2 package instant stir fry noodles

Marinate chicken in soy sauce and cornstarch while chopping veggies.  Mix coconut milk, lime juice, sugar, fish sauce and hot sauce in small bowl or cup.  Boil water or broth and cook noodles 2-3 minutes. Drain and reserve liquid.  Heat oil in wok or large frying pan.  Stir fry chicken, remove from wok, then fry veggies.  Add sauce, noodles and chicken.  You might want to add some of the noodle-cooking liquid, depending on how soupy you like it, and sprinkle with cashews.

I forgot to take the photo until we had eaten most of it, but it will make enough to feed 3-5 people, depending on if they are growing teenagers or not!

Vanilla cupcakes

This is a nice, simple cupcake recipe. I love making mini cupcakes, this recipe makes 12 regular or 24 mini.

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Combine dry ingredients and add alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry. Fill muffin cups (lined) 3/4 full and bake at 350F for 22-24 minutes for full size, 12-15 for mini.

You can make these chocolate by replacing 1/2 cup flour with cocoa powder. They aren't as rich as my chocolate cupcake recipe, but are still very tasty.

You can ice these with ganache, or a simple buttercream icing. I sometimes get all fancy and flavour and colour small amounts of icing to have a variety (like a fancy cupcake shop)

Jambalaya

I have this recipe for jambalaya from a Frugal Gourmet cookbook Bruce's uncle gave us years ago. It is very involved and takes pretty much all afternoon to make, as it guides you through making stock and everything. I've modified it through the years, it still takes a bit of time, but is more of a weekend meal when you have time to let things simmer.

Jambalaya

2 tbsp cooking oil
1 onion
2 pieces of celery
½ green pepper
½ red pepper
2 cloves garlic
5 green onions
3 large tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 tbsp dried parsley (or 1/4 cup fresh)
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
salt and pepper to taste
1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 cups chicken stock
1 lb sausage
2 cups cooked chicken
1 cup ham
1 cup uncooked rice

Chop vegetables into 2cm pieces. Heat oil; add onion, peppers, celery and garlic and sauté until tender. Add green onions and tomatoes and cook until soft. Add tomato paste and spices, heat through, then add 2 cups stock and simmer this gravy for 15 minutes to an hour. Meanwhile, cut sausage into bite size pieces and brown in a frying pan. Discard grease, place sausage into gravy. Deglaze the frying pan with the remaining stock and pour into gravy. Add rice, chicken and ham and simmer 20-25 minutes until the rice is cooked. Stir occasionally and you may have to add a little more stock or water to finish the rice.


This is a great winter meal, very hardy. If you had leftover sausages, it would save you that step.