I love Thai Food!

My dad and I went to a little Thai restaurant in Escondido the other night.  It's called Padthai Restaurant (original, I know) and is located in Central Escondido.

The place is small, but well decorated and has a great ambiance (big fish tank and all). It received good reviews and is reasonably priced. However, the service is not the greatest.  What I mean is that they take your order, leave you for a long time, bring out your food, leave you for a long time, and then come with a check.  Which is fine for me, especially if I am not in a hurry or if I am talking with someone else.

It is located right next door to an Asian market, which is always fun to go into. Love looking at all the different foods. I also like looking through their spices to see what is customary in other cultures. And the globby, gelatinous fish products are always neat to see.

The food was great!  My dad got Three Kings, which is beef, chicken and pork with vegetables in a spicy soy based sauce.  The rice comes out of molds, so that they are shaped into flowers, hearts, or leaves. My dad got a rice flower.

I got Duck Curry, which is duck, pineapple, and vegetables in a red curry and coconut milk sauce. And a heart shaped rice. It was delicious!!!! I got mine at a 4 and it was exactly the right spiciness.

 

 

 

So if you are looking for good Thai food in my area, this is the place to go. Otherwise, Spices Thai Café in Rancho Bernardo is my favorite Thai restaurant.  

Chicken Salad

View from Torrey Pines State Park

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”   - J.Steinbeck

Once it starts to warm up around here, my mom has a 'no oven ' rule. She hates to run the oven in the summer, especially since our house never has had air conditioner. This means we have to be creative with recipes that involve no cooking, stove cooking, microwave cooking or grill cooking.

My dad uses a charcoal grill. So when he decides to cook something, that means we need to take advantage of the coals and cook everything. So BBQ chicken night turns into cook more chicken for leftover night, cook hot dogs night, or cook every ounce of some form of steak in our freezer night.  We end up eating leftover grilled chicken for a week after that! It gets to the point where I'll eat any other kind of meat. Any meat! Just no more chicken!  "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know." LOL.

In the interest of making the boring, well, less boring, we have experimented with a couple of chicken salad recipes in the last few months. Both were different from the traditional chicken salad (which I love) and kind of fun to try. Sorry no photos.

I found the original recipes on allrecipes.com. I love that site!  Both my parents and I always 'enhance' recipes we find to put our own personal touch in. So the recipes I post are never the exact same as the original source.  However, I do recommend allrecipes.com as a great source for recipes!

RECIPE 1

8 Cup Chicken Salad (my mom calls it this because it calls for about 8 cups of stuff)

 

3 cups of chicken, cooked and chopped/cubed

1 c of chopped celery
¼ cup chopped green onions (about two)
1 c of chopped apples
1 c mix of red and green bell peppers chopped
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp paprika
1/3 c mayo (more if desired)
Ground pepper to taste
½ tsp seasoned salt if desired
       
In a medium bowl, mix together mayonnaise with paprika and seasoned salt if using. Blend in dried cranberries, celery, bell pepper, onion, and nuts. Add chopped chicken, and mix well. Season with black pepper to taste. Chill 1 hour.

Camp Pendleton, Oceanside

RECIPE 2
Fruity Curry Chicken Salad

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cooked and diced

1 stalk celery, diced

4 green onions, chopped

1 Golden Delicious apple -  diced

1/3 cup golden raisins

1/3 cup seedless green grapes, halved

1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

3/4 cup light mayonnaise

 

In a medium bowl, mix together. Chill 1 hour.

 

If anyone has suggestions for non oven summer foods, please feel free to let me know!

What? Your Chicken is Orange?....Gross

I think I mentioned in a previous blog that I credited my cooking skills to my ex-husband. You think I would remember since there only has been three previous blogs. Anyway, he was the one that taught me actual skills. My parents have always taught us to be adventurous eaters. Now that we are grown and appreciate my mom's cooking more, she gets to be more fun and creative than when we were kids.

And how does she do it, you ask? Well, Seth, I can explain if you just CALM DOWN! For example, she does this thing where she finds random ingredients on the shelf that she wants to use and Googles recipes with those ingredients. Then she combines two or more recipes to make her own. Creates her own awesome stuff.

This is the chicken she made the other day. I was told that it looked like P.F. Chang's, and it does. But it is waaaayyy tastier than P.F.! It had depth to the flavor and the sweet of the pineapple complimented the zesty orange and ginger nicely.

 All the credit goes to my mom for this one. The notes are hers. So I am calling it:

Mom's Better than P.F. Chang's Orange Chicken

4 boneless skinless white breast meats OR
(I cooked a bag of frozen popcorn chicken in a little oil until it was crunchy and heated/cooked through. Took that out of the pan and made the sauce. Just pour the sauce over the chicken. Serve over rice.)

Ingredients:
Orange Sauce-
1 ½ cups orange juice (fresh squeezed)
2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon orange zest-grated
1/2 cup crushed pineapple
 ½ teaspoon ginger root (I grated it)
1 teaspoon garlic (used garlic press- several cloves- I always put more than it calls for)
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (can add more if not hot enough)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
¼ cup water
Garnish-
 2 tablespoons green onion-chopped

Combine orange juice and soy sauce and blend well over medium heat for a minute. Stir in pineapple, orange zest, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil.
Combine cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water and mix thoroughly. Slowly stir cornstarch mixture into sauce until it thickens. Pour sauce over chicken, and if desired, garnish with green onions.

Little Black Dress Soup?

I joined a book club over a year ago to get myself out there and meeting new people. One of the books we read as a club was Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen.  Which was a great book, by the way. It was funny and very true. I actually did find it hard to read at some points because the whole thing is about divorce.  “Men of sense, whatever you may choose to say, do not want silly wives.”   Anyway... we always get together to discuss the book we read, so we had an Amish night. I made this soup and it turned out yummy. This was pre-capture-everything-you-eat-on-your-phone-days, so I apologize for the no photo.

Amish Chicken Soup Recipe

Ingredients:
1.5 lb. chicken (I use boneless)
1 qt. water
1 tsp. salt (or more to taste)
1  c. chicken stock (or a can of broth)
1 c. celery, chopped
1 c. carrots, chopped
1 tart apple, chopped
1 c. onions, chopped
Dash pepper
2 c. egg noodles
dashes of celery seed, poultry seasoning, and sage


Directions:
Boil chicken in water until tender. Add everything else except noodles and cook until veggies and fruit are tender. Toss in the noodles and cook 8-10 minutes.

P.S. Ode to book clubs! I have read so many different books that I normally would never read or even know about. I am missing it this spring and am looking forward to reading books for the fun of it in the summer.