Thursday Night Supper: Thai Peanut Pasta

Jenna got a job at Portland Lutheran (yay Jen!) and, even though kids won't be there until the 31st, has been going to her classroom to do lesson planning, create her syllabus', meet their staff and prepare her classroom. With busy schedules last week we wanted something quick and settled on one of Jen's mom's recipes that we tend to crave.

Our Menu:

Fresh Spring Rolls
Thai Peanut Pasta

Fresh Spring Rolls

In place of a salad we opted for Spring Rolls. We already had a lot of the ingredients, it fit with the peanut style pasta, and I made them at my Thursday Night Supper so I knew they would be fast!

Click here for the ingredient list and instructions.

Thai Peanut Pasta - written by Jenna

This recipe has long been a Jenna and Kelly favorite. Although Felicia (my mom) and Vicki (Kelly's mom) always traded recipes and the made the girls their favorites, Vicki is allergic to peanuts so I always invited Kelly over on Thai Pasta nights (affectionately called Peanut Butter Pasta when we were younger). This was our first time making it ourselves and it went pretty well! 

Ingredients:

- 1/3 c. hot water 

- 1/3 c. peanut butter 

- 2 tsp. soy sauce

- 2 tsp. rice vinegar

- 2 chopped green onions
- 2 cloves chopped garlic
- 2 tsp. sugar
- 1 pkg linguine pasta
- 2 chicken breasts
- splash of olive oil
- any desired veggies, we used broccoli, peppers and carrots

Instructions:
Cut chicken breasts into strips and cook over med-high with a little splash of olive oil. Stir and turn chicken regularly until golden colored and cooked through. Should cut easily into pieces and show no pink when cooked.

While chicken is cooking, boil water for pasta, and mix peanut butter, hot water and soy sauce in a large mixing bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix rice vinegar, chopped garlic, sugar and green onions.

Cook other veggies until unthawed if frozen or cooked to desired consistency over med-high heat with a splash of olive oil. While doing this, cook pasta according to package directions.

Finally mix all ingredients together and serve. Enjoy with white wine or the cocktail of your choice!

This recipe serves 6, so double for larger parties or it your want delicious leftovers for lunch!

Thursday Night Supper: Picnic in Washington Park

Washington Park hosts free concerts throughout the summer, so last Thursday we decided to pack a picnic and hit up a concert in lieu of a more traditional supper. 

Our Menu: 

Curried Chicken Salad with Lettuce Wraps

Hummus with Carrots, Cucumbers and Pita Chips

Crostini with Caramelized Onions

Fresh Grapes

Fresh Cherries

 

Oh yeah, and lots of wine...

Curried Chicken Salad (adapted from Epicurious.com)

 

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 lb skinless boneless chicken breast
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 5 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
•  salt
•  black pepper
• 1 medium red onion, chopped (1 cup)
• 1 firm-ripe mango (3/4 pound), peeled, pitted, and chopped
• 1 cup red seedless grapes (5 ounces), halved
• head of lettuce, washed 

Instructions:  

Bring 4 cups water to a simmer with chicken broth in a saucepan. Add chicken and simmer, uncovered, for 6 minutes. Remove pan from heat and cover, then let stand until chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Transfer chicken to a plate and cool 10 minutes. Chop into 1/2-inch pieces. 

While chicken is cooling, whisk together mayonnaise, yogurt, curry, lime juice, ginger, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add chicken, onion, mango, grapes, and cashews and stir gently to combine. 

Serve in washed lettuce cups. 

Crostini with Caramelized Onions: 

Ingredients: 

• butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 onions, sliced
• salt and pepper
• 1 baguette, sliced

Instructions:  

For crostini: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush baguette slices with melted butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake 15-20 minutes.

For caramelized onions: Heat oil in skillet on medium-low. Add onions, cover and cook 20 minutes, stirring frequently. 

And the rest is pretty simple. Just pick up some of your favorite hummus and pitas chips as well as fresh cucumbers, baby carrots and cherries. Use your leftover grapes from the chicken salad too.

And don't forget some paper towels or napkins. Those chicken salad wraps can get a bit messy! 

Enjoy!

Thursday Night Supper: Brunch for Dinner

Last week, we made dinner at my house again, but this time Katie and I created and executed the menu. After spending the day working for Boogie Wipes, Katie and I originally planned a small plates style dinner, but then we remembered we didn't want to spend very much money and we didn't want to make 5 different things.

Instead, we decided on Brunch for dinner which included German pancakes (or Dutch babies), bacon (with option of an egg sandwich), fruit skewers and, of course, mimosas. Inexpensive, easy, and delicious.

German Pancakes

Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
- 5 eggs
- 4 tbs butter

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put butter in a 9x14" pan and put in the oven to melt.

Beat together flour, milk, and eggs.

Check the butter occasionally to make sure it's not getting too browned, then once the oven has reached 425 pull your pan out and add the flour, milk, and egg mixture. Put the pan back in the oven for approximately 20 minutes.

Take it out of the oven, cut it up and enjoy!

Fruit Skewers

Katie was recently inspired by Jello Shot Test Kitchen's fruit and jello skewers so she thought this would be a cute spin on serving fruit rather than just throwing it all in a bowl. Fruit is always tasty and this presentation does give it a little something special. And best part, so easy! 

Ingredients:
- Fruit
- Skewers

Instructions:
Pick out the fruit you want, wash and cut (if needed.) In our case we chose raspberries, blueberries, honeydew melon, and cantaloupe.

Skewer and serve!

Bacon

Ingredients:
- Bacon

So this one is pretty obvious and I'm not even going to write out any steps. Either bake it at 425 for 12 minutes, or fry it up in a pan! To make an egg sandwich (which Adam opted for) just fry an egg in a little of the bacon grease and put on a toasted english muffin with a slice of cheddar cheese and of course, bacon.

Mimosas

For mimosas, we've recently been inspired to change it up with different types of juice other than the traditional orange juice. So far my absolute favorite is fresh grapefruit juice, but last Thursday we tried it with raspberry lemonade which was pretty tasty.  

Ingredients:
- Champagne
- Fruit juice (your choice!)

Instructions:
Pour a good amount of champagne into your glass, we just went with normal wine glasses instead of smaller champagne flutes. Also, there's no need to buy expensive champagne. We use cooks because it's the cheapest and we seem to go through these rather quickly!

Add a splash of your favorite juice, garnish with fruit and enjoy!

See you next week!

Thursday Night Supper: Sushi and Spring Rolls

The first Thursday Night Supper was at Adam's and my house, and we felt the pressure to create a fun, memorable, and delicious dinner. For weeks, Adam has been wanting to make sushi since he swears he could eat only sushi for the rest of his life. 

We decided to try it, and figured we should do it right! So we wandered to Beaverton to hit up Uwajimaya, a "quality Asian grocery" since they were sure to have everything we needed.

Our appetizer was fresh spring rolls. I always order them when we go for Thai food and I figured if Adam was going to attempt sushi, I could do spring rolls. Turns out, they're really easy!

SPRING ROLLS

Ingredients:
- Rice Paper
- Vermicelli noodles (or "Rice Sticks")
- Tofu, extra firm
- Green leaf lettuce
- Fresh basil
- Fresh Cilantro
- Cucumber
- Carrots
- Peanut Sauce

Instructions:
Cook the vermicelli noodles in boiling water for 5 minutes, strain and run under cold water.

Cut tofu into strips about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the cucumber and carrots into strips, wash the lettuce and chop the cilantro and basil.

Saute the tofu for a few minutes on each side until slightly crispy with a little olive oil, or for more flavor mix in some sesame oil, soy sauce, and ginger.

Fill a bowl with warm water and place one rice paper in until soft. Take the rice paper out (and put another in) and lay on a damp kitchen towel.

Fill the rice paper with all your fixings. Roll it up, cut in half, and serve with peanut sauce!

SUSHI 

Ingredients:
- Short grain rice (Sushi rice)
- Seasoned rice vinegar
- Nori
- Shrimp
- Avocado
- Cucumber
- Sushi grade tuna
- Sesame seeds
- Wasabi
- Pickled Ginger
- Soy Sauce
- Bamboo rolling mat

Instructions:
Cook the rice according to the package directions. When cooked, pour the rice out on a cookie sheet and fan while sprinkling with a few tablespoons of seasoned rice vinegar. Avoid buying the plain rice vinegar, because then you'll have to make it seasoned with sugar and salt.

Once the rice has cooled, lay out a sheet of nori (the seaweed flat square) on the bamboo rolling mat. Leaving an inch on each end, place a thin layer of rice over the nori.

Lay your desired ingredients for that roll in a strip on the end closest to you. In our case we did a few rolls with shrimp, avocado, and cucumber and a few with raw tuna and cucumber. Mostly we just mixed and matched!

Roll it up, tightly, and using a serrated knife with a little water on it cut into pieces.

Place the rolls on a plate and serve with pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce.

Other sushi roll ideas if you aren't comfortable handling the raw fish could be California rolls with crab or using smoked salmon with a little cream cheese and cucumber.

Also, a couple bonus tips: If you want the rice on the outside, lay down a sheet of plastic wrap over the bamboo sheet. And if you're a fan of some spicy mayo, just mix mayonnaise and Sriracha sauce. So easy!

Of course each meal needs a good DRINK!


Ingredients:
- Pok Pok Som pomegranate
- Club soda
- Gin

For this Thursday night, I (well really Katie made them!) recreated the drink that Katie and I had at Ping. We wanted the rhubarb, but that isn't sold "retail" so pomegranate was the next best option.

Instructions:
Mix 1.5 - 2 ounces gin, a little Pok Pok Som (depending on how much flavor you prefer), then fill cup with ice and club soda.

Enjoy!