Taking a Break

I will return, but don't wait up for me.

One-Pot Honey-Garlic Chicken Dinner

This is a slow-cooker recipe. However, you can also cook it in the oven for two hours at 325°F, using a Dutch oven. Add the beans 15 minutes before completion. That’s what I did.

Ingredients 

• CHICKEN THIGHS, 8
• HONEY, ½ cup
• SHOYU (SOY SAUCE), ½ cup
• GARLIC, 4 cloves, minced
• BASIL, dried, 1 teaspoon
• OREGANO, dried, 1 teaspoon
• RED PEPPER FLAKES, dried, ½ teaspoon
• BLACK PEPPER, ½ teaspoon
• BABY RED POTATOES, 8 small, sliced
• CARROTS, ½ pound
• GREEN BEANS, ½ pound

Slow Cooker Directions 

1. Combine honey, shoyu, garlic, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, and black pepper in a bowl and mix well.
2. Arrange half the chicken on the bottom of a slow cooker, and pour over half the sauce.
3. Add the potatoes, carrots, and the other half of the chicken.
4. Pour over the remaining sauce.
5. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4 hours.
6. A half-hour before serving, add the beans, re-cover, and continue cooking.

Before serving, take the chicken out and brown them under the broiler for a bit. After taking the chicken out for browning, and the carrots, potatoes and beans to arrange on the serving platter, I reduced the honey-garlic sauce and served it on the side for those who wanted extra.

Glazed Sardines

I've made this many times before, but didn't know what they were called—Glazed Sardines. In fact, the Japanese call it "Iwashi no Kanroni."

I usually use sake and never added mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine) before, but it makes sense.

Ingredients 

• SARDINES, 3 cans, packed in oil
• TERIYAKI SAUCE, 1/4 cup
• MIRIN or SAKE, 1/4 cup
• WATER, 1/4 cup
• SUGAR, 1 tablespoon
• GINGER, 1/2 teaspoon minced
• GARLIC, 1/2 teaspoon minced
• ONION, 1/2, sliced thin
• GREEN ONION, 3-4, two-inch sections, cut on the diagonal

Directions 

1. Cook the onions over medium heat in a medium sauce pan until translucent. Set aside.
2. Combine the teriyaki sauce, mirin, water and sugar in a small sauce pot until they boil. Set aside.
3. Drain most of the oil and heat the sardines in the medium pan.
4. Add the sauce and cook a few minutes longer, turning the sardines carefully to coat.
5. Add the green onions, stir and cook a minute longer, being careful not to break up the sardines.
6. Serve on steamed white rice.

Bacon-Wrapped Brussels Sprouts

This is one of those tres facile recipes that seem ridiculous to post on a recipes blog. It doesn’t take much brains to create this masterpiece that I guarantee even Brussels sprouts haters will enjoy.

You’ll need toothpicks and aluminum foil.

Ingredients

• BRUSSELS SPROUTS, as many as you want, trimmed
• BACON, half slices, enough to wrap each Brussels sprout

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
3. Wrap each sprout head in a half-slice of bacon.
4. Secure with toothpicks.
5. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Take them out, dab the bottoms on a paper towel. Eat.

You might even try this: Put some maple syrup in a small dipping bowl and lightly dip a bacon-wrapped Brussels sprout in it before introducing it to your taste buds.

Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus

What can go wrong with bacon? Nothing! Just don’t burn it.

Ingredients

• ASPARAGUS SPEARS, 16-20
• BACON, 4-5 strips
• OLIVE OIL
• SALT AND PEPPER
• MAPLE SYRUP (Optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Line up the asparagus tips and cut off the thick ends.
3. Drizzle olive oil on the spears and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Make bundles of 4-5 spears and wrap each bundle with a strip of bacon.
5. Arrange on a cooking tray and roast for 14-15 minutes until bacon is almost crispy.
6. (Optional) Drizzle with maple syrup.

Steak Fajitas

Don’t be put off by the list of ingredients. The fact is, you can substitute chicken, and ingredients to suit your taste. The sauce is nothing but mixing spices and marinating the meat. Then it’s just pan-cooking and folding everything up in tortillas.

Ingredients 

• SIRLOIN STEAK, ¾ pound
• OLIVE OIL, 2 tablespoons, divided
• LIME JUICE, 1 tablespoon
• LIME ZEST, ½ lime
• GARLIC, 1 clove, finely minced
• CHILI POWDER, ½ teaspoon
• CUMIN, ½ teaspoon
• HOT PEPPER FLAKES, ¼ teaspoon (more or less as desired)
• BLACK PEPPER, ½ teaspoon
• SALT, ½ teaspoon
• FLOUR TORTILLAS, 8 eight-inch
• ONION, 1, sliced into strips
• SWEET PEPPERS, 2 green, red, or yellow, sliced into strips

Directions 

1. Slice steak into strips.
2. Mix olive oil, lime juice and zest, garlic, chili powder, cumin, hot pepper, black pepper and salt in a bowl.
3. Add the steak strips, stir, set aside.
4. Warm tortillas in foil in a 350°F oven for 5-10 minutes until heated through.
5. Slice onions and peppers into strips.
6. Heat remaining olive oil in a large non-stick skillet, add the onions and peppers and cook until softened. Set aside.
7. Add marinated beef to skillet, cook until medium.
8. Return onions and peppers to skillet, stir for a minute or so.
9. Spoon some beef mixture onto a tortilla, fold the bottom and both sides in.

Pineapple Shrimp

It's as delicious as it's easy to make. No mysterious, complicated Chinese sweet-sour sauce, just ketchup, vinegar, sugar, and canned pineapple. Dress it up however you like, to your heart's content.

I use a Japanese mandoline to thinly slice the onion and sweet red pepper.

Ingredients

• SHRIMP, 20, shelled and deveined
• CORN STARCH
• CANOLA OIL
• KETCHUP, ½ cup
• APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, ¼ cup
• SUGAR, ½ cup
• PINEAPPLE CHUNKS, 1 15-ounce can, juice reserved
• ONION, ¼, thinly sliced
• RED PEPPER, 1/8, thinly sliced
• SALT and PEPPER to season 

Directions

1. Combine the ketchup, vinegar and sugar in a sauce pot and heat to boiling.
2. Add the onions and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the pineapple chunks and half the reserved pineapple liquid and continue simmering, stirring often.
4. Dust the shrimp with cornstarch and deep fry, then drain on a baking rack.
5. Transfer the sauce to a deep pan, then add the shrimp.
6. Season to taste, adding reserved pineapple juice if desired.