Chicken with Orange Sauce and Quick Rice Pilaf

I tried this recipe tonight and my husband sat down at the table and said, "Wow this looks fancy"... so it was nice to try something different with chicken other than just dunking it in barbecue sauce. I've tried a few different orange sauces that are either too light on the orange flavor or too heavy on other flavors- this one was just the right amount of orange and ginger.

Chicken with Ginger Orange Sauce
Recipe from A Peak at the Springs Cookbook

1 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp ginger
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
hot cooked rice (or rice pilaf below)

Combine the orange juice, vinegar, soy sauce, butter, sugar, cornstarch and ginger in a saucepan and mix well. Cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Place the chicken between two sheets of waxed paper or saran wrap and pound with a meat mallet until about 1/4 inch thick. Season with salt and pepper. Saute the chicken in the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through. Spoon over rice and top with the sauce.

Quick Rice Pilaf

Along with my two kids, I love this rice pilaf! It's so easy and you can change the seasonings depending on what you are cooking. I use chili powder with enchiladas, fajitas, etc. and I used garlic salt tonight with this dish and to also to use as leftovers to pair with sweet and sour chicken later this week. I love love love this recipe!

Quick Rice Pilaf
Recipe from Mel @ melskitchencafe

tablespoon canola oil
1 small onion, finely diced
1 cup angel hair pasta, broken into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup rice
2 cups chicken broth (or make some with boullion cubes)
Seasonings to taste (1 tsp of chili powder, curry, garlic salt, etc.)

Brown onions, rice and angel hair pasta in the oil over medium-high heat. Cook until spaghetti is lightly browned. Add chicken stock (note: if you use jasmine rice, increase chicken stock to 2 1/2 cups instead of 2 cups) and seasonings and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Fluff and serve.

Everyday Hearth Bread

Wow! I hope my neighbor doesn't mind me sharing this recipe, but it was seriously to die for! My husband and I ate an entire loaf in one night and then I called her the next day for the recipe. For those of you who eat out at Johnny Corinos, this bread tastes just like the bread they serve with their olive oil dippings. Yum! Perfect to eat by itself, dipped in olive oil, or with any Italian dish like we did tonight with spaghetti and meatballs. I'm still mad at myself for not taking a picture of the loaf my neighbor Heather brought over, because it looked like it was out of a magazine, but mine will have to do

Everyday Hearth Bread
Recipe adapted by Heather Moore (original is from Kristin Trevino)

1 Tbsp yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp sea salt
3/4 tsp each of rosemary and Italian seasoning

½ tsp. black pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil
4-6 cups high quality bread flour (or all purpose with added 1/4 cup wheat gluten)
Kosher salt for top (regular salt will melt and not work)

Mix first 3 in bowl, add herbs, oil, and pepper. Add flour 1 cup at a time and add salt after first two cups of flour. Add flour until tack to touch- not sticky (I used 5 cups bread flour). Knead until supple and smooth. (5 minutes in mixer or 10 by hand) Place dough in oiled bowl and rise until doubled. Punch down and form into 2-3 loaves. Place on oiled/greased cookie sheet and cover with oiled saran wrap. Rise until almost doubled. Spray or drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on kosher salt generously. Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes, golden brown or 190 inside temperature. Cool on rack so bottoms don’t get soggy!

Food Challenge!

Food Challenge!

Today we spent a good 3 hours at the allergist's office.

Let me just give a quick (I mean quick) recap-

When I weaned our son at around 11 months old we found out he was allergic to dairy. We still gave him a lot of baked goods and things like that- just avoided the main sources of milk. When my son was 18 months old he was given a blood test for his dairy allergies and he scored a 21. After that result we were told by his pediatrician and by his current allergist to take him off of all things dairy, processed or not and even butter and it was even serious enough this time to carry around an epi-pen. The only chance he had of outgrowing it was to stay away from all forms of dairy for at least 2 years. In June we switched allergists and repeated the blood test only to find out that the score went from 21 to 80. Our new allergist (whom we love by the way) was just as surprised as we were, especially since we had done everything we were told to do. He said in no way could we ever do a food challenge with it being in those dangerous levels. He told us to retest him again in 6 months just to see what happens. Those results came back last week and now he scored an 86. I spoke with the allergist over the phone (he's 1 1/2 hours away from us-that's what it took to find a good one!)

He was just as curious as I was to the fact that when we take our kids completely off these foods, we could actually be increasing their allergies, not reducing them. Now that his body has gone so long without these foods- his immune system goes into major attack mode. Even though he told me he would never do a food challenge with those scores, he went on a whim and said to bring him in anyway. If we could get him eating anything with dairy in it we could maybe bring his immune system up to tolerating dairy completely.

Most allergists would never do this, I know. My allergist says, well-the other method isn't working-lets try something else.

So that brings me to today. I packed up a cooler full of baked goods and drove an hour and a half to the appointment. I was scared to death sitting in that lab room! He tells me to break off a piece of bread with milk and give it to him. Nothing happens. Pretty much that's the way it went, waiting about 20 minutes between each test for a full 3 hours. He passed white bread with butter ingredients, wheat bread with whey, blueberry muffin with whey, pancake I made this morning with skim milk, goldfish and get this- even a string cheese!

My allergist has no scientific reasoning for this. It's weird I know. So he basically gave us the okay to give our son all processed dairy foods. It's kind of like giving your baby solids for the first time...you start small and work up to things. I just hope and pray that it will all work out. Then I would be really curious to see if his blood test gets lower over the next year just from exposures to processed milk.

For now that's it, but I do have a really great dairy free bread recipe to share- hopefully this week!