Lettuce Cups with Stir-Fried Chicken

These actually only mildly interested me when I decided to try the recipe. I decided to try them because they were pretty easy and I wanted to challenge myself to try something different. I'm glad I did because these were really good, pretty easy, and pretty healthy.

The original recipe is from bon appetit and is online. Here's how I made it:

1 head boston or butter lettuce, leaves removed, washed, and left whole

1/2 cup Asian sweet chili sauce

1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into about 1/2" cubes

3 scallions, minced

3 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce

1 teaspoon corn starch

2 tablespoons sesame oil

4 medium shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1/4 cup unsalted roasted cashews, chopped

Whisk the soy sauce, scallions, and corn starch in a medium bowl. Stir the chicken in and marinate for 10 minutes at room temperature, stirring occasionally. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add mushrooms and stir-fry for about 15 seconds. Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 10 seconds. Add the chicken mixture and cook, stirring often until golden brown and cooked through, 6-7 minutes. Place a spoonful of the chicken mixture in each lettuce leaf. You'll probably need 12-16 lettuce leaves. Garnish with cashews. Drizzle sweet chili sauce over the chicken and roll leaves around the filling to eat.

Note: don't be dumb like me and spoon the hot chicken mixture into a lettuce leaf with a tear while holding the lettuce leaf in your hand. Wow, that burned! Sometimes I'm amazed at the things I do...

Brown Bread

I found a recipe for brown bread on epicurious.com and tried it. I love brown bread. It was pretty easy to make, but it does take a while to bake. I wasn't so keen on using an old can to bake it in, so I used a pudding mold.

Baked Beans

Yes, I'm still alive and still cooking a lot. In the last few months Adeline (now 8 1/2 months old) has been demanding most of the small amount of free time I once had. Anyway, I made these baked beans for dinner tonight and David and I loved them. They're sort of a combination and variation on two recipes, so I'm making myself add the recipe now so I'll know what I did for next time I crave baked beans.

1 pound dried great northern beans

2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1/3 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

2/3 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons molasses

3/4 pound (12 ounces) applewood smoked bacon, chopped

Rinse the beans and pick them over. Put the beans in a large bowl and add enough water to cover the beans by about an inch. Cover and let stand at room temperature overnight.

Drain the beans and transfer them to a large saucepan and add water to cover. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Set the lid askew and reduce the heat to medium-low until the beans are barely tender, about 40 minutes. Stir in the salt after 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Meanwhile, in a large fry pan over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the onion, stirring occasionally until softened, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and cook an additional 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is very tender and golden brown. Remove from heat.

When the beans are ready, drain them in a colander, reserving the cooking liquid. Transfer the beans to a bowl. Add the cooked onion, ketchup, mustard, maple syrup, brown sugar, and molasses and stir to combine.

Line the bottom of a 3 quart baking dish or dutch oven with one-third of the bacon. Add half the beans, then half of the remaining bacon. Top with the remaining beans and bacon. Add enough of the reserved cooking liquid to barely cover the beans. Cover and bake for 2 hours. Uncover and bake another 1 1/2 hours.

Makes 8 servings.