Birthday fun

Laurie’s birthday was yesterday. I think she had a good day – despite having to work for the first time in many years on her birthday.
I cooked dinner and I think we found a couple winning recipes. They were both new to me and I did my own adaptations but I was pleased and we plan on holding on to them for use in the future.

We started dinner off with a chicken teriyaki stir fry. We laughed that I’m not one who normally follows recipes very well. I like to make my own changes and such but here’s the recipes with my notes added. I eye balled all the measurements so none were exact.

1/3 c. chopped onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/3 c. soy sauce
2 tbsp. salad oil (used a low fat cooking oil)
2 tbsp. white cooking wine
1 tbsp. honey
3 chicken breasts split

Combine onion, garlic, soy sauce, oil, wine, and honey; mix well. Arrange chicken in shallow baking dish; pour sauce over. Marinate at room temperature 30 minutes, turning several times. (I cooked the chicken breasts whole in a shallow pan on the stove and then cut them up after they were done cooking. After they were cut up I put them back in the sauce on low for a few minutes to soak up additional flavor).

Broil or grill while brushing with sauce until tender. Cook stir-fry vegetables and place on platter. Arrange chicken breasts over top. Makes 6 servings.

STIR-FRY VEGETABLES
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. salad oil (same low fat cooking oil)
2 c. sliced carrots
1 c. sliced onion
2 c. green beans or broccoli (i used fresh snap green beans)
2 c. cauliflower or cabbage (i used cauliflower)
2 tbsp. lemon juice (i squeezed the juice from a full lemon)
1/2 tsp. salt (optional)
dash pepper
2 tbsp. chopped parsley

In wok or large heavy skillet, heat butter and oil. Add carrot and onion; stir- fry 3-4 minutes. Stir in other vegetables and stir-fry 2 minutes or cook until they way you like them. (i actually added all the vegetables in our wok as I finished cutting them up. then i turned on the stove and cooked them all together with the butter and oil. i also added the parsley to the mix in the beginning which added some fun color to the mix and kicked up the flavor a bit.)

Add other ingredients and stir. Sprinkle chopped parsley over.

For desert I had angel food cake with an orange sauce topping.
I have the recipe at home but I ended up changing it a good deal anyways.
I started with a regular store bought angel food cake.

For the sauce I used 3/4 cup of sugar, 12 oz. frozen orange juice from concentrate and 2-4 tbs. of corn starch.
I mixed the three ingredients together and then heated them in a sauce pan. I added a bit of water in the beginning and then stirred until the corn starch helped thicken the sauce, similar to gravy. I added several dashes of cinnamon to step it up a notch. And then poured the warm sauce over a slice of angel food cake and topped with whip cream.

Very delicious. The original recipe called for a can of mandarin oranges and peaches and only 6 oz. of OJ but Laurie’s not a fan of peaches and I forgot the oranges at the store so I adapted.

I had a glass of Pinot grigio that went great with the chicken and stir fry but became a bit bitter when drinking with the desert.
All in all I thought it was a great birthday dinner – we’ll just have to wait and see if Laurie blogs about it and says the same thing ;-).

We finished the evening off with a 2 mile walk down the Waxahachie Hike and Bike Trail with Presley. It was a great night for a walk and we tried out geocaching for the first time with a borrowed GPS unit. We’re still hoping to get our own for our wedding – hint hint.
We failed at our first two attempts: N 32° 22.344 W 096° 50.198 and N 32° 22.193 W 096° 49.850 but we probably didn’t search as hard as we should have. We were right in the area but quit because of the overgrowth and poison ivy in the area. I was wearing shorts and Laurie gave me strict instructions to not get poison ivy less than two weeks before our wedding.

None the less, it was a great evening and I’m looking forward to spending countless more birthdays and special occasions with the love of my life.