It can be a very long wait for a menu. Wait staff is short handed. Your patience is appreciated.
Picnicking Possums
Critter Cam – Red in Tooth and Claw
Picnicking Birds
Random Raccoons
Dinner Menu: Stir Fry Orange Chicken and Broccoli
It’s snowing here – well, raining at the moment, but snow by the evening. Never mind my garden is planted with tomatoes, three kinds of peppers, tomatillos, and zucchini, all raised in the house nursery over the past few months. Sigh.
It’s Colorado and we are always prepared for snow, so I’ve got everything ready to be covered and protected as the weather turns. Just not how I expected to spend the latter part of my week.
Cold weather puts me in the mood for some spicy favorites. This is from 2017:
I’m not big on deep frying anything, but I love orange chicken so I wanted to find a way to make it so it was still crisp without all the oil and breading. I found the perfect ingredient to produce that result: potato starch. I’ve been using it for a while now and it makes the most perfect Oven Baked Chicken – I’ve been substituting it for the bread crumbs, combining it with crushed rice chex – I’ll post an updated recipe on that technique this week.
I thought it might have the same effect on pan frying chicken pieces. It did. Crispy, light and flavorful. Of course top anything with enough orange sauce and I’m there.
On the board tonight:
- Pan-Fried Orange Chicken
- Rice or Rice Noodles
- Steamed Broccoli
Best Sleeping Buds
Walked into the living room to this:
I guess the two youngest members of the household are friends.
Tuna Salad
We like it with eggs, I also add minced onion, celery, sweet pickle relish, and green bell peppers – all glued together with mayo.
Guinness Stout Mustard
The cheese is a pecorino moliterno, the sausage is an oven baked deer sausage.
Recipe:
12 oz stout beer
1-1/2 c brown mustard seeds (whole)
1 c red wine vinegar
1 T kosher salt
1 t ground back pepper
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground allspice
Combine all the above in a stainless or other inert bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 24-48 hours. After soaking dump it all into a blender and pulse until the seeds are ground to your liking. The mixture will thicken, you may need to add a bit more vinegar and to scrape the sides down. This recipe makes about three cups.
What's 4 Dinner Solutions 
