Peanut Sauce!

I get a little excited about Peanut Sauce. Like the kind you eat on a crunchy green salad. I love it sooo much and usually buy it from our favorite Thai restuaraunt, but now I don't have to and I'm so excited!! I've tried a few different recipes and never could find something good until now. This is perfect!!!

Recipe adapted from shesimmers.com
*recipe makes 3.5 cups. Can be halved.

Ingredients:
1 13.5 oz can coconut milk
1/8-1/4 cup Thai red or Massaman curry paste
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 t, (or less, to taste) salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 T. white or apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water

Directions:
Combine in heavy bottom pot and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Simmer 3-5 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Store in fridge for up to a few weeks or so or freeze.  If you need to thin it out, add a little water and reheat in microwave or on stove.

Quick Ranch Dressing

This is so easy to throw together. Its also great to be able to season it to your liking. Try adding cilantro or bacon or cucumber. It doesn't keep long, so only make up how much you will use within a few days.
For base:
Any combination of mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk or plain yogurt. (I use whey from straining my home made yogurt if I have it on hand.) What you use depends on how thick you like it, your tastes and what you have in the fridge. Any or all will work. Here's what I used...

1/3 c mayonnaise
1/3 c sour cream
1/3 c buttermilk

Season to taste, example:
1/2 t. Dried chives
1/2 t. Parsley
1/2 t. dried dill
1/4 t. Onion powder
1/4 t. Garlic powder
Dash salt & pepper

Stir and refrigerate for half hour before serving.

Cream of Chicken

Goopy lumpy mystery gunk in a can. No thanks. I'll go with goopy lumpy stuff that I made. There. Now I can sleep at night.
This makes about twice as much as I would need per recipe so I just keep the rest in the fridge (or you can freeze it) until the next recipe that calls for a can of cream of (fill in the blank).

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups chicken broth (water + bouillon)
1 1/2 cups milk
Seasonings to taste (salt, onion powder, garlic powder, parsley, pepper, etc.)
3/4 cups flour
Opt: Butter (1-2 Tablespoons, or more)
(you can keep this "low fat" and it will work fine, but the butter adds so much flavor. How much I use depends on the purpose I'm making it for. If I'm adding it to something already very flavorful, I may not use butter at all.)
Combine chicken broth, seasonings and butter, if using, in saucepan and heat to boiling. Whisk remaining milk with flour in bowl. Add a bit of hot broth mixture to milk/flour mixture to warm it, then pour it slowly into pan while whisking to avoid clumping. Keep whisking as mixture returns to boil and thickens. Remove from heat. It will thicken a little more as it cools.
You can use this in place of canned or as a base or addition to sooo many recipes. I threw a few scoops of this in my potato soup tonight. It's not exciting on it's own, though.

White Sauce

I use this sauce for everything from lasagna to soups and enchiladas to casseroles. It's a great base to add whatever flavor you're going for. It starts with equal amounts of butter and flour, add milk and salt and you're done!
Ingredients:
4 T butter (half a stick)
4 T flour
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 -1 t. Salt
Directions:
melt butter in sauce pan. Whisk in flour and cook about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk, going slow at first to avoid lumps. Cook over medium heat until it boils, stirring regularly. Boil for about 1 minute then remove from heat. Stir in salt to taste (start little..) and use in recipe.
Note: sometimes I want my sauce thicker. Then I add an extra 2 T of flour. This makes it a little harder to get smooth, but you just have to be patient and whisk well while adding milk.

Quick blender salsa

Good. Easy. Convenient. Fairly cheap.

Recipe from: http://www.mountainmamacooks.com/2012/01/quick-and-easy-blender-salsa/

INGREDIENTS

1- 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1- 10 oz can orginal Rotel (I used off brand with no problem)
1/2 small onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
1/2-1 jalapeno, seeded or not (depends on how spicy you like it) (I used Serrano, less than half)
1 teaspoon honey (sounds weird, I know, but it works)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (no cumin, no problem)
small to medium size handful of cilantro, washed
juice of 1 lime
INSTRUCTIONS

Put all the ingredients in the base of a food processor or good blender and pulse to combine for 30 seconds or so until all the ingredients are finely chopped and salsa is desired consistency. Taste for seasoning and adjust to taste. Serve with chips or over tacos

Simple Chicken Curry sauce

Here is a recipe for when you need chicken curry but don't have any coconut milk or a lot of time! (like me tonight) Serve with Jasmine rice.

Ingredients:
-A few Chicken tenderloins
- about 1 tablespoon curry paste, more or less to taste (or powder will do, amount will be different I believe...)
-onion, chopped
-garlic
- chicken broth/bullion, start with 1 cup, add more later if needed.
-milk, opt.
-corn starch (opt.)
-any variety of seasonings that you fancy. I Used: spoonful of sugar, splash of lime juice and soy sauce, a touch of ginger, cilantro and red pepper flakes.
-would be great with potato chunks and garnished with peanuts!

Directions:
Saute onion in oil and cook the curry paste for a few minutes. Add a little garlic at the end.

Salt and pepper your chicken then add to pan. Add chicken broth. Let chicken cook, flipping halfway.
Remove chicken as soon as it is no longer pink. Chop when cool.

Season the sauce to taste. Add milk if you want it creamy. I also added about a tablespoon or two of corn starch (mixed with a little cold water) because I like my sauce a little bit thick. Personal preference.

Return chicken to sauce and serve over hot rice. Mmmm.