Indonesian Chicken Tidbits

I have a large assortment of family recipes and every once in awhile I'll be thumbing through them to see if there's anything interesting and different to make for dinner.

I came across this recipe that had the name "Ray" written at the top of it. The whole recipe was actually handwritten and the writing looks very familiar but I'm not sure who, in my family, that it belongs to quite yet. But that's what I love, a hand written recipe, a name to attach to it and the stories just start to formulate in my mind as to when, where and how this recipe came to be in the file! Uncle Ray was my Mom's brother and he died many years ago. I love that I have this recipe to remember him by!

Indonesian Chicken Tidbits has an assortment of ingredients that sound very intriguing put together:  peanut butter, curry, honey, milk and the most shocking to me.... MAYO!?!?!

But I was game, especially with how easy it was to throw together and get this... you cook it in the house, in the oven, under the broiler in about 20 minutes!

The boys and I enjoyed this recipe and I hope you'll be adventurous and it give it a try as well! If you want to make it a bit more fancy/party presentable, thread the chicken onto skewers AFTER it's cooked and serve on a bed of rice.

Indonesian Chicken Tidbits

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts; cut into pieces (about 1 1/2 in)

1/3 c creamy peanut butter

1/2 tsp curry powder

dash or so of salt

2 Tbs honey

2/3 cup mayo

1/4 cup milk

Blend together all the ingredients except the chicken.

Line one large or 2 medium jellyroll pans with foil and spray with non-stick spray.

Add the PB mixture TO THE chicken pieces (not all of it, as you can save some of the sauce to dip the chicken into after it is cooked) and stir to coat.

Separate the chicken out onto the pan and broil for 10 minutes on one side. Watch closely, it may be a minute or two more or less depending on the strength of your broiler!

Take the pan out, flip the chicken pieces and then broil again for about 8-10 minutes- if you think they need it, you could brush more of the sauce onto the chicken before popping them back into the oven.

Serve on skewers or just like this!

We had ours with shelled edamame and pineapple.

Eggnog Muffins~ 1.12.13

One of my favorite things to on the weekend is to rise just a bit earlier, grab a cup of tea, muffin and a good book and ease into my day. Usually that lasts for all of 10 minutes as my kids are ridiculously early risers (why!?! why?!?!). However, from time to time, I do get those few early morning moments of peace and quiet. This is especially lovely during the Christmas season.

Every year we buy the traditional quart of eggnog and every year, we're left with 3/4 of the quart still full. So, I'm always looking for ways to use up that extra nog.
This year it was a toss up between these muffins and eggnog pancakes. Both recipes are winners and this one was made three times, which required the purchase of MORE eggnog specifically to make it!

This comes from the files of my deceased Aunt Lynnie. She had many wonderful muffin recipes that I've grown to love and make over the years and it I'm glad I gave this one a try. The original recipe called for dark rum in place of some of the eggnog, but as she suggested, I went with all nog.
She also added a streusel topping to her muffins which was a lovely addition to these rather "white" looking muffins. My kids and husband thoroughly enjoyed these!

Eggnog Muffins
adapted from Bon Appetit, it appears (I only have a small clipping, but I recognize the style of the recipe from their magazine)

2 cups of all purpose flour (or 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1 cup all purpose)
2/3 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup eggnog
5 Tbs butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
1/4-1/2 tsp nutmeg (depending on your taste, I go a little less than 1/2)

Streusel topping
2 Tbs Flour
2 Tbs brown sugar
dash or so of nutmeg
1 Tbs butter

For the muffins, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin or use papers.
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl- I simply measure into the bowl then stir to incorporate with a wire wisk.  Stir in eggnog, butter, egg and nutmeg. Spoon into prepared tin. Top with streusel topping. Bake until tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.