chicken salad

we all know that it is hard to find a chicken salad recipe without nasty eggs and disgusting mayonaise. this has neither- it's got yogurt. this makes about 3 servings. very good on toasted pita bread.

mix all this together in a bowl:
2 cups cooked chicken *
1 stalk celery diced
1/4 red onion, diced
cilantro, minced
garlic powder
curry powder
paprika
S&P
1/2 c plain yogurt
mustard

*poached, shredded, and chopped (one breast and one drumstick are enough)

bulgogi

bulgogi is grilled, marinated beef strips. along with white rice, garlic, and gochujang (a sweet and picante chili-garlic sauce) beef strips it is wrapped in a leaf of lettuce. the marinade recipe comes from manchi and the assembly comes from how i remember it being done in korea.

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for the marinade, mix in a bowl:
1/4 c soy sauce
1/8 c white sugar
1/2 asian pear
1/2 head garlic
1/4 c water

puree then add and puree again:
1/2 T honey

add:
black pepper
1/2 T sesame seeds
5 stalks chopped green onion
1 T sesame oil

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for the meat:
1 # sirloin tip
slice long and thin strips again the grain
add to the marinade
refrigerate >= 3 hours

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grill meat, flip each strip once (~4 mins each side)
wrap in lettuce as described above
this serves 4. can easily be doubled.

banana choco chip mini muffins

i whipped these up this morning from my brain and they are delicious! i've already eaten 6...but they are mini and yummy and good.

• 1 cup AP flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp veggie oil
• 2 tbsp sour cream + tiny bit of milk to get the batter consistency you want
  
• chopped up choco chips (i used bittersweet chocolate)
• mashed up banana

combine all ingredients. i used a whisk, nothing special. put batter into mini muffin tin...this was enough to make 20 giganto-mini muffins, and they turned out nice and a bit "big", so you could stretch the batter to make 24 nice-sized mini muffins. and if you wanted to do regular sized muffins, this would probably make 6 or 7 comfortably. bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. enjoy!

ragu sauce

all these years when i have made spaghetti and a meat and tomato for it, i have incorrectly called it a "spaghetti sauce". the correct term in the italian culinary lexicon for such a meat-based sauce is a "ragu sauce". there is also a "bolognese sauce" that seems similar but has eggs in it.

vegetables: onion, carrot and celery, garlic, mushroom.
spices: basil, oregano, chili powder, s & p.
meat: 1 # beef
tomatoes: 1 can paste, 1 can sauce, 2 cans (14 oz each) stewed toms (pureed).

cut your vegetables, mostly finely diced.
season your meat, start browning, draining along the way.
start sauteeing vegetables in the order listed above in large pot.
add spices.
(haven't tried this but a cup of red wine could be added now and cooked til absorbed/evaporated).
add paste
add sauce
add pureed toms
when meat is ready, add
add some water if necessary

let simmer low, covered at least 1.5 hours.