PF Changs Mongolian Beef

This did not taste exactly like PF Chang's, but it was still delicious.

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1/2 tsp ginger, minced

1 tbsp garlic, chopped

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

vegetable oil, for frying (about 1 cup)

1 lb flank steak

1/4 cup corn starch

2 large green onions

Make the sauce by heating 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat.

2 Don't get the oil too hot.

3 Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches.

4 Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to about medium and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

5 Remove it from the heat.

6 Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4" thick bite-size slices.

7 Tilt the blade of your knife at about a forty five degree angle to the top of the steak so that you get wider cuts.

8 Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef.

9 Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks.

10 As the beef sits, heat up one cup of oil in a wok (you may also use a skillet for this step as long as the beef will be mostly covered with oil).

11 Heat the oil over medium heat until it's nice and hot, but not smoking.

12 Add the beef to the oil and sauté for just two minutes, or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges.

13 You don't need a thorough cooking here since the beef is going to go back on the heat later.

14 Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly.

15 After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels, then pour the oil out of the wok or skillet.

16 Put the pan back over the heat, dump the meat back into it and simmer for one minute.

17 Add the sauce, cook for one minute while stirring, then add all the green onions.

18 Cook for one more minute, then remove the beef and onions with tongs or a slotted spoon to a serving plate.

19 Leave the excess sauce behind in the pan.

Death By Oreo Cupcakes

I love chocolate, and I love Oreos...this was the best of both worlds.

Cupcakes:

1 pkg oreos, regular size

1 pkg mini Oreos for decoration (I didn't do this because I was just making them for us, but I would have if I had been taking them to an event because it does make them look cute.)

1 chocolate cake mix made according to directions on box

Frosting:

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, room temperature

8 Tbsp butter, room temperature

3 3/4 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

**I halved the frosting recipe, and I still had plenty of frosting. The lady who made this recipe heaped frosting on top like they do at the store, and I don't like that much frosting, so I didn't need the full recipe.

cupcake liners

1. Preheat oven to 350. Mix packaged cake mix according to directions. (Do not bake.)

2. Line cupcake tins with liner, place an regular size oreo cookie in the bottom of each one

3. Take 1/2 of remaining cookies and chop coarsely and add to cake mix. Fill the cupcake tins. Bake for 15 min (or according to box directions). While cupcakes are baking make the frosting.

4. Cream together butter and cream cheese. Add vanilla, then add powdered sugar slowly until blended well.

5. Chop remaining regular-sized Oreos very fine. Add to frosting.

6. After cupcakes are cool put frosting on and decorate with a few mini oreos on top

Nun's Puffs

These are really good...they are like a muffin version of German Pancakes.

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup milk

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 eggs

1 tablesppon white sugar

whipped cream or honey for serving

Grease 12 muffin cups including the area around the top of the cup as well as the sides. (DO NOT USE PAPER MUFFIN CUPS!).

2 In a medium saucepan melt butter and add milk. Bring to boiling.

3 Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously.

4 Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball that does not separate and cool for 5 minutes.

5 Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minutes after each egg until smooth. divide dough evenly among muffing cups, don't worry if they aren't full, these will rise.

6 Preheat oven to 375°F and sprinkle puffs with sugar.

7 Bake about 30 minutes or until golden brown and puffed. Remove from pan.

8 Plop a dollop of whipped cream on top of each and serve immediately or drizzle honey over the top and serve immediately.*.

9 *NOTE: If the eggy flavor is a bit strong for you, let cool a couple hours and that will cut it down a lot.

*We drizzled honey and then put a dollup of whipped cream and they were delicious. I do have a very high tolerance to sugar...

Pizza Dough

2 1/2-3 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons fast rising yeast (or fast rise, 1 envelope)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup very warm water (120 to 130 degrees)

2 tablespoons oil

1. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt; blend well.

2. Gradually add water and oil to mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened, then beat for 2 minutes at medium speed. By hand, add 1 1/2 to 2 cups flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl (I did all of this in my Kitchenaid.)

3. On floured surface, knead in 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour until dough is smooth and elastic. Cover loosely with plastic and let rest in a warm place for about 15 minutes.

4. Press out dough onto (2) 12-inch pizza pans. Prick randomly with a fork. Let rest again in a warm place for 10-15 minutes.

5. Brush crusts lightly with oil then prebake them in a 450 degree oven for 5 minutes.

6. Top as desired, then bake again in 450 degree oven for 4-5 minutes, or until desired doneness.

This is the first time I have ever used this recipe and we really liked it. We normally just put random ingredients on top of our pizza (whatever we happen to have.) This particular time we did a BBQ chicken pizza (BBQ sauce, chicken, and bacon) and a chicken pesto pizza (pesto sauce, artichoke hearts, chicken, and bacon.) Both were delicious. If I had had tomatoes on hand I would have put them on the pesto pizza.

Marshmallow Brownies

Mix:
2 cubes margarine
1/3 cup cocoa
Add: 2 cups sugar
Add: 4 eggs – beat after each addition
Add: 1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ cups nuts
2 tsp. vanilla

Spread on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from oven. Spread 1 1b. pkg. of miniature marshmallows over the top. (I just put on marshmallows until covered.) Return to oven for 3 minutes or until marshmallows are just melted, but not toasted. Cool and frost.

Frosting:
¾ cup butter
1/3 cup cocoa
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
½ cup canned milk

Spread over brownie mixture.

(I do the frosting differently. If you follow this frosting recipe, you need more powdered sugar to make it the right consistency and it turns out less chocolatey than I like it.

Alice's Chocolate Chip Cookies

David sent me this recipe for posting with the following explanation:

"I've been on a quest to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe and I think I've found my favorite and wanted to share it on the recipe site. Two thoughts as I've made this a few times 1) follow the directions as closely as possible. It makes a huge difference what order the ingredients are put in and how. 2) refrigerate the dough. The difference is amazing when you do this."

Makes approx. 45-48 cookies using a sm-med 2tbl. cookie scoop

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
3/4 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt. *Please do not use table salt, the sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture. If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp. *When using sea salt, you will get small crunchy flecks of salt when you bite into the cookie. If you do not like this taste, go with 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips. *I realized grocery stores sell bags of chocolate chips in 12 oz bags but this recipe really needs every last chip. Otherwise you’ll get cookies with only a few chips in each one and this recipe requires lots of chocolate to bulk the cookie up. You’ll need about 1 1/2 bags.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

*Troubleshooting*

-If your cookies are coming out flat and not like the pictures there are probably 3 reasons for this.

#1) Baking powder and Baking soda is old. If your baking powder and soda is older than 1 year and has not been in a sealed (preferably air tight) container, it has lost some of it rising qualities.

#2) Creaming. It is not enough to just cream the butter and sugars until it has come together. This recipe requires you to beat it with a mixer for 3 minutes until the texture of the butter and sugar turns to light and fluffy-just like the picture.

#3) Flour. Flour should be weighed. This can make or break the recipe because just scooping flour into a measuring cup will never yield ideal or consistent results.

Apple Crisp Pie

Ingredients:

Pastry for single crust pie - unbaked
6 cups thinly sliced, peeled baking apples
1 tablespoon lime juice
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 -1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, toss apples with lime juice
2. Combine dry ingredients, add to the apples, and toss lightly
3. Place bottom pastry in a 9 inch pie plate, flute edges.
4. Fill with apple mixture and top with topping
5. Topping:
    3/4 cup packed brown sugar
    1/2 cup flour
    3/4 cup rolled oats
    1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
    1/2 cup cold butter
    Combine dry ingredients, cut in cold butter
6. Bake pie at 400° F for 40 - 45 minutes until crust is golden brown