Home Made Salsa!!!

ALRIGHT!!! I have a super quick super easy recipe for salsa, only takes a few minuets to make too!!!

Ingredients:

• Two large, firm tomatoes
• Peppers..green pepper, jalapeno pepper it doesn't matter here just whatever you prefer. PLEASE READ THE NOTE AT THE END OF THE RECIPE BEFORE YOU MAKE THIS!
• White onion
• Cilantro
• Lime juice
• Minced Garlic (for salsa I like to use the pre-minced stuff in the jar, it's comes in a liquid so the pieces are nice and soft and you're not biting into hard garlic)

Note: If you need pictures for this one..there is no hope for you.

Alright so this so freaking easy anyone can make it. you CANNOT SCREW THIS UP! I promise you that! So lets roll up our sleeves and get started!

1. Chop up your tomatoes. I use really first ones because I have such a hard time dicing them up what they're soft. Put ALL of it into a good sized bowl. The juice, seeds, everything.
2. Dice up your onion. The amount you use is dependable on how you like it. I'm not a big fan of it, but Jay is. I can't bite into hard onion it makes me gag so I used the cheese grater to made it mushy and put a lot in that way. This way I can bite into it without worry and Jay gets lots of onion!
3. Cut up your cilantro. This you need VERY little of. Also scissors is the easiest way to get nice small bits, just hold it all together in one hand, making it as dense as possible. Then use the scissors and snip snip snip snip and it'll just mince itself!
4. Now for the pepper. I do this last because I know how bad it is to get pepper in your eyes or on your face. Depending on how spicy you want it, you can add in the core, or at least the seeds. If you don't want to use them just cut them out and set them aside. Dice up your pepper and add it into the bowl with everything else.
5. Using a long spoon or spatula, fold the ingredients together. Switch between a gentle fold and a slow mixing stirring. The juice from the tomatoes will be more than enough for the liquid aspect, the rest is nice and solid and crunchy and spicy for you!
6. Add in one teaspoon of the minced garlic and mix.
7. Add in the lime juice to taste. Start with a little and go from there. I don't like Lime at all, but I found the salsa didn't taste right to me until I'd used like half of the little green lime thingy haha!

From there adjust the amount of lime juice and garlic to your liking..the lime can do A LOT for the salsa and is great for balancing out a flavor you don't want as strong. Also black pepper helps to balance out come flavor too!

IMPORTANT NOTE!: If you have never word with peppers of any kind before PLEASE BE CAREFUL! The core with the seed are ALWAYS the hottest parts. Once you make the first cut into your pepper do not, DO NOT touch any part of your face! If you cut up the pepper before you dice up other ingredients, PLEASE wash the knife and the cutting board before moving on. Also PLEASE wash your hands right away. I am speaking form experience when I say you do NOT want any part of a pepper even if its only a green pepper, on or near your face. Please be careful!

That's really all there is to this. It's really good. I kept a bag of tortilla chips next to me for proper taste testing!

I don't really have any special tips on who'll like this or anything like that. It's salsa, if you don't normally like salsa this may be a good way to to try different things to see if you just have a particular taste to it, or something like that, yanno? Give it a try, it can't hurt. I just used a green pepper, not super spicy but enough and it was SO good...and that's coming from someone who's very picky about salsa. 

That's about it for now. I'll have another recipe up VERY shortly. Keep this one in mind, when you read the next one. Until then, have a good one!

Orange Chicken

This is one of my favorite recipes it takes maybe 20-30 minuets to make, and most of that is the actual cutting up and initial cooking of the chicken itself. Now I know that Orange Chicken is breaded and I will include the breading at the end of this post, but I personally do not use it. I tried to the first two times I made it and we wound up eating more breading than chicken! Anyway, I prefer to just put the sauce directly onto my chicken and my family and friends agree it is better that way. So lets scrub our hands and get cooking!

Ingredients:

• 2lbs of boneless chicken breast. (obviously more if you're cooking for more people)
• Sesame cooking oil or Olive oil (Sesame oil is pricey and really only for more traditional flavoring. Regular olive oil is what I use)
• Rice wine (This too is pricy, and you do not need a lot of it, this will last over the next several times you make this meal. Also, Rice Wine Vinagre is NOT the same thing, do not try to use it trust me I learned that the hard way. You may have to ask a store employee where this is becasue it's in a different location in every store)
• Dried red pepper flakes
• Green onion
• Ginger
• Minced garlic (you can use the pre chopped stuff in a jar if you like or fresh it's up to you as long as it's not dried you want it moist and seemingly fresh :) )
• Soysauce

Alright so lets start to dig in. Go on and pre heat your cooking pan on low and add in a little olive oil just to get it going. It can heat up slowly while you're cutting up the chicken. All you need to do is cut the chicken up into bite sized pieces, small and quick to cook through. Once it's all cut up, toss it in the pan, turn the heat up and saute the chicken till all the pieces are cooked through. If you're unsure, cut open one of the bigger pieces and see if all the pink is gone or not. 

While it's cooking, you can rinse the green onion and use a scissors to cut it up into small pieces. You'll be able to get everything else set up and ready for the next part too.

Once it's all cooked through, put the chicken into a bowl and clean the pan out. Add more olive oil get it medium hot again and add the olive oil once more. Now the fun starts! All of this is to taste there are very few exact measurements here on out.

1. You want to put a good deal of powdered ginger into the pan estimated 2-3 teaspoons
2. Add in roughly 1 teaspoon of the minced ginger and use your spatula to mix it together really well. It'll only take about 15 second before it starts to burn down so mix it quick.
3. Sprinkle in about a handful of red pepper flakes and another handful of the cut up green onion. Mix it all together. It's going to start smelling really good right about now. And this is the trickiest part next.
4. Pour in exactly 1 tablespoon of Rice win... any more and you have to try and counter it's taste...which is really gross in when too much is present.
5. Add in a splash or two of soy sauce
6. Slowly mix it all together in the pan, and  as you do this pour in about 1/4 cup water a VERY little at a time mixing it all together. The goal here is to let it all cook down, you may have to add more ginger to the mix to help thicken it. I personally like a lot of the ginger and that's the main flavor in my Orange Chicken.
7. When the yummie sauce is nice and thick, go on and add in the chicken once more. Push it all over and around, making sure every piece is covered. Once it is all covered in the sauce, and hot again, it's ready to serve!

HELPFUL SUGGESTION!!!: If you're cooking for more people I like to add the chicken little by little, get a small amount covered thickly, place it in a new bowl, make more sauce and coat more chicken. I personally do not mind doing this as it assures all the chicken is coated thickly with lots of flavor. And really it doesn't take any longer than if you were to do it all at once. :)

GREAT MEAL IDEA!!!: Feel like Asian food? Serve this dish up with some rice which is nice and filling, and a big glass of cold milk and you've got a GREAT filling meal.

LEFTOVERS!!!: I have always been in the habit of cooking a ton of food even when I'm not cooking for a lot of people. The Orange Chicken I just "made" is a WONDERFUL leftover! In my opinion, it probably taste better as a next day or two left over, cold from the refrigerator! Mouth watering in my opinion!

Who will like this:

• Children: The pieces are fun and bite sized. They can't really taste the onions or garlic if made correctly and it's not spicy, the pepper just adds flavor! It's small, colorful, and a new way to get them interested in chicken!
• Adults: Adults who are new to Asian food but want to try something will enjoy this. There is no intimidation at all. It's something they're totally familiar with with ingredients they have eaten their whole life! It's a great way to introduce you, your family, or anyone to Asian food!
• Anyone who already enjoys Asian food or even new foods, in general will like this. It's a great twist, a totally new way to serve a classic dish!

Alright as promised here is the things you'll need for breading the chicken if you so choose to do so :)

Ingredients:

• Egg
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil
• Cornstarch
• Flour

Before cooking the chicken, put the cut up chicken into a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the egg, a dash of salt, pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil. Add in 1/2 cup of cornstarch and a 1/4 cup of flour. Go through the rest of the recipe as is above, except when you're mixing the chicken and sauce, add in a little water to the four and cornstarch mixture, about 1/4 of a cup should work, then slowly mix it in with the sauce and the chicken so it all thickens and breads up and gets covered in sauce. And that's how you bread the chicken :)

That's it for my AWESOMESAUCE Orange Chicken! I hope you all enjoy it! Let me know how it turned out for you or any suggestions you've got!

~Alex~