Chicken and Green Bean Stir Fry #Recipe Peg Cochran/Margaret Loudon

 

This is a quick and easy weeknight dinner when you have a craving for Asian flavors.  And it's cheaper and healthier than take-out!  I had green beans I wanted to use up and I had chicken thighs and I had a craving for a stir fry.  This recipe fit the bill with a few tweaks.  The recipe called for frozen green beans but mine were fresh.  I microwaved them briefly before adding them to the pan to cut down on cooking time.  I also had a smaller amount of chicken since only two of us were going to be eating this.  I didn't have any green onions and had to do without but it was still delicious.  The recipe called for red pepper flakes but I preferred the taste of sriracha, which I always have on hand.  You can use soy sauce or tamari if you want to make this gluten free.

 

1.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into thin strips

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari

3 Tablespoons honey

2 Tablespoons each rice vinegar & hoisin sauce

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1-4 – 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or sriracha to taste

2 teaspoons cornstarch

3 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil

1 pound green beans, fresh or frozen

5-6 scallions, whites & greens separated

8 cloves garlic, finely minced

  

If using fresh green beans, microwave for 3 to 4 minutes.  If frozen, allow to thaw.

Toss the chicken thigh strips with 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Set aside.

 

Whisk together the soy sauce or tamari, honey, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, ground ginger, chili flakes or sriracha, and cornstarch. Set aside.

 

Heat about half of the sesame oil over medium-high heat. Working in 2-3 batches if necessary, add the chicken strips. Let the chicken cook undisturbed for a few minutes to allow it to brown. Turn and cook until browned and cooked through, about 5-7 minutes per batch. Remove each batch of chicken and set aside. Add more sesame oil between batches if needed.

Reduce the heat to low. Add remaining sesame oil to the pan. Add the garlic and the whites of the green onions. Sauté for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

Add the green beans and sauté until tender or to taste. 

 

Return the cooked chicken to the pan. Pour the prepared sauce over the chicken and green beans. Stir well to coat everything evenly. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until the sauce has thickened.  Top with optional green onions.

 

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Green Beans Almondine #Recipe @PegCochran

 

Sometimes I feel like kickin' it old school, you know?  Recently I was making a rib roast for a special dinner and needed a vegetable to go with it.  I'd already settled on scalloped potatoes--another oldie but goodie--but I needed a green vegetable.  Green beans were looking quite good at the market so I bought a pound of those.  But how to prepare them?  I perused any number of recipes and then decided to go back to an old standby--green beans almondine.  They became a staple on menus back in the 1960s for a reason--they're good!

3 tablespoons butter, divided  

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/3 cup shallots minced

1 pound green beans   

salt and pepper to taste

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped parsley (optional)

 

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat.

 

Add the almonds to the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.

 

 

Remove the almonds from the pan; wipe the pan clean with a paper towel.

 

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the pan. Add the shallots and cook for 3-4 minutes or until tender.

 

 

Add the green beans and 1 tablespoon of water to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until green beans are tender, about 4-5 minutes.

 

Stir in the lemon juice, salt and pepper.

 

Sprinkle the reserved almonds over the green beans, along with the optional parsley.  

 

 

Writer-in-residence Penelope Parish will need to use every trick in her quaint British bookshop to unravel a murderous plot that threatens to ruin a ducal wedding.

The wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Upper Chumley-on Stoke has all the makings of a fairy tale, complete with a glowing bride and horse-drawn carriage. But it wouldn't be much of a story without a villain, and as American Gothic novelist Penelope Parish is coming to learn, happy-ever-afters are as fraught in this charming British town as they are in her books.

When the Duke's former girlfriend is found murdered at the reception it's up to Penelope and her newfound family at the Open Book bookshop to catch the killer before they strike again.

 

AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE

 

Murder in the Margins has everything: England * Charming town * Book shop * Writer-in-residence * Royalty * Cute detective * Murder!

 

 

The plot thickens for American gothic writer Penelope Parish when a murder near her quaint British bookshop reveals a novel's worth of killer characters.

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Chinese Green Beans #Recipe @PegCochran

In my never ending quest to make vegetables more exciting, I decided to try a recipe that claimed to duplicate the delicious green beans you get in a Chinese restaurant (why do other cultures make veggies taste so good when all we do is boil them and douse them in butter?)

I found a recipe which, needless to say, I adapted somewhat!  It was delicious and really very easy.  With green beans in great supply right now at farmer's markets and the grocery store, it's the perfect time to try this.




Ingredients:

Green beans (I bought enough for two people)
Vegetable oil or cooking spray (if you want to keep the calories low)
1 tsp. grated ginger (I used the jarred stuff--don't tell!)
1 garlic clove minced (ditto on the garlic--it makes weeknight meals so fast!)
2 TBL water
1 TBL soy sauce
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or, I used 1/2 tsp. sirracha

Wash beans and trim ends.

Boil or steam your green beans.  I put them in boiling water for three minutes.  Then drain and plunge into cold water to stop the cooking.

Combine water, soy sauce, cornstarch, sesame oil and pepper or sirracha, whisk well and set aside.

Coat a skillet with oil or cooking spray.  Add ginger and garlic and saute for several seconds.   Add beans and saute for five minutes.

Add reserved water/soy mixture and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds.

Serve and enjoy!

Available now for pre-order!  Coming September 6!

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On her blog, The Farmer’s Daughter, Shelby McDonald is growing her audience as she posts recipes, gardening tips, and her experiences raising two kids and running Love Blossom Farm in the small western Michigan town of Lovett.

Working the farm is demanding but peaceful—until that peace is shattered when the minister’s wife is murdered on Shelby’s property during a fund-raiser for a local church. But the manure really hits the fan when Shelby’s good friend veterinarian Kelly Thacker emerges as the prime suspect. Shelby decides to dig in and find the murderer by herself. As more suspects crop up, she’ll have to move fast—before someone else buys the farm. . . .

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Knock-off Chinese-Style Sesame Green Beans #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE:  Fact--I cannot resist sesame green beans in a Chinese restaurant, even though I know they are loaded with fat and salt. When I saw the colander full of beans that my hub had picked in our garden last week, I knew I would attempt my own version.

But first, I should tell you that these beans were hard fought treasures. A family of woodchucks moved in across the road and decimated our crops three times over. Finally Farmer John's layers of netting and booby traps including hot sauce and cayenne pepper kept them out, barely averting disaster: He insisted I order a trap and threatened to send me and Tonka out there with a gun to spend the night. (Ha!)

Ingredients

2 handfuls of fresh green beans
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon butter
dash of sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1-2 tablespoons of soy sauce

Cut the ends off the green beans, break into 2-inch pieces, blanch quickly in boiling water. 


Heat the three oils together. Stir-fry the blanched beans in the oil for several minutes. Add the sesame seeds and continue to stir. Add the soy sauce and stir until the liquid is slightly reduced. Turn the heat off and cover the pan.

 








Pretty darned good! We ate every one that same night. Oh so delicious, Mr. Woodchuck, so sorry you couldn't make it to dinner...

FATAL RESERVATIONS is on bookshelves now! 

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Farmer's Market Summer Supper @LucyBurdette #recipe

LUCY BURDETTE: Do you ever make supper according to what you see in refrigerator or at the market? I do! My hub calls it my French market method. 

Last week I saw some darling new potatoes at the market in town. And the most beautiful red onion. And the green beans were swarming our garden, along with some lovely cucumbers. Add a couple of eggs, some well done bacon crumbles, and a vinaigrette, and voilà, an easy summer dinner.

Ingredients

Two handfuls of fresh green beans, snipped in half
Six or so new potatoes
One small fresh red onion, peeled and sliced
4 ounces good bacon, cut into one inch pieces
Two large eggs, boiled, peeled, and sliced
Vinaigrette  (Olive oil, vinegar, good mustard, pinch of salt)
Fresh dill, washed and snipped
Lettuce for display purposes
Sliced cucumber
Corn on the cob, if desired

 
Cook the eggs 10 minutes and let them cool in the pot. In another pan, simmer the potatoes until almost soft. Then add the green beans for the last three minutes of simmering. Drain the vegetables, slice the potatoes into chunks, and place in a glass bowl. Add the snipped dill and 1/4 to 1/2 cup vinaigrette, depending on how much dressing you like.

 
In a frying pan, sauté the bacon pieces until they are crisp and move them onto a plate covered with paper towels to drain. For the onions, you may either leave a tablespoon or so of bacon fat in the pan or start fresh with olive oil. Sauté the sliced onion until it's brown and soft. Reserve the bacon, but mix the onions in with the other vegetables.

To assemble the salad, lay out some clean pieces of lettuce. Mound the veggies on the lettuce, then layer on sliced eggs and sprinkle the crispy bacon bits on the top. Serve at room temperature with fresh corn on the cob.

MURDER WITH GANACHE, the fourth Key West mystery, is in stores now. DEATH WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS will be out in December.

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Blue Cheese Chopped Salad

GIVEAWAY: WINNER

Last week for Halloween, I offered a giveaway. Your choice of the first three CHEESE SHOP MYSTERIES for leaving a comment.

The winner is:

LLK10 (retired), who loved popcorn balls.  Send me an email at Avery at AveryAames dot com and provide the name of the book and your address.

CONGRATULATIONS!

 I met my husband at the Palm Restaurant. I was there for lunch with a girlfriend. This was way back when I was an actress (The Palm was one of the "in" places to be) and I was treating a girlfriend to a fancy lunch for her birthday.  I dressed up. I arrived on time. She was late. Really really late. That's how I met my husband. I was waiting, waiting, waiting for this woman to show up...believe it or not, I can't remember her name now. Argh!  I'm sitting there, feeling pretty stupid, all by myself, trying not to look like I've been stood up. Trying not to look like I'm hungry for a role in a movie. Or just plain hungry. I have a little birthday gift on the bar in front of me.

Daryl Wood Gerber

Anyway, my future hubby comes up and doesn't introduce himself. He simply grabs the box and says, "For me?" And I cleverly say, "Gee, when's your birthday?" He says, "April." I say, "Hmm. It's not April. It's November. I'll remember to bring you something in April." Chemistry. We smile. He nestles onto a stool and we start talking. For a straight 30 minutes. (Girlfriend still hasn't shown up.) When the business friend my future hubby was having lunch with suddenly butts in and says they have to return to work, we quickly exchange names. No phone numbers. At the same time, my girlfriend (still can't remember her name...you'd think retelling he story it would come to me...starts with J) enters. We introduce all around, and the men leave. Rats. I tell my girlfriend (Jan, Joy, Jenny?) I'm smitten. I'm going to track this guy down. I know where he works. Not stalker-time. Just, well, because I liked him. A lot!

My future hubby goes back to work, looks me up in the phone book (I'm not in it) and finally caves and calls the restaurant. I was still there. Yay! We set a date for dinner. We went back to the Palm. It has become our great memory restaurant. We've been married a lo-o-o-ong time. Lucky me...us.

Anyway, the Palm has a fabulous chopped salad, called the Gigi salad. Right up to our wedding, Gigi (the maitre 'd) swore he introduced my husband and me. NOT.  Too funny. Everyone loves to be a matchmaker.

Anyway, I love a chopped salad. There's almost nothing simpler to make. And chopping gets aggressions out, don't you think?

Chop, chop, chop. Bam, bam, bam.

I hope you enjoy this yummy dish. I've tweaked it from the Palm's version. I don't have a clue what the restaurant's dressing entails. A vinaigrette. This one is a little more tart, super simple, and extremely tasty with the blue cheese.

BLUE CHEESE CHOPPED SALAD inspired by THE PALM

 (for two)

Ingredients:

2 Roma tomatoes

½ Maui sweet onion

½ cucumber, peeled

½ cup string beans, * cooked, see below

4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

1 lemon (Meyer, preferred)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Directions:

Cook the string beans, see below, and cool in ice water bath.

Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes, onion, cucumber. Mix together. Cut the string beans in half. Toss with the other vegetables. Cut the lemon and squeeze the lemon juice over the salad. Drizzle with oil and add the salt. Toss one more time.

Set mixture on plates and top with 2 ounces crumbled blue cheese.

To cook string beans:

Bring a pot of water to boil. Meanwhile, cut off the tips of the string beans. Add beans to boiling water. Boil for 2 minutes. Pour off the water and steam with the lid on for 2 minutes. Immediately rinse the beans and put into an ice water bath for 2 minutes. Drain. These will be bright green and still crisp. Perfect for a snack or chopped salad.

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The 4th in A Cheese Shop Mystery series: 

TO BRIE OR NOT TO BRIE
coming February 2013.

You can pre-order the book HERE. 

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Also, you probably know by now about my alter ego,
DARYL WOOD GERBER...and her new series
A COOKBOOK NOOK MYSTERY series
debuts July 2013

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"She" doesn't say all the same things "Avery" does. Promise.

Say cheese!

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