Grilled Chicken with Roasted Garlic-Oregano Vinaigrette and Grilled Fingerling Potatoes

Sorry this is just a link, but I wanted to make sure I got this foodnetwork.com recipe on here, and I haven't got a ton of time. Derrick and I just made this tonight. Perfect grill for a summer night. The kids ate it too--always a bonus!

Bobby Flay's Grilled Chicken with Roasted Garlic-Oregano Vinaigrette and Grilled Fingerling Potatoes

I actually just used Russet potatoes, because I had some I needed to use up. I quartered them lengthwise before boiling them, and they were off the grill with the chicken.

Pad Thai

If you are not familiar with some of these ingredients, you can get them at a Thai grocery store. You don't use too much, and they will last long in your refrigerator. You can adjust the sugar, chili pepper, fish sauce and lime to suit your own personal tastes.

Ingredients:

1/2 Lime

1 egg

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 shallot, minced

4 teaspoons fish sauce

3 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoons tamarind liquid

1/2 teaspoon ground dried chili pepper

1/2 package Thai rice noodles

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/4-1/2 lb chicken or shrimp (I do a combination)

1/2 cup tofu-firm or extra firm (I actually rarely use this, and it's still great)

1 cup chinese chives or green onion

3 Tablespoons crushed peanuts, toasted

2 tablespoons minced sweetened radish

2 cups bean sprouts

Soak the dry noodles in lukewarm water while preparing the other ingredients (10-15 minutes). Cut tofu into 1 inch long mathsticks. Cut chinese chives or green onion into 1 1/2 inch long pieces. Rinse bean sprouts. Mince shallot and garlic together.

In a wok or big pan, heat 2 Tablespoons of the vegetable oil and add chicken or shrimp. Stir fry until cooked, and remove from the pan.

Add shallot, garlic and tofu and stir-fry until they start to brown.

Drain the noodles (they should be flexible, but not expanded), and add them to the pan. You need to stir this quickly so they don't stick. Add more water if you find that they stick, but your Pad Thai should be relatively dry.

Add tamarind liquid, fish sauce, sugar, chili pepper, ground pepper and sweet radish. If your pan is not hot enough, you will see a lot of liquid in the pot. Turn up the heat if this is the case.

Make room for the egg by pushing the noodles to the side of the pan. Add the remaining vegetable oil and scramble the egg until it is almost cooked, then fold it into the noodles.

Stir in the chicken/shrimp, green onion, and bean sprouts in that order. Remove from heat. Bean sprouts should be crispy and the noodles should be soft.

When serving, pour the noodles onto your serving plate and sprinkle with the crushed peanuts. Serve the dish hot with the lime on the side and more raw bean sprouts on the side.

Thai Panang Curry

I posted a great Massaman Curry recipe a couple of months ago, and this Panang is another one of my favorite Thai curries. It's good with either chicken or beef, but I typically make it with beef. A great thing with curries, is you can throw in vegetables that need to get used up, so a lot of times, I will just use what vegetables I have on hand.

1/2 lb Beef sliced very thin (I like to use a lean Sirloin Tip roast, and I just shave pieces off of it)

1 Tablespoon oil

1 1/2 Tablespoons Panang Curry Paste (I like Mae Ploy brand)

Coconut milk

Put oil and curry paste in a pan and cook together for a couple of minutes, or until the oil comes to the top. Add the meat and 4 Tablespoons coconut milk. Cook slow until the meat is tender (about 15-20 minutes or longer).

Add the following:

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt (can also use 2 Tablespoons of thin soy sauce)

1 Kaffir Lime leaf torn in half

1 carrot, peeled and cut into pieces

1/2 cup peas (I just use frozen)

1/2 cup sliced red or yellow bell peppers

Cook for 5 more minutes or until the vegetables get cooked. Don't overcook, as you want the veggies a little crunchy, not mushy.

I prefer to have a saucy panang, so I always add the rest of the can of coconut milk at this point.

Fresh Spring Rolls

I got this recipe from the Thai grocery store where I buy my Thai ingredients. At our Thai food dinner party, it was fun to have our friends roll their own spring rolls. That way, they could adjust the ingredients to their tastes. I personally don't love a heavy mint flavor, so I put very little mint in mine. And you guessed it, this photo came from the internet because I didn't take my camera out at the dinner party!

Recipe makes 4 servings (2 each)

INGREDIENTS:

8 rice papers

1/2 Cup Thai basil leaves

16 springs cilantro (cut off the stem)

8 shrimps (peel, clean, boil--I like to boil them in salted water with a bit of minced garlic)

1 Cup rice noodles

4 romaine lettuce leaves

1/2 Cup mint

1/2 Cup grated carrot

1 cup bean sprouts

1 cup shredded cooked chicken

Soak about 1/4 of a package of rice noodles in warm water for 5-10 minutes. Boil some water in a small pot, drain noodles and put in boiling water for 1 minute and drain.

Rinse bean sprouts and cook in microwave for 1 minute, they should be lightly crispy.

Put very warm water into a bowl large enough to dip a rice paper under the water.

Put one piece of rice paper at a time under water for about 10 seconds. Take rice paper out of water and lay flat on a cutting board.

About an inch from one end of the rice paper, layer the ingredients in the following order:

Small piece of romaine

Cooked rice noodles

3-4 basil leaves

2-3 mint leaves (I only do 1)

2 sprigs of cilantro

bean sprouts

shredded cooked chicken

grated carrot

Fold the end over the ingredients and roll 1 time. Fold the other two sides over. Lay shrimp (slice shrimp in half so that one spring roll uses only 1 shrimp, but looks as if there are 2 shrimp) on the rice paper. Continue to fold rice paper to the end.

We like to dip our spring rolls in peanut sauce or Sweet Chili Sauce. I have not made a homemade sweet chili sauce, but I do like Pantai's Sweetened Chili Sauce that I bought at the Thai grocery store.

Thai Peanut Sauce

We did a big Thai Food dinner last night for several friends. It was so good, and there was sooo much food! If you haven't tried cooking Thai food before, you'll be surprised at how easy and affordable it actually is.

Something we like to do as an appetizer is to dip sticky rice in peanut sauce. It's also great to dip spring rolls in it. I love this peanut sauce recipe (but of course I didn't take a photo, so I took this one off the internet):

INGREDIENTS:

1 Tablespoon Masaman Curry Paste

1 Tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 Tablespoons chunky peanut butter

2 Tablespoons lime juice

3 Tablespoons Brown sugar

1 1/2 Cups coconut milk

1/2 Cup water

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon paprika powder

Put the curry paste, oil and 2 Tablespoons of the coconut milk in a saucepan and cook for a couple of minutes until the oil starts to come to the top. Add the rest of the coconut milk and other ingredients. Adjust the salt and sugar to your preference.

The sauce will thicken as it cools, making it a great consistency for dipping.

Thai Massaman Curry

I LOVE Thai food, and this Massaman recipe is just as good, if not better, than the Massaman I can get at my favorite Thai restaurant. Love it, Love it, Love it. I made it yesterday, and of course I didn't take a picture, so ignore whatever is green in the photo above, and that's what this recipe looks like! I will almost always double this recipe, cuz really? Who doesn't love leftover curry?

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 lb cut-up Chicken Breast, I like to shave it pretty thin. (Sirloin Tip Roast works with this too)

3 Tablespoons raw peanuts (no salt)

1/2 peeled potato, cut into chunks

1/4 yam, or sometimes I substitute with a carrot, cut in chunks

4 Cups Water

Boil water, then simmer the above ingredients until the meat is tender (up to an hour with beef).

PREPARE CURRY:

1 Tablespoon oil (olive oil works)

1 1/2 Tablespoons Massaman Curry Paste (I love the Mae Ploy brand)

4 Tablespoons Coconut Milk

Heat oil in pan. Stir in curry paste and continue stiring for about 5 minutes, or until the oil comes to the top. Stir in the coconut milk and stir about 3 more minutes until the flavors are mixed in.

ADD THE FOLLOWING:

1 C additional coconut milk

1/4 C water

2 Tablespoons thin soy sauce (or a little less than 1/2 teaspoon salt. I do the salt)

3 Tablespoons sugar (start with 2 Tablespoons and taste to see if you want more)

1 teaspoon peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon lime juice (from fresh lime)

1/4 Onion, cut into pieces

Chunk Pineapple (as much as you like)

Drain water from meat and potatoes and add to the curry sauce. Stir to combine and serve hot over rice.

Gulliver's Corn

Basically a really yummy creamed corn. Great side dish for a barbecue, potluck, whatever.

2 lb Frozen Sweet Corn

2 cups half and half

3 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

parmesan cheese

Bring corn and milk to a boil. Separate, then put milk back on stove and add the butter and flour. Whisk and boil 5 minutes. Add salt and sugar. Add corn, and boil a couple of minutes. Pour into a greased baking dish. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top and broil until the cheese is light brown. Ready to serve!

Tortellini A La Fini

My sister, Trisha, came up with this recipe because she loved the version that Olive Garden used to serve. It's pretty quick and easy to prepare. It's also pretty rich, so I recommend serving with a green salad.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Bags Tortellini

3/4 C Peas

1/3 pound cubed Ham

8 ounces Mushrooms

5 Tablespoons Butter, split

1 Garlic Clove, minced (I actually like to use more)

1 C Heavy Cream

1 C grated Parmesan Cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Cook tortellini as directed on package. Saute mushrooms and garlic in 1 tablespoon butter. Bring Cream and 4 tablespoons butter to boil, then add cheese. Warm the ham and peas with the mushrooms, and combine the tortellini, cream and mushroom mix together.

Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

I made these for dinner tonight, and the girls really loved them. The bananas get caramelized, which is yummy if you like bananas! The recipe comes from Barefoot Contessa, on foodnetwork.com.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk

2 extra-large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest Unsalted butter

2 ripe bananas, diced, plus extra for serving

Pure maple syrup

DIRECTIONS:

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, mixing only until combined.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter on a large skillet over medium-low heat until it bubbles. Ladle the pancake batter into the pan to make 3 or 4 pancakes. Distribute a rounded tablespoon of bananas on each pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned. Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minute until browned. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel, add more butter to the pan, and continue cooking pancakes until all the batter is used. Serve with sliced bananas, butter and maple syrup.

Tyler Florence's Ultimate Pizza Dough

I watched Tyler Florence's Ultimate Pizza episode on Food Network, and decided I had to try out this pizza dough. It's terrific. We actually doubled the recipe because we had friends coming over, and we were able to refrigerate the leftovers and have pizza for 2 days!

INGREDIENTS:

1 ounce fresh baker's yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon maple syrup

3 cups flour (recommended 00--however, I just used all-purpose)

1 tablespoon sea salt (I'm still up in the air as to whether I think this is too much salt. It tastes great once it's baked, but I was a little nervous when I tasted the dough)

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F and place the pizza stone on the bottom rack. (I actually cook the pizzas at 425 degrees)

Crumble the yeast in a small bowl then add 1/4 cup of warm water and the syrup. Stir together and leave for 5 minutes to dissolve.

Put the flour and salt in a mixer fitted with a dough hook and give it a quick spin to mix. Pour in the yeast mixture, the remaining war water and the olive oil at the same time.

Spin on low until the flour and water come together and the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Put the ball of dough in a large bowl and drizzle a few drops of olive oil on top to keep it from forming a skin as it proofs. Cover with a towel and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes to let the dough proof. When the dough has proofed, it will double in size and look spongy.

Roll the dough on a floured surface and punch the air out with your hands, then start shaping it into a circle.