Simple Orange Chicken

We were given little jars of orange marmalade at Ruby's Pantry and I am not a fan. Those little pieces of orange zest suspended in the jelly just don't appeal to me. I didn't want it to go to waste though. I am really trying to not go grocery shopping unless I need to. We have a chest freezer and pantry full of food so ideally, I would only go to the store for produce and dairy.

So going along with that, I found a recipe for orange chicken. The recipe link claims that it is only 3 ingredients but that's not exactly true. It's 3 ingredients for the sauce but then you have to add in the chicken, flour, egg, and oil for cooking. I don't like when recipes to lie to me but I guess it's pretty close.

I will also mention that after reading through some of the comments on the recipe, I added in a few drops of sesame oil and some ground ginger. Apparently, I don't make recipes as written very often. I also took the original poster's suggestion and added in green pepper, after sauteing it first.

I used chicken thighs that David skinned and de-boned for me. This turned out just great. I never know how much it matters to use the part of the chicken that they ask for. I know the white meat vs. dark meat thing but especially when used for a recipe, I substitute in whatever part of the chicken I have.

This recipe really turned out great! David rated it a 9 out of 10 (but he isn't sure what he would change to make it a 10). The sauce made a nice coating for the rice, my chicken turned out crispy, and the peppers added a slight, nutritional crunch. It probably isn't but it actually did taste pretty authentic. I would make this instead of take out! It really is a simple recipe but I'm unsure about making it again because I don't see myself buying more marmalade.

I wonder if other flavors of jelly would taste good too or with other meats. Raspberry and pork might be yummy. I also used a pretty basic barbecue sauce so you could get a different flavor by altering that too. But don't get me wrong, nothing needs to change. I'm just always looking for alternatives.

Shepherd's Pie

So I know I titled this post shepherd's pie but in reality, this is going to be a recipe for cottage pie. However, when I'm searching through my recipes to make this one again, I will mostly likely call it a shepherd's pie. This is because it wasn't until very recently that I learned a shepherd's pie has to have lamb in it to be called that. The ground beef version that a lot of us making here in the US is really called a cottage pie.

This is the recipe I started with and I tweaked it a bit. I made this for David's birthday dinner (with a pound cake for dessert---talk about a heavy meal!) so I made it the night before and baked it day of (the original recipe says 25 minutes. I baked it for 40 minutes, probably because I didn't bring it back up to room temp before putting it in the oven).

We had a big bag of frozen mashed potatoes from Ruby's Pantry so I didn't bother making my own (and because I was trying to use up this bag, our casserole ended up more potato than anything but it turned out okay). I left out the celery and mushrooms. I used onion powder instead of onion (can you believe that I think we are out of onions??). I didn't use fat free beef broth. Instead, I used beef stock (from Ruby's again!). I also used dried spices instead of fresh. Then, I don't keep tomato paste on hand so I just used the equivalent amount of tomato sauce (mushroom flavored). We also don't have Worcestershire. I always substitute this with liquid smoke. And I didn't sprinkle it with paprika because I didn't know how the Ruby's potatoes were already seasoned.

This turned out SO good. David's family was over to celebrate and everyone gave it rave reviews! I do wish the ratio of potatoes to meat had been a little more equal but that was my doing, not the recipe's. Definitely definitely definitely going to make this again.

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

Before the holidays, I had to pick up my brother from college because he was going to come home with me for Christmas. It's about a 45 minute drive (each way) to his campus so given the timing of it all, I had David make dinner. To be honest, I don't even remember what the main dish was but the side dish was Parmesan roasted potatoes.

I apologize I no longer have the link to the creator of the recipe. I always try to give credit where credit is due but in this case, I can't.

Ingredients:
5-6 medium sized potatoes, skins on, diced
3-4 tablespoons oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. The spray may seem unnecessary given that we are using the foil but some of our potatoes stuck on and nobody likes eating foil. Put the potatoes on the pan.. Coat the potatoes with oil, making sure to stir them around a little. In a small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Sprinkle over the potatoes, again making sure all the potatoes are seasoned. Cook for 35-45 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes so that they are evenly cooked and don’t get burned on the bottom. 

This recipe was really great. My picky brother even had four helpings! We did use shredded Parmesan because that was what we had on hand but the grated stuff would work much better. A lot of potatoes didn't have any cheese at all because it mostly stuck to the pan. I will definitely be making these again!