Peanut butter...on noodles?!?!?!

It's been a long time since I've posted. Life and laziness seem to have distracted me from adding any new posts for an unforgivably long time. Since I last posted, I've done a ton of cooking, learning to do things like make pasta, taking pictures of some of it, and I'm going to try to get back into the swing of this blog. I learned today from The Pioneer Woman, one of my favorite food bloggers, whose Tasty Kitchen recipe site has a side food blog, that today is National Peanut Butter Lover's Day. Coincidentally, I happen to have some pictures I took the last time I made peanut noodles with chicken. The recipe is based heavily off of the Peanut Noodles recipe from Allrecipes along with additions of my own to make it a little closer to being Thai, like using rice noodles instead of spaghetti and adding chicken.


Here we have my list of ingredients. Red pepper flakes, sesame oil, soy sauce, creamy Jif peanut butter, apple cider vinegar, sugar, ginger, scallions (whiter parts only), rice noodles, baking soda, and chicken (not invisible, just not pictured). The proportions you get from the recipe linked above are largely fine but you'll likely end up adding more peanut butter at the end. Regarding the peanut butter, use any kind you like as long as it's not that natural stuff that separates. For this you want the emulsified stuff. Trust me..or don't and repent later.
















The reason we have baking soda in this recipe is to treat the chicken in a way that is referred to as "velveting". Ever wonder how/why the meats you get at Chinese restaurants are always so tender and why your home stir fry isn't like that? That's cause you don't velvet the chicken. So, here's the super secret trick. After cutting up the meat, toss it with about a teaspoon of baking soda and let it marinate for 15 minutes. Before cooking it, rinse off the baking soda thoroughly and pat it dry. That's it. Baking soda as a meat tenderizer. Who'd a thunk it?
















While the chicken is doing its thing, make and drain the rice noodles. Now let's make the sauce. In a bowl put your peanut butter...
















Then soy sauce and water. My preference is Kikkoman, which you can get in almost any grocery store. Your other common option is La Choy which, in my opinion, is La Gross.

















Now add your apple cider vinegar...















Then sugar and red pepper flakes. Now carefully whisk it all together. It will look like a horrible slurry but that's OK. Don't worry about it. It won't stay that way once it's in the pan.
















With the sesame oil, sautee up your aromatics, ie. ginger and scallions...
















Then set aside. This is common for stir fry cooking. Making aromatics, meat, and veggies separate then combining with sauce at the last moment.
















Toss the chicken in the wok to cook...
















Once it's mostly cooked, add the ginger and green onion back in.
















Give it a few stirs then mix in the sauce and cook it for a minute or two to get everything nicely mixed together and cooked through. At this point, stop and taste the sauce. If you want to add more peanut butter, do it. I always do. Usually another couple tablespoons at this point.
















Add in the rice noodles and toss to coat...
















...and there you have it! Thai peanut noodles with chicken. Delicious, and packed with protein.
















Happy National Peanut Butter Lover's Day!

L'Chaim!

Wilton Method - Fondant and Gumpaste

So, I'm done with Wilton courses. I've actually been done for almost a month but I just suck at fitting this blog thing into my schedule. I'm trying to get caught up before I buckle down for the GMAT. Below was my final cake for the Fondant and Gumpaste course. This course consisted mainly of making gumpaste flowers, something I don't think I'll ever do often. Joanna was much better at it than I so, should we ever recognize our dreams of having a bakery, she'll do gumpaste and fondant flowers while I do the buttercream ones.

This was kind of an experimental thing that I didn't spend too much time on as I was making this on a Monday night after work. I wanted to use my Wilton Sportsball pan, which I did for the main part of the skull. However, I used my old standby of the Hershey's chocolate cake recipe, which was a little moist for being shaped into a sphere. For the jaw, which rivals only Bruce Campbell's in size, I used a mini-loaf pan. Once again, I used homemade marshmallow fondant, although I didn't have as much success making it this time. I love the stuff, and it tastes a lot better than the boxed Wilton crap, but it is harder to work with and dries out quickly.