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Hawaiian Chicken
By Beverly Hicks Burch
I’ve been making this recipe for years…probably 15+ years. Surprisingly it’s one I haven’t prepared for Tall & Handsome yet, but when I told him about it he seemed eager to try it. It is fast and easy to prepare and only take about 45 minutes to an hour to bake.
I’ve made some adaptation to the recipe I found originally in a cookbook by Mary Beth Roe.
The “gravy” or sauce is good with rice or even mashed potatoes. Another good option would be to serve this with a baked sweet potato.
Enjoy!!
© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.
Hawaiian Chicken
8 small or 4 – 5 large pieces of chicken (boneless chicken breast would be excellent for this recipe)
1 jar (not too large) fruit jam – the original recipe calls for apricot jam, but peach would be good, too; another optional might be pineapple jam for a real Hawaiian taste
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 8 oz bottle Russian salad dressing
Preheat oven to 350°
Wash and dry chicken; place in a 13 x 9 baking dish.
Mix together the jam, onion soup mix, and Russian salad dressing.
Pour over the chicken in the pan and bake 45 minute to 1 hour or until tender.
Enjoy!! 
What a Way to Celebrate!
By Beverly Hicks Burch
I don’t think I’ve ever picked up a magazine that Phyllis Hoffman had anything to do with and didn’t like it. The gal has a golden touch…and to sweeten the pot she’s a native of my beloved Alabama.
Over the years, Phyllis has built a publishing empire that is headquartered in Birmingham. I remember some of her work for a quilting magazine and I loved what she did. Once Phyllis was no longer with the magazine, I could certainly tell. The “sparkle” just seemed to be gone.
Currently Phyllis’ Hoffman Media, LLC publishes a line of magazines that appeal to women in general and Southern gals in particular. Momma has been a devotee of Tea Time and Southern Lady. I would say Phyllis and her crew are certainly giving Southern Living a good run for their money!
A couple of weeks ago I was at Joann’s Fabric with my friend Shari. She was hunting fabric for a new project she was about to start. As we were on our way to the check out, we passed the magazine rack and the cover of one in particular caught my eye.
On the front was a recipe for a moist and delicious “Key Lime Pound Cake”. Utter those two words around me…Key Lime…and it will have the same effect of throwing on the emergency break of a speeding locomotive! In other words, they will stop me in my tracks…My favorite yogurt is Yoplait’s whipped Key Lime Pie. Yum!
Naturally I brought the magazine home! Upon inspection once I had it in my grasp, I couldn’t help but think, “Well, of course.” It was a special edition called Phyllis Hoffman Celebrate Spring. The gal with the golden touch strikes again!
If you like pound cake, run, don’t walk to find this issue. It won’t last long. The Key Lime Pound Cake wasn’t the only recipe in the issue. Other mouth watering pound cake recipes include: Peach Pound Cake, Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake, and Dreamsicle Pound Cake along with a few others. It is a pound cake bonanza! There are other recipes for other tastes, including a nice section on Mexican food for Cinco de Mayo.
I personally can’t wait to try the Key Lime Pound Cake, oh and Key Lime pie is my Daddy’s favorite, so I’m sure this will find its way to his table also.
If you get a chance give the cake a try…and check out Phyllis’ many publications. You certainly won’t be sorry!
© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.
Key Lime Pound Cake
Adapted from a recipe in Celebrate Spring
½ unsalted butter, softened
½ cup vegetable oil
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs, separated
3 cups sifted cake flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons lime zest
½ cup Key Lime juice
Preheat oven to 325°. Prepare a 10 inch tube pan with nonstick baking spray that includes flour.
Beat butter and shortening together in a large bowl on medium speed with an electric mixer. Beat until creamy. Gradually at the sugar and beat until fluffy.
Next add the egg yolks, one at a time. Beat well after each egg yolk addition.
Sift together the dry ingredients. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter/egg/sugar mixture. Alternate with the sour cream. Start and end each addition with flour and beat well after each addition.
Next, add lime zest and lime juice. Mix well.
Beat egg whites in a large bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold the whites into the cake batter.
Pour into the tube pan and bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Then remove from pan and continue cooling on a wire rack. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
Asian Fantasy
By Beverly Hicks Burch
It all started with a Christmas wish list…Tall & Handsome’s to be exact. You see after we married he adapted quite fast to my family’s tradition of making Christmas wish lists. We list everything from the mundane to the “wow, if you get me that, I’ll be your slave for life” type of things on our individual lists. It really makes shopping for everyone easier, takes a lot of the guess work out of the shopping and cuts down on bad surprises and disappointments.
I’ve mentioned…a time or two…that T & H and I cook together. The man can cook! And he enjoys it. Truth be known, he probably should have gone to chef school and pursued that as a profession.
On his Christmas list last year were cookbooks…Chinese and French. No kidding. After much research, I decided on two: Kylie Kwong’s Simple Chinese Cooking and Ina Garten’s Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Make at Home.
I have never enjoyed someone else’s Christmas gift so much…
Since the first of the year, we have been on an Asian fantasy tour…my wok has been busy…starting with my birthday meal.
Out of Kylie’s book we’ve tried Sweet Corn Soup, Mongolian Beef and Stir Fried Asparagus with Garlic.
This past weekend we also tried a new recipe for Pad Thai. We both love Thai food. We topped it off with Thai Fried Bananas with Bryers Vanilla (Lite) Ice Cream.
As usual, I’ve toyed with most of the recipes to fit our tastes. I would also like to highly recommend you seek out a local Asian market. There is just no substituting for the “real deal”…authentic ingredients that you just can’t get at you local megamarket.
The Real Deal – Products from our local Asian Food Market
Also, if possible invest in a good quality wok. I purchased my wok in 1980 when I took a Chinese cooking class at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham). It came highly recommended from my instructor, a very Asian little gal who knew what she was doing. It has served me well all these years…
Old Faithful – Bev’s Wok
So, without further adieu…
Enjoy!!
© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.
Mongolian Beef
Adapted from a recipe from Kylie Kwong
By Beverly Hicks Burch
I’ve had Mongolian Beef before and I have other Mongolian Beef recipes. Kylie’s is unlike any other I’ve seen or tried, so for my birthday this year, we broke out the wok and prepared this dish. It was scrumptious.
I’ve made a few changes…of course! Next time I make this I may make just a little more “sauce”, but it’s still good this way. Kylie uses ground beef…I use a ground round or ground sirloin. I may also try a finely minced sirloin tip steak when I make it in the future.
We served this with rice. I guarantee you’ll enjoy this version of Mongolian Beef.
Mongolian Beef
1 ¼ pound ground round or sirloin
5 cups chopped Chinese cabbage, bok choy will work
2 teaspoons sea salt or kosher salt
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon malt vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 small carrot finely sliced or grated
½ medium red bell pepper, sliced thinly
¾ cup chopped green onions
Meat Marinade:
2 tablespoon dry sherry
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, diced finely
3 cloves garlic, finely diced
½ teaspoon sesame oil
Mix marinade ingredients and add to the ground beef. Marinate in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes.
Wash and dry cabbage. Chop and place in a large bowl. Toss with salt and let stand 15 minutes. Rinse with cold water, drain and dry well, squeezing excess water out with hands if need be.
In wok, heat 2 tablespoons of oil on high. When hot add half the meat and stir fry for about 30 seconds. Break the meat up into small pieces. Remove the meat from the wok and set aside.
Add the remaining oil to the wok and when hot, add the remaining meat and stir fry in for about 30 seconds or until meat is no longer pink.
Then stir in sherry, Hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. Stir fry 30 seconds.
Next, add cabbage, carrot and pepper and stir fry for about 1 minute. Lastly, add green onions and remove from heat.
Garnish with green onions.
Enjoy!
Chinese Sweet Corn Soup
Adapted from a recipe from Kylie Kwong
By Beverly Hicks Burch
Although I had never had it before nor heard of it, Kylie says this soup is a Chinese classic. According to her, some versions are thickened with an agent such as cornstarch, but she prefers it “au natural”.
Kylie also uses sweet corn cut fresh from the cob. I’ve changed that a bit since cutting corn from the cob is hard for me because of my joint problems. Of course you can find fresh corn in the produce section already cut and bagged…or you can have a great sous chef like mine…called Tall & Handsome. When all else fails I resort to frozen sweet corn. Yes, it works just as well…
Kylie also makes her own Chinese chicken stock…different version to be exact. For time sake and as I mentioned because of health limitations, I use Swanson’s chicken broth (my family has used chicken broth in their cooking long before it was the vogue.)
This make a large pot of soup, and it would be easy to half the recipe for a small “crowd”.
Enjoy!
© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.
Chinese Sweet Corn Soup
3 cups corn kernels (frozen or fresh)
2 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
1 small white onion
2 tablespoon finely diced fresh ginger
1 – 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
½ cup dry sherry
7 cups chicken broth or stock
1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce
2 eggs, beaten
Chopped green onions for garnish
Heat oil in a large pot. Sauté onion, garlic, ginger and salt for one minute.
Add dry sherry and simmer for about a minute, then stir in corn and chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Next, add soy sauce and stir. Lower the heat further. Take the beaten eggs and holding the bowl slightly high over the pan, pour the eggs into the soup in a thin stream, stirring the soup as you do with a fork. This technique results in “egg ribbons” similar to egg drop soup.
Serve the soup on bowls and garnish with green onions.
Enjoy!
Stir Fried Asparagus with Garlic
Adapted from a recipe from Kylie Kwong
By Beverly Hicks Burch
As usual, I’ve “Bevized” the recipe to fit my needs and our tastes, but the Asian essence is still present…and delicious! Based on how much we enjoyed this…I may double the recipe next time…
Stir Fried Asparagus with Garlic
1 pound fresh asparagus
2 tablespoon peanut oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1/3 cup chicken broth or stock
1 ½ teaspoon sesame seed oil (can adjust to your taste)
Prepare asparagus by washing and removing woody ends. Cut on the diagonal in half.
Heat oil in a wok on high. Add garlic and salt and stir fry just a few seconds…about 10. Then add asparagus and stir fry for one minute.
Next add sherry and continue cooking 30 seconds.
Add chicken broth and stir fry and additional 30 seconds.
Season with sesame oil and serve immediately.
Thai Fried Bananas
Adapted on a Recipe by Paula Deen seen on Food Network, June 25, 2007
I’ve made a few changes to this recipe. Tall & Handsome and I think this is the Asian Bananas Foster. We were talking this week end that it might be good with a dash of cinnamon…yum!
3 Tablespoons butter
4 fresh firm, ripe bananas, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
6 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon black sesame seeds
1 lime, juiced
In a wok or large saucepan heat butter. Once melted, add bananas and toss around a bit. Then add the brown sugar and cook the sugar down a tad.
Next add the black sesame seeds and the lime juice. Stir together and serve.
Enjoy!
**This would be wonderful served over vanilla ice cream. I like Breyers low-fat Vanilla Bean. Yum!
Corn & Lima Bean Salad
From Southern Living June 2008
By Beverly Hicks Burch
As I might have mentioned before, I’m a salad freak! I love, love, love salads…in most incarnations. I’ve tried to eat healthy most of my life and I still try to find new and tasty recipes for Tall & Handsome and I that are healthy at their core.
Last June as I was flipping through Southern Living, the “bible” for all Southern belles, I happened upon a recipe I knew I was destined to try. The recipe comes from the “Healthy Living” section of the magazine and 0f course it’s a salad! But, not just any salad…a corn and lima bean salad…yummy in my world! This dish is suitable, in my opinion as a side dish or a lite main dish, say for lunch, etc. Yep, I’ve done that many times during warm weather…
Of course, I’ve made adaptations or “Bev-ized” it…don’t I for most recipes? This one is good with fresh corn or, frozen sweet corn, and I like to add a little extra roasted red bell pepper. You might have some adaptations of your own you’d like to try, but regardless, this is a refreshing, great little dish!
© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.
Corn & Lima Bean Salad
3 cups fresh sweet corn kernels, about 6 ears (you can buy fresh corn already cut from the cob in the produce section, or you can use frozen sweet corn, thawed)
1 cup fresh baby lima beans or 1 cup frozen baby lima, thawed
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup diced roasted bell pepper (find these in a jar at the grocery store), I like to use a little more of these tasty morsels
1 tablespoon fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips (again a little more wouldn’t hurt and yes, I’ve done that )
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
A pinch to ¼ teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1. After cutting corn from cob, sauté corn kernels in the hot olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat for 3 minutes or until tender. Next add lima beans and cook for 2 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.
3. To the corn and lima beans, toss in the roasted red bell pepper, basil leaves, lemon juice, salt and dried crushed red pepper.
4. Cover and chill at least 1 hour.
6 servings
130 calories; 3.5 g Fat; 4.7g Protein; 23g Carb; 4.1g Fiber; 0mg Chol; 1mg Iron; 10mg Calcium
Enjoy!!
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