Rachel Ray's Barbecued Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps received a decent review at my house. No standing ovation and no encore was demanded, but a repeat performance would probably be welcomed sometime in the future. The dish is healthy and pretty simple. The picture above shows the cast of characters aka. ingredients. I didn't time it, but the recipe probably did take 30-minutes, as promised by RR. The most time consuming part of the recipe wasn't necessarily cooking, but prepping. Most of the "cast" required some primping... slicing, dicing, mincing, grating. But once that was done, throwing it all together in a stir-fry was easy peasy.

I made a few changes to the recipe: I used regular mushrooms instead of Shitake, used the entire red bell pepper instead of 1/2, added some garlic chili sauce, and next time, I'll add more Hoisin sauce to add flavor.

Get the recipe for the chicken wraps here.

For dessert I made Ina Garten's lemon cakes (I guess last night was a Food Network-themed night!). Now this recipe got rave reviews. We scarfed down half a loaf. The cake was deliciously tart and sweet, with the texture and crumb of a pound cake. Here's the recipe:

• Photo from The Barefoot Contessa cookbook.

Lemon Cake, adapted from Ina Garten

Makes 2 loaves.

Cake:

½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1/3 cup grated lemon zest (6 to 8 large lemons)

3 cups flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

¾ cup buttermilk, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Syrup:

½ cup sugar

½ cup lemon juice

* Glaze:

2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

3 ½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. (I sometimes use smaller loaf pans for cute little lemon cakes loaves. Make sure to shorten the baking time if you use the baby loaf pans.)

Cream the butter and 2 cups granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then the lemon zest.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, the buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1/2 cup lemon juice in a small bowl. Microwave for one minute and stire until the sugar dissolves. When the cakes are done, allow them to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans and set them on a rack set over a tray or sheet pan; spoon the lemon syrup over them. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice in a bowl, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth. Pour over the top of the cakes and allow the glaze to drizzle down the sides.

* I decided to forgo the extra glaze and the I think the cake tasted perfectly wonderful without it.

Never buy Jell-O instant pudding in the banana cream flavor. It is definitely Yuck-O.

I made the unfortunate mistake of purchasing the offending product when I decided to make some banana pudding a few days ago. Figuring banana pudding would be enhanced by banana-flavored pudding, I threw it into my grocery cart, along with Nilla wafers, organic skim milk, and a bunch of bananas.

Happily, I went home and started assembling my banana pudding.

Disaster struck as soon as I started mixing the milk with the pudding mix... When I smelled the scent of banana Runts wafting towards me as I whisked the pudding, I knew the pudding would be bad. I stopped whisking and tasted the pudding. Gag. The banana pudding tasted definitely tasted like banana Runt candies -- the worst flavor ever. There was no way I was going to add the pudding to my dessert, so I dumped it out.

Now without any pudding for my banana pudding recipe and no desire to go back to the store, I decided to try my hand at making vanilla pudding from scratch. Disaster struck again! The recipe called for milk, eggs, cornstarch, butter, and vanilla. Simple enough. But the recipe never warned me not to use skim milk! arrrrg. My pudding never thickened (even after tripling the amount of cornstarch) and was a liquidly mess. I had to dump it out. Ultimate FAIL.

So...long story short, and lesson learned, and 5 cups of wasted organic milk later, I finally got vanilla instant pudding from the store and was able to make my banana pudding. Luckily, the pudding was good. So all is well.

Here's the banana pudding recipe:

-4 bananas, thinly sliced

-1 box Nilla wafers

-2 boxes instant vanilla pudding (make according to package instructions)

-whipped cream

1. Arrange one layer of Nilla wafers in a 8x8 pan.

2. Layer half of the sliced bananas over the wafers.

3. Pour half of the vanilla pudding over the bananas.

4. Repeat steps 1 through 3.

5. Top with whipped cream and serve (or chill until served).

These burgers, created by my favorite Rachel Ray, are amazing. Crunchy bacon bits and sauteed onions are mixed into the beef patty, and then smothered onions and melted gouda top the burger. I've made these burgers a few times prior, but when I made these again over the weekend, I remembered again exactly how good they are. I highly recommend that you make these. Stat.

Bacon-Bit Burgers with Smoked Gouda and Steak House–Smothered Onions

Rachael Ray

From Every Day with Rachael Ray

April - May 2006

Makes 4 Burgers

Smoked bacon and cheese add punch to this beefy burger.

6 slices of smoked bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), 3 turns of the pan, plus more for drizzling 2 yellow onions, 1/4 finely chopped and 1 3/4 thinly sliced 1 1/2 pounds ground sirloin 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce (eyeball it) 1 teaspoon hot sauce (eyeball it) 1 tablespoon grill seasoning, such as McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning (a palmful) 4 crusty poppy seed or plain kaiser rolls, split 4 slices smoked Gouda cheese 1/4 cup steak sauce, such as A1 or Lea & Perrins

Rachel Ray -- I love to hate her. She's got that raspy smoker's voice, is annoyingly perky, and she's able to talk to herself for 30 minutes during her 30-Minute Meals show. Who DOES that? She can take that "evoo" and "Yum-o!" and shove it.

And although she seems all bubbly and friendly, I bet she's a total biotch off camera. Proof: Check out this video of the Amateur Gourmet, Adam Roberts, sitting next to Rachel at the Food Network Studios. She doesn't even look at him.

Anywho... she claims she's no chef, and that's true -- there's no culinary diploma hanging on her wall. Her recipes usually require sophisticated culinary techniques such as opening cans and stirring. But though I make fun of her, I do like some of her quickie dinner recipes. (Her burger recipes are always winners.) Here's a RR recipe that I found on the Food Network website that I'm planning to make next week.

Barbecued Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 10 min

Level: Easy

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 cups, 4 handfuls, fresh shiitake mushrooms
• 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 pounds thin cut chicken breast or chicken tenders
• 2 tablespoons light colored oil, such as vegetable oil or peanut oil
• Coarse salt and coarse black pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 inch ginger root, finely chopped or grated, optional
• 1 orange, zested
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced small
• 1 small tin, 6 to 8 ounces, sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 3 tablespoons hoisin, Chinese barbecue sauce, available on Asian foods aisle of market
• 1/2 large head iceberg lettuce, core removed, head quartered
• Wedges of navel orange -- platter garnish

Directions

Remove tough stems from mushrooms and brush with damp towel to clean, Slice mushrooms. Chop chicken into small pieces.

Preheat a large skillet or wok to high.

Add oil to hot pan. Add chicken to the pan and sear meat by stir frying a minute or 2. Add mushrooms and cook another minute or two. Add salt and pepper to season, then garlic and ginger. Cook a minute more. Grate zest into pan, add bell pepper bits, chopped water chestnuts and scallions. Cook another minute, continuing to stir fry mixture. Add hoisin Chinese barbecue sauce and toss to coat the mixture evenly. Transfer the hot chopped barbecued chicken to serving platter and pile the quartered wedges of crisp iceberg lettuce along side. Add wedged oranges to platter to garnish. To eat, pile spoonfuls into lettuce leaves, wrapping lettuce around fillings and squeeze an orange wedge over.

This recipe is so good, it'll blow your socks off... or so I've heard. I ran across this recipe one day as I was perusing my usual food blogs. When a friend asked me for Super Bowl food ideas, I sent this to him. He said it turned out amazing. Other bloggers who've made it have a said that their guests actually picked up the casserole dish and licked it.

I've been meaning to make this recipe myself for a while now, but I've been waiting to find the right occasion to make it. I need to justify making this dressing and cheese laden (aka. calorie-fest) dish. Perhaps soon though... I'm dying to try it. If you make it, let me know what you think!

Buffalo Chicken Dip As Made by The Bitten Word

Adapted from Frank's RedHot

INGREDIENTS

8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup ranch salad dressing

1/4 cup blue cheese salad dressing

1/2 cup buffalo sauce or buffalo style barbecue sauce

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (shredded mozzarella cheese can be substituted)

2 cups shredded meat from a fully cooked rotisserie chicken

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. In a deep baking dish, mix cream cheese, salad dress, buffalo sauce, and cheese. Stir until combined. Stir in chicken.

Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes, until the dish is heated through. Serve with crackers, pita chips, sliced bread or vegetables.

NOTE: Depending on your tastes and the ingredients on hand, you can use 1/2 cup ranch or blue cheese salad rather than 1/4 cup of each. Similarly, you can mix blue cheese and mozzarella, or use portions of each.

FROM: http://thebittenword.typepad.com

Celebrate St. Patrick's day by baking a loaf of Irish soda bread, a type of quick bread that originated in Ireland. The history, according to Wikipedia, is as follows:

Soda bread dates back to approximately 1840, when bicarbonate of soda was introduced to Ireland. Because the climate of Ireland hinders the growth of hard wheat (which creates a flour that rises easily with the assistance of yeast), bicarbonate of soda replaced yeast as the leavening agent.

There are several theories as to the significance of the cross in soda bread. Some believe that the cross was placed in the bread to ward off evil. It is also possible that the cross is used to help with the cooking of the bread or to serve as a guideline for even slices.

Soda bread eventually became a staple of the Irish diet. It was, and still is, used as an accompaniment to a meal.

And now that you know the history of Irish soda bread, you may now proceed to make the following recipe! I made this myself and it turned out pretty tasty. This bread recipe is easy, too, because no yeastie beasties or kneading is required.

IRISH SODA BREAD WITH RAISINS (Recipe from Epicurious.com)

Nonstick vegetable oil spray

2 cups all purpose flour

5 tablespoons sugar, divided

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons butter, chilled, cut into cubes

1 cup buttermilk

2/3 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray 8-inch-diameter cake pan with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, 4 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in large bowl to blend. Add butter. Using fingertips, rub in until coarse meal forms. Make well in center of flour mixture. Add buttermilk. Gradually stir dry ingredients into milk to blend. Mix in raisins.

Using floured hands, shape dough into ball. Transfer to prepared pan and flatten slightly (dough will not come to edges of pan). Sprinkle dough with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake bread until brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool bread in pan 10 minutes. Transfer to rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.