Chicken Noodle Soup with Great Great Grandma's Danish Dumplings.

So, this recipe is one of the recipes my mom taught me and is one of the first real meals I learned to make for myself after leaving for college. I have since tweaked the soup a LITTLE, but it is pretty true to the original. My Great Great Grandma's Danish Dumplings, however, I have not changed at all.* A good friend of mine says they "taste like Christmas" and she wasn't wrong! ;)
This meal is the epitome of comfort food, in my opinion. Every time I make it, I think about when I was a kid making the dumplings with my mom (and sometimes brother). When I am sick this is the only food that sounds good. I LOVE this dish!

Soup ingredients:

• 3-4 chicken breasts
• 1/4c butter
• 2 boxes chicken broth
• 1/2 a small sweet onion, chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2t seasoning salt (more or less to taste)
• 1T parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 stalks celery cleaned and cut into bite sized pieces
• about 1/2 a bag of baby carrots
• a little chicken bouillon (if you want a little extra flavor in the broth)
• 1-2 potatoes, diced (I haven't been adding this lately... I think there's plenty of starch in it already)
• 1/2 a package of egg noodles (I use "NoYolks")

Great Great Grandma's Danish Dumpling ingredients:

• 1/2c water
• 4T butter
• 1t salt
• 1t sugar
• 2/3c flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2t nutmeg (*I usually cut this in half, just as my mom did :)

I usually make a double batch of the dumplings with the amount of soup here.

The soup part of this dish is fantastic in the crockpot. However, I made it on the stove in a big stock pot this time. 

I melted the butter in the pan and added the onions and garlic. After a few minutes, I added the parsley and cooked over medium heat until the onions were clear. Then, I added the chicken, sprinkled the seasoning salt over them, and seared the outside for a couple minutes on each side. Once that was done, I added the chicken broth, bouillon, celery, and carrots. The hard part is now over... for now. Just put a lid on it, turn the heat down, and let it simmer for a few hours until the chicken is fall-apart-tender. 

The dumplings take about 45 min to make from start to finish, and the noodles that I use take about 12 minutes to cook. So you will want to time them accordingly to be sure not to over cook the noodles.

Dumpling dough before adding eggs. Cooling after adding flour.

To make my Great Great Grandma's Danish Dumplings, bring the water, butter, salt, and sugar to boil in a medium sized sauce pan. Once it has come to a full rolling boil for a min or two, quickly add the flour and mix well, stirring until the mixture forms a dough ball that does not stick to the sides of the pan. (Important note: Several of the times I made this dish the dough was too sticky and runny... the only thing I could come up with to explain why sometimes it comes out perfect and others it doesn't is, the times it doesn't work I didn't let it boil long enough. So, not enough water evaporated. It is just a theory... but if you think you know what else it could be, please let me know!) 

Dumpling dough after adding eggs and nutmeg.
Ready to go into the broth.

At this point, you will need to let the dough cool before adding the eggs, usually about 20 min, give or take, depending on how well your pot holds heat. (Sometimes I will make this part earlier and put it in the fridge while the soup cooks. If I do that, I take it out in enough time for it to come back to room temperature before I move on to the next step. I don't know if that really matters... but, as I mentioned, the recipe can be a bit... temperamental. So, I don't want to take any chances.) While I wait for the dough to cool I usually whisk together the eggs and nutmeg. 

Once the dough is cool you will add the eggs and nutmeg a little at a time and stir very well until all the lumps are out and the texture is consistant. (Now is about when you will want to add the noodles to the soup.) Drop spoonfuls of dumpling dough into boiling broth, cover and cook for about 5 minutes. 

I often fill my soup to the brim with other goodies leaving no room for the dumplings. To remedy the situation I will cook the dumplings in a separate pot and add them to the soup just before serving. If you try to cram the dumplings into a pot that has too much in it already the dumplings get destroyed when you stir... It is also best to cook the dumplings in a separate pot if you make the soup part in the crockpot.

The only other deviations I make some times, particularly if I am impatient or sick, is put all the veggies and spices in the broth and bring that to a full boil until the veggies are cooked. Then, I cut up and add a rotisserie chicken from Publix. Instead of waiting hours for the chicken to be cooked and tender, it's ready in the time it takes to cook a carrot. And, it's almost as delicious! Also, sometimes I thicken the broth at the end with a little cornstarch... makes it more of a gravy than a soup, but it's tasty!

That just about covers it! Chicken Noodle Soup with my Great Great Grandma's Danish Dumplings is one of my favorite meals in the whole world! It is hardy, delicious and filling. 

Give it a try I know you will love it. :)

~Sarah

Citrus Teriyaki Chicken

To make this Citrus Teriyaki Chicken you will need:

2-4 chicken breasts

• Marinade:
• 3/4c teriyaki sauce/marinade
• 1T soy sauce (more or less depending on how salty you want it)
• 1T minced onions
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• Glaze:
• 3T olive oil
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 1T orange rind
• 1/2T lemon rind (I didn't have a grater for the rinds. So, I just sliced a few twists off of the rind)
• juice of an orange
• juice of half a lemon
• 1T rice wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1T honey
• 1+1/2T corn starch combined with just enough water to mix and get a liquid. (this is for thickening the glaze at the end)

Start by combining all the marinade ingredients in a large zipper bag with the chicken and allow it to sit. I let mine sit for a few hours, but you can do more or less depending on how much flavor you want it to have. Mine actually had a little too much teriyaki flavor and not enough orange flavor. I have compensated a little bit in the recipe presented here; but you could probably sacrifice some of the marinating time and it would be just as good if not better.

Once the chicken has marinated for a while, you can start to prepare the glaze. In a large sauce pan, combine the olive oil, garlic, orange and lemon rinds, red pepper flakes. Let that heat up until it starts to bubble and give off some aroma. Then, pull the chicken out of the marinade, save the marinade though, and place chicken in the pot. Sear the outside of the chicken. Then, add the remaining glaze ingredients (except the corn starch) and pour some or all of the marinade in the pot as well. (I added all of it but as I said I would reduce the teriyaki flavor next time.) Stir, cover, and let simmer (stirring occasionally) for a couple hours until chicken is tender (for faster prep, cook chicken longer before adding glaze ingredients then just cook chicken until it is done all the way through). Right before serving combine the corn starch-water mix and bring sauce to boil just a couple minutes, until thickened. Serve and eat!

I served it with garlic herb couscous, mango slices, and french style green beans. It was very tasty (despite the imbalanced teriyaki/orange ratio).
Next time, I will do a few things differently: First, I will sear the chicken on the grill instead of in the pot, to give it just a little different flavor. I will also add more orange juice OR I will add some frozen orange juice concentrate so the sauce doesn't get too watery. And perhaps I will add some more red pepper flakes and honey, but we'll see about that. I believe this recipe will also work well in a crock pot.
Give it a shot!

~Sarah

Breaded Halibut

Halibut was on sale, so we bought some. I had never made halibut before, and I had no idea what to do with it! I did some googling, and I read that Halibut has very little fat content, which means that grilling and baking could dry it out. So, I decided frying it was the way to go. I also happened to have a TON of Rice Krispie cereal on hand, so I decided to try that as a breading for the Halibut!

To prepare the fish you will need:

• For breading
• 3c Rice Krispie cereal- crushed
• 1/2c parmesan 
• 2t lemon pepper
• 2t onion powder
• 1t garlic salt
• 1/2T parsley
• For wet mix:
• 1/2c mayonnaise
• 1T minced Garlic
• 2t Old Bay seasoning

To make the fish, put the Rice Krispies in a plastic bag (the large gallon size is best), and crunch them up. You can squeeze it, hit it with a hammer, or various other methods--but I find that rolling it with a rolling pin (or something else that is somewhat cylinder shaped, like a beer bottle lol ;) works great! Once the Rice Krispies are all crunched up, put in the remaining dry ingredients in the bag and shake to mix well.

In a bowl, mix together all of the wet ingredients.
Now, I used mayonnaise for the base of it because I wanted to try something new. When I have made breaded chicken in the past, I have used butter, or milk and egg, to wet the meat before breading.... and I am sure using either of those for this recipe would have been fine. But, I had seen some recipes that used mayo and I figure since mayo is mostly egg and oil (and a bunch of other crap), perhaps it was the best of both worlds. So, I gave it a shot! And, I must say, I will do it again!! It was thicker than the other "liquids" I have used, which meant that more breading stuck to it, and I like that--If meat is breaded, it needs to be crunchy!  

Put the fish pieces into the mayo mix to coat them. Then, put them into the breading, pushing down to make sure plenty of crunchiness sticks ;)

I fried them on medium heat, in a 50/50 olive oil/butter blend, for just a few minutes on each side until browned, and turned to brown all sides. You have to be pretty gentile in order to not knock off the breading. I knew mine was ready when the halibut fell apart. 

I made a packet of hollandaise sauce because I am lazy and soooooo bad at cream sauces... and put it over some pasta and a little over the halibut. It had the perfect lemony zing to compliment the fish.

The breaded halibut was TASTY! If halibut wasn't usually so expensive I would definitely buy it more. It was meaty, not at all fishy, and super tender. You should definitely try this one!

~Sarah

Tomato Lime Tilapia

This recipe is something I threw together the other night. It came out ok, but there are definitely some changes I will make next time. I was feeling incredibly lazy, and I compromised a little too much. lol Oh well!

Ingredients:

• 2 tilapia filets
• 2T olive oil/ butter
• 1/4 of a lime's juice
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 of an onion, chopped
• 1 can of diced tomatos (I used Rotel with lime and cilantro)
• lemon pepper seasoning or salt and pepper 

To make the tilapia, put about a tablespoon of olive oil in the bottom of a ceramic baking dish, lay the tilapia in it, and sprinkle seasoning salt on the filets. Spread the garlic and onion evenly over them, and slice up about a tablespoon of butter to put on top (or just drizzle over a little more olive oil). Then, squeeze the lime over it, and pour the can of tomatos on top. 

I baked it in the oven at 375 for 20'ish minutes (until the fish was done). 

And voila, Tomato Lime Tilapia! 

In retrospect, I would have done several things different. I think it would be better if I had drained the liquid off the tomatoes before adding them (I made the assumption it was the lime juice, of "cilantro and lime", but I think it was mostly water). Next time, I will probably use a little white wine in it; I just didn't have any this time.-- But I think it would be good :) 

This recipe is kind of similar to how I make arroz con pollo (I will post that recipe sometime soon). So, next time I will make it with saffron rice, instead of the angel hair pasta I used this time. It also might be better on the grill. Maybe.

Give it a shot, and let me know if you think of anything that could improve on this early version of Tomato Lime Tilapia!

~Sarah

Raspberry Glazed Salmon

Well, I happened to have a ton of raspberry jam on hand and decided to give it a whirl on some salmon. The recipe is very much still a work in progress; this was only the 2nd time I made it. It was better the first time but I don't remember what I did differently! :( Oh well! It was still very good and there's always next time! (I will update this if I figure it out)

For the salmon you will need:

• 1lb. salmon
• 2t minced garlic
• 1T dried onion (although I am sure fresh is just as good if not better)
• 1T olive oil
• 2T coconut oil
• juice of 1/4 a lime or lemon
• 1T white wine (or hard apple cider, as I had handy this evening ;) 
• salt to taste
• sriracha sauce (last time I used cayenne pepper but I think the sriracha has a better flavor, both work though)

For the raspberry glaze:

• 1/4c raspberry jam
• 1T white vinegar
• pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

I served with:

• strawberry, peach, mango salsa (just cut up fruit with a splash of lemon on it)
• Parmesan couscous (from a box)
• steamed artichoke (Mmmm! One of my favorites!)

To cook the salmon I have used the grill and the oven, I prefer the grill, I think. However, this time I used the oven. I put the olive oil on the bottom of a glass baking dish, which was just big enough to fit the fish. Then, put the salmon in and drizzled the coconut oil over top of it. I spread the onion, garlic, and sriracha sauce evenly over it and let it sit. I waited an hour or so, but you don't have to. Then, about 15 min before I put the salmon in the oven, I added the lemon/lime juice and white wine to the pan.

Meanwhile, I put all the ingredients for the raspberry glaze in a small sauce pan, put it on the stove (on medium-low heat) and stirred to remove all the lumps-- I kept this lightly bubbling, stirring often, until the fish was done.

I put the salmon in a 400 degree oven for about 15 min, until the salmon was almost done. I poured a little of the raspberry glaze, just enough to cover the top, over the fish and switch the oven to broil for a minute or two. Careful not to burn it; just caramelize the sauce a little bit.

Once the fish was out of the oven and on a plate, I drizzled a little more raspberry glaze over it, put some strawberry, peach, mango salsa on top and chowed down!

This fish is great with couscous, but I am sure it would be good with some pasta or coconut rice too! 

I think the dish is still missing something, but I'm not sure what it is. If you figure it out please tell me! 

Hope you enjoy!

~Sarah

Pineapple Coconut Curry Chicken

I would like to preface this first recipe by saying: I prefer things clear cut and exact. I am a very black and white person; no gray area... therefore, no room for mistakes. In order to think outside the box, I had to get over these notions (in the cooking world anyway). Just about every time I make a recipe I try changing it a little, adding something new-- Every great recipe starts out as an experiment; you never know what you will come up with!
I have made this particular dish different each time. I have never measured my ingredients and am, apparently, not very good at documenting their quantities... or the exact ingredients for that matter. So, I think the best thing to do is tell you the base of the recipe and then all the parts that I manipulated. That way, you can experiment with it and make it just the way you like it. :)


Pineapple Coconut Curry Chicken is one of the first (real) dishes I made that didn't originate from a recipe my mom taught me. I make it in a crockpot, but you could make it on the stove if you don't have much time. I really love crockpot chicken that is fall-apart tender. It takes about 5-6 hours to get to that point, but--patience is a virtue.

You will need:

• 3-4 chicken breasts (this is good on salmon* too!)
• 4-5T butter/coconut oil (I usually do about half of each ie. 3T butter 2T coconut oil)
• 1c chicken broth (this can be replaced with fruit juice or something if you are making this for salmon)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 a pineapple or a small can of pineapple (and a splash of juice)
• 1/2 a small to medium sweet onion- chopped
• 5-10 cloves of garlic- minced (we really like garlic)
• 3-5T curry powder (I find this varies greatly depending on brand)
• 2t seasoning salt (more or less to taste)
• 2T brown sugar

Additional, optional ingredients:

• 1/2 a lime's juice
• 1 small can water chestnuts
• 1 small can bamboo shoots
• 1/2 can baby corn
• other "stir-fry"veggies
• carrots
• a pinch crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper (if you like a little spice)
• orange and/or mango juice
• sliced mango (this ingredient is best if added at the very end, better yet, as a garnish on the plate)
• honey (instead of brown sugar)

If you try anything else in it that you like, let me know! I will add it to the list :)


The great thing about crockpots is you can just put all the ingredients in and forget it... pretty much.
I put almost all of the main ingredients (except half the pineapple and 1/2c of coconut milk) and whatever additional ingredients I choose to use that time into the crockpot and turn it on. It is good to cook some of the pineapple in the sauce the whole time to flavor the sauce, but I like to keep some of it out till the last hour-- That way it has a fresher texture and flavor. Also, I hold about 1/2 a cup of the coconut milk until right before serving to make the sauce a little creamier. Those steps aren't completely necessary but I feel they enhance the flavor.

Once all the ingredients are in, just turn the crockpot on, give it a good stir, and wait... . . .
If you are able, stir it every couple hours (sometimes I turn it on and leave and it comes out just fine). Then, about an hour or so before you are ready to eat, throw in the rest of the pineapple.
If you cook it in the crockpot, it is done once the chicken falls apart when you stir the pot. Right before you are ready to serve, pour in that last half cup of coconut milk.

I usually serve it over coconut rice. You can also use plain rice or pasta, whichever you prefer.

To make coconut rice:

Instead of using only water to make the rice, replace half the water with coconut milk. Sometimes I replace the remaining water with chicken broth too.

So, for my rice, I use:

• 1c Basmati rice
• 1c coconut milk
• 1c chicken broth 

Simmer for about 20 min or until tender.

I usually splash a little soy sauce on mine before I eat (because I am a salt addict).


And you're ready to eat!! Try something new and let me know how you like it!! :)

~Sarah

What are you HUNGRY for??

Hello there!

My name is Sarah and I love to cook tasty food.

For as long as I can remember one of my favorite things to do has been cook. Growing up, some of my favorite memories were cooking with my mom. Whenever I have spare time (or not), one of the first things I think is "I want to make something yummy to put in my tummy!" So off to the kitchen I go, rummaging through the pantry and fridge to see what I have to work with. Usually, this is followed by a whole bunch of Goggling to see if there are any existing recipes for what I have set my heart on.

My obsession wasn't too demanding at first, just find a recipe, follow it, and hope it turns out... but after many failures and dishes that were lacking... something. I decided, if the recipes I found weren't good enough, I would just make up my own! It took a long time for me to get enough confidence in the kitchen to deviate from a recipe someone (I assumed was) more experienced than me had created. But after a while, I realized the dishes I did change I enjoyed much more, not only because it tasted better, but because I put more creative energy into it. I made it my own, and therefore, I felt more rewarded by the product and more motivated to do it again.

Now, that is not to say all the things I make turn out... it usually takes a few times before I have the ingredients and process tweaked to the point I am comfortable sharing it with anyone (other than my boyfriend/guinea pig). Most of my recipes are still, and maybe always will be, works in progress. Once I started doing this regularly, I started to think, the people creating these recipes I find aren't necessarily better cooks than me... they certainly don't know what I like--who says I have to cook by the book?! Isn't that what life is all about--breaking the rules, trying something new, and (hopefully) creating something beautiful!?

A long time ago, I was watching Anthony Bourdain (love him!). He was in some distant, exotic land, and there was a lady making food for him and her family. In her kitchen, she had a sign that said "What are you hungry for?" But, she didn't just mean food--she meant in life. What am I hungry for?.... Hmm, that is a good question! I am hungry to share the things that I love and the things that I have learned with others. Hungry to learn more, keep growing, and continue improving in all areas of my life.

That is where this blog comes in... I cannot just start force feeding everyone I know my "experiments." But, I still get great joy from feeding people. The solution: start writing my recipes down (finally), and sharing them with whomever will listen. My hope is this will also be a tool for me, to collaborate with other cooking enthusiasts willing to share their knowledge.

Welcome, I hope you find something you are hungry for!