Fluffy American Pancakes

This morning I wanted to make a special breakfast for my family. I haven't made pancakes for almost 2 years because I did not have any Maine Maple Syrup. During the Christmas holiday my parents flew across the Atlantic to visit. They brought Maine Maple Syrup and other snacks I haven't had for years. Sunday breakfast: homemade pancakes and sunny side eggs with Gouda cheese, salami, and sun dried tomatoes. 

Pancake batter

1 cup milk 3 Tablespoons white vinegar

1 1/2 cup flour 3 Tablespoons white sugar 1 Tablespoon vanilla powder 2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 2 large eggs (lightly whisked) 2 1/2 Tablespoons butter (soften)

Combine milk and vinegar in a bowl or cup, set a side for 5 mins. Just another similar way to make butter milk.

In a large bowl add all dry ingredients and mix.

Then whisk in milk/vinegar mixture to the dry ingredients. Add in the eggs and butter. Whisk until most lumps are gone. Set a side to rest for 5-10 minutes.

Heat skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon butter or cooking oil, just to get the skillet grease. When butter melts, ladle 1/4 cup of pancake batter into the hot skillet. Cook until bubbles appears on the top about 2 minutes, then flip with a spatula and cook until brown (not too brown) on the other side.

Serve with maple syrup, cinnamon butter, fresh chopped fruit, whipped cream, chocolate chips, or jams.

My version of Vietnamese Pancake

For the batter

1 3/4 cup of rice flour

2 tablespoons corn flour

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 can coconut milk

2 cups iced water

2 tablespoons oil

In a large mixing bowl whisk together flour, corn flour, turmeric, sugar, salt, coconut milk, water, 2 tablespoons oil until smooth. Cover and place in the fridge for about an hour or overnight to rest.

For the filling I used

3 clove minced garlic

1 onion, minced

1 1/2 lb ground pork lightly marinade with oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and freshly ground pepper

1 lb bean sprouts

1 cup Chinese cabbage

1 cup shredded carrots

coriander

green onion

In a large skillet or a wok, on high heat, heat up 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Add in minced garlic and minced onion, cook for 4 minutes then add in marinade ground pork, stir and cook for 10 minutes. Stir in the shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, bean sprouts, fresh coriander, chopped green onion. Cook and stir everything well and remove from heat.

In a large non-stick skillet on medium/high heat, using a ladle, ladle in flour batter, tilt the skillet to distribute the batter evenly. Cook for about 3-4 minutes until edge curls up.

Then add in the pork filling on half side of the pancake, sprinkle some more bean sprouts, and fold pancake in half, cook for about 2 minutes and slide onto a warm plate. Continue with the rest.

Serve with peanut dipping sauce or sweet fish sauce/chili sauce lettuce, herbs such as mint & basil

Grilled Eggplant with tomatoes, mozzarella, .........

The other day I made grilled eggplant with tomatoes, mozzarella, parsley, sun dried tomatoes, and homemade crispy panko chicken breast. I didn't know if my husband would like this because he's a typical meat guy (beef & pork). He told me this dish was delicious. The whole family loved my crispy panko chicken breast. I usually make this during the summer for grilling. I really like using panko bread crumbs than ordinary bread crumbs. I was a bit shocked to see my kids eating the eggplant and tomatoes because they don't like to eat their veggies.



Crispy Panko Chicken Breast

2 lbs chicken breast, (pounded all chicken breasts with a meat pounder)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 to 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1/2 to 1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon garlic power
1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon seasoning salt
2 tablespoons seasoning sauce or Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper

2 cups of panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
olive oil for brushing

In a large mixing bowl combine mayonnaise, dried seasoning, and Worcestershire sauce, then add in chicken breasts, mix well to coat each side, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

After being in the fridge for hours. In a shallow dish combine panko bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, mix well, then add chicken breast coat on each side.

Heat up a grilled pan on medium to high heat. Brush olive oil in the grill grates. Grill chicken breast for 20 minutes, turning once, until golden brown and cooked through. Serve with whatever side dish you like.



Grilled Eggplant with tomatoes, and mozzarella

1 large eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch thick rounds
4 large tomatoes, sliced thin 1/4 inch thick rounds

extra virgin olive oil 

about 1lb mozzarella cheese, sliced thin
grated Parmesan cheese

2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup tomato sauce (prego sauce)
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley (extra for topping)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

On a lined paper towel, lay slices of eggplant and lightly seasoned with salt and leave for half hour, to let the liquid out of the eggplant.

Then brush extra virgin olive oil on top of each slices of eggplant. Brush extra virgin olive oil on the grill pan and grill each eggplant slices for 4 minutes on each side.

In a blender, blend minced garlic, sun dried tomatoes, tomato sauce, and parsley. 

Preheat oven 420F

Lightly oiled baking pan and arrange 6 eggplants round, side by side. Then spread tomato sauce on top of each slices of eggplants. Then add slices of mozzarella cheese on top, then top each with slices tomatoes, and top another layer of eggplant, tomato sauce, mozzarella slices. Bake in the oven 420F for 12 minutes.

Remove from oven sprinkled each top with fresh chopped parsley and grated Parmesan and serve with crispy panko chicken breasts.

Flintstone open face sandwiches

Fred and Wilma Flintstone open face sandwiches :-)

I used white cheese for Fred's face, nori for his ear, eyebrows, nose, eyes, hair, and mouth. Boiled egg cut out white part into oval shape for his eyes. Bologna for his beard and paprika ham for his collar.

For Wilma I used cheddar cheese for her hair, nori for her nose, eye brows, eyes, and hair details. Salami for her lips. White cheese for her face.

Bunny face wrap sandwich

I had leftover flour tortilla and wanted to make something out of it, so I made bunny face wrap sandwich. Made with bologna, cheddar cheese, white cheese, nori for eyes and whiskers.

Turkey, vegetable, bread stuffing dumpling soup

Homemade turkey, vegetable, bread stuffing dumpling soup. My kids loves this soup. Norway is cold country and this is the soup to warm the soul. 

2 loaf bread cut into cubes
2 cups celery stalk with leaves cut into bite size
2 medium onion, chopped
2 cups of diced sweet chicken sausages
1 granny apples, cute into cubes
1 cup dried cranberries
tablespoons fresh sage, thymes, parsley, chives
other spices
dash of salt and pepper for taste
2 medium eggs, beaten
1/2 cup all purpose flour
6-7 cups chicken stock
In a hot skillet, melted 2 tablespoons butter, sauteed celery and onions for 6 minutes, then added sausage, stirred and cooked for another  6 minutes. Then transferred in a large mixing bowl. Added in diced bread cubes, diced apples, dried cranberries, herbs, and spices, salt, pepper. Added in beaten eggs and flour, mix well. Poured in stock, mixed and combined everything together until firm,  then covered, and set aside.

Homemade stock

 Reheated stock on medium heat, added in sauteed onions. Added diced celery, carrots, and thymes, cook until vegetable are soft. Let soup simmer for half hour. Meanwhile soup was simmering I rolled tablespoons of the dumpling mixture into balls, and dropped each dumplings into the simmering soup. Cooked dumplings for 4 minutes. Then stirred in 3 cups shredded cooked turkey meat, corn, peas, and season with salt and pepper, and herbs. Let soup simmer for 15-20 minutes. 

Thanksgiving Dinner!

 My son's school lunch on Thanksgiving day was a turkey sandwich.

This is a Thanksgiving Dinner in Norway. The Neang-Hansen way. It was difficult finding the ingredients for my turkey dinner because Norway don't celebrate Thanksgiving.  I made homemade French Sausage, Apple, Cranberry, herb stuffing, twice baked stuffed sweet potato topped with bacon, green bean and bacon casserole, homemade gravy, and fried turkey. I never tried fried a turkey before I usually roast my turkey. I wanted to try something different and the turkey came out delicious.
For dessert I made pecan tarts. They were yummy. Happy Thanksgiving!

Sauteed celery, onions, apples, French sausages, dried cranberries, parsley, chives, other herbs and seasoning

 Stuffing and twice baked sweet potatoes marshmallow muffins topped with crisped bacon

Green Bean and bacon casserole. 

Our 4.05 kilo turkey......

deep fried turkey

Pecan tarts.

Baked Creamy chicken and spinach won ton cups

Today's dinner was homemade baked creamy chicken and spinach won ton cups. This was delicious and popular with my kids. 

1 packaged wonton wraps
800 grams ground chicken seasoned with salt, pepper, seasoning sauce, garlic powder, paprika, and cayenne pepper.
3 cups frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
200 grams Philadelphia cream cheese
1 packaged dried rømme seasoning
1/2 cup chicken stock
dash nutmeg
shredded cheese

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large deep skillet, heated tablespoons olive oil, add in marinaded ground chicken, cook for 8-10 minutes until done, then add in spinach, cream cheese, knorr dried rømme seasoning, and stock, stir well. Add a dash of nutmeg and cook for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and set a side.

In a muffin pan, greased each with a little olive oil, lay wonton wrap in each muffin tin and bake in the oven  for 4 minutes until lightly brown.  

Remove from oven and spoon in chicken/spinach mixture in each wonton, place muffin pan back in the oven, bake for 4 minutes. Remove from oven. Let cool, transfer wonton on a plate and serve.

Vietnamese Pancake

During the weekend was my son's 6th birthday. I have been busy in the kitchen. I've made homemade pork spring rolls and Vietnamese pancakes. I will post my recipe later this week.

Kung Fu sandwich

My son's lunch for tomorrow is Kung Fu sandwich with leftover mini chicken meatballs and salad.

Homemade mini chicken meatballs and homemade tomato sauce

Today for dinner I made homemade mini chicken meatballs, homemade tomato sauce, served over fresh homemade pasta. My kids loved it especially my youngest 1 1/2 year old daughter. She kept screaming every time she didn't have any pasta in her little mouth. I was surprised myself because she is picky with her food. My husband wanted seconds but I had to lie to him and said I didn't make so much. Leftover is in a sealed container and put away so my husband has no idea where it is. Only I do.

Mini Chicken meatballs
800 grams fresh ground chicken
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons minced onion
2 clove garlic, minced
salt & pepper for taste
1/2 tablespoon lemon pepper
tablespoon seasoning sauce
tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt


In a large bowl combine all ingredients well and form meat into small balls and set a side.

4 tablespoons olive oil.

Heat a sauce pan on medium/high heat. Add 4 tablespoons olive oil. When oil is hot cook mini chicken meatballs until golden about 4-6 minutes, repeat.

Place meatballs on a line paper towel to get rid of excess oil. Set a side.

With the same sauce pan that I cooked my chicken meatballs in, with the leftover olive oil, on high heat, I added in 1 onion minced. Stirred, sauteed for 8 minutes. I added in 2 tablespoons red wine, cooked and stirred for another 4 minutes. Then added in 2 clove minced garlic, stirred, cooked for another couple minutes until golden brown. Added 1 cup diced tomatoes, a can of whole plum tomatoes, tablespoons tomato puree, 2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, seasoned with salt and pepper, and other seasoning. Sauce was a little thick so I added in about 1/3 cup pasta water. Added in mini chicken meatballs. Stirred, lowered heat, covered, and let simmer for 10 minutes. Served over fresh cooked pasta.

Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

The other day for lunch I made whole wheat tortilla buffalo chicken wraps. It was yummy and I made my own whole wheat flour tortillas.

Buffalo ground chicken:
 http://sorieyahomemadecooking.blogspot.no/2012/09/quick-and-simple-buffalo-chicken-tacos.html

Wheat flour tortillas
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups whole wheat bread flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons melange (Melange is almost like shortning (www.melange.no). I couldn't find shortning in the Norwegian grocery stores and I didn't want to take a drive to Sweden just to buy shortning so I just used melange).
1 1/2 cups hot water

In a large mixing bowl, combined flour, wheat flour, baking powder, and salt combined well with a whisk. Then I added in melange with a fork break into small pieces. Then I added in hot water, stirred until dough became thick, knead with my hands until dough was smooth and not too sticky.

I separated my dough into balls about 2 inches diameter. Let dough balls rest on the table for 8 minutes, covered with a clean kitchen towel. On a flour surfaced I roll each balls into an 10 inch circle with a rolling pin and flat as can be but not too too thin.

In a skillet on low/medium heat, cooked each tortillas for about 1-3 minutes on both side just until it was cooked through/lightly brown.

I stacked tortillas under a clean towel to keep them warm and kept cooking the rest. I filled in my wheat tortillas with buffalo ground chicken, crumbled blue cheese, crisped lettuce, and shredded Jarlsberg cheese served with a side of homemade blue cheese dipping sauce.

Mini chicken meatball bread bowl

Yay, it's finally Friday! Dennis lunch for school is my homemade mini chicken meatball bread bowl with a little teddy smile and a little of mommy's homemade chocolate peanut butter fudge. I will post recipe later because I need some peace and quit around here which I'm not getting with 3 very loud energetic kids. It's going to be a very hectic weeks to come.

My Halloween cupcakes

I made homemade mini spider chocolate cupcakes with Oreo cookie topping, marshmallows, and black licorice and eye ball cupcakes. Friday treats for my kids.

Halloween Sandwiches

Halloween ghost sandwich and a Jack O Lantern sandwich

Happy Halloween. Today I made these with homemade rolls with bacon, ham, cheese, mayonnaise . I used white cheese for the ghost and cheddar cheese for my jack o lantern. 

More of my kids fun lunches

http://sorieyahomemadecooking.blogspot.no/2012/03/fun-sandwiches-i-made-for-my-kids.html

Another owl lunch

The Lorax

The Flintstones

 Garfield  ham and cheese sandwich. Made with cheddar cheese, gouda cheese, nori


Open sandwiches (Snoopy and his house) with homemade sausage taco pasta.

Yellow Doraemon ham and cheese sandwich

Luigi open sandwich from Super Mario Bro.

Chicken, avocado, cucumber star sushi roll.

I made Mr. Bean and Teddy sandwich for my son's lunch. He is such a huge fan of Mr. Bean animation.

Donald Duck sandwich

Odie Sandwich with salad

Panda face sandwich

Sheep face sandwich.

Psy sandwich. Oppa! Gangnam Style!

Spongebob and Patrick Starfish sandwiches

Snowman sandwich

Santa Face sandwich

Another Rudolph the red nosed reindeer