Monthly Archives: September 2021

Recipe

GRILLED CHICKEN SANDWICHES

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Is it Thursday already? The fall is flying by! It is still good grilling weather and here is an oldie but a goodie. Grilled Chicken Sandwiches.

I started by slicing the chicken breast thinly in half and then cutting in half again so it would fit on a bun.

I seasoned the chicken with some Adobo on one side. I flipped the breasts over and put some Viva Italian salad dressing on the other. I went outside and lit the barbeque thus heating it up. I came back in and started to cook the frozen seasoned curly fries in the air fryer. “EXTRA CRISPY curly fries” (Hallmark Christmas Movie Reference).

Then I made a small bit of salad. Romaine, cucumber and salad dressing.

That done, it was time to put the chicken on the grill. I faced it Italian dressing side down. The dressing helps the chicken from sticking to the grates. Plus the dressing adds some flavor and maybe helps keep it moist.

By the time the chicken was done so were the curly fries. I heated up some barbeque sauce in the microwave and put it on the tops of sesame seed buns. Then came the chicken next between the buns. A little salad dressing on the salad and BOOM! It was time to eat.

You can still follow me on INSTAGRAM: HTTPS://WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM/DRUNKENCHEF82

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

PS – I am still looking for a camera crew and film editor for my YouTube Chanel if anyone is interested drop me a line.

Blog Post

Life after Friendship Bread

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Welcome to the first day of fall! The friendship bread recipe, for those of you who do not follow me on INSTAGRAM, it turned out like a textbook picture (see below).

The friendship bread posts were fun but it’s time to move on. I will certainly be baking that recipe every 10 days for as long as I stand it. I may even do a YouTube post next time. Now it’s back to our regular scheduled program.

I had company come over on Sunday. We ate, we drank, and we had great fun.

I set the table prior to everyone’s arrival (see below). I usually only do this at Thanksgiving but now I seem to be more inspired. The china sets in my house seem to be growing now at an exponential rate in large part thanks to Sam. Between that and my writing, both seem to be encouraging me to use the various china, flatware, and glassware we own. It was nice to see everyone’s face, including Jennifer’s, when they saw the table.

The recipes I made were a salad, scallops and skirt steak. Let’s start with the Spinach Salad with shrimp tempura, mandarin oranges and candied pecans. Click the link above for the salad recipe and here for the salad dressing recipe: Mandarin Orange Balsamic Vignette.

The second course was a scallop dish that I have been wanting to make for a while. Jennifer does not like scallops so unless I want to eat them alone I had to wait for company to come over and join me. Usually my surf and turf combos include lobster or some kind of shrimp dish.  Those Jennifer will eat. The scallops, as it turned out, were not very big so I was not supper impressed with the size of the scallops that wound up on my plate.  I will have to make scallops on a bed of beet couscous again with bigger scallops next time but you can get the idea of what we ate here:

Scallops in Butter Sauce

Couscous (I used the beet variation found in the notes section)

The last thing I made was the entre, Skirt Steak.

I marinated it in: Steak Marinade II

You can still follow me on INSTAGRAM: HTTPS://WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM/DRUNKENCHEF82

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

PS – I am still looking for a camera crew and film editor for my YouTube Chanel if anyone is interested drop me a line.

Recipe, Wines

Spinach Salad with Shrimp Tempura

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I recommend this salad with a nice Chardonnay. I have one to recommend.

Serves 6

SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS

INGREDIENTS

1 bag of baby spinach

1 head of romaine lettuce

2 – 3 packages of frozen shrimp tempura (12 shrimp)

1 bag of candied Pecans

1 cucumber (diced)

1 small can Mandarin oranges (chilled)

Mandarin Balsamic Vignette

DIRECTIONS

Begin by making the Balsamic Vignette. The recipe can be found by clicking the link above.

Wash and destem the spinach before placing it on 6 salad plates. Wash and coarsely chop 1 romaine lettuce heart. Place lettuce on spinach. Peel and deseed one large cucumber. Dice the cucumber and place on the salads. Sprinkle on some chopped candied pecans.

Fry the shrimp tempura. Cut it into thirds discarding the tail. Evenly distribute the shrimp on top of the 6 salads. Garnish with cold mandarin orange segments.  

Serve with Mandarin Balsamic Vignette on the side.

Wine: Chardonnay

Beer: Sam Adams Oktoberfest

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Recipe

Couscous (beet)

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Beet Couscous under seared sea scallops

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

1¾ cup of chicken broth

1 cup large pearl couscous

DIRECTIONS:

Bring 1¾ cups of chicken broth to a simmer. Add 1 cup of large pearl couscous. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Turn off heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Serve.

NOTES: For beet couscous; replace ¾ cup of chicken broth for beet juice from a can beets. The beets can be cooked in butter or pickled. Be sure NOT to use the juice from a jar of pickled beets or your couscous may taste Nasty.

Wine: Chardonnay

Beer: Blue Moon

Recipe

Sea Scallops (Seared)

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Servers 4

INGREDIENTS:

12 Extra Large Sea Scallops

2 to 4 tablespoons Butter

2 tablespoons Olive Oil

1 clove sliced Garlic

Paprika

Onion Powder

Salt and Pepper

¼ cup Chardonnay (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Wash and dry the scallops well. Season with paprika, onion powder, salt and pepper on both sides. In a large pan heat 1 tablespoons of olive oil very hot. Using tongs place each scallop into the pan. Do not move and let cook for two minutes to developed a nice seared crust. After two minutes flip over the scallops using tongs and spatula if necessary. Fry an additional two minutes on the other side. Remove the pan from the heat. Deglaze with a splash of white wine (Chardonnay) if you have it. Add butter and garlic to the pan and whisk into the wine getting all the good brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Drizzle your butter/garlic sauce over the scallops. Serve with lemons wedges. 

NOTES: Try serving on beet couscous and with steamed asparagus as a vegetable.

Recipe

Balsamic Vinaigrette (Mandarin Orange)

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Serves 6

SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS

Nutra Bullet

INGREDIENTS:

1 bag of baby Spinach

1 head Romaine lettuce heart

½ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar (Trader Joes)

3 tablespoons of Madeiran Orange Juice (from the can of mandarin oranges)

1 can Mandarin Oranges (chilled)

1 Cucumber

1 bag of candied Pecans

DIRECTIONS:

Begin by making the Balsamic Vignette. The recipe can be found by clicking the link above.

Wash and destem the spinach before placing it on the salad plate. Deseed one large cucumber. Dice the deseeded cucumber and place on the spinach. Sprinkle on chopped and a few whole candied pecans. Fry the shrimp tempura. Cut it into third discarding the tail and place the shrimp on top of the salad. Garnish with cold mandarin orange segments. 

Serve with Mandarin Balsamic Vignette on the side.

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Day 10 – The Friendship Bread Adventure

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It’s day 10! Yea! It has been a week and a half since I decided to start this whole baking thing. Well no baking yet, just squeezing a bag.

I am going live tonight to bake the friendship bread that I have now been cultivating for ten days. To follow along you can print the recipe today here:  FRIENDSHIP BREAD

Now I’m off too work early and I will be back at see you all at 7:00PM EDT on INSTAGRAM: HTTPS://WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM/DRUNKENCHEF82

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

PS – I am still looking for a camera crew and film editor for my YouTube Chanel if anyone is interested, unless I crash and burn tonight live.

Blog Post

Day 9 – The Friendship Bread Adventure

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Good morning and welcome to day 9! Happy Monday! Tomorrow is the big day and the goo is good. I may even go live and do a free baking class or at least a demo. I may need more practice to be able to teach on camera. It won’t be my first teaching gig. I did teach Microsoft Word for an adult education class but that was 20 years ago. I might be little rusty.

I am going to post the recipe today here:  FRIENDSHIP BREAD

If you want to go check it out.

I did have an awesome night Sunday with friends. I finally made the skirt steak for them as well as the scallops on beet cuscus. I started with a spinach salad with tempura shrimp and candied pecans. The dressing was a balsamic vinaigrette served on the side.  Those recipes will have to wait for tomorrow so I have something post on day 142 of this cookbook project. You all haven’t forgotten I’m still writing a cookbook here right?

Well that is all for today. I have to go to my REAL job now.

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

PS – I am still looking for a camera crew and film editor for my YouTube Chanel if anyone is interested, unless I crash and burn tomorrow live.

Recipe

Amish Friendship Bread

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When you give the bags away. Put the Day 1 date on them.

Important Preparation Tips:

  1. Do not use a metal spoon or bowl for mixing
  2. Do not refrigerate
  3. If air gets in bag, let it out
  4. It is normal for batter to thicken, bubble and ferment

Day 1:                        Congratulations – you received fermented batter – do nothing

Day 2:                        Squeeze the bag several times

Day 3:                        Squeeze the bag several times

Day 4:                        Squeeze the bag several times

Day 5:                        Squeeze the bag several times

Day 6:**                    Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk.   Squeeze bag

Day 7:                        Squeeze the bag several times

Day 8:                        Squeeze the bag several times

Day 9:                        Squeeze the bag several times

Day 10:   In a large non-metal bowl combine the batter with 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk.  Mix with wooden or plastic spoon.                          

Pour 4 1-cup starters into 1-gallon Ziploc bags.

 Give these starters away to family or friends with a copy of these instructions.

To the remainder of your batter in the bowl ADD:

            1 cup cooking oil

            1 cup sugar

            1 tsp vanilla

            3 large eggs

            1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 cups flour

1/3 cup milk

½ tsp baking soda

1 large box or 2 small boxes of instant vanilla pudding

2 tsp cinnamon

MIX WELL.

In a small bowl mix together 1 tsp cinnamon and 3 tbsp. sugar… sprinkle into well-greased loaf pans before pouring batter into pans.  Bake at 325° for 1 hour or until done.

Enjoy!

Extras you can add = 1 cup raisins, nuts, or chocolate chips.

** If you don’t want any starters to give away, on day 6 and day 10 only add ½ cup of each. That will give you 2 starters (one to keep and one to give away) and a batch to bake – or you can bake the two batches for 4 loaves.  Hope you enjoy!

Do not put in the sun.  Do not use any metal (spoons, bowl or measuring cups) plastic only. Use Pyrex loaf pans to bake

MyDrunkenChef.com

Blog Post

Day 8 – The Friendship Bread Adventure

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Good morning and welcome to day 8! It’s Sunday, it’s early and it’s dark. I’m always up this early (6:00 am) but now that it’s dark out, it feels even earlier. So I have been busy already this morning. Coffee is on the stove perking away. Laundry is in the dryer, drying and I flipped over my skirt steak that has been marinating since yesterday.

To catch those of you up who do not follow me on INSTAGRAM I made my meat marinate II for beef again. I am hoping my friends can join me today for dinner. The weather is cooperating so will be making skirt steak on the grill. Tonight I will add the sea scallop appetizer served on a beet cuscus along with a salad for the white wine course.

Yesterday I also tested my camera set up so if I’m brave enough on day ten I will bake my friendship bread live on INSTAGRAM. I just need to do one more test before then. I also made Chicken Teriyaki last night on the grill and served it with mac and cheese (from a box!) and asparagus. Jennifer loves this boxed shit (shudder), so I do it for her.  That’s LOVE!

  • Peeled Asparagus
  • Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
  • Looks like Tang but its not
  • Had to add REAL cheese
  • This is just two culets from my butcher
  • Jens Plate
  • My Plate

Well that all for now. Big day ahead. Lots of cooking to do!

Have a great day and may all your food taste good!

The drunken Chef (Russ) PS – Still looking for a camera crew and film editor for my YouTube Chanel if anyone is interested.