Date Night Steak Night

...say that three times fast! :)



It's Monday..good afternoon!! Hope you all had a great weekend with your loved ones. We sure did! My husband and I had a nice date night on Friday night here at the house. And yes, of course we did our own cooking. Date Night Steak Night it was for us love birds. ;)


Don't forget your onions and mushrooms...always a staple item with you have steak here at our house. Cook with little EVOO, butter, salt and pepper to taste and your all set.

Since it's still a little too cold here sometimes to pull out our grill we bought a cast iron from Lodge Cast Iron grill/griddle. It's the absolutely the amazing things we have gotta lately and boy heavy! It cooked our steak perfectly. I am a medium rare kind of girl and my husband is medium DONE. ;) Either way, both of our tummies were very very happy. :)

We served the onions and mushrooms over a bed a spinach with wilted enough to perfection a side of fried rice (white rice, 1 egg and soy sauce), and your delicious mouth watering steak with your special drink to wash it all down and you have yourself a restraint style meal for half the cost.

Salt & Pepper Shrimp

Tonight I made some mean looking Salt & Pepper Shrimp. Well, it was really mean...it was good good to the tummy that's for sure.

- 1/2 pound of shrimp (peeled and deveined is optional)
- 2-3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 cup of corn oil
- salt & pepper to your taste/liking

- optional, I also cut up an half of a onion and then cooked them before doing the shrimp and then served over white rice. But that's up to you.


Salt the shrimp and let sit for a few minutes. (A little more than 'lightly' salted) and then rinse under cold water. NOTE: This plumps up the shrimp and freshens them up. Now lightly salt the shrimp. Add grated black pepper - as much as you want. Dip the shrimp in cornstarch and then lightly dust off. In a smallish saute pan (or wok), heat the oil to very hot, but not smoking. Spread the shrimp in the pan evenly. Hopefully they will all fit. After a minute or so, turn them on the other side. (don't walk away from the pan - they don't take that long to cook) After another minute or two when they have turned pink, take them out of the pan. I sometimes cook the shrimp just a little under cooked. Because they still continue to cook even after the leave the pan. Squeeze some lime on and ENJOY!

My Take on Orange Chicken

Have you ever gone to a Chinese restaurant and had something that you crave every time you go there or even think about Chinese food. I do! About 2 years ago I went to a local Chinese restaurant and absolutely feel in love with this dish! So, the other night I tried to come up with a easier and cheaper way to make it at home. So here it is..My take on Orange Chicken.






Orange Chicken
2 pounds boneless chicken pieces, skinned (i didn't use all of it, i saved some for another mean this week)
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
White pepper
Oil (for frying)
1/2 cup cornstarch PLUS"PLUS" means this ingredient in addition to the one on the next line, often with divided uses
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup flour
1-2 tablespoon crushed red pepper (depending how spicy you like it)
1 tablespoon rice wine
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon sesame oil

The Sauce:
1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon water
5 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons white vinegar


Cut chicken pieces into 2-inch squares and place in large bowl. Stir in egg, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon oil and mix well. Stir cornstarch and flour together. Add chicken pieces, stirring to coat. Heat oil for deep-frying in wok or deep-fryer to 375 degrees. Add chicken pieces, small batch at time, and fry 3 to 4 minutes or until golden and crisp. Remove chicken from oil and let it drain on paper towel. You may want to add grated zest of 1 orange to the sauce! It's not that hard, I just through it all together... and it didn't taste too bad. Work with it, but at the end it's all worth it!! I served with white rice as well. Yummy!! Enjoy!

4-5 servings

Thrown together Asian Meal/Lettuce Wraps with a Country Twist

Ok, so this last food recipe update was a really fun one to do. It was seriously just something that I throw together. lol...We had to leave at a certain time and I needed something very quick, easy and of course fun for the kids to eat. I don't even know what to call it..."Thrown together Asian Meal/Lettuce Wraps with a Country Twist"...I don't know! lol...

What is it?
It's White Rice, Fried Carrots, Onions & Garlic, Rice Noodles with sliced Venison.
We also used Lettuce for Lettuce Wraps if you want to make it really fun. Mckayla absolutely loved it!!

Chicken Fried Rice

For years I have made Fried Rice and each time it tends to be different. This is what I did the other week - It's delicious!



This time, this is what I did first:

1) Stir fry 5 eggs - place in separate dish when finished.

2) Fry up your chick breast (make sure it's cook through) - place in separate dish then the egg.

3) Cook the green beans and carrots all together and place in separate dish with the chicken.

4) Fry up the onions and garlic together - once everything is cook throw in the rest of your food - green beans, carrots, eggs, chicken all in the pan.

5) Mix in your white rice (pre-cooked)

6) Stir in salt (dash), pepper (dash) and soy sauce (1-2 tablespoons) or to taste

Beef, Rice and Corn Supreme

Not sure what else to call it than what it really is. White Rice, Ground Beef and Corn. This is another dish that I really don't remember putting in it, but Quinn thought it was delicious and believe or not, so did Mckayla.

1/2 pound of Ground Beef
small onion, chopped
small can of Cream and Mushroom Soup
Salt and Pepper