Pad Thai Recipe with really good sauce

I tried making this tonight and it was super good, the best I've tried to make over time.  The sauce is really easy and fast.  For spicy lovers you could add a little chili paste to kick it up a notch.  I didn't add the carrots thoughor bean sprouts, but will add the sprouts next time because I like them

Pad Thai Sauce Recipe for the Best Authentic Pad Thai (savorysweetlife.com)

here are the products/brands I used in the sauce:  

Ingredients for the Pad Thai Sauce

• 3 tablespoons tamarind juice (paste) concentrate
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup palm sugar
• 2 Tbl fish sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 
  
• Pad Thai Stir-Fry Ingredients
• 8 ounces dried rice stick noodles
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• ½ smallish-medium red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ lb protein (thinly sliced chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, or cubed tofu)
• 1 egg
• 1½ cups mung bean sprouts, divided in half
• 1 cup carrots, julienned (match sticks), divided in half (I didn't use these)
• 4 green onions (scallions) cut diagonal in ½ inch segments
• ¼ cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
• ½ cup toasted salted peanuts, chopped
• Lime wedges

Instructions

1. To make pad Thai sauce, heat a small pan on medium low and add the tamarind concentrate, water, palm sugar, fish sauce, and garlic. Cook the sauce until the palm sugar has completely dissolved. At this point, you will want to carefully taste the sauce and tweak the sweetness or tangyness by adding a tiny bit more palm sugar or tamarind. Be careful, the sauce will be hot.
2. Remove from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes before storing it in a jar or plastic container.
3. Boil the rice noodles on high heat for 2 minutes then drain immediately, rinsing the noodles with cold water for just a few seconds. Noodles should be slightly firmer than al dente. Don’t worry, they will continue to soften and cook later when stir frying.
4. Using kitchen shears, cut the noodle clump in half. This will make it a lot easier to stir-fry and eat.
5. In a wok of large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil on high heat. Add to the pan the protein and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the protein and transfer to a plate or bowl.
6. Return the pan to heat and add a tablespoon of oil. Allow the oil to heat up and add the onions and stir-fry (stir + fry) for one minute then add the garlic and cook for another minute, making sure to stir often enough so the garlic does not burn.
7. Add the noodles to the pan and drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Stir fry the noodles for two minutes. This will help the noodles soften a tiny bit more but more importantly will provide enough surface texture for the sauce to adhere to.
8. Add 3-4 tablespoons of the pad Thai sauce continually stirring the noodles until they are coasted with sauce - about a minute.
9. Add the protein back in and fry for an additional 2-3 minutes, adding more sauce if necessary. You don't want the noodles to be "wet." Instead you want to add a little bit at a time allowing the noodles and the other ingredients to soak in the sauce.
10. Move the pad Thai over to one side of the pan. Add the last tablespoon of oil to the bare side then crack an egg over it. Scramble the egg with a wooden spoon and cook for 30 seconds.
11. Add half the sprouts and half the carrots along with the scallions. Mix and stir-fry everything for 1 more minute, frying everything together.
12. Test the firmness of the noodle. If the noodle is too firm, continue to stir-fry for an additional minute adding a spoonful of sauce if necessary.
13. Remove pad Thai from heat and serve and garnish with remaining julienned carrots, spouts, cilantro, toasted peanuts, and a wedge of lime. Enjoy!

Monte Cristo Sandwich

 I enjoy one of these sandwiches every so often.  When my sister, Karen, was up we had them at a nearby restaurant together and it was so good I decided to make one for myself for a "brunch" today.  I don't know why I don't make them more often..they are very filling and taste so good!  I didn't have any Texas Toast today, so used regular sandwich bread instead.  Texas toast is the best though.  I need to be sure not to wait so long for the next one!

MONTE CRISTO SANDWICH:

Ingredients: (makes 4, just cut it back for the amount you want)

8 slices Texas Toast

12 slices turkey

12 slices ham

4 slices swiss cheese

Egg wash:

6 eggs

1/4 cup milk

2 Tablespoons butter

raspberry jam

In a shallow pan-I used a round cake pan, whisk eggs and milk together.  set aside

Spread desired amount of raspberry jam on both pieces of bread (you can add Dijon mustard and mayo if that's desired, but I don't).  

places 3 slices of turkey, one slice of cheese and 3 slices of ham on one side of the sandwich.  top with the other slice.  

Heat 1 Tablespoon of butter on medium/low heat 

Take the sandwich, one at a time, and dip into the egg batter, then flip over to coat the other side like you would for French toast.  

Place sandwich into frying pan and cook on both sides until done. Add more butter to pan is making more as needed.  

Remove from pan, place on a plate and while warm dust with  powdered sugar and serve with more jam or maple syrup.   

Pineapple Coconut Bread

 I saw this recipe/picture on Facebook and since I had all the ingredients at home, I decided to give it a try.  I like both pineapple and coconut, especially toasted.  It's good, but I am thinking tomorrow it will taste even better once it all works in together more.  I think I will use sweetened coconut because it was kind of tasteless compared to the sweetened also.  I also used pineapple that was in it's own juice and maybe a little sugar in that would enhance the flavor also.  Experiment next time!

PINEAPPLE COCONUT BREAD:

Ingredients:

2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut

1-1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter softened

1 cup granulated sugar-next time I am going to use some brown sugar in with it.

3 eggs

1 cup sour cream.  I didn't have quite enough sour cream so added greek plain yogurt to make the cupful.  it worked out fine

20 ounce can crushed pineapple, drained really well (I squished it to get more juice out)

2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons milk

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325.  Spread the coconut out on a large cookie sheet and bake at 325 for 5-5 minutes until golden brown, stirring at least once during the baking time.  Watch closely so it doesn't burn.  Set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (using a mixer).  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating the eggs into the batter well between each addition.

add half the flou and half of the sour cream and mix well.  Add the remaining flou mixture and sour cream mixing until fully incorporated

Stir in the crushed pineapple and 1 cup of the toasted coconut.  Pour the batter into a loaf pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  top with the rest of the toasted coconut.

Bake at 325 for 70 minutes, more if still soft in the middle by 5 minute increments. set aside until just warm and remove from pan.  

Glaze.  In a small bowl combine the powdered sugar and milk.  whisk to combine and drizzle over the bread.  Cool bread completely and then slice and serve.  

Creamy Tuscan Sausage Pasta

 I had some breakfast sausage patties leftover and didn't want to waste them with the cost of groceries lately, so found this recipe from Alyssa Rivers and made half a batch of it tonight for me and Dave.  It was delicious.  I didn't have the sun dried tomatoes, so used a roma tomato that I diced really small and it was great in there.  I am not a fan of sun dried ones anyway to be honest, so will do the same thing next time.  It actually made enough for 3 people and the full recipe serves 6.  It's really easy to put together and fast..I added garlic toast and grapes since there are some veggies in the main dish.  here is how to make it...

CREAMY TUSCAN SAUSAGE PASTA

8 ounces penne pasta cooked according to package directions (I used the 8 ounces for half a batch actually and there was plenty of sauce for it)

1 lb ground sausage of your preference.  I used chopped up breakfast sausage that I had cooked into patties previously.

a little olive oil to cook the sausage in.

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup chicken broth 

1 tsp garlic powder

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 cup parmesan cheese

2 cups fresh spinach chopped (I pulled off any big stems)

1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, or 2 Roma tomatoes with the pulp removed and diced small

INSTRUCTIONS

 Cook pasta according to directions and drain.

In a large skillet add the sausage until fully cooked and crumbled.  Set aside on a plate.

Add the heavy cream, chicken broth, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and parmesan cheese.  Whisk over medium high heat until it starts to thicken.  Add the spinach and tomatoes and let it simmer until the spinach starts to

Homemade Shrimp Fettuccine

 This recipe is nice because it doesn't have a thickening agent, is simple and has a great flavor.   You can easily alter it to make it a chicken dish or even a side dish with no meat.  The original dish had chicken and mushrooms, but I decided to make shrimp because we've been eating a lot of beef and chicken and wanted something with seafood.  It's super fast to put together.  I served it with Cesear salad and garlic toast and it was a big hit.  My granddaughter even came over because it's her favorite meal.  

HOMEMADE SHRIMP FETTUCCINE:

8 ounces fettuccini or linguini pasta (cook as directed to a dente stage and drained)

2 Tablespoons butter

A smaller package of precooked, deveined medium to large shrimp, rinsed well and tails pulled off

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1-1/2 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

In a large deeper sided fry pan: melt the butter, add shrimp and season with the garlic powder and pepper.  cook until slightly browned on medium low heat.  add whipping cream and cook until thick, stirring constantly.  Add Parmesan cheese.  When at desired consistency add the Parmesan cheese and more pepper and salt to your tasted.  (I just added a pinch to mine).  Stir in the drained noodles or serve over the noodles to your preference.  

Cola Chicken Wings

 I noticed on a lot of oriental U tube cooking shows that they use a bottle of Coke or cola in meat or chicken wings when making them in a wok.  I looked up cola wing recipes and tried one tonight because they looked good!  I combined a couple of recipes and we both liked them for a light supper.  Here's what I did:

COLA WINGS:

2 pounds chicken wings (fresh)

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil.  I think peanut oil would be fine too

3 slices ginger  (I had ginger paste in the tube and just added that instead)

1 cup of cola (not diet, you need the sugar to get it to caramelize)

3 Tablespoons of soy sauce.  

salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fill a wok half full of water and bring to a boil.  Add wings that you have washed well and disjointed into two parts and let boil for 5 minutes.  (this ensures they are thoroughly cooked later on and gets rid of some of the fat).  Then remove them from the water onto a plate, draining the water and rinsing the wok well.  Place the wok back on a high heat burner and add the oil and ginger.  Place wings in a single layer into wok and brown each side well.  Then add the soy sauce and cola (I used Coke) in.  turn down heat a little to a low boil.  cook uncovered until the sauce turns thick and the wings are cooked well.  add a little salt to taste if desired and sprinkle with chopped green onions and seasame seeds to serve.