The humble spud once again!

What can I say? Our family loves potatoes. This is one for boiled potatoes with parsley. Enjoy!

Start with freshly scrubbed Yukon Gold potatoes. 

Peel them.

And because I am a master-chef I cut them right up into the pot instead of dirtying the cutting board. Okay, I just didn't want to clean the cutting board. 

Pour in some water

Enough to cover the potatoes well. 

Set the heat on high

Cock the lid a little so the pot does not boil over

While you are waiting prep the rest of your meal. Steak and corn was the rest of dinner this night.

Bring the pot to a rolling boil.

Give a good stir now and again to make sure they are not sticking.

Potatoes are done when you can stick a knife into them easily.

Put a drainer in your sink

Be careful as you dump out the potatoes. The steam can burn you.

Get some lovely butter. I love butter. It makes everything so much better!

Either dump the potatoes back into the pot or in a large bowl. As it was Sunday evening dinner, I did not feel like dirtying another dish so I stuck with the pot. 

Dump the butter on top and let it melt and ooze all over the potatoes. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Toss in some chopped parsley. If you have fresh it makes the favor even better but dried works as well. 

Give it a stir and this is the goodness you get to enjoy! 

Orange Chicken

My family is not picky. It will eat pretty much anything. However, they prefer meat. In pretty much any form. We prefer to eat our chicken prepared in a Chinese fashion. Orange Chicken is a dish we stumbled upon awhile ago and still like to this day. This dish is a little more intensive then some dishes but it is worth the effort. Lets go: 

MARINADE :    

  

Start out with some plain old chicken broth. If you want to be all snobby you could use homemade but I use store bought because I am lazy. 

 

Fresh pretty oranges. Give them a good scrub to remove the wax the store puts on them because you are going to use them for zest.

Zest up your oranges. This process is probably a lot easier if you have a zester. I only have a grater. 

Now juice your oranges. I do have a machine that does this for me...thank goodness!

Add some white vinegar. 

Some soy sauce.

Oooo...adding the soy sauce.

Some dark brown sugar

Some garlic

 

Some ginger...

 

grated up. 

 

Some Cayenne pepper. 

 

Your mixture now

 

Give it a good stir

CHICKEN:

    

Cut some boneless, skinless chicken breasts into bite sized pieces. 

 

Place in a gallon bag.

 

Pour some of the marinade over the chicken. Close the bag (important step) and lay it flat in the fridge (see why it was important?). Let this sit for up-to an hour. 

 SAUCE:      

   

Hot peppers.  

Remove pith and seeds and slice them up and place them in the remaining marinade.

 

Take some cornstarch

 

mix it with some water. This makes it much easier to mix it into the sauce, then just dumping the cornstarch in. Keeps away the lumps. 

 

Whisk in the cornstarch mixture over medium heat.

 

Let the sauce cook until it gets thicker and glossy looking.

 CHICKEN...AGAIN:

   

Drain the chicken and place in a largish bowl.

 

Whip up some egg whites

 

Take some more cornstarch and add some baking soda

 

and some more cayenne pepper. 

 

Pat the chicken dry with some paper towels. This helps the egg wash to stick better.

 

Dip the chick in the egg whites then the cornstarch mixture. 

 

Deep fry in some peanut oil

 

When golden brown remove from oil and place on paper towels to dry. 

 FINAL PREP:

   

Toss the chicken into the sauce and stir gently to coat.

 

Serve on a pile of rice.