Garlic Chicken Vegetable Stir Fry

3 chicken thighs
8 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons (wheat free) tamari
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons olive or coconut or sesame oil or butter or lard
1 teaspoon coconut sugar
2 stalks celery
1/2 bell pepper
6 large chard leaves
1/2 onion
a big handful of fresh peas

Skin and debone the chicken, or buy boneles skinless chicken thighs. Cut meat into strips about 1/2 inch wide and 1 inch long. Peel and crush garlic. Mix olive oil with garlic and pinch of salt and pour over chicken. Stir to coat. Let marinate for 1/2 hour to overnight.
Wash veggies. Slice all into similar sized pieces as the chicken, leaving the peas whole if you like.
Heat the oil in the pan until it starts to shimmer, put the chicken in the pan and stir as you cook it for a minute or two, until the chicken looks just about done, then remove from heat, place in a dish. Reheat the pan adding more oil if needed. Add the vegetables and cook, stirring frequently until the chard greens are well wilted. I like to reserve the peas and add them at the end. When the vegetables are cooked to your liking, add the tamari, apple cider vinegar, and  coconut sugar. Stir in the cooked chicken, turn the heat off and serve.

More Coconut Macaroons

It wasn't until after I went ahead and made a batch of the kind with sweetened condensed milk that I found a recipe that was based with egg whites. Thanks to Alton Hoover!

Coconut Macaroons


Ingredients

• 4 large egg whites
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 8 oz unsweetened shredded coconut, lightly toasted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• Optional: 1/2 cup chocolate chips, or ginger and orange zest, or chopped cherries and chocolate chips, you get the idea :)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixer fitted with a whip attachment. whip egg whites and salt until they become white and begin to stiffen. Add sugar in 3 parts. Continue to whip until the egg whites are very stiff. Using a rubber spatula fold in toasted coconut.
On parchment lined cookie sheets, drop a teaspoon of the mixture leaving 1 to 2 inches around each cookie. Place into the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. The outside should be golden brown but the insides should still be moist.

Candied Ginger and Orange peel Coconut Macaroons

I love macaroons. They are so good! Cookie making has been the theme lately, with one daughter making chocolate chip and the other creating sugary shapes. We also made gingerbread muffins that I found at "Confections of a Foodie Bride"  http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/archives/9825 but I used fresh ginger instead of ground. The muffins didn't need much so I had this big chunk of fresh ginger to use up. I was hit with inspiration! I peeled and minced the ginger and also some orange peel, and boiled those in a simple syrup to create lovely candied ginger and orange peel, which I added to the coconut macaroons of The Joy of Cooking. Let me just say that these are way to sweet and yummy!

• 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg white
• 3 1/2 cups shredded coconut
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup candied ginger and orange peel (directions to follow)

Preheat your oven to 325. Line cookie sheets with well greased foil or use parchment paper. (Or wax paper. These stick badly!) Mix the first 4 ingredients together then add the coconut and mix it in. Lastly add the candied ginger and orange. Mix well. Drop by tablespoons onto the prepared pans about 1 inch apart. Bake about 20 minutes. Let cool at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan. The easiest way to get them off the paper/foil, is to pick up the cookie and peel the paper back. For me the edges like to stick and tear off a little, which means there more broken ones for the cook to munch on! :)

• fresh ginger root
• an orange
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water

*You could try lemon peel here too. Put water and sugar into a small pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat so that it is just simmering.
Peel and mince the ginger, and slice pieces of peel from the orange, try not to get too much pith (the white part). Add the ginger and orange peel to the sugar water and simmer for about half an hour, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat when done and strain, saving both the chopped ingredients and the syrup.

Challenge for 2012

I am super excited to start on a new project! Over the next year I am going to be researching what the Native Americans who lived in Oregon traditionally ate and next year for the Thanksgiving feast I will serve as close to a traditional Native American feast as I can. I will be working with my friend, Ahavah, who is a teacher at U of O. I know a little about wild edibles of Oregon and I can imagine how the Native peoples prepared them, but it will be super exciting to learn the details and techniques!
Some of the wild edibles of Oregon that I can think of would be:
Oyster Mushrooms
Chantrelles
Camas tuber
wild iris tuber
Acorns
hazelnuts
Elder berries
Salmon Berries
Blackberries
Wild strawberries
Sorrel
Miner's lettuce
wild chicory
chckweed
dandelion leaves and roots
crab apples (?)
cattails
fiddlehead ferns
deer
quail
elk
salmon
eel
trout
steelhead
saltwater fish
shellfish
mussels/oysters/abalone/geoduck
duck
goose
squirell-not really interested in that one! lol :))
bear
It really should be an interesting year!

Gluten Free Blue Corn Bread

1 C blue corn meal
1/4 C coconut flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
3 T coconut sugar
1/2 t salt
2 eggs
1/2 C milk
1/4 C melted butter or coconut oil
Optional:
1/4 t chipotle chili powder
1/4 t paprika
1/4 t cumin
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t oregano

Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl, adding any of the optional ingredients at this point. Mix the wet ingredients together in another bowl, then add to the dry mix and stir well. Pour into a greased 8 x 8 pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 25 - 30 minutes.

Lemony Caesar Chicken

This turned out to be super easy.
1 package of chicken pieces ( I used thighs and 8 came in a package)
1 bottle of Caeser dressing ( I used Newman's) or you could use creamy caesar
1 lemon
sour cream
seasoning salt
Mix together about 1/4 cup of the dressing, squeeze the lemon into it and add a tablespoon of sour cream if you are not using creamy Caesar dressing. Or use a tablespoon or two of ranch.
Season the chicken all over with your seasoning mix. My husband likes Lawry's and I prefer Trocomare. Pour the dressing mix over the chicken and turn it to coat. Let this marinate for two hours for the flavor to really develop. Season it again with the seasoning blend/salt when you are ready to cook it. Grill or broil until juices in the chicken are clear of blood, about 45 minutes. I like to let the skin get extra crispy :)

Chicken Enchiladas in red sauce

I love enchiladas and they are pretty easy to make. Canned sauce makes the process faster but most sauces are full of additives, and its so easy to make your own.
Ingredients:
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic
6 large dried chile pods, broken open and seeded
6 pieces of chicken
4 c water or chicken stock
salt
1 teaspoon chile powder
1/2 t cumin powder
1 t onion powder
1T butter or oil
6 -8 corn tortillas
1 cup of shredded cheese

sautee the onions and chile pods in the butter.

add chicken pices and spices and water

simmer the chicken about 20 minutes, then remove pieces, let cool and chop the meat.

blend the cooked chiles, onions, etc. with an emulsion blender or a food processor.

add about a cup of sauce to the chopped chicken

 add about 1/2 c of the cheese and mix together.  The next step is to fry tortillas.

fry each tortilla on each side in a little oil until soft.

roll about a 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture inside each tortilla, roll so that the seam ends up on the bottom. Pour sauce over the top, then sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.

bake at 350 degrees about 20 - 30 minutes

And that's how easy it is to make really yummy enchiladas from scratch. :)