Kung Pao Chicken
As you can probably tell by most of my posts, I love food. I love to cook. I love to eat. I love when my family ask "what's for dinner" and when I tell them they go "Ohhhh yum". I love that they love my cooking. 

I was craving some of my favourite Chinese dish one day when a friend of mine said she had a recipe for it. Sure...I'll take the recipe, thinking of course that it would be one that I'd put on the 'too hard' pile or had ingredients that were strange, and therefore I'd NEVER prepare it.

How wrong I was. Ohhhhh this is sooooo yummy!!!! Don't be put off by the peanut paste (peanut butter). It WORKS!!! This recipe earns me some major MUMMY POINTS thanks to my friend Michelle R.

KUNG PAO CHICKEN

2 cups raw cubed chicken breasts
2 cups chopped green, red and yellow peppers
1 cup dry roasted peanuts
1/2 cup diced onion
2 Tbs fresh ginger finely diced (or 2 teaspoons of dry)
5-6 garlic cloves diced

Mix 2 Tbs of Soy Sauce and 1 Tbs of Corn Starch together. Marinate the chicken in this for 10-15 minutes.

While chicken is marinating make the following sauce mix in a small bowl:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs crunchy peanut butter (optional)
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs white vinegar

Mix for a bit till sugar is dissolved and PB starts to blend in.

Time to fry the chicken in about 2 Tbs of oil until fully cooked.

Remove chicken from pan. Add 2 Tbs of oil to pan and saute onions, garlic and ginger till fragrant. Approx 1-2 minutes.

Add sauce mix to the onions, garlic and ginger and bring to a boil. 

Now add the chicken and peppers. Stir all together. Remove from heat. Stir in peanuts.

Serve with rice.

More Wacky Recipes
I'm not done with the 'weird' and unusual recipes. Because I enjoyed the other ones so much, I just had to try this one. It's called 'Vinegar Pie'. I baked my pie crust before I added the mixture....for no other reason than I was reading without my glasses and missed the 'UN' in unbaked.

VINEGAR PIE

1/2 c. butter, softened
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
1 (8 inch) unbaked pie shell
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. sugar

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vinegar and vanilla. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until inserted knife come out clean.

When you pull the knife out clean the pie will still be jiggly and 'wet'. It will firm up as it cools.

Give it a go. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Wacky Health Night
Last night for our Relief Society monthly activity we had another fun evening. The first part of the night was devoted to cooking. We divided the ladies into groups and revealed some of the ingredients along with the recipes they'd be working with.

The recipes were:

Tomato Soup Cake

Potato Chip Cookies

Velveeta (Cheddar Cheese Spread) Fudge

When these were revealed everyone turned up their nose and thought it was the grown up version of 'mud pies'. While the 'treats' were cooking we got up and were shown a few exercises we can do while we're cleaning our teeth, on the phone, cleaning windows and during commercial breaks on TV. Between each exercise there was a 'word from our sponsor'.

Here are the 'helpful' tips from the 'sponsor':

*    When you go to eat cookies take the broken ones. This is because if they're broken the calories have leaked out and they are calorie free.

*    My new 'low-fat diet' is working. My fat is hanging lower and lower every day.

*    A balanced diet is as easy as a chocolate bar in each hand.

*    Tummy tucks are getting easier. Why this very morning I had a tummy tuck. I tucked my tummy into my pants and went about my business.

Then we got to test our 'creations'. Everyone was quite surprised just how yummy everything was. I think the favourite was the cake then the fudge.


Tomato Soup Cake

* 1 can condensed tomato soup
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1/3 cup butter
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
* 1 cup raisins

Directions

1. Combine the tomato soup and the soda in a bowl, and let it stand.
2. Cream sugar, egg, butter, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Mix in tomato soup and soda mixture, and then flour. Stir in the raisins, and pour the batter in a greased baking dish.
3. Bake at 165 degrees C for 1 hour, or until done. Cool the cake, and top with cream cheese icing.

With this one we decided that walnuts would be nice to add in the next time we made it.

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Cheddar Cheese Spread Fudge

Ingredients:

* 1 cup butter, softened
* Half a jar Cheddar Cheese Spread
* 5 cups icing sugar, sifted
* 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
* 1/2 cup Powdered milk
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts

Preparation:
In a large saucepan over medium heat butter and cheese together, stirring frequently; remove from heat. Sift together confectioners' sugar and cocoa; add to cheese, mixing well. Stir in non-fat dry milk, vanilla and nuts. Turn into a 9x9x2-inch pan; chill until firm and cut into squares. Makes about 1 1/2 kg of Fudge.

We made ours without the nuts but will add the nuts next time.

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Potato Chip Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup salted butter, softened
1 cup Icing sugar
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups crushed potato chips
powdered sugar for sprinkling

Step 1: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Step 2: In large bowl, cream butter & icing sugar.
Step 3: Add flour, and beat with mixer, when mixing add in vanilla.
Step 4: With spoon, fold in chips.
Step 5: Drop dough by spoonfuls 3cm apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Step 6: Bake 15-18 minutes, until lightly colored.
Step 7: Remove from baking sheet, sprinkle with powdered sugar and let cool.

Makes 20 cookies.

We used plain chips and would like to experiement with different flavours.

Chocolate Mint Crackers
One of the easiest recipes I've ever tried is making these crackers.

1 packet of Ritz crackers (get whatever brand you like. We always use the homebrand)
1 packet melting chocolate
peppermint extract
Cotton wool balls

Melt the chocolate and dip the crackers in. Make sure they are coated nicely. Place on wax paper to dry. Now layer them in a sealed container with the wax paper in between. As you layer them place a cotton ball that has got some of the peppermint extract on it (You know what to do, just put the cotton ball on the bottle and up end the bottle...don't soak the ball) in amongst the cookies. Only need about two or three balls per layer. Now seal the container and leave it for two or three days.

When you bite into them they will taste exactly like a mint choc cookie.

Sugared Peanuts
One of the cheapest gifts to make and give has always been Sugared peanuts. It's as easy as 1...2....3.

Sugar coated peanuts

• 1c water
• 2c sugar
• 3c raw peanuts (they MUST be the RAW ones)
  
• couple of drops of red food colouring.
  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a saucepan over medium heat throw everything in the saucepan. Bring to a boil, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Keep stirring till peanuts are evenly coated and no syrup is left in pan. (The sugar needs to not be liquid anymore if that makes sense) Spread nuts out on a baking sheet.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to evenly roastpeanuts.

Only three sleeps till Christmas and I am nowhere near prepared. I always try to have my gift shopping done before December because I hate to be in crowds and would rather not have gifts than try and find a parking spot at the shopping centres. For the food shopping I can send my husband.

Well...that's what I try to do. This year I have failed miserably.

We haven't even written Santa letters. It's a good thing Santa has email services nowadays! We'll be able to email him the requests and because it's so late in arriving Santa will have an excuse to not actually have the item they requested.

The past few Christmases have been financially difficult ones. For one of them the children were aware that we wouldn't be getting any presents. Santa did come and left a few treats. The next couple of years were lean also but the children didn't complain with the fun 'family' present that they got.

This year we have tried to do more things rather than 'get' more. One family night we spoke about the things we can do to make this Christmas a more 'giving' year. At first my 17yr old son was suggesting outrageous things....he sure likes to get a reaction out of me. We then got on the right track and even DS 17 (dear son the 17yr old) got into the spirit and this is what we came up with:

* One night we'll deliver cookies to some families. The children decided it would be more fun if we pixie drop/phantom family/ding 'n ditch, them....so that's what we did. Fun was had by all as we sang Carols on the way to the different homes and watched the boys almost get caught each time.

* We would have a night of just singing Christmas carols and we'd invite some friends over as well. This was held last night. I made eggnog, roca rectangles, sugared peanuts and mint choc crackers. It was a fun evening. It was made more special by having DD 18 play the piano and seeing that all my children would join in the singing. No attitudes in sight.

* The next thing we'll do is give some people a 'heart attack'.

So I'm not going to be ready for Christmas like I would like to be. We will have food and there will be some gifts to open and fun will be had. I have chosen to be OK with not being prepared this year and be thankful for the memories we've created and the Christmas spirit we've had (for the most part) throughout our home.

Roca Rectangles
One of my favourite treats to make...and EAT...is this simple recipe I learned through Relief Society back in Utah. It is always a big hit. People can not believe that the base is actually crackers. So here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

250g Butter or marg (two sticks of butter)
1 cup Brown sugar
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 box Salada Crackers (Saltines)
1 cup Almond flakes (optional)

Line a baking tray with foil (I now use wide baking paper...it MUST completely cover the baking tray). Turn up the edges of the foil to make a shallow pan. Spray well with cooking spray. Put a single layer of crackers on the foil, cutting crackers to fit.

Melt marg and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, boiling for 3 minutes, stirring as needed. Pour over crackers. Spread to cover. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for 7 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 - 6 minutes. Sprinkle choc chips on top. Put back in the oven just to melt the chocolate. Spread the chocolate to cover the slice. Sprinkle with almonds. Allow to cool then cut or break into slices.

ENJOY

If you have any requests then just let me know.

By Popular Demand
Ok...so I've had a number of emails asking for the recipe for my cinnamon rolls. Dilemma....should I share the recipe that brings me great compliments or should I guard it and keep the compliments for ME and ME alone? Ok...I'll share.

Wendy's (world famous) Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups Very warm water (not hot)
• 3 TBL sugar
• 1 TBL salt
• 2 TBL oil
• 6 cups plain flour
• 2 TBL yeast
• 1/2 cup powdered milk (optional)
  
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup butter or marg (I of course like butter)
• 2-3 TBL cinnamon
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup more sugar

Into a large, 'warm' mixing bowl pour warm water, then stir in sugar, salt, oil, half the flour, powdered milk and yeast. Beat vigorously for 2-3 minutes until smooth. (I use a whisk) Stir in remaining flour until all dry ingredients are completely mixed in, leaving spoon right in the heavy (sticky) batter. (I also cover the bowl with a tea towel. Leaving it in a warm area is also good)

Allow dough to rest for 10 minutes, then stir down. Allow dough to rest another 10 minutes, then stir down. Repeat this process until dough has been stirred down 5 times. (I keep paper and pen along side the timer so I can mark each 'stir'. I also keep the bowl with me while I'm checking emails or watching a show.) Dough may be sticky. Can sprinkle flour on top before you stir it to help it come away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn dough onto floured surface (I actually spray my CLEAN counter top with cooking spray...no extra flour. You will be surprised how easy the clean up is) Divide into 2 parts. Roll each part of dough into a rectangle about 1cm thick. Spread with melted margarine (or butter) and sprinkle generously with combined sugar and cinnamon mix. Roll up like a jelly roll, rolling from long side. Cut dough into 2cm lengths. Arrange 1 cm apart in a baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray or greased some other way. Cover lightly and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes. They will also rise in the oven. Bake immediately at 200 degrees Celsius or until they have a light brown colour on the top. Can spray with water as soon as they're removed from the oven to keep them soft bread. Allow to cool then remove from dish. Frost with butter frosting or glaze as desired.

To make Orange Rolls, eliminate the cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle with grated orange zest and sugar and make the butter icing with orange juice instead of the milk. YUMMO!!!!!!!