Good girl, bad poster

I've made pretzels 3 times in 4 days. They win. Congratulations to them.
Last night I made one of the favorite things I've ever made. It wasn't very pretty but I probably could have finessed it and taken a really nice picture but really, I didn't even think about it until half way through my second helping. Do you see a theme? Big girl loves food, big girl cooks food, big girl must eat food right when it's ready. I will try to give you a mental picture. The chicken is coated in seasoned flour and is fried in butter then removed from the pan where the broccoli is added and seared very hot so it gets brown and stays nice and crunchy tender. Then the chicken is added back along with the sweet sour salty savory delicious thai-ish apricot sauce and all cooked together until hot and then served with cold crunchy sour spicy cucumber salad and hot steamy rice cooked in coconut milk and chicken broth. Then you eat a bit of each in each bite and be glad you did.

I have been wanting to make brownies and zucchini bread and mango ginger bread but a very lovely someone my dad knows sent a Mrs. Beasley's muffin basket and now we are overrun with slightly soggy, slightly stale, kind of eh baked goods, but they are baked goods nonetheless, so until someone (me, tonight) throws them away, I can't really add to the pile.

But keep your eyes peeled, that's all I'm saying.

Tonight is ribs and barbecued chicken and french fries and salad. So in case I forget to take pictures, you can dream about it tonight.

Kisses.

Apricot chicken
adapted from another blogger whom I can not remember, I saved it a really long time ago and my system of saving didn't account for having to give credit but thank you!!

All measurements approximate.

Stuff for apricot sauce:
9 apricots, halved
4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp ginger chopped
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
juice of 1 lime
zest of 1 lime

Stuff for chicken:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, sliced thinly into strips
1 cup white flour
2 t salt
1 t pepper
6 tbsp butter
2 heads broccoli, cut into florets and cut in half

Stuff for coconut rice:
2 cups jasmine rice
2 cups chicken broth
1 can coconut milk
1 tbsp salt

Place all the sauce ingredients in a food processor and puree. The desired flavor is sweet, salty, sour and spicy all at once. If it's too spicy, squeeze some more lime in there and add a little sugar. More fish sauce counteracts sweetness (be careful!).

Put all of the rice ingredients in a heavy pot, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 18-20 minutes.

Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a flat container and drag the chicken strips around in the mixture until all of them are covered. Fry them over medium-hot in the butter until golden brown on both sides. This should take about 5-10 minutes per chicken strip. Once the chicken is fried, remove from pan. Add the broccoli to the hot pan and fry until bright green and lightly browned. Add the chicken and sauce to the pan and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.

Serve over the coconut rice.

Thai Cucumber Salad

adapted from Bon Appétit August 2001

Makes 6 servings.

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce (nam pla)
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 sliced, seeded red jalapeño chili
1 garlic cloves, minced
2 English hothouse cucumbers, halved, thinly sliced
! shallot, very thinly sliced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped lightly salted roasted peanuts

Whisk first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Place cucumbers, onion, and mint in large bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat. Season salad to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with peanuts and serve.