Monthly Archives: November 2008

Orange Glaze

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So, our pre-Thanksgiving party gave us quite a few leftovers, as was expected. One of our tupperwares got filled with this chicken-and-broccoli-and-peppers-over-rice stuff. The problem was that, while my friend was able to make it super flavorful in small portions, when she tried to make a big pan of it (as she did for our party), it was not so flavorful anymore.

However, since I am awesome, I created orange glaze out of leftover mandarin orange juice (we had finished a can of them) and poured some over our leftover rice stuff. Voila, a delicious, easy meal. (I basically took everything we had that was an Asian flavor and put it together, and it worked.)

Ingredients:

Mandarin Orange Juice/Syrup (about 1 cup)

A splash of orange juice

Soy sauce (about 2 tbsp)

A drop of sesame oil

Groung ginger

Some kind of thickener (we have something called Thicken-Up, which is a very fine powder, but I suppose flour or something else would work just as well)

Directions:

1. Well, if you don’t happen to have leftover rice stuff, you should make some.  Just stir fry some chicken (or other meat of choice), peppers if you like them, broccoli, and whatever else you like in your stir fry. You’ll also need rice, seasoned with a good bit of soy sauce.

2. Heat orange syrup in saucepan until boiling, add a little orange juice, soy sauce, desired amount of ground ginger, and the drop of sesame oil (this really only needs a drop, because otherwise it tastes weird). Once you have a favorable mix of flavors (see what I did there?), you can add your thickener until everything gets to a glaze-y consistency. Spoon over rice/stir fry and enjoy!

Note: I’m sorry I didn’t measure these things… Since I was improvising, I didn’t think that I’d need the recipe for later use, but I will try my best in the future to write it down so that if it’s delicious, I can share it with you guys. In any case, this recipe was all about making it taste delicious, so I kept adding however much I thought would help.

As always, if you try this, enjoy and let us know what you think!

Ashley

Upgrades

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The blog has been running really slow the past few weeks, so I have moved the blog to new servers (same host, different physical machines).  The site now runs on separate Apache and MySQL servers (as opposed to both running on the same server).  Both machines are pretty much brand new as well.  So far the server has had much better performance overall.
We also upgraded WordPress to the latest version.  Version 2.6.4 apparently had a serious exploit, which is fixed with 2.6.5 which we are now running.

The comments section is also completely fixed.  There was an issue with the theme itself, which was fixed by copying the comments code from the default WordPress them and changing a couple of lines of code so that graphically the page looked the same.  So now we can actually reply to your comments.

Expect more regular food updates as well!

–Cory

Apple Pear Tart

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I saw this in a magazine at work, and decided it looked delicious ( I was not wrong), so I made this for our pre-Thanksgiving party for our friends. As a side note, I used a long tart pan instead of a round one, which I think made it look cool. I didn’t get a picture, but I will be making another one probably next week, so I will update then. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

10 Pecan shortbread cookies, crushed (about 1/3 cup)

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup butter, melted

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/4 cup caramel

2 med. firm ripe pears, peeled, cored, & cut into 12 wedges each

2 med. apples, cored & cut into 12 wedges each (leave skin on)

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp caramel

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. In bowl, combine cookies, flour, melted butter. Pat mixture into bottom and sides of either 14×6×1″ (ish) or 10″ round tart pan with removable bottom. Bake 10 minutes and set aside.

2. In bowl, beat cream cheese on med-high for about 30 seconds. Add egg and caramel; beat until smooth. Spread mixture into baked crust. Bake for another 10 minutes (or until center appears set when lightly shaken). Remove and cool on wire rack. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.

3. Cook pears and apples in 2 tbsp of butter over med heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add lemon and heat through. Spoon onto tart. Drizzle remaining 2 tbsp caramel on top & serve.

Of course, if you have any questions, please ask! Or, leave feedback on how it turns out for you!!

~Ashley

Thanksgiving Leftovers

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Since I’m sure everyone has some, I thought I’d share a link to something I saw on the food network yesterday at my grandmother’s house.

It’s for “Second Day Turkey and String Bean Pot Pie:”

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sunny-anderson/second-day-turkey-and-string-bean-pot-pies-recipe/index.html

Other than that, Food Network has a leftovers section, with some other great ideas about how to make them into new recipes, which is worth a look!

Also, the link to the show we watched is online as well, so I’ll add that too!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/dear-fn-thanksgiving/package/index.html

Also (again), you’ll notice that we have been inspired and added a new category on the side for Leftovers, since we realized we use them so much in our cooking discoveries!

Ashley

Comments

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Looks like there is a problem with posting comments that happened after I upgraded WordPress to the latest version.   It appears to be something to do with the sessions being written but I am not sure yet.

I am working on it, but for now if you have something pressing to ask us you can send an email cory AT ancfoodblog DOT com or ashley AT ancfoodblog DOT com.

Thanks!