Saturday, February 07, 2009

Uncontrollable Pillow Extravagance and Yummy Lemon Chicken

I didn`t like the green pillows I made. They looked nice in the picture but in real, they just weren`t cutting it.
So spank me please....I went to E-Bay and found what I really wanted instead of making do with any fabric I had.
A set of two Ralph Lauren pillows from the states that with shipping came to errr ummmm....$75.47 Canadian :(
And one beautiful and finely made tapestry dog pillow cover from England for errrr ummmm $52.17 Canadian. Luckily for that one the shipping was cheap!
Here` the back and fronts of the two Ralph Lauren pillows. I adore Ralph Lauren....


And here is the tapestry one that looks like my sweet Ben dog...

In this close up you can see that it isn`t done cheapely...

I`ve bought some walnut coloured paint to eventually paint the wicker chair in front of the window back to it`s original colour again. Then I`ll add a natural coloured cushion.
Lemon Chicken with Egg Noodles


Ingredients (serves 4, but we ate it all!)

500g chicken breast fillets, cut into 5cm pieces
1 tbs soy sauce
1 egg, lightly whisked
35g (1/4 cup) cornstarch
80ml (1/3 cup) olive oil
70g (1/3 cup) white sugar
250ml (1 cup) chicken stock
60ml (1/4 cup) fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 squares of noodles (those long thing sqiggly ones)
couple handful Chinese Cabbage cooked and drained
red pepper chopped
green onions and onion greens chopped
brocoli

Method
***** I used some chicken breast breaded fillets I already had. You can pop them in the oven ahead of time then when cooked, chopped them into thirds and dunp in with the veg mix in a wok or fry pan**** (just make sure the chicken is called breast meat and not called white meat because white meat is just formed chicken.

From Scratch Chicken....

Combine chicken and soy in a bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes to develop the flavours. Combine egg and 2 tbs of cornflour in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Drain chicken and add to batter.
Heat oil to 180°C in a wok over high heat (when oil is ready a cube of bread will turn golden brown in 15 seconds). Add half the chicken and cook for 3 minutes each side or until cooked. Repeat with remaining chicken, reheating oil between batches.

Veg

Place chopped onions, cooked cabbage and red peppers and bits of brocoli in some olive oil and saute, adding cooked chicken pieces to heat them up again.

Lemon Sauce

Combine the remaining cornflour, sugar, stock and lemon juice in a small saucepan and stir until smooth. Cook, stirring, over medium heat for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens.
Cook noodles for approx.4 minutes.
Transfer noodles to serving bowls. Top with chicken and veg and sauce and a slice of lemon.

Couldn`t post without adding sweet Elvis this time!

Have a nice rest of the weekend.
It was actually a lot warmer here today and some of the snow melted. On the news there were a whole whack of starlings that have flown in around this area. Very unnusual so maybe they`re telling us we`ll have an early spring. Fingers crossed.....