Food – Page 14 – a hippie with a minivan

We will make do…

Well, of course we will, but we will have help…

A while back I had gotten rid of our toaster oven. The door was broken and was not very useful because the heat was escaping and it just looked unsightly… We were happy with just having a toaster but when I saw a higher-end toaster/convection/rotisserie oven half price at Canadian Tire, I just bought it… It is a bit overkill for a toaster, though it does work, but it will be great for reheating food and baking small things even after we get the oven back in working condition… and it will probably save a bit of energy at the same time…

I have a few bananas that need to be used up and I thing that I will even be able to bake a banana bread in it!

As for this week, I am excited at our menu, and the bill was about 130$, which is again staying within the budget I have set… and that makes me happy also 🙂

So, we are having…

Hunan Dumplings
Fried Chicken Sandwiches
Falafel sandwiches
French Onion Soup
Something in the crockpot (not too sure yet)
and Raclette (I’ll write a post tomorrow explaining what this is)

day 2…

It’s Day 2 without an oven and I have no clue when we will have it working again.

The Sears guy was supposed to come today but then called yesterday and was able to figure out the problem over the phone with the Error code. He checked with the pieces and they are on order and he expects them for the 30th. I can’t believe it, I can’t go that long without a working oven!

I asked him if there was anything else that could be done and he did say that he would try. He called this morning saying that he would get back to me with news but then never called. It is so frustrating!!!

There are many things in the house that I wouldn’t have a problem without, but this is not one of them… especially since we no longer have a microwave or a toaster oven. Though I don’t like the results much, I remembered that we still have the breadmaker stashed somewhere down stairs, so I might get that out in the meantime…

The next weeks meal plans are sure going to be interesting to make though…

wow… that's more than an inconvienence…

My oven is broken!

I made some breakfast cookies this morning, pre-heated the oven, put them in and then soo after I started to smell food burning… I ran to kitchen at about the same time as the alarm on the oven went off flashing ERR:F10 over and over… I got the stuff out of the oven noticing that the cookies on the top shelf were burnt completely but the bottom ones were perfect… The broiler element was on and wouldn’t turn off…

The only way that I got it to turn off was to pull the oven out and unplug it.. then I called Sears (it is not even a year old) and they will be coming to repair it soon…

I have no idea what could have happened for it to break so suddenly. Looking around on the net though it looks like this Error code is because the heat was going too high, meaning that the heat sensor is most likely broken so the oven wasn’t cycling off and on like it should.

This really sucks! I use the oven pretty much everyday.

For breakfast we often rotate between Baked oatmeal, apple pancake, breakfast cookies, etc… For lunch we use the oven to reheat food since we don’t have a microwave, I made bread sometimes on a daily basis, muffins or other desserts and of course supper…
Tonight we are having sandwiches, so I’ll have to go out and buy some bread for tonight…

At least the stove top is working but depending on when the oven will be fixed I’ll have to plan meals around using the stove top exclusively which honestly is quite a challenge. Of course since this is taking away many of our breakfast options we will most likely be relying on the toaster a lot more which means that I will have to buy bread since I can’t make it.

This really sucks!

Apple-Cinnamon Bundt cake…

I don’t know why, but I have never owned a Bundt Cake Pan… that is, until 2 weeks ago…

This is the first cake that I have made in it and I am in love with it already! I went to visit friends today and just had to make another one to share with them… so I made this this morning before leaving.

The original recipe called for just 2 cups of apples, more sugar, nuts etc… The first time I made it, I used less sugar, replaced half of the oil and added a bit more apples but not nearly enough to my liking… This morning I tried with 4 cups of apples and it was perfect.

Next time though I am going to try substituting the oil with Sour Cream instead of apple sauce. I think that the sour cream will ass a really nice tang.

So…

In a bowl, mix together:

4 cups apples, peeled,cored and diced (I use Empire Apples)
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 teaspoon cinnamon

In a large bowl mix together:

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (can be replaced in part or in whole by apple sauce)
1/4 cup orange juice
3 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

Add to the wet ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease bundt pan.
Add 1/3 of batter mixture to the pan.
Sprinkle half of the apple mixture over the batter then follow with 1/3 batter, and then add rest of apples and top with rest of batter.
Bake for 55- 60 minutes.

This cake is really not too sweet with a great Apple-Cinnamon taste… The pics here were of the first cake I made with less apples, doubling the apples added a lot of flavour and made the cake a bit more moist which was perfect!

Fried Chicken Sandwiches…

I was having a craving for some fried chicken sandwiches… the kind that you get at fast food places but better… These turned out even better than I would have hoped, they were perfect and everyone loved them!

I had 4 chicken breasts, so it made 8 sandwiches.

To begin with, cut a chicken breast in half horizontally. (So place chicken breast on cutting board, place knife on the side of it and cut with the knife parallel to the board)

Place the halved breasts in a bowl, bag or container and add 1 1/2 cup buttermilk (or a mix of 1 1/2 c of milk with 1 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice).

Marinate for at least 6 hours (overnight is better though)

Take chicken out of the Fridge at least 30 min before frying and in a container/bowl/bag put 2 cups of flour and the following:

1/2 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Dip the chicken into the Seasoned Flour and then place on a plate and if you want you can redip into the buttermilk and then redip into the flour for more of a crust.

Prepare Oil in a pan, I used my favourite Cast Iron Skillet and added about 1 1/2 inch of oil and heated it up to 325 using a candy/oil thermometer.

Fry the chicken for a few minutes each side until done and golden brown. (it took about 3 min on each side for mine) and place on a few paper towels.

Place on a bun with lettuce and Mayo and whatever else you like…

I love the spicy mayo on these kind of sandwiches so I made a mix with Mayo and Frank’s Red Hot and it was perfect.

This is definitely something that I will be making again in the near future…

I have never had a Fried chicken sandwich that tasted as fresh and crispy as this, and of course, by making by own bread the cost of these are minimal…