Orange Chicken

I heart some good Chinese food. Unfortunately, I can hardly ever find some good Chinese food. When you can't find some, what do you do? Well just make your own of course!

After this recipe, I am realizing that a good Chinese recipe is better than getting take out. This isn't our first go at  homemade Chinese food. I have made our family a PF Chang's Mongolian Beef knock-off before and that was Heavenly. Add orange chicken to the list and we are almost our very own Chinese restaurant...give or take a 20 recipes or so...hahaha.

I promise if you are a Chinese food lover, this recipe will not disappoint. There is a little labor involved, but it is well worth it.

Orange Chicken
Smells Like Home


marinade/sauce

¾ cup low-sodium chicken broth
¾ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1½ tsp. finely grated orange zest
6 tbsp. white vinegar
¼ cup soy sauce
½ cup brown sugar (dark or light)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. fresh ginger, grated
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper (can omit if worried about little mouths)
1½ lbs. boneless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. cold water


coating for chicken:


3 large egg whites
1 cup cornstarch
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 ½ cups each peanut and canola oil

For the marinade/sauce, combine the chicken broth, orange juice, orange zest, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and cayenne pepper in a saucepan; whisk to blend well.  Measure out ¾ cup of the mixture and transfer it to a large zipper lock plastic bag, or other marinating container.  Add the chicken pieces to the bag.  Refrigerate and let marinate 30-60 minutes, but no longer.  Place the saucepan with the remaining mixture on the stove and heat over medium-high heat.  Bring to a simmer.  In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water until smooth.  Add the cornstarch mixture to the saucepan with the sauce.  Continue simmering until the sauce is thick and translucent, about 1 minute. Set aside.

For the coating, place the egg whites in a pie plate and whisk until frothy.  In a second pie plate combine the cornstarch, baking soda and cayenne pepper (can omit if worried about little mouths); whisk to blend.  Drain the chicken of the marinade in a colander or large strainer; pat dry with paper towels.  Place half of the chicken pieces in the egg whites and turn to coat.  Transfer the pieces to the cornstarch mixture and coat thoroughly, shaking off the excess.  Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining chicken pieces.

To fry the chicken, heat the oil in a saute' pan when the oil reaches 350˚ F (oil thermometer is helpful here).  Carefully place half of the chicken pieces in the oil and fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes, turning the pieces halfway through cooking.  Remove from the oil with a skimmer or slotted spoon and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.  Return the oil to 350˚ F and repeat with the remaining chicken pieces.

Once all the chicken has been cooked, place in a serving dish and toss with the sauce until covered. Serve over rice. You can top with some sliced green onions. Add a side of broccoli to make yourself feel better.

ENJOY. I know you will.

In a Nutshell: Not Ready

Thursday last week I came upstairs about mid morning, passed a window and then gasped.

"Is that SNOW???" I horrifyingly thought.

Why, yes, yes it was. Ugh.


I was warned it snowed here. Snowed a lot. Snowed early. Snowed for months. I thought I was prepared. Alas, I wasn't.

The snow continued all day. What started with a dusting and ended in a good white blanket of snow.

I was too in shock the first day to pull out the kid's snow clothes (at least I had some right...well we were missing one pair of snow pants and a pair of gloves, but we improvised). Instead we cuddled inside and had popcorn for lunch and grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner.

However, the next day when the snow was still liberally covering the ground, I couldn't hold them off any longer.

That much snow and you have to try to make a snowman.

Obviously the boys and their friend were undaunted by the snow. In fact they were ecstatic.

When the snow melted by Saturday they were a little bummed. I could with confidence tell them that the snow would be back.

Welcome to Idaho. Welcome to a long winter!!! I am gonna need warmer socks and some long underwear.

Costume Central

So someone let me know the other day that it is October. WHAT??? That can't be. I mean wasn't it just the end of August? Who was the punk who skipped September? I don't appreciate that.

Now that I have come to terms with the fact that it is indeed already October, I have to come to the realization that it is that time of year again.

Costume time. Once again it is time for sewing costumes. Every year it seems to get more and more daunting...oh wait, I keep getting more kids to sew for...not to mention the themes...always a theme.

For those of you who know me well, you know that I normally whip my costumes out just a few days weeks before Halloween. This year a wrench was thrown into my plans...I found out last week that our church Halloween party is the 18th...THE 18TH! Ahhhh!

Whew...calm down.

Our costume theme this year has been on the agenda since the end of last Halloween. Knowing the theme for so long, you would think that I would have busted something out sooner. Hahahahahahaha....sigh...haha...

Did the fabric above give our theme away?

How about this picture?

Or this one?

I just have to say that almost everything else has gone to pot while putting these puppies together. See for yourselves...

we have to eat 

the Little Men entertain themselves 

Littlest doesn't really get the concept of making a costume...

Oh and he is the one who keeps taking his pants off.

I am excited about getting these SUPER costumes done ahead of schedule. Fingers crossed anyway. I am not sure anything will top my exhilaration over last years costumes...

...but I am going to try.

What are your costume plans this year?

Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

 
This recipe is making an appearance all over Pinterest...including My Pinterest. Funny enough a friend called me right before I made this, asking if I had made it. She wanted to know my opinion because she wanted to make it too. We thought it was a good sign that we both planned on making it. Then the day before we both made it we took it as a REALLY good sign that the recipe made an appearance on My Kitchen Cafe. She is a pretty good authority on what is yummy.

Boy am I happy we tried this. We loved it. Now I will say, we did apply the glaze more than the recipe called for. I wanted to make sure that the roast was nice and coated. I also did not have the exact spices the recipe called for. I thought I did, but alas no such luck. However, the spices I did use didn't seem to distract from the pork.

Would you like to make this? I think that you would. I mean look at it...

YUM.

We served this with homemade garlic mashed red potatoes, broccoli, and a chorus of  "yums".

Enjoy!

Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin
adapted from C&C Marriage factory via Pinterest


Pork:
2 pound boneless pork loin roast, trimmed of large fat pockets
1 teaspoon ground thyme (original was sage)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, finely minced or crushed
1/2 cup water


Glaze:
1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce


In a small bowl, combine thyme, salt, pepper and garlic. Rub all over the pork. Place pork roast in a slow cooker. Pour 1/2 cup water in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. With about an hour and a half left of cook time, make the glaze.  Combine the glaze ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens.  In the last hour, liberally glaze the roast every 15 minutes. This will ensure a really good flavor.


When the roast is done, remove from the cooker. Lightly shred the meat and then use the rest of the glaze to coat the roast.  Serve it up.

Adventure is Out There

This last weekend we went down to Utah to visit with family. Hubby's brother lives minutes away from the Up House. Have you heard of it???

Seriously, it is a house that was built for a Parade of Homes. They constructed it to look exactly like the Up House. I mean EXACTLY.

They boys were SO excited to see it. Of course they would like to live in it...I mean what little kid wouldn't??
The home is open pretty much all day and they are super sweet to let people gawk at the house's awesomeness. I am sure they mostly get gawkers, but we are appreciative gawkers!

The details of the outside of the house ah-mazed me.

They even had the mailbox.

Do you think there are any snipes close by?

The inside was decorated beautifully. The rooms that could be seen in the movie were painstakingly duplicated. The rooms that weren't were decorated in similar style, sticking to the theme but still modern.

My favorite room...

The kitchen. I L.O.V.E everything about it. The appliance though were my favorite.

I know I should have taken more pictures, but there was a part of me that was worried I wasn't supposed to take them and that the barely adult adolescent hired to babysit the house while visitors came through was going to get all up in my grill if I took too many pictures.

So I only quickly took a couple of pictures. I didn't take any pictures of the recognizable rooms because they were all within reach of said babysitter.

However, there was a baby's room upstairs with this familiar mural.

LOVE.

Seriously the whole house was so beautiful. If you live in Utah and are close, I highly recommend taking a trip to go and see this house. If you are going to visit, put it on your to-do.  If you are a grandma or grandpa and are looking for a house to buy that will make your grandchildren declare you the favorite forever and EVER, this one is a winner.

I bow down to the creative builders of this house.

HERE and HERE are some links I found with info about this beautiful house! Hope you enjoy looking at this house, we sure did!

Adventure is out there!!