Boneless Buffalo Chicken Bites

Ok, so I have a thing about knives that I shared with you. Well, I also have a thing about bones. I can’t eat any meat that has bones in it. I see a bone, then I see a muscle, then I see a tendon and God forbid I see a vein or artery. Then I see a cow, a pig or a chicken. Then I see a baby cow, baby pig or baby chicken. I can’t eat a baby! Ok, almost puked just typing that. I totally can’t stand bones. When someone eats ribs or wings, I am seriously grossed out. Oh, oh, oh! If someone sucks on a bone, I darn near pass out. Bones freak me out something fierce! I so could be a vegetarian if I actually ate anything other than corn and potatoes. So it is always boneless chicken breasts or boneless pork chops or boneless steaks in our house. I have failed our 15 (almost 16) year old because he now has the weird bone fear too. Ok, I’ve got to stop talking about bones or me and the commode will be best buddies for the next few hours!

The problem is that I love buffalo wings, just NOT the wings or the flappers. Oh my, I need to stop talking about bones now! So the hubby for the past 17 years has really catered around this fear. Man, he is the best of the best!

The hubby makes us Boneless Buffalo Chicken Bites and they are superb! No bones about it (ok bad joke, lol)! Without further adieu (yep, I googled the correct spelling for that), here’s the recipe!

*Printable Recipe: Boneless Buffalo Chicken Bites

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt

• 1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash

• 1 teaspoon chicken seasoning

• 1 – 1/2 cups flour

• 2 tablespoons seasoned salt

• 6 tablespoons butter

• 12 good shakes of Frank’s Hot Sauce

Directions:

Heat deep fryer to 400 degrees.

Clean chicken and cut into one inch cubes. Season with 1 teaspoon seasoning salt, Mrs. Dash and chicken seasoning.

Add flour and 2 tablespoons of seasoned salt into a large bowl. Mix it up.

Place chicken cubes in flour and with your hand, mix chicken around until all chunks are well coated with flour.

Once the oil is heated, drop 1/3 of the floured chicken chunks into the oil one piece at a time.

Deep fry until golden brown and cooked through

(approximately 3-5 minutes).

Remove and drain on a plate covered in a paper towel. Repeat two more times until all the chicken has been cooked.

While cooking chicken, prepare sauce. In a small saucepan, melt butter.

Once melted, add 12 good shakes of Frank’s Hot Sauce to the saucepan. Stir. We prefer medium heat and 12 good shakes does it just right for us. You certainly could add less or more depending on how hot you want your buffalo chicken bites to be.

Heat sauce up in the pan.

Once all chicken is cooked, place the cooked chicken in a deep enough container that has a lid.

Pour the sauce over the chicken bites.

Put the lid on and give it a few good shakes.

As you can see, this particular Tupperware container is used exclusively to make our Buffalo Chicken Bites because it has already stained the lid a pretty orange color, lol.

Serve with blue cheese dressing. Super yummy and super easy!

Fabulous Peach Jam

Do you remember a while back when we got 2 crates of Peaches? We did Freezer Canned Peaches and also made 5 one quart bags full of diced peaches (mixed with approximately two tablespoons of lemon juice in each) that I promptly placed in the freezer. I intended on making Peach Jam later with these. Well FINALLY, I had time to can the Peach Jam!

I have canned strawberry jam, blackberry jam and tomatoes before but had never tried making Peach Jam. It was also the first time I used frozen fruit. I removed the frozen peaches from the freezer and put them in the fridge overnight. Although they were tossed with lemon juice, the peaches still darkened a little in color but thankfully the flavor was not affected. I was a little disappointed in the slight darkening but kept on going.

*Printable Recipe: Fabulous Peach Jam

First off, when you want to can, you need 5 basic equipment:

1. Canning stockpot (super large pot with a jar rack for sterilizing)

2. Canning jars with rims & lids (I used Ball 8oz jelly jars in a 12 count package)

3. Canner tongs

4. Wide-mouth funnel for wide-mouth jars

5. Magnetic lid picker upper thingy (I’m sure there is a more appropriate name, lol)

There are tons of other great canning supplies out there but these 5 things will do the job just fine.

You then need the “food” ingredients to make the jam. I used the following:

• 5 – one quart bags of diced peaches (it took 20 peaches to make the 5 – one quart bags, so if using fresh fruit, peel and dice up 20 peaches, don’t forget to remove the pits and all hard parts around it)

• 7 cups of sugar separated (1 cup + 6 cups)

• 4.7 oz plastic jar of Ball Classic Pectin

• one cup water

Don’t you just love it?! Water, sugar, pectin and fruit, that’s it! No other junk you can’t even pronounce, lol.

Directions:

Before even getting the peaches out, you have to wash your jars, lids and rims in hot, soapy water. Rinse well under the hottest water you can tolerate. You can then put them in your dishwasher on high-heat dry setting to finish the cleaning process. Our dishwasher brand is Steve Jr. Never heard of that brand? It’s the best out there, lol! Our teenage son does the dishes; we don’t have an electric dishwasher, lol. We also have a Steve Jr. automatic car starter, lol! If you have a human dishwasher like us, you will need to add lots of water to your super large canning stockpot. Add water until the canner stockpot is 2/3 full of water. Heat water to a soft boil (I’m guessing a rapid boil is better but even after 30 minutes on a burner set to high, the water never came to a rapid boil). Trust me though, the water was super hot! Put the cleaned jars, rims and lids in the water and sterilize for 10 minutes. I used my canner tongs to remove the glass jars and placed them upright on paper towels to air dry. I used my magnetic lid picker upper thingy to remove the rims and lids and also placed them on paper towels to air dry. I kept the canner stock pot full of water on the burner boiling. If you used an electric dishwasher instead, now’s the time to go ahead and fill that super large canner stockpot 2/3 full with water and turn the burner up to high.

I put the 5 thawed-out quart bags of peaches into a large pot. In a bowl, I mixed the entire jar of Ball Classic Pectin with 1 cup of sugar. I added the pectin sugar mix and one cup of water to the peaches. I brought the peach mix to a full rapid boil (a boil that can’t be stirred away). This took a long time since the peaches were still cold from the fridge. It took approximately half an hour to get it to a full boil and I stirred the mix frequently. The peaches broke down nicely. There were still some small chunks of solid pieces that will give the jam great texture.

After the peach mix hit a rapid boil, I added 6 cups of sugar. I then stirred frequently until the peach mix came to another rapid boil. I removed it from the heat and skimmed off the frothy layer on top. Using my canner funnel, I ladled the peach mix into the jars up to 1/4″ from the top. I placed the lid on top and screwed on the ring. I repeated this process for the remaining 11 jars. Turns out I had enough peach mix made for probably another 12 jars! I put the remainder of the peach mix into 2 large Tupperware containers with lids and placed them directly into the fridge.

I have to tell you at this point I was so upset. The peach jam didn’t appear to be “gelling”. It was still pretty runny. I went back to the directions I was following and was kicking myself for not reading the directions more closely. It says that jam has to be made in small batches so that it can gel up. The small batch they were talking about was 1/4 of what I made. I was then confused about the sugar bit. It said 7 cups in the beginning but then later in the directions said only 4 cups? I was frustrated but kept on going. I put the filled jars in the canner stockpot for processing. I completely submerged the jars (I used the wire holder to prevent the jars from directly touching the bottom of the stockpot) and allowed the jars to boil for 10 minutes. I used my canning tongs to remove the jars and placed them upright on a bed of paper towels. At this point, I was damn near in tears. I could see the jam inside the jars sloshing around and thought for sure I ruined all those peaches and wasted all that money on those jars because it sure didn’t look like jam, it instead looked like syrup. I forced myself to put a smile on my face because I may not have created jam but I at the very least created a nice peach syrup that can be served over ice cream. It didn’t work, who am I kidding? I was down right mad at myself for not reading the directions correctly. Damn my impatient self! I turned the stove burner off and went to bed feeling defeated.

I woke the next morning to find the jars were all sealed! How do you know they are sealed and shelf-safe? You push down on the lids and if it doesn’t pop up and down (you will hear a popping sound) then it is sealed. So yay! I have sealed Peach Syrup! No worries though, if your lid pops, then put the jar in the fridge (it just means it is not safe to store it on a shelf if the lid didn’t seal) but will be fine if immediately refridgerated. Then I picked up a jar and almost dropped it in my excitement . . . it actually gelled up!

Yes, Yes, Yes! So scratch the Peach Syrup . . . I have Peach Jam! 

Spencer and I quickly opened up a jar and made some toast and jam for breakfast! Let me tell you, all my fears about it being overly sweet and not jelly-like were completely unfounded! It was perfectly sweetened (remember, I started off with way more peaches than the recipe I was following so the 7 total cups of sugar worked out beautifully) and it was a wonderfully thickened consistency! Actually, if I had followed the other recipe correctly, the Peach Jam would have been way more sweet so I am glad I was a bit impatient, lol, because it turned out to be just the right amount of sweetness!

I found labels in the bottom of the box the jars came in. I promptly wrote “Peach Jam” and the date on each label. I proudly stuck those labels on my Fabulous Peach Jam!

How did it taste? FANFREAKINGTASTIC! Yes, that is really a word, lol. I successfully made my first jam from peaches and peaches that were frozen even! Woohoo! It was sweetened to perfection, just the right gel thickness and had these wonderful, small chunks of peaches in it! I certainly will do this again next summer! I won’t change a darn thing about my recipe because it really turned out perfect! Small batch my butt, lol! Well, there is one thing I would change . . . I would buy another dozen canning jars, lol!

Lessons Learned:

1. Always have a back up plan. Peach Syrup would have been OK too!

2. Have Faith. Things may not first appear like you want it to, just rest on it. It may just later turn out the way you had hoped for or into something even BETTER.

3. Don’t ever doubt yourself. You are your own type of “AWESOME”!

Hmmm . . . Now who to give all this Peach Jam too?

Update:

I’ve already passed out several jars and the reviews are all the same . . . folks LOVED it! One friend ate a 1/4 of the jar by herself with her finger on the way to her yoga class, lol. Brings whole new meaning to the phrase “finger licking good” and additionally, she now doesn’t have to share it with the rest of her family, lol!

Disclaimer:

After opening a jar, be sure to put it in the fridge like you would do with any other jams or jellies. If you open a canned jar (no matter if it is peach jam, strawberry jam or tomatoes) and it smells funny or looks funny, don’t be a dummy, toss it. It may not have sealed correctly and spoiled. If after processing your jam your lid “pops” to the touch (meaning it didn’t seal properly), put that jam directly into the fridge. I am not a canning expert so use common sense if you attempt to can yourself. Research thoroughly the canning process. I just know that what I did worked well for us! I will be doing it this same way for years to come.

Chunky, Cheesy, Potato and Ham Soup

Well, like I said a couple of days ago, my mom gave us a bushel of red potatoes. We are still trying to use them all up before any go bad. We hate to waste any food! It was a wet day overall on Monday and kind of gray most of the day. Seemed like a perfect day for soup! Steve and I mixed together some common ingredients found in most kitchens to create this amazing Chunky, Cheesy, Potato & Ham Soup! It turned out fantastic! Easy to make and best of all, a recipe that didn’t call for a “cream of something”! Give this soup a try, it was super cheesy and yummy!

*Printable Recipe: Chunky Cheesy Potato & Ham Soup

Ingredients:

•  12 red potatoes

• 4 tablespoons melted butter or margarine

• 1 small onion, diced

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

• salt and pepper to taste

• 3 cups milk (separated: 2 cups + 1 cup)

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

• 1/4 teaspoon white sugar

• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

• 1 cup diced ham

Directions:

Scrub potatoes and cut into chunks (leave skins on). Place potato chunks into a large saucepan and add enough water to cover the potatoes. Boil potatoes until all pieces are fork tender. Ladle out 1 cup of water from the sauce pan. Pour remainder of water and potatoes into a colander to drain potatoes. Add reserved liquid back into the pot. Turn burner on to medium heat. Stir in melted butter or margarine, onion and flour. Stir till well combined. Add 2 cups of cold milk and stir. Pour one cup of cold milk into a liquid measuring cup and add the cornstarch. With a fork, mix the milk and cornstarch until smooth and no clumps are present. Add the milk/cornstarch mix to the saucepan. Add the remainder of ingredients: cooked potato chunks, sugar, cheese and ham. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to your liking.

Optionally, you can garnish your soup with sliced green onions and bacon bits. It went really well with our BLC sandwiches (bacon, lettuce & cheese)! What a great dinner for a rainy & gray day!

Gradient Glitter Nails

After a few weeks of eye-catching nail art, I decided to go back to subtle. Went to the dollar store and found these two amazing nail polish colors for only $1 each! The brand was L.A. Colors/Color Craze Nail Polish. The bottles did not have the name of the colors on it anywhere but the following numbers were on the bottom: BCC659 and BCC652. One is a nude color and the other has tiny, shimmery and translucent glitter in clear nail polish. It really turned out nice and no matter how many pictures I take, it just won’t capture the simple beauty of it all because the colors are so neutral. But, you can get an idea from the pictures how pretty this is. When the light catches the glitter, there is just enough of a sparkle without going overboard.

To create the Gradient Glitter Nails, I painted the whole nail bed with 3 layers of the nude (it is such a light color that it took 3 layers for it to not be “see-through”). Then I took the glitter polish and started 1/2 way up the nail bed and painted a light layer. Then I started at the edge of the nail (where you would normally paint white in a French manicure design) and brushed on another layer of the glitter polish. I repeated this last step once more. I then applied clear nail polish to even out the different layers of nail polish. In the end, the light layer of glitter with the added layer toward the edge gives it the gradient glitter effect. Turned out wonderful! Subtle opulence. Again, sorry about the pictures, the nude color is really hard to capture with a camera. The pictures really don’t do this design justice.

Smashed Garlic Parmesan Potatoes

So my mother gave us a bushel of red potatoes recently. I love red potatoes and we decided to try some new things out. We made our version of Smashed Garlic Parmesan Potatoes and they turned out mighty tasty!

*Printable Recipe: Smashed Garlic Parmesan Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 8 red potatoes (2 for each of us)

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1 teaspoon of garlic salt

• 1 teaspoon of Mrs. Dash

• Butter flavored oil (or 4 tablespoons of butter/margarine melted)

• Grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

Wash potatoes and boil till fork tender in a large pot of water (we added a dash of salt to the water). Drain. Turn the oven on broil.

Cover a cookie sheet in foil. Place olive oil in a small dish. With a pastry brush, brush olive oil over the foil. Place a potato down on the prepared cookie sheet. Using a potato masher or anything else with a flat bottom (we used a Tupperware cup) smash the potato down. Repeat with the remaining potatoes.

Apply the remainder of the olive oil to the tops of the all the smashed potatoes with a pastry brush.

Combine the garlic salt and Mrs. Dash in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly on top of all potatoes (we just eye-balled it and sprinkled it on directly from the spice bottles).

Drizzle butter flavored oil on top (or brush on melted butter/margarine). We keep our butter flavored oil in a yellow squeeze bottle. Pretty convenient, sure beats trying to lift the one gallon jug every time we use butter flavored oil.

Sprinkle the grated Parmesan cheese on top.

Place in oven and broil until edges are toasty (approximately 5-7 minutes). Bon Appétit!

Printable Recipes

As I continuously try to improve my blog and make it user-friendly, I decided to go back to the beginning and add printable recipes for all the food posts. It will be a slow process! I am smacking myself for not thinking of this at the beginning, lol! The good news: I will automatically add the printable recipe to any new food posts from here on out, lol!

Fruit Flies Be Gone!

The best thing about summer is that fresh fruit is abundant! The worst part about summer, so are the fruit flies! Those tiny flying varmints wreak havoc so fast. You see one and then a half hour later you have dozen more. I think they mate, lay eggs and hatch all within minutes! They are so hard to get rid of so I turned to the source for all things true for a fix, Pinterest, lol. Pinterest had several ideas and we tried almost all of them without success. But, then we tried the Mason Jar trick and it worked, unfortunately, the directions weren’t very clear! I must have things really detailed, it’s just the nurse in me I guess, lol. So below are detailed instructions on how to create your Mason Jar Fruit Fly Trap.

Take an empty mason jar and fill it with about 1/2 inch of apple cider vinegar. Drop a ripe piece of banana into the jar. Take a piece of paper and make a funnel out of it. The small end needs to be no more than 1/2 inch wide and the wider end has to be wide enough that it touches the top edge of the mason jar. This takes several tries to get the right funnel shape. It works best if you roll your funnel in the landscape position (long side). Tape your funnel together on the outside and drop the small end into the jar. The small end should hover just above the piece of banana but does not touch it. Tape the funnel to the top of the jar (on the outside) creating a seal. Use several pieces of tape to accomplish this. This is hard to see since we used masking tape but look at the threads of the mason jar, you can see the tape that secures the funnel to the jar.

Put your mason jar fruit fly trap next to your fresh fruit. Then yell in your most evil voice, “Fruit Flies Be Gone!” Ok, you don’t have to yell but it makes me feel better, lol. The fruit flies all fly down and crawl into the jar but for whatever reason, can’t figure out how to get back out, lol. The try their darndest to get out by crawling up the outside of the funnel (which is still inside the jar) but because you taped the jar to the funnel, they are just stuck. After you have caught all the flies in sight. Take the jar outside, untape & remove the funnel and set the buggers free. This is not only an effective way to get rid of fruit flies but actually a very humane one.

I hope you have been able to avoid a fruit fly infestation but just in case you got one like we did (thanks to the over-ripe bananas) set this trap up and you will be pleased with the results. Will it get all of them on the first try? No. Don’t think so but it will get the majority. Once you have released the flies caught, set your trap up again. After a few days of repeating this process, those varmints should be gone. They were for us! Good luck!

Doing My Part II ~ Drop in the Pond

This lapghan went up for raffle at the season opener last night at the GMHS football game! I have to say this pattern is absolutely stunning! It is called Drop in the Pond. I have to admit though, the directions are difficult to follow and I mostly used the picture found before the directions to guide me through this. If you are pretty good at deciphering crochet patterns, I strongly suggest giving this one a try! For one, it is just gorgeous and it works up super fast! It is basically a modified granny square pattern! This is lapghan #2 donated to the Football Moms Club; 4 more to go! The Moms Club raffles off my lapghans and all of the proceeds goes toward the hidden costs that keeps the football program going! Like I said before, even broken me can make a difference! Hope you are making a difference somewhere in your part of the world! Find your strengths and put it to good use helping someone or something! Again, this is not my pattern so I can’t post it directly into my blog but I sure can provide a link on where you can find it: Drop in the Pond Pattern. Have a GREAT weekend folks!

Lumpia

I can remember as a child sitting at the table helping my mom make lumpia. I would help with separating the shells and let me tell you that was no easy feat! The shells are paper tissue thin! What makes lumpia unique is that it is mostly meat versus mostly vegetable that you would find in spring rolls or egg rolls. This is a long process so it is something I only make every few months. The good news is that it makes a lot! So it will last a couple of months! There are a gazillion different recipes for Lumpia but this is how my mom (who is 100% Filipina) taught me to make it! I am sure her recipe has a slight American influence!

Let’s start with the lumpia wrap. When I say “paper tissue thin” I think that is still an understatement! It is a very delicate wrap.

When I was a child, they sold it as one solid frozen package of wraps. We would set it on the counter to thaw out and then painfully separate each wrap. I would say about 10% of the wraps would get tossed because it would just rip trying to separate it. However, the lumpia wrap makers made it easier over the years! Now you can purchase the lumpia wraps all ready separated! There is a thin plastic sheet between each wrap! The bad news, you get less wraps. The package has only 30 wraps in it where I believe the solid frozen chunk of wraps had 50 wraps in it. Considering a portion always rips and gets tossed in the 50 count wraps package, I figure the 30 wraps package is still a great deal! Also, it is only $2.95 for the 30 wraps! How much did you pay for that one egg roll? LOL

Again, the right soy sauce makes the world of difference in this dish. We stick to our usual which is Marca Pina Soy Sauce. One, it is freaking cheap! A wine bottle size costs $1.95! We love this one because it is flavorful! Yes, it has that salty goodness to it but it isn’t overwhelmingly salty . . . it is just right!

So let’s get started!

Ingredients:

• 3 Packages of Lumpia Wraps

• 1/2 cup of diced onions (the regular blog followers know that I just remove my previously diced onions from the freezer)

• 1 clove of garlic, minced or 2 teaspoons of World Spice Minced Garlic (we prefer World Spice in almost all of our recipes)

• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

• 1/4 cup of Marca Pina Soy Sauce

• 4 lbs of ground beef

• 2 cups of cole slaw veggies (contains shredded cabbage and carrots, found near the bagged salads)

• 1 egg white

Directions:

Lay lumpia wraps on the counter to thaw out to room temperature (takes only about an hour). I just go ahead with the rest of this recipe and by the time I get to needing the wraps, they are thawed out enough to use.

Chop down the coleslaw veggies into smaller pieces. Normally, we would put this in our food precessor and let the food processor slice it up more but we couldn’t find it. Things just magically disappear in our house all the time, lol. That’s ok though because my Grandad had given us this most awesome cutting board and blade. The solid wood block is concaved in the middle. We put the veggies into this well and rock the blade back and forth over the cabbage and carrots to mince it up. Set the minced up veggies aside. You can also flip the wood block over and use the flat piece to cut on to. We absolutely love this wood block and blade set, it is amazing! Of course, I should say the hubby loves it . . . I don’t play with sharp items because of my irrational fear of knives and my history of self-inflicted wounds, lol (if you’ve been following my blog, this makes complete sense, lol).

In a wok or in our case since we don’t own a wok, a large chicken fryer (a large and deep frying pan) add the diced onions, garlic, vegetable oil and soy sauce. I used to have a wok, an electric one at that and it too disappeared somewhere in the Pack household, lol. I like kitchen appliances, all of them, so much so I had too many so I think the hubby made them “disappear” but won’t own up to it, lol. Cook the onions and garlic over medium heat until onions are semi-translucent.

Add the ground beef. Fully cook the ground beef. Be sure to crumble the beef into tiny pieces and stir well while cooking to ensure the meat is covered in the onions, garlic vegetable oil and soy sauce. I find it easier to allow steam to help cook the meat and will cover the pan with a lid. Drain all the liquid from the meat once fully cooked and return it back to the same wok or pan. Place back onto the stove over the same medium heat.

Place the minced cabbage and carrots in the wok or pan that has the cooked meat in it. Give it a good stir and cover with a lid. Steam the veggies for approximately 3 minutes.

Remove from heat and transfer the meat and veggies to a super large bowl. Leave the bowl on the counter to cool down (approximately 1/2 an hour) uncovered. You want to remove the meat mix from the wok or pan because the meat will continue to cook since the metal is hot and the veggies will wilt too much.

After the meat mix has cooled down, place the egg white from one egg in a small dish. Whisk it up a little with a fork. Cover a large cookie sheet with foil. Take 4 paper towels (still attached to each other) and run it under water. Wring it out just enough that it isn’t dripping but still wet. Fold the paper towels at the middle seam to create a hinged sandwich effect (see photos). Remove one package of lumpia wrap from the box and plastic. Place the lumpia wraps between the wet paper towel sandwich you just made. The wraps are so thin that they dry out fast unless kept in a moist environment.

I set up an assembly line in this order: bowl of meat mix, a large flat plate, the sandwiched lumpia wraps, egg white and prepared cookie sheet.

Separate a lumpia wrap from the plastic and lay it on your plate. Add a heaping tablespoon of the meat mix to one edge of the wrap. Fold in the wrap sides. Roll the wrap tightly and away from you almost to the other edge. Dip your finger in the egg white and run your coated finger along the edge of the wrap. Wrap the meat mix all the way up. The egg white serves as a “glue” to seal the edge. Place your wrapped lumpia on the prepared cookie sheet. Continue this process until all the meat mix is used. Try to keep the lumpias the same width and length for easier storing. It should make 90 lumpias.

Using freezer Ziplocs, place the lumpia in a single layer inside the bag. We use quart size bags and place 6 across the bottom (standing up) and 2 laying sideways for a total of 8 per ziploc. This is a perfect amount for our family of 4 allowing us two each. Also 8 makes for a great snack size!  Your Ziploc should lay flat allowing you to stack several Ziplocs on top of one another. Label and date your Ziplocs and place it in the freezer. How long is it good for in the freezer? I really don’t know because ours is always gone within 2 months! I would guess it would be safe in the freezer for 6 months.

Cooking up Lumpia:

Remove a package of lumpia from the freezer. Open the Ziploc end (to allow steam to escape) and place the bag in the microwave oven. Heat on high for one minute. Yep, I said high. It will be warm but still easy to handle. Plus, it is completely unthawed in 60 seconds. You could also remove a package and allow it to thaw out in the fridge overnight or on the counter for an hour. For us though, when we want Lumpia, we want it NOW, lol!

In a frying pan, add a thin layer of vegetable oil (we use butter flavored oil, for that extra buttery taste). Heat oil over medium heat. Once oil is hot (a tiny sprinkle of water pops and dances on top of the oil) lay the lumpia in the oil. Pan fry until golden brown all around. Remember, everything is already cooked, you are just frying to  make the wrap a golden brown color. Use tongs to turn the lumpia around in the oil. It fries up fairly quickly so watch it closely.

Remove the lumpia from the oil (allow excess to drip off) and lay on a plate covered in a paper towel (the paper towel will soak up even more of the excess oil). Allow to cool. Just know the ingredients inside will be smoking hot even after the wrap is cooled enough to handle so give it a few minutes to cool down to spare yourself a burnt tongue! They go super well with our Pancit Canton!

I have made hundreds of these through the years, possibly thousands. Folks eat it differently. After being pan-fried, some like to dip it in different Asian sauces. Our Aunt Angela actually likes to dip it into sour cream (which is pretty good actually). I can tell you, lumpia will be nothing like you have ever tasted before and I really don’t know anyone who has tried it that didn’t love it! Lumpia is also Spencer approved (as he smiles with his mouth full for the camera, lol)!

Pancit Canton

With some straight-up Filipina style, your Pancit Canton will look like this when you are done!

I am a proud American whose father served in the U.S. Navy. It was when he was stationed in the Philippines that he met and married my mother; then came me. Although I was American at birth, there is no denying I am half Filipina. Although my early childhood was spent in the PI, I can’t really tell you much about it. I did after all live on base, which all military families know it is like a mini-America overseas. You would think I would be well versed in Asian dishes and Tagalog. I unfortunately am not in either, lol. I do however know a few choice curse words in Tagalog and also how to make Pancit Canton the way my mother taught me.

It’s hard to explain what the noodle is like. It’s not a spaghetti noodle kind of dish, it isn’t lo mein…it is a flour noodle that is cooked in a very unique way. It is only $1.49, yep, it’s that cheap and this makes more than enough for a family of 4. AND, it is made in the Philippines!

This is what the noodles look like when they are removed from the package. It is a thick square chunk of dried noodles.

Let me give you a hint: these noodles are not boiled! Instead they are added to flavored liquid and is cooked when the liquid is fully absorbed into the noodle. It gives such an amazing flavor! So it is important to not blindly add water because this is not a noodle you boil and drain.

Don’t skimp on the Soy Sauce! A good soy sauce adds bold flavor without making you think you just sucked on a salt lick for hours! I swear by Marca Pina soy sauce! For one thing, one huge bottle costs only $1.95 (it is the size of your average wine bottle) and two, it is made in the Philippines! So I guess technically I do want you to skimp on the soy sauce, lol, because this brand is so much cheaper than other brands considering the amount of soy sauce you get! So skimp on my friends! You will also find this easily in most Asian stores!

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless, skinless, thin-cut pork chops

• 2 tbsp of vegetable oil

• 3 tablespoons Marca Pina soy sauce

• 1 garlic clove, minced (or 1/4 teaspoon of our favorite Spice World Minced Garlic)

• 2 teaspoons onion chopped dried onion (or 1 tablespoon of fresh diced onions)

• salt & pepper to taste

• 1.5 cups water

• 1 cup of coleslaw veggie mix (contains only shredded cabbage and carrots, found by the bagged salad)

• 1 package Pancit Canton Noodles (easily found at most Asian markets)

Directions:

Let me first say that I made a double batch so in the pictures you will pretty much see twice as much of everything. I made the Pancit Canton for my family for dinner last night and also made extra to take over to my dear friend, Rhonda, so she could try this noodle goodness too!

Slice pork chops into thin strips; set aside for the moment.

Add the oil, soy sauce, minced garlic and onions to a wok or if you are like me and don’t have a wok, put it in a chicken fryer pan (a frying pan that is large and deep). Saute the minced garlic and onions over medium heat.

Add pork chops to the pan and stir fry the pork. Add salt and pepper to your liking (more pepper than salt because there is soy sauce already in there). I prefer to use a pepper mill, nothing like fresh cracked pepper when you are cooking. I had so many pork slices because of the double batch that it wasn’t quite a “stir fry” method for me. I put a lid on to help cook the pork along. Just make sure you keep stirring so that the garlic, onion, soy sauce and oil evenly covers all of the pork. Once fully cooked, do not drain.

Add the shredded cabbage and carrots from the cole slaw mix. Give it a good stir and put the lid on. The goal is to steam the veggies without cooking them. Allow the steam to soften the veggies for approximately 2-3 minutes.

Turn the heat up between medium & high. Add the water to the pan. Allow water to heat up for approximately 3-4 minutes.

Place the noodles in your pan, pressing down the noodles with a lid. Cover for 60 seconds. Remove the lid and stir the noodles around. Cover again for another 60 seconds. Remove the lid and stir the noodles around. Cover again for another 60 seconds. Repeat this process until almost all the liquid is absorbed into the noodles.

When there is a small amount of liquid left, remove from heat and keep the lid on. The noodles will absorb the remainder of the liquid. It is important to remember to use an exact measurement for the water. This isn’t a boil and drain noodle. It is a “I’m sucking up all this fantastic drippings and broth” noodle, lol. If you don’t add enough liquid, the noodles will have crunchy parts. If you use too much liquid, your noodles will be very soggy. See the NOTES below for additional hints on the liquid.

Note: You can certainly grate fresh carrots and slice thin strips of cabbage yourself. I am always pressed for time and the few extra cents to buy a bag of coleslaw mix (usually found with the bagged salads) is worth it to me.

Note II: We prefer pork but my mother has made this with chicken and shrimp so use whatever meat is your preference.

Note III: If you are heavy into veggies, by all means, add as much as you want and add different types of veggies! For us, the carrots and cabbage give just the right amount of crunch to the dish even after being steamed.

Note IV: Watch your noodles closely, if they appear to have absorbed the liquid and are still “crunchy”, add 2 tablespoons of water. Do not add more water until the majority of the liquid is absorbed. If the noodles are still “crunchy”, repeat and add just 2 more tablespoons of water to the pan. Repeat as often as necessary. You don’t want to add too much water because nothing is worse than soggy canton noodles.  For me and my stove, 1.5 cups of water is the perfect amount for one package of canton noodles.

Note V: Have you been following my blog? Think you have seen this before? You have, lol! This was posted in my early days of blogging. I deleted that post and this post gives you a more detailed explanation on how to cook Pancit Canton.

This dish is loved by all our friends…BUT, not loved as much as the Lumpia I make. I will save that recipe for tomorrow. What is Lumpia, well it is those fantastic, crunchy rolls you see in the picture above. But it isn’t a spring roll, it isn’t an egg roll . . . it is something way better!