Lovin' From the Oven

Archives for January 2013

Poppyseed Bread

by 3 Comments

almondpoppyseed-5

Everyone’s talking about the horrific flu season we’re having. People are predicting it to be the worst in decades. We won’t know for sure since we’re just getting into the beginning. Did you get a flu shot?

almondpoppyseed

I never have. I’ve always worked with kids, so they were my “flu shot.” AKA they give me some kind of sickness, I get over it, and then I don’t get sick for a quite a while. This year, however, I wasn’t as lucky.

almondpoppyseed-3

My DB and I both woke up Thursday morning feeling like someone had sucked the lives from us. We were congested, had sore throats, and had to go buy extra boxes of tissues for our ongoing runny noses.

almondpoppyseed-2

Lucky for us, we had the weekend to lay in bed and do nothing. I slept for 16 hours a day while my DB drank liquids for every meal. We ate all the hot Asian soups to help us kick the bug— soondubu, pho, ramen, and udon. Yes, this means I didn’t cook for four days… four glorious days.

almondpoppyseed-4

That’s definitely one of the perks of being sick. I have an excuse not to make dinner. Does that make me a bad house-girlfriend?

almondpoppyseed-6

At least I’ll always be happy to make dessert! This poppyseed bread is just divine. Usually, lemon and poppyseed go hand in hand, but I was happy to find a recipe that omitted the lemon. As I’ve mentioned numerous times, I’m not a fan of lemon desserts.

almondpoppyseed-7

The almond extract was very strong, but it was a welcomed flavor. Why haven’t I used almond extract in more of my desserts? It’s wonderful!

almondpoppyseed-8

If you keep the bread in an airtight container, the glaze will soften and become moist again. It’s best left out to harden and served right away. This bread has the consistency of pound cake– dense and fluffy at the same time, but without all the fat. Recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything.

Print
Poppyseed Bread

Ingredients

    Bread:
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/8 cups cooking oil
  • 2 1/4 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 1/2 T. poppy seeds
  • 1 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 tsp butter flavoring extract (or 1 1/2 tsp melted butter can be substituted)
    • Glaze:
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp butter flavor extract (or 1 1/2 tsp melted butter can be substituted)

Directions

    For the bread:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a mixing bowl, stir together all of the ingredients. Pour evenly into greased baking pans. Makes 6 small loaves or 2 large loaves.
  3. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes for large pans and less for smaller pans.
    4. For the Glaze:
  4. Pour all the ingredients into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until sugar is completely dissolved.
  5. Remove the bread from the pans once they're cool enough and carefully pour glaze over warm bread.
https://lovintheoven.com/poppyseed-bread/

If you wish, you can just bake them into little individual muffins and they’ll turn out just as pretty:

almondpoppy

almondpoppy-3almondpoppy-2

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

by 7 Comments

sweetsourchicken-8

Hey look, this isn’t a crockpot recipe. Hooray! Honestly, this is probably my best meal (aside from my chicken carbonara). I haven’t had too many successes in the cooking department, so when this came out tasting better than okay, I was ecstatic!

sweetsourchicken-9

The prep was a bit tedious, but I guess I’m just not used to using more than one mixing bowl and a pan to make something. So you have to dirty your kitchen a bit more for cooking… that’s not something I’m fond of.

sweetsourchicken

But I guess having dinner is a tad more important than having dessert. People say it’s more nutritious or something. Or something.

sweetsourchicken-2

The ingredients are fairly standard and you probably have most of it your pantry waiting to be used up. I’ve made this recipe multiple times since my DB loves it. No veggies, no crazy ingredients, just straight up chicken– A real man’s meal.

sweetsourchicken-3

The only downside to this dish is that you have to let it bake in the oven for an hour. That’s not necessarily a downside if you like getting your dinner started so you can do something else. You’ll have time to focus on making a side dish, watching a TV show, or prepping yourself to look fancy for your dinner date that’s coming over.

sweetsourchicken-4

sweetsourchicken-5

I served this with plain ol’ white rice, which can do no wrong. A side of veggies would have been nice, though.

sweetsourchicken-7

Here’s a couple more pictures just to test your hunger. Seriously guy, baked sweet and sour chicken. No deep frying necessary.

sweetsourchicken-6

sweetsourchicken-10

Recipe from Life as a Lofthouse.

Print
Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients

    The chicken coating:
  • 3-4 boneless chicken breasts
  • salt + pepper
  • 1 cup cornstarch
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
    • The sweet and sour sauce:
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 4 tbs ketchup
  • 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 1 tbs soy sauce
  • 1 tsp garlic salt

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with desired amount of salt and pepper.
  3. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs.
  4. In a large skillet over medium high heat, cook the 1/4 cup of oil and brown all the chicken. Don't cook it all the way through.
  5. Place the chicken in a lined 9x13 pan. Stir all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl until evenly mixed and pour evenly over the chicken.
  6. Bake for one hour, turning the chicken pieces every 15 minutes.
https://lovintheoven.com/baked-sweet-and-sour-chicken/

PS. I’m totally doing good so far on my New Years resolution because I just updated A Pile of Style.

Mom’s Zucchini Bread

by 1 Comment

zucchinibread-8

 

Orange is the New Black Season 2 is up on Netflix and I can’t get enough of that show. If it wasn’t for work for me and bar studying for my DF, we would have finished the entire season in a day. Seriously, that show is brilliant.

zucchinibread-6

 

Zucchini bread’s a weird thing. That’s a whole lot of greens going into baked goods, but it works. The moisture from the zucchini keeps the bread nice and soft.

zucchinibread

The batter even looks a bit strange. It slightly resembles tempura batter that has broccoli flakes and carrot trimmings that got stuck to the dough and left behind.

zucchinibread-2

Once you bake it, though, it turns into pure delightfulness.

zucchinibread-4

It’s so eye appealing that kids might even eat their greens. It’s a shame that it didn’t work for my DF, though. I’m still working on that.

zucchinibread-5

zucchinibread-7

Let’s see what it looks like on the inside, shall we?

zucchinibread-9

zucchinibread-10

Side note, I feel overwhelmed with my to-do list recently. Pay a million bills, get a shirt and tie for my DF for the wedding, get a visa, apply for a marriage certificate, grocery lists, blog posts, empty all of our moving boxes… The list goes on and on.

At least I did one thing; The wedding invitations have been sent out! That’s a huge weight off of my shoulders.

zucchinibread-11

zucchinibread-12

Recipe is adapted from AllRecipes

Print
Mom’s Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup applesauce
  • 1 3/4 cups white sugar
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups grated zucchini
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

  1. Grease two 8 x 4 inch pans.
  2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
  3. Beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Add in the flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon.
  4. Stir in zucchini and nuts.
  5. Evenly pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 40 to 60 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.
https://lovintheoven.com/moms-zucchini-bread/

Categories