Stir-Fry MASTER!

I’ve been called this a time or two. Sure, I’m the one who called myself that first…but then it caught on with the masses! And by the masses, I mean Jon. And by Jon I mean the man who loves me. He’s under contract to say things like that. Okay, maybe not under contract but…you get the gist.

ON TO THE STIR-FRY! I’m not going to do my usual “Here’s what you’ll need” list because you’re going to need the same ingredients multiple times, and it’s just easier to tell you what to do while you’re doin’ it instead of telling you how much of what to take out of those ingredients. Does that makes sense? Okay good.

First, to make the sauce, get a small bowl and mix together 1 tsp corn starch, 2 Tbs soy sauce, 1 Tbs oyster sauce, 1 Tbs dry sherry, 1 tsp sugar, ¼ cup chicken broth, and ¼ tsp red pepper flakes. Give it a good stir and set it aside.

In a large bowl whisk together 1 Tbs cornstarch, 1 Tbs flour and 2 Tbs sesame oil and set that aside too.
Mince up 1 Tbs of fresh ginger and 1 Tbs of fresh garlic, put it in a small bowl, and pour in 1 Tbs vegetable oil…set that aside too (all of this “setting aside” will make things easier later).

Take 2 chicken breasts and stick ‘em in the freezer for half an hour. You want them to be just slightly frozen, because you’re going to slice these suckers up really thinly. Once you sliced the chicken breasts into thin pieces, toss them in a bowl with 1 Tbs soy sauce and 1 Tbs dry sherry. Let that marinade for at least 10 minutes or up to an hour.

Chop up 2 bell peppers (the color of your choice, I prefer red), ½ an onion, and 1 pint of mushrooms. Now you’re ready to get cooking!

Place your wok (or whatever pan your using…but seriously, buy a wok because it’s awesome) over high heat with 2 Tbs of vegetable oil. Once your pan is screaming hot, pour your chicken into the large bowl that has the cornstarch/flour/sesame oil mixture. Give it a good toss until it’s well coated, and put half of your chicken in the hot pan in a fairly even layer. DON’T TOUCH IT! Let it fry for about a minute. Once the minute is up, give it a good stir (notice the yummy brown bits. Mmm, brown bits) and let it cook for another minute. Transfer first batch of cooked chicken to a plate, and do the same thing with the second batch of chicken. Cover your chicken with a piece of foil and toss all your veggies in the hot wok (add more oil if you think it needs it) and cook them for about a minute. Clear a little spot in the middle of your wok, and pour in the oil/ginger/garlic mixture. Let it sit for about 45 seconds before stirring it together with all of your veggies. Add chicken back to the pan and let everything mingle together for 30 seconds. Lastly, give your sauce one last stir, and pour it over your stir fry. Let it heat through, thicken up, and then remove it from the heat.

You’re done! Throw some scallions over the top, serve it over rice and enjoy!

Chocolate Peppermint Pretzel Sticks

Last night I had the itch to make something sweet and festive. At first I wanted to make sugar cookies, but that meant I would have had to make a few different colors of frosting…and lets face it, that’s way too much work. Then I remembered that my friend Lauren pinned a recipe on Pinterest for chocolate covered pretzel sticks with bits of candy cane on them. Game on pretzel sticks. Game. On.

What you’ll need:

1 24oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag of pretzel rods
About 4 candy canes
Sprinkles (optional)
Parchment paper

Cover 2-3 cookie sheets with a piece of parchment paper. Put your candy canes (or in my case little candy cane bites) in a ziplock bag and smash them into little bits.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips over medium-high heat. Once melted reduce heat to low just to keep the chocolate from hardening. Grab yourself a pretzel rod and, using a spatula, cover all of but about an inch of the pretzel in chocolate. While the chocolate is still soft, sprinkle the chocolate pretzel with your desired topping.

Set each pretzel on parchment covered cookie sheets and allow to harden for about an hour. Once the chocolate is set, carefully lift pretzels from parchment paper and store in an air tight container or freezer bag.

These would make a great holiday gift for your friends and they’re way easier to make than a bunch of cookies. I’m giving them away to friends and family! Happy holidays everyone!

Pumpkin Swirled Chocolate Brownies

Remember me? I’m back. With brownies.

I love baking, but it always makes such a huge mess. Check it out!

And this is not showing the chocolate shavings that melted on my clean floor. Stupid chocolate shavings…

Lets get right to it! Here’s what you’ll need:

For the pumpkin batter:
1 Tbs unsalted butter, softened
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup canned pumpkin puree (make sure it’s not the “pumpkin pie mix” stuff)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 Tbs all purpose flour

For the brownie batter:
5 1/2 oz semisweet baking chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups flour

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a 13×9 baking dish with nonstick spray and set aside. In a small bowl, using an electric mixer, mix together the cream cheese and butter. Beat in the sugar and egg until well incorporated. Next, add the pumpkin puree, vanilla, and spices and cream together until smooth. Fold in the flour and set this mix aside.

Grab a large pot and fill with about 3 inches of water. Put over high heat and bring to a boil. While that’s heating up grab a small heat-resistant bowl and toss in the chocolate and butter pieces. When water comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and place bowl over the simmering water and melt together the butter and chocolate. Stir occasionally until melted. Set aside.

In a large heat-resistant bowl, combine the eggs with the sugar, vanilla and salt. Place over the same simmering water and, using an electric mixer, beat until the mixture is lukewarm. Remove from heat and continue mixing at medium-high speed for about 5 minutes, or until mixture is thick and fluffy. Grab a spatula and fold in the chocolate mixture. Sift the flour into this mixture and fold that in, too.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the prepared baking dish, and smooth the top with a spatula. Pour the pumpkin mixture over the top of the chocolate mixture and, using the back of a butter knife, swirl the pumpkin batter into the chocolate mixture. Don’t over-do it or the swirl pattern will be lost. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.