PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps

These lettuce wraps were the main dish that I served at the bridal shower I hosted last Saturday. They were a huge hit - several people asked for the recipe and commented on how similar they tasted to Chang's. I quadrupled the recipe to serve about 20 people but will post a standard-sized recipe here. I made a few changes to the original recipe after testing it a few weeks ago and deciding that the flavor from the oyster sauce was too pronounced. I also had tried it without the shrooms, which generally disgust me, but Michael and I decided they were needed in this recipe for taste and texture, if you're looking to duplicate Chang's.

Normally if I were to order the lettuce wraps at the restaurant I would ask not to include the fried cellophane noodles, as I think they taste like styrofoam packing peanuts, but we fried them Mr. Mom-style because the presentation is nice.

You'll have to forgive my photos - not that any of my photos are great - but in my rush to get the food ready to serve I forgot to take photos until everyone had gone through the buffet line. Hence the "leftovers" you see here. Though I guess this is a testament as to how much people ate. I also forgot to take a photo of an actual lettuce wrap, but you know what that looks like.

PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps
Source: adapted from Top Secret Insiders' Recipes Master Edition

8 mushrooms
1 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp dry sherry
2 tsp water
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 pounds ground chicken
1 tsp fresh minced ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 green onions, minced
1 Tbsp Thai Chili Sauce, or to taste
8 ounce can bamboo shoots, minced
8 ounce can water chestnuts, minced
1 package cellophane Chinese rice noodles, prepared according to package

Cooking Sauce:
2 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp dry sherry
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. cornstarch

Iceburg lettuce "cups"

Mince mushrooms, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts in food processor. Set aside. Mix all ingredients for cooking sauce in bowl and set aside. In medium bowl, combine cornstarch,
sherry water, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and chicken. Stir to coat chicken thoroughly. Let sit 15 minutes to marinate.

Heat wok or large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and stir fry for about 3−4 minutes. Set aside. Add ginger, garlic, chilies(if desired), and onion; stir fry about a minute or so. Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts; stir fry an additional 2 minutes. Return chicken to pan. Add mixed cooking sauce to pan. Cook until thickened and hot.

Break cooked cellophane noodles into small pieces and surround chicken in serving dish with them. Spoon into lettuce leaf and roll.

Pink Sangria

Over 30 and want to feel young again? Here's what you do: dress in sweats with no makeup (preferably with baseball hat), go to the grocery store, put a few bottles of white zin and a bottle of peach schnapps on the conveyor belt, and I assure you, you'll be carded. It happened to me and it was a joyous experience. Now, had I left the baby at home and also bought a few bottles of Purple Passion and a case of the beast, I'm sure the checker would have thought I showed her a fake. Because these are the drinks of (underage drinking) youth.

Anywho, I was buying said zin and schnapps to make sangria for a bridal shower. I wanted to make a pink sangria rather than the usual deep red because pink is one of the wedding colors. Plus it would look fancy in these light pink wine glasses we got for our wedding, and which have never been used. I searched high and low and found a recipe on Epicurious. It was a big hit, refreshing and fruity. A little too peachy for me, but not so much that I didn't drink at least five glasses. (Bonus: I managed to not get drunk and make a fool of myself.)

The only changes I made to the original recipe was to cut up a small red apple in place of the lemon that the recipe calls for. Also, I meant to slice up strawberries in place of the peach but forgot, and did the peach instead. The biggest change was that I didn't just slice the fruit so it would float prettily in the pitcher. I like my sangria to be a mini-meal - a fruit salad with lots of liquid - so I diced my fruit so that each person would get a lot of fruit in their glass.

White Zinfandel Sangria

Source: Epicurious.com

1 750-ml bottle of chilled White Zinfandel

1/2 cup peach schnapps

2 Tbsp Cointreau or other orange liqueur

2 Tbsp sugar

2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half

1 lemon, sliced

1 orange, sliced

1 peach, sliced into wedges

1 10-ounce bottle of chilled club soda

Ice cubes

Mix first 8 ingredients in tall pitcher. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Mix in club soda. Fill 6 wineglasses with ice cubes. Pour sangria over ice and serve.

Creme Brulee Mini Cupcakes

This weekend I hosted a bridal shower for my sister-in-law, Melissa. I made a variety of desserts including these cupcakes. They were a huge hit. I wasn't in love with them at first, but I think they're improving with age. They were a bit more dense than I thought they'd be based on the original recipe review, but that may be because the batter sat for so long as I used it all up. The recipe was easy to make. Only part that was overly time consuming was the actual baking, as I only have one decent 12-cup mini cupcake pan.

Creme Brulee Mini Cupcakes
Source: How To Eat A Cupcake

Yield: 60 mini cupcakes

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt, plus a pinch for the egg whites

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs, separated

1 cup milk

3 Tbsp caramel syrup (ice cream topping)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Alternately beat in dry ingredients and milk. Add caramel syrup and vanilla. Beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff but not dry. Gently fold whites into batter. Spoon batter into cupcake papers, filling cups about 2/3 full. Bake for about 14 minutes* or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool.

Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue Buttercream

1 cup light brown sugar

4 egg whites

¼ tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

Put sugar, egg whites and salt into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees). Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes total. Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and continue beating 1 minute to reduce air bubbles.

*See original recipe for baking times, etc. for regular-sized cupcakes.

Crock Pot Whole Chicken

I got the idea to cook a whole chicken in the crock pot from the cooking board on TheNest.com. I loved the idea, as I'm a fan of rotisserie chicken and am always looking for new crock pot meals, as I get home too late from work each night to make nice dinners and not eat at 8pm.

My chicken was a little tough due to it being cooked for too long. I often have that problem with my crock pot, even if I cook for shorter times than the recipe calls for. That said, I am anxious to make this again, as the meat was falling off the bone upon its removal from the crock pot (see photo above). I can tell that had I turned off the heat an hour or so earlier, it would have been amazing. Plus, it was too easy not to keep in rotation. You can use whatever spices you have on hand. We ate the whole bird, however, between that night's meal and curry chicken salad made with leftover meat.

Whole chicken, crock pot-style

Source: adapted from Carrie's Sweet Life

5 lb chicken

Olive oil

Chili powder

Garlic powder

Accent seasoning

Black pepper

Poultry seasoning

2 bay leaves

1/3 cup water*

Wash bird and pat dry. Remove gizzard, etc. from cavity. Rub olive oil all over bird and shower with spices. Put in crock pot and add 1/3 cup water and bay leaves. Cook on low for 8 hours*.

*Next time I may not add water, as it creates its own juices and will cook on low for 5 1/2 hours and see how well done the meat is. I think cooking time depends on the individual crock pot. My bird filled about 2/3 of the pot but still overcooked.

Fiber One Crunchy Fudge Cookies

Michael loves Fiber One cereal and is often trying to make me eat it. I do not enjoy it, as it is not Captain Crunch. However, he left the box out on the counter last Friday and I noticed this recipe. I know from doing Weight Watchers in the past that the more fiber a recipe has, the lower the points, so these were immediately appealing to me. Plus, I had all of the ingredients. What I enjoy most about these cookies, besides how quick and easy they are to make and the low point value (one point per cookie!!) is how cinnamonny they taste. Next time I'll probably crush the cereal a bit before adding it to the mix, as these are a little too crunchy for me (every time I bite into one I expect it to be semi-chewy, since they look like they are, but then there's the cereal). However, they're good dipped in milk, and if you're dieting and looking for a chocolate fix, this is a great recipe.

Fiber One Crunchy Fudge Cookies

Source: Fiber One Cereal Box

Yield: 3 1/2 dozen cookies (my batch yielded 2 1/2 dozen)

1 box (1 lb 2.3 oz) fudge brownie mix

2 cups Fiber One cereal

1/3 cup water

1 egg

1 Tbsp vegetable oil (I subbed apple sauce)

2 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp mini semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350. Line cookie sheet with parchment. In large bowl, mix all ingredients with spoon. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls two inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake 10 - 12 minutes until set. Cool two minutes, remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely. Store in tightly covered container. Can store baked cookies for up to two months in freezer in tightly wrapped.

Per cookie: 70 calories, 1g fat, 2g fiber - 1 WW point

Canteloupe Granita

Found the recipe. Photos looked delicous. Had the ingredients and the time. Made it and enjoyed it.Canteloupe Granita

Source: Gourmet, August 2005

2 cups coarsely chopped canteloupe (from 1/2 melon, seeded)

1/4 cup sugar, or to taste

1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, or to taste (just realized I misread this and used just under 1 Tbsp lime juice)

1 cup ice cubes

Puree all ingredients in a blender (or food processor) until smooth, then pour into a 13" x 9" metal pan and freeze until mixture becomes a firm slush, at least 40 minutes. Scrape with a fork and served in chilled glasses.

Filipino Pork Barbecue

Michael's mom makes great barbecue. Her sons request it fairly often, to the point that she doesn't really enjoy making it anymore. Still, it's a rare treat when we get to have it. A few months ago I bought a Filipino cookbook in order to learn some recipes on my own. Not wanting to steal Juanita's thunder, when I decided to make Filipino barbecue for Labor Day, I took to my cookbook, rather than asking for her recipe, knowing that it would not be exactly the same. (Plus, knowing the recipe so well, she just eye balls all of the ingredients, which would have been of no help to me).

This recipe consists of marinated, thin slices of pork, threaded onto skewers before they are grilled. Slicing the meat thin is the only part of the recipe that requires any skill; if you have a decent knife, it's easier than I expected. This recipe calls for three pounds of pork; since it would be just the two of us eating it, I cut up three pork steaks but used the same amount of marinade. That amount of meat produced 14 skewers.

I was a little iffy on the marinade before tasting it - wasn't sure about the ketchup. After repeatedly reminding Michael that "this is not your mother's barbecue," I was happy to discover that it tastes very similar to Juanita's version. So was he. In fact, he told me that was both good and bad for me - good that I made something so delicious. Bad that he'll now be requesting this regularly.

Pork Barbecue

Source: Phillipine Recipes Made Easy by Violetta A. Noriega

Serves 6-8

3 lbs boneless pork, sliced 1/4" thick, 2" wide

Bamboo or metal skewers

Marinade:

1/4 cup vinegar

3 Tbsp soy sauce

3 Tbsp sugar

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)

1/4 tsp black ground pepper or to taste

3/4 tsp salt or to taste

1/4 cup ketchup

In a bowl, mix marinade together and let stand for 15 minutes. Marinade pork slices for six hours or overnight (the longer the better) in the refridgerator. Stir meat occasionally to evenly distribute flavor.

Prepare barbecue equipment. Soak skewers (if wooden) in water for at least an hour. Thread meat onto skewers. Placed skewered meat on hot grill. Brush marinade on pork during the course of cooking. Make sure meat is cooked through. Serve immediately.