Cooking by the Numbers

There's an awesome kitchen cheat sheet set to download! It's an excellent resource to keep handy when you're measuring and cooking. Yes, it's in "British" measurement, but so are many recipes! The printable version is available here. I had a picture up before, but it turned my blog all ka-flooey. So we'll stick with just sharing the link. Go get it! Print it! Hang it up in your kitchen!

Chicken & Onion Paprika

This recipe does not pretend to be authentic in any way, but it was pretty tasty and paired well with the Lithuanian rye bread my husband brought home from the bakery today.

I made it up as I went along; no actual measuring took place--generally I eyeball stuff like this.

Next time I'm adding more onion to this--it was the best part!

CHICKEN & ONION PAPRIKA

1 TBL olive oil
6 chicken thighs, skin-on, bone-in
1 onion, sliced thin
1 heaping TBL minced garlic
1 cup chicken broth
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes, or 2 to 3 diced plum tomatoes
1 TBL Hungarian sweet paprika
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Heat olive oil in a large heavy skillet. Brown chicken on both sides, then remove from pan and cook onions on high heat until they begin to brown. Lower the heat and add garlic to the pan. Cook 2 minutes, then return chicken to pan and add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook 30 minutes or until chicken is done.

Serve over noodles.

Science-Fair Success!

Although our first shot at a science-fair experiment was by no means a waste, we did have to redo the recipe with the correct proportions of ingredients. That meant we'd have to make more chocolate-chip cookies. (It's a tough job...)

The original cookie recipe came from My Kitchen Escapades. I cut the recipe in half, and we used baking powder in one batch and baking soda in the other. We used the same size cookie scoop, baked for the same amount of time, and measured the cookies after they baked and cooled.

Here's the recipe as Little Brother made it. Today, he had help from a friend who was visiting. I supervised and underwrote the cost of the ingredients. And I'm not letting him know that I'm reporting on his science-fair project here! He has to write his OWN report for school.

SAUCEPAN CHOCOLATE-CHIP COOKIES
(makes about 2 1/2 dozen)

1 stick butter, cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp (baking soda OR baking powder)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Melt butter in saucepan.
2. Stir in both kinds of sugar.
3. Let cool 5 minutes.
4. Stir in egg and vanilla.
5. Stir in flour, baking soda OR baking powder, and salt.
6. Make sure dough is cool.
7. Stir in chocolate chips.

8. Measure scoops of dough onto baking sheet.
9. Bake 9 minutes at 350.
10. Allow to cool on pan at least 5 minutes before removing to rack.

The hypothesis was correct! The baking-powder cookies remained tall and puffy, while the baking-soda cookies spread a little more, so they were wider and flatter. Both cookies were delicious; it's just a question of the shape and texture you prefer.

Little Brother measured the cookies after they baked and cooled. The baking-powder cookies averaged 1 inch tall and 1 3/4 inches wide. The baking-soda cookies averaged 1/2-inch tall and 2 1/2 inches wide.

Personally, I preferred the cookies with baking soda. I like a cookie with a crispy outside and chewy inside. The baking-powder cookies were softer and puffier.

The proof is in the cookie!

Kitchen Experiments: Brownie-Chip Cookie Bars

This recipe was born of a science-fair experiment gone wrong, plus a taste-test of a "make-your-own" brownie mix. Put it all together and you get one delicious treat for the chocoholic in your household.

Here's the story behind the mistake:  Little Brother and I were making cookies for his science-fair project. Yes, his science-fair project involves baking cookies! He is testing to see the difference in the finished product when using baking powder versus baking soda. I have him using the Saucepan M&M Cookies from My Kitchen Escapades because the batter is mixed in a saucepan and is very easy to work with. Plus, the cookies come out really good. We think that using baking soda in these cookies instead of the baking powder called for in the recipe will result in a flatter, wider cookie. But that's a story for another day.

I helped Little Brother get all set up in the kitchen, and I was guiding him through the recipe. But it had been a busy day, and I was really tired, and I just wasn't thinking about the fact that 1 stick butter is NOT equal to 1 cup butter. No wonder the batter was a little dry, and hard to mix. The cookies tasted good, though, and I thought they'd be a great base for a combination dessert. The recipe below contains the amount of butter I used in this dessert. If you want the original recipe for cookie-making purposes (and I highly recommend that you try these) then visit My Kitchen Escapades.

COOKIE BASE:

1/2 stick butter, cut into 4 pieces

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and add both sugars. Stir until smooth and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Mix in the eggs and vanilla, then add dry ingredients and stir until blended. Wait until batter is completely cool before adding in the chocolate chips.

BROWNIE MIX from Lindsey's Kitchen (this is a great recipe to substitute for boxed brownie mix.)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Add eggs, oil and vanilla and stir until just blended.

MAKE THE BARS:

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a 9-inch square baking pan (I lined it with Reynolds Release foil.) Pat cookie batter into bottom of pan until the entire bottom of the pan is lined in cookie batter. Pour brownie batter over the top.

Cover the entire cookie layer with brownie batter.

Bake between 28 and 30 minutes. Allow to cool completely, then lift the foil from the pan and place on a cutting board. Cut into squares.

For St. Patrick's Day: Irish Tea Brack

I like Irish soda bread as much as the next Irish girl, but the recipe I use makes a LOT of soda bread. I tried this recipe today, since I wanted to bake in a smaller quantity. It's based on a recipe from Georgina Campbell's book Classic Irish Recipes (Sterling Publishing, 1992). It is a "soda bread" but unlike the traditional soda bread, the liquid in the recipe comes from tea. Here's the recipe as I made it.

IRISH TEA BRACK

1/2 cup strong black tea
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup raisins
1 TBL orange zest
1 TBL lemon zest
4 TBL butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I used Penzey's Baking Spice instead)
pinch of salt

Mix tea, sugar and raisins in small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool. This can be done well in advance.
Grease a 2-quart round glass baking dish and line the bottom with waxed paper. Preheat oven to 350.
In a mixing bowl, combine tea mixture with citrus zest, butter and egg. Add dry ingredients and stir until mixed. Turn into prepared pan.
Bake 50 minutes or until firm to the touch. A cake tester or toothpick inserted into the middle will come out clean.
Cool in the pan at least 10 minutes before turning it out onto a rack.

Winter Winner: Dutch-Oven Pot Roast

My mom always tells me that she cooks pot roast in beer, but I hadn't tried that myself. And she wasn't home when I was getting ready to start dinner today--so I "winged it." I like how this turned out, and with the onions and braising liquid, you don't need to make gravy.

DUTCH-OVEN POT ROAST with Sweet Onions, Garlic and Yeungling

1 2 1/2- to 3-lb bottom round roast
1 tbl olive oil
3 medium sweet onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled
pepper
1 bottle (12 oz) Yeungling lager

Use a cast-iron Dutch oven for this dish.
Heat olive oil in Dutch oven and brown roast on all sides. Remove to plate. Add onions and cook a few minutes on high heat. Season roast with pepper and return to Dutch oven. Add garlic and beer. Cover and bake at 350 for 2 hours. Allow to rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Gnocchi with Cabbage and Shallots: 52 in 52

I'm taste-testing 52 new-to-me fruits and vegetables this year!

5.  Shallots. Every time I'd come across "shallots" as an ingredient in a recipe, I'd substitute onion. But I decided to try shallots instead, as part of this year's 52 in 52. I discovered that onion isn't really a great substitute; shallot has a distinct flavor all its own. It was a little harder to peel than an onion, but the flat side made it easier to chop.

6. Temple Oranges. It's a good time of year for citrus, so I tried Temples. They're deliciously sweet, but annoyingly full of pits. I guess that's why they were labeled "juice" oranges at the store. I saved the zest as well, and froze it to use in a recipe later.

GNOCCHI WITH CABBAGE AND SHALLOTS

This recipe is based on my "Polish" Gnocchi dish, but with more vegetables. This makes 2 to 3 servings.

1 bag (10 ounces) frozen gnocchi
1 1/2 cups cole-slaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots)
2 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 to 2 TBL olive oil
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp freshly-ground pepper
2 TBL Parmesan cheese
1 tsp butter

Prepare gnocchi according to package directions. Drain.
Saute shallots and garlic in olive oil 2 minutes. Add cole-slaw mix and toss to coat. Cover pan and cook 5 minutes until cabbage wilts. Stir in remaining ingredients, tossing until well mixed and butter is melted. Serve immediately.

This makes a great meatless meal if you serve it alongside a green salad.

52 in 52: Black-Eyed Peas and Serrano Peppers

During my second week of "52 in 52," I tried two new vegetables in the same dish! I'm counting them separately because it's my meme, so I get to make the rules here.

3. Black-Eyed Peas. Yummy!
4. Serrano Peppers. I used these in place of the jalapenos in the original recipe. They have similar heat to jalapenos and must be handled in the same way:  wear gloves, discard seeds and don't touch your eyes when working with them!

I loved the recipe I tried; it makes a great lunchtime side dish and will be terrific for picnics. The original recipe is a Paula Deen healthy recipe--that's right, a Paula Deen recipe that contains no butter! I discovered that the vinaigrette is delicious over a green salad as well, and it was really easy to make.

I cut the recipe in half, substituted a serrano pepper for jalapeno, added some red onion and used grape tomatoes because they looked nicer than the sad plum tomatoes at ShopRite. Here it is as I made it:

BLACK-EYED PEA SALAD WITH TOMATOES AND PEPPERS
Makes 3 servings

Vinaigrette:
3 TBL olive oil
2 TBL balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

Use a whisk or immersion blender to mix the vinaigrette. Use half for this recipe and the other half for an individual green salad.

Salad:
1 can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 handful grape tomatoes, cut in quarters
1/2 small red bell pepper, diced
1/2 serrano pepper, seeds removed, chopped finely
1/4 cup red onion, chopped finely
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Mix all salad ingredients except parsley in a large bowl. Toss with vinaigrette and top with fresh parsley. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

52 in 52: Apples and Squash

My New Year's Resolution this year is to try to eat more fruits and vegetables. To make it a little more interesting, I thought I'd mix in trying some new-to-me fruits and vegetables. So the goal is to taste-test 52 new varieties of produce by the end of the year--one for each week.

I'll probably be spending a lot of time at Wegman's this year, and I'm posting here for accountability.

I've already gotten in two new ones, and it's only January 3:  Macoun apples and butternut squash.

Both of them get only 2 stars in the All-Star Produce Lineup. Here's why:

Macoun apples are probably better for baking than eating out-of-hand. They are like a Macintosh apple, with very white flesh, but are kind of sweet and the flesh is not very firm and crunchy. (I prefer Winesap and Granny Smith apples for eating).

Butternut squash deserves another trial, perhaps with a different recipe. I tried it spiced, with garlic, cumin, cinnamon, pepper, brown sugar and olive oil, and roasted. I think there was too much going on in that recipe. Next time I will just roast it with a little butter and a little olive oil and let it caramelize a bit more.

I'm open to suggestions for that butternut squash.

Here's to 52 in 52 and a healthier 2013! (And if I manage to lose 25 pounds this year, so much the better!)

Would you like to join me in this venture? Let's make it a recipe party!

Dark-Chocolate Cupcakes

I found this cupcake recipe in the Wall Street Journal just after Hostess closed down. I'm not a fan of Twinkies, but those cupcakes are another story. My daughter likes them too, and requested them for her birthday--without the filling.

Below is the recipe as I made it. The original is linked above, if you want to know how to make the white-chocolate mousse filling. We thought these were rich enough all on their own.

The original recipe called for preparing "a 12-cup muffin pan." That made me think that the recipe would yield 12 cupcakes. The amounts of ingredients seemed awfully high for only a dozen cupcakes, so I wasn't too surprised when I had to pull out extra muffins pans--not once, but twice. I got 3 dozen cupcakes from this recipe, and since I'd accidentally overfilled some of the muffin cups, the yield would probably be closer to 3 1/2 dozen.

DARK CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
(makes about 3 dozen cupcakes)

CAKE:
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TBL baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
4 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups strong brewed coffee, warm
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 TBL butter, melted

GLAZE:
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp butter

Preheat oven to 325. Whisk together sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & cocoa into a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together eggs & egg yolks, buttermilk, coffee and vanilla. Slowly add egg mixture to dry ingredients, whisking together. Add butter and stir until just combined.

Prepare muffin tins with liners or grease muffin cups. Fill each cup halfway with batter. Do not fill more than halfway or things will get messy. Bake until cooked through, 18 to 20 minutes. (Mine took 22.)

Allow to cool to room temperature before glazing.

In a small pot, bring cream to a simmer. Place chocolate, salt and butter in a bowl. Pour in simmering cream and allow to sit 1 minute. Whisk until smooth. (I had to microwave the mixture for 20 seconds to melt the last of the chocolate bits.)

Dip tops of cupcakes in glaze and place on tray. Top as desired.

Chicken Fettuccine

Get this recipe with nutrition information at Cook and Count!

Corn Chowder

I'm a big fan of soup, though most of my family could take or leave it. That's why I don't have too many soup recipes here. But corn chowder is definitely one of my favorites; I often order it at restaurants and I figured there's really no good reason that I can't make it at home. There was a recipe at Sarcastic Cooking that I used as the basis for this soup. The changes I made reflected what was available in my pantry at the time; I was also using up some leftover cooked (boiled) potatoes and roasted chicken. Here's the recipe as I made it today:

CORN CHOWDER (printable version)
Serves 6

3 TBL butter
1/2 medium onion, chopped fine
2 ribs celery, sliced
12 baby carrots, sliced
1 heaping TBL minced garlic
4 TBL flour
3 cups chicken stock
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
2 TBL dried parsley flakes
1/2 cup cooked chicken, diced
1/2 cup cooked shrimp, diced
4 boiled potatoes, cooled, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups whole milk

Saute onion in melted butter until translucent. Add celery, carrots and garlic and cook until the vegetables begin to soften. Stir in flour until all liquid has been absorbed. Pour in chicken stock and add corn and seasonings. Cover and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in chicken, shrimp and potatoes and simmer 5 more minutes. Slowly stir in milk and cook uncovered for 15 minutes. Allow to cool a few minutes before serving.

You could substitute more shrimp or other seafood for the chicken for a delicious meatless meal!

Coffee-Cup Spice

I love how a little spice makes a cup of coffee that much sweeter and mellower, but without the "fake" flavor of artifically-flavored coffee blends or creamers. Those always have a strange chemical taste, I think. So I mix up my own "coffee-cup spice." Cinnamon by itself is delicious in coffee. Just sprinkle some on top of the coffee grounds before brewing (about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp for a 10-cup pot of coffee). I put together a spice blend, cinnamon-based, that is great in coffee or as a spice for coffee cake or muffins. To use it in baking, add up the amounts of spice you'd usually use in the recipe and use the same measurement of this spice blend.

I store it in an old jar from any one of the spices used in the blend. If you do this, don't even wash the jar first; whatever's left in the jar will just mix in.

Depending on the size of your jar, you can adjust the quantity of each, as long as you keep in mind that some are measured in TBL and some in tsp.

TBL:  cinnamon
tsp:  nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, ginger

Place in the jar, cover tightly and shake until well blended.

Iron-Skillet Chicken Caroline

I tweaked my Chicken Caroline recipe so I could cook it in my cast-iron skillet. I thought it was even better this way--but if you want to cook more than 4 pieces you'll need more than one skillet. This would be delicious on a sandwich; I served it with oven-roasted Yukon Gold potatoes.

CHICKEN CAROLINE

olive oil for the pan
1 onion, sliced very thin
2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 TBL minced garlic
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Italian seasoning
salt
pepper
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded (I used a combination of mozzarella and provolone)

In cast-iron skillet, slowly saute onion in olive oil until it begins to caramelize. Push onion to sides of the pan. Add mushrooms and cook until soft. Stir in minced garlic and cook 2 minutes. Remove all vegetables to a dish and add chicken to pan. Drizzle top of chicken with a little more olive oil, then season with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste.

Bake at 400 about 20 minutes. Top chicken with the cooked onion, mushrooms and garlic, then sprinkle cheese over it all. Return to oven for 5 more minutes until cheese melts.

Sesame Semolina Dinner Rolls

A large-capacity bread machine is needed to make this dough.  This batch makes between 24 and 30 rolls, depending on size. The dough was soft and pliable but not wet, and the oven-spring was impressive.

You'll find this recipe at my new website, Cook and Count!

Waste Not, Want Not: Potato-Chip Chicken

One of my neighbors works for a potato-chip company, and every so often he brings samples of new brands or new product lines to us for a taste-test. Yesterday he handed us a couple of bags of no-salt-added potato chips. 

If I'm going to eat chips straight out of the bag, they need to have a little flavor, like salt & vinegar or Honey BBQ. Not wanting these to go to waste, I figured out another way to enjoy them.

First I opened the bag, let out the air, then held the bag closed and crushed the chips. Then I poured some Old Bay seasoning into the bag, closed it tightly, and shook until the potato-chip crumbs were spicy. This became a delicious, crispy coating for oven-baked chicken drumsticks.

Here's the recipe for POTATO-CHIP CHICKEN

10 large chicken drumsticks

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1 5-ounce bag unsalted potato chips, crushed

1 TBL Old Bay (or more to taste)

Cover a cookie sheet with foil and brush with olive oil. Preheat oven to 375.

Add Old Bay to the crushed potato chips. Close the bag tightly and shake until the crumbs and spice are well mixed. Pour into a shallow bowl (I used a pie plate).

Beat egg and milk together and pour into another shallow bowl.

Dip chicken drumsticks in egg mixture, then roll in chip crumbs until coated.

Place on prepared cookie sheet.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes.

You can use any spice you like with this, and you get to control the salt. This is also a good way to use up the broken chips in the bottom of the bag. (You can freeze the chips until you get enough to use for one batch of chicken.)

Dessert Time: Cookies & Cream Brownies

Dress up a boxed brownie mix with crushed Oreo cookies and mini chocolate chips! This is an easy recipe to make with the kids; even little ones can help crush the cookies and then sprinkle on the toppings before baking. And it's never too early for kids to learn that even broken cookies are good for something.

Here's the recipe for Cookies & Cream Brownies:

1 box brownie mix, prepared as directed (I used a Dark Chocolate brownie mix for this recipe)
1 cup crushed Oreos or mini Oreos
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Prepare brownie mix as directed on box and pour into foil-lined 9x13 baking pan.
Top with crushed cookies.
Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the top.
Bake as directed.

Soccer-Mom Friendly Dinner: Chicken Caesar Sandwiches

Sometimes it pays to procrastinate JUST a bit. I was working on my meal plan over the weekend and browsing Twitter instead of focusing on the task at hand. Fortunately, I follow Jeff Young, the Catholic Foodie, and he tweeted a link to a recipe for Creamy Chicken Caesar Sandwiches.

My kids are fans of Caesar salad, especially when there's chicken involved. (Little Brother will eat just about anything if it includes croutons; in his world, croutons should have their own food group). With Little Brother and his crouton obsession in mind, I decided to serve these sandwiches on garlic bread instead of just plain rolls. (If you're local, I got the rolls from DeLuca's in Riverside.)

The original recipe is linked above; I'm writing it here as I made it.

Get the recipe at Cook and Count!

Dutch Oven Macaroni & Cheese

With an eye to planned leftovers that can be used for a quick lunch or dinner this week, I put together some baked macaroni & cheese.

3/4 pound small macaroni (mini penne, mini shells, elbows or cavatappi all work), cooked al dente
2 cups milk
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
10 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (3+ cups)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
salt, to taste
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
Cook pasta as directed on the package.

Heat milk in a small saucepan, making sure not to boil it, or heat it in the microwave for 1 minute. Meanwhile, melt butter in a Dutch oven. Whisk in flour and then the hot milk and cook until thickened and smooth. Remove from heat. Add cheese, pepper, salt and mustard. Stir until combined. Fold in cooked pasta. Sprinkle with bread crumbs. Cover and bake 20 minutes at 350, then remove the cover and bake 10 minutes at 300 until the sauce is bubbly and the casserole is browned on top.
This is great with a salad and crusty bread!

Singapore Street Noodles

This is one of those "kitchen sink" recipes; there is a ton of ingredients but I'm sure that some substitution wouldn't turn out badly. I thought the sauce in this recipe would work well with just about any combination of stir-fry vegetables.

I taste-tested this recipe with just my 10-year-old. I thought he might back away from the spice in it, but he never complained about it. He loved, loved, loved the rice noodles and asked me to make it again. I served mine on top of the noodles, but he wanted his noodles separate from the meat and vegetables.

SINGAPORE STREET NOODLES, my way (serves 4)

SAUCE:
1 TBL rice wine vinegar
2 TBL curry powder
1 pinch turmeric
2 TBL soy sauce or Ponzu
1/2 cup oyster sauce
2 TBL sriracha (sweet chili) sauce
2 TBL ketchup

VEG/MEAT:
1/2 lb. raw shrimp, peeled and tails removed
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut in thin strips
2 TBL vegetable or peanut oil for the pan
1 cup cole slaw mix
1/2 small onion, chopped fine
2 cups baby carrots, julienned
1 TBL minced garlic
1 medium tomato, cut in chunks

NOODLES:
1 pound Asian rice noodles, uncooked
1 tsp sesame oil
handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
1 lime, cut in quarters

1.  Mix vinegar, curry powder and turmeric until well blended. Add remaining sauce ingredients and stir. Set aside.

2.  Boil water in large pot for noodles.

3.  Stir-fry shrimp and chicken in oil until cooked through. Push to edges of pan and add all vegetables except tomato. Cook 1 to 2 minutes, then stir in tomato and sauce. Cook until everything is heated through.

4.  Cook noodles 2 to 3 minutes (according to package directions), stirring occasionally. Drain and toss with cilantro and sesame oil.

5.  Serve noodles with meat and vegetables and 1/4 lime to squeeze over the dish just before eating.

I plan to make a big batch of this (just the meat, vegetables and sauce), then divide and freeze it. The rice noodles take no time at all to cook, so this would be an amazingly quick meal for those really busy days. But I'm probably going to leave out the tomatoes next time and use some other vegetables instead. Also, some chopped dry-roasted peanuts or cashews would add to this dish.

Source for original recipe: Food.com (I changed some ingredients and re-worked the directions so the steps were actually in order. In the original recipe, also, there were some ingredients in the list that never were accounted for in the steps of the recipe.)