Coconut Curry

Just in the last 5 years I have discovered a new love for Indian food. I love to try all the different types of curries to see which ones I like the most, Coconut Curry is the favorite for my family.

Since I have been trying to do more cooking at home and eating out less I have been looking for recipes to mimic what we would be eating if we went out to eat. This is one of the easiest and tastiest recipes I have made. My goal is once a week to make a great dinner at home that would compare to a restaurant meal (except hopefully healthier).

Here's the recipe........

Coconut Curry Chicken


Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

• 1 teaspoon salt and pepper, or to taste

• 1 1/2 tablespoons Canola oil

• 2 1/2 tablespoons curry powder

• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

• 1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk

• 2 Lg diced tomatoes

• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• Cilantro (for garnish)



Directions

1. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper.

2. Heat oil and curry powder in a large skillet over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Stir in onions and garlic, and cook 5-10 minutes more. Add chicken and reduce heat to medium, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink in center and juices run clear.

3. Pour coconut milk, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and sugar into the pan, and stir to combine. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, approximately 30 to 40 minutes.

4. Serve with Coconut Rice and garnish with cilantro.

Enjoy,
Tiffany

Pumpkin Bars

After posting the Butternut Squash Soup yesterday it got me thinking about other Fall recipes and what my favorites are.....mmm Pumpkin bars. They are so delicious and very easy to make, I will usually make this instead of pumpkin pie for Halloween and Thanksgiving. This is a recipe for a crowd but can be easily scaled down if needed.

So why am I posting this now? Who knows but it sounds really good right now with all this crazy weather. It's so crazy it might snow in San Francisco!!!! I'm really hoping it does, I feel like a little kid wishing for snow but it would be so great.

Pumpkin Bars




Serves 24



Ingredients

3 eggs

1 2/3 cups white sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 (30 ounce) can pumpkin puree

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt



1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar



Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture until thoroughly combined.

3. Spread the batter evenly into an ungreased 10x15 inch jellyroll pan. Bake for 25 to 30  minutes in preheated oven. Cool before frosting.

4. To make the frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Stir in vanilla. Add confectioners' sugar a little at a time, beating until mixture is smooth. Spread evenly on top of the cooled bars.

5. Cut into squares.

Enjoy,
Tiffany

Butternut Squash Soup

I always tend to stick with what I know but I really wanted to try something new. Butternut Squash is something I have never cooked with before so I was a little timid about making it. I took a recipe I found on another blog but put my own twist on it and was really happy with the results.

 

Doesn't that look delicious? Well with this cold rainy (maybe snow too) weather I need to make this again real soon.

 

Butternut Squash Soup

 

 

 Serves 5

 

 

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

 

• 1 large shallot, chopped fine

 

• 1 large butternut squash (about 3 pounds), cut in half lengthwise, and each half cut in half width wise; seeds and strings scraped out and reserved (about ¼ cup)

 

• 2 cups water

 

• 1tsp cayenne pepper

 

• ½ tsp garlic powder

 

• ½ tsp onion powder

 

• 1cup chicken broth

• 1 teaspoon salt

• ½ tsp celery salt

• 1 cup fat free ½ and 1/2

• 1 teaspoon dark brown sugar\

• Pinch of grated nutmeg

 

1. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium-low heat until foaming. Add the shallot and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the squash scrapings and seeds, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the butter turns saffron color, about 4 minutes.

 

2. Add the water and 1 teaspoon salt to the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, place the squash cut-side down in a steamer basket,. Cover and steam until the squash is completely tender, about 30 minutes. When cool enough to handle, use a large spoon to scrape the flesh from the skin. Reserve the squash flesh in a bowl and discard the skins.

 

3. Strain the steaming liquid through a mesh strainer into a second bowl; discard the solids in the strainer, reserve the liquid.

 

4. Puree the squash in batches in a blender or food processor, pulsing and adding enough reserved steaming liquid to obtain a smooth consistency. Transfer the puree to the pot and stir in the remaining steaming liquid, cream, spices, chicken broth, and brown sugar. Warm the soup over medium-low heat until hot, adjust the seasonings, adding salt to taste. Serve immediately.

 

adapted from: Brown Eyed Baker

 

Enjoy,
Tiffany

Banana Cheescake with Caramel Sauce

Happy Birthday Hubby!!

For my hubby's birthday I wanted to mix the two things he loves banana's and cheesecake. Making this cheesecake was really fun, my 3 year old son mashed the bananas. He loves to help in the kitchen.

This was actually one of the easiest cheesecakes to make, it has a long ingredient list but don't let that fool you.

I made everything from scratch but you can do some shortcuts to save you time, instead of making the crust and caramel sauce you can buy them pre-made.

Banana Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 cube butter (unsalted)

3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

Cheesecake:

3 (8oz) packages cream cheese (room temperature)

3/4 cup white sugar

4 medium mashed bananas

3 eggs (room temperature)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Caramel Sauce:

1 cup sugar

6 Tablespoons butter (next time I will try only 5 Tablespoons)

1/2 Cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325° F

2. Butter a 9 in springform pan

3. For crust mix grahamn cracker crumbs, melted butter and brown sugar until well combined. Press firmly into springform pan going 3/4 of the way up on the sides. To get it pressed firmly around the bottom and edges use a cup.

4. Mash bananas

5. Combine your room temperature cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of your mixer, mix until light and fluffy.

6. Add one egg at a time, mixing well between each egg.

7. Finally add mashed bananas and vanilla, mix well.

8. Pour into prepared crust.

9. Bake at 325°F for 1 hour and 5 minutes

10. Once finished turn oven off and don't open the door for an hour this helps the cheesecake set and not crack.

11. Refrigerate for about 3-4 hours before serving.

12. About 30 minutes before serving prepare caramel sauce.

Caramel Sauce

1. Heat sugar in a heavy bottomed pan over medium to high heat. Being careful to not burn the sugar. Once sugar starts melting stir continuously until all sugar granules are melted.

2. Once sugar is completely melted add butter stir until butter is also completely melted. Take off heat.

3. After about 30 seconds add heavy cream. Stir to ensure everything mixed well.

4. Let cool a little before serving.

5. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Serve cheesecake with sliced bananas and caramel sauce drizzled over the top.....and don't worry about the calories it is worth it!

PS sorry the pictures are not that great my camera is out of commission and needs to be repaired so I will be using my daughters camera until then.

recipes adapted from  Simply recipes and Allrecipes

Enjoy,

Tiffany

Garlic Bread

So why did I decide to make my first food post one of the easiest things to make? Well probably because it is one of my favorites. I absloutly love garlic bread....to tell the truth I love all things bread sometimes I feel like it's a problem but I will address that at a later time. Ok looking at this picture is making me want to make it again problem is it's only 8 am.

Ok doesn't that picture make you want to have some yummy garlic bread now. The best way to make this even better is good quality fresh sourdough bread. Ok enough already here's the recipe.

Tiffany's Garlic Bread

serves 8 (or 4 if you're hungry)

Ingredients

1 lg loaf Sourdough bread

1 stick butter softened

1 heaping Tablespoon garlic

2 tsp finely chopped parsley

Directions

Heat oven to 350,

Mix together butter, garlic, and parsley until thourghly mixed,

Cut loaf in half lengthwise, spread both sides evenly with garlic butter mixture

Place loaf back together and wrap with foil, put in oven for 7-10 mins until soft

Take out of foil and place in boiler unitl slightly brown,

Once cool enough to handle cut into 1-2 in strips and serve!

Enjoy,
Tiffany

My first post.....About my blog

This post has been a long time coming. I started this blog in October of 2010 but somehow my first post isn't taking place until February 2011 talk about procrastination central. When I think of how long I have been meaning to start this blog and try to figure out why I haven't done it yet I think it's because I didn't know what to say or how to say it. So I'm just going to be me. 

Most of my recipes come from inspiration from a family recipe, blog, or something I've seen somewhere If I have adapted my recipe from a blog or other source I will include a link in the post. I try to put my own personal touch on most recipes but some are already perfect the way they are.

Thank you for coming over to my blog and I hope you enjoy cooking with me and my family.

Enjoy,
Tiffany