Kitten And Grilled Chicken Sandwich

So, I've been a really bad blogger lately. I've been taking pictures sporadically but I haven't had the motivation to get on here and write about it. No worries, I have been cooking as much as usual just not translating to the web.

Also, I have been having a war of sorts with my bread making. My bread recipe has changed slightly because I have been making buns with a new recipe. When I tried to make it into bread (because I love the recipe so much) it didn't work. I have reverted to my old bread recipe that I love. The bread turned out great but STUCK in the pan GRRR!!! So much frustration! The only thing that I have found that will release my wonderful bread is to use liberal amounts of butter. Real deal butter. This is fine because I use butter in my bun recipe so I have it on hand. That's not the point. The point is that suddenly my stupid bread won't come out of the pans and it's *&%ing me off. Anyway...

I have wanted to get a recipe for hamburger buns but haven't been happy with previous attempts. While they have been nice bun recipes they weren't soft enough, they were really crumbly, or they turned out really dense. I think I have finally perfected the bun recipe. I basically make this hoagie recipe that I get from here. BUT, this time I added an egg for softness. They were PERFECT! So good. I grilled burgers to go with these wonderful buns and it was heaven!

Now I have these heavenly buns to eat, what do I do? Make a hot sandwich I guess. 

Let's take a moment to talk about our new kitten though shall we?

Her name is Skittles and we rescued her from the Mississauga Animal Services. She was 8 weeks old when we got her. We figured her birthday out to be around the time of my son's birthday. We don't know her exact birthday so we just say it is the same as Phoenix's for simplicity. She is so cute, sweet, cuddly, and CRAZY. 

You know that moment when you trip over a kitten, your foot is in the air, you have forward momentum and you now don't know where to put your feet to avoid stepping on the kitten freaking out underneath you now because you tripped on her?? No? Well you probably do if you have ever been around cats because they have this stupid habit of walking RIGHT in front of your feet while you walk. Kick the kitten, cue kitten scramble, cue fear of squashing scared kitten. Ugh! Luckily, it didn't happen on the stairs yet.

She LOVES to sleep on our shoulders or just lie across our shoulders. It will be a sad day when she is too big for her favourite spots. And by sad I mean painful because she will probably try, fall, and scratch us as she tries to catch herself. Much like she does now when she makes bad decisions and gravity corrects her.

Anyway, back to the food. I was going for a cornmeal sprinkle on these buns. It was a bit of a fail since I didn't wet the dough in anyway so they barely stuck on and just fall off ALL OVER THE DAMN PLACE. They are messy but I digress.

So first things first, toast the bun. I used my grill, some butter, and HIGH heat until I had evenly toasty buns. Add your veg and sauce. I used just mayo and lettuce at first but added some steak sauce after. So good.

Caramelize some thinly sliced onions. I used salt, pepper, and a touch of sugar. I cheated because I didn't want to wait 20 minutes for my sandwich. Sue me. They tasted great. 

Get some regular shaved chicken lunch meat. Brown it slightly and warm it all the way through.

Stack the onions on the chicken.

Stack that on the lettuce. Tomato would be totally wonderful on this too but I didn't have any big ones, just little cherry ones.

The finished product. It was so good!! 

I highly recommend taking the time to a) toast the bun and b) grill some onions. It totally took this sandwich beyond regular cold cuts to a warm loving embrace.... what? You know what I mean. Enjoy!

Tangy Slow Cooker Pork

I must say up front that this was not my favourite recipe. It had all the components of recipes I like. It was easy, it built up flavour, and it had familiar ingredients. In the end, it was missing something for me. I would make this again but I would change it up and add more spices. I pulled this recipe out of a random cookbook on my shelf as part of my desire to cook from the books I already. I would say this was a 6/10 for me. My family liked it, however, so maybe it was just me.

Start with a seasoned flour coating for your pork roast. This was just salt, pepper, and paprika.

Heat up a bit of oil in a pan. This is to build the crust.

There is the star. This is a very lean cut of pork, as you can see, and but it takes flavour really well. It is pretty much a blank slate to be built upon.

Cover your roast completely in the seasoned flour.

And start browning. The heat should be high enough that you get a nice golden colour but don't let it burn. Make sure to get some colour all over.

Prepare your veggies. They just get a fine dice and set aside for now.

Keep turning your roast.

Nearly there!

Now for the sauce. Move the roast to the slow cooker and add the veggies to the hot pan. Soften the veggies and add a can of tomato sauce. Slow cook for 5 hours.

After 5 hours, the sauce comes out thick like a gravy.

The meat is very tender.

I served this with mashed potatoes. My secret weapon for mashed potatoes now is to use buttermilk. Do it, you will LOVE the extra zip and creaminess.

I think in the future I would add sugar to the sauce as I found the tomato flavour to be a bit on the bitter side. It was good but not exactly what I was expecting.

My First Stirfry in a Wok, YIKES!

I have had a wok for years and I have never used it.  I have this idea that only certain things should be cooked in a wok.  Things that I don't usually make.  When I do make things like stirfry I end up just grabbing my biggest frying pan and doing it like I usually do.  This time I was determined to use my wok.  I had a bunch of veggies in the fridge that needed using so it was full steam ahead.

I actually did some research online on the best ways to use a wok and get some recipe ideas.  I learned that you should add oil a bit at a time as you add items to the wok and highest heat is best.  So off I went with this knowledge to conquer my wok.

To start: get everything you are going to be using right at hand.  Cooking on high heat means you have zero time to cut anything or mix anything or look for ANYTHING.  Also, have oil on hand as you will be adding a bit every time you add something new to the wok.  I used canola oil because it has a higher smoking point than olive oil.

I chopped up my veggies into thin, bite-sized pieces and had them separated and ready to go.

I beat two eggs in a bowl.

I wanted a sauce but didn't have any ready made sauces so I looked up a recipe here.  I reduced the recipe to make just enough for this meal instead of extra for the fridge like the recipe makes.  The floaty bits are powdered chicken stock.  I don't buy liquid stock usually.

Time to start frying!  Start by heat up the wok on screaming high heat.

Add in some oil, wait until it smokes (which should happen really quickly if your wok is hot enough) then start to add in your veggies.  Longest cooking veggies should go in first.  You cannot do anything else once you start cooking or it will burn so you need to be here stirring it constantly.  I have to say, it is very satisfying to listen to the sizzle as you move it around.

Add in carrots next.  I tried to get these to be thin so I wouldn't end up with crunchy carrots.

Next goes in the broccoli and cauliflower.  As you add each veggie, push everything away from the center, add oil, add veggie.  Turn the cooked ones over the 'new' ones and start stirring.  This prevents the hot ones from burning by cooling them with the 'new' addition and gets them straight into the hottest part.

Last I added in the peppers because they cook really quickly and get soggy fast, no thanks.  After only a few minutes I added in the sauce.

The sauce will start out looking cloudy but will begin to thicken right away.  It will turn glossy and transparent as the cornstarch gets warm.

Once the veggies were getting close to done I moved them all back to my prep bowl and quickly wiped out the wok to get the eggs going.  Add a bit of oil and pour the eggs in.  I used chop sticks to stir them around so they were more like ribbons than clumps.

Add the veggies back in once the eggs are about half setting up.  I wanted the eggs to be soft and silky and to not over cook or have a chance of burning.  Burned eggs will ruin everything.

Last, I added in some rice I had cooking and finished it all off together.  I love having the rice through the sauce.  If that isn't your thing or you want a more traditional presentation serve the rice on the side.  This would also have been excellent with noodles too.

Time to dish up and dive in.  It was so good!

I have to say I really loved the experience of cooking in a wok.  It was fast, easy, and FUN.  When I staying with Chrystal and John, John's mom visited and made these awesome savory pancakes for us with shrimp and bean sprouts.  I really want to try making them and I will be using my wok.  Stay tuned!