Friday, August 05, 2011

What's for supper? Bits, pieces, and barbecued chicken

Last night's dinner menu:

Barbecued chicken
Vietnamese Fried Rice (from the More-with-Less Cookbook)
Chocolate-Raspberry Cake, grapes


I hardly ever make fried rice, and it doesn't always turn out that well for me, but I was happy with this batch, and it went well with the chicken.  I used part frozen Oriental vegetable mix, part fresh zucchini, green pepper, garlic, and mushrooms.  Instead of mixing in the egg at the end, which I've never liked much and which isn't good for Mr. Fixit's egg sensitivity, I beat up two eggs and cooked them in the frying pan first, omelet-style.  I rolled up the omelet, cut it in small strips, and served it along with the rice.

The cake?  That was an experiment. We had exactly a cup and a half of bulk-purchased gluten-free chocolate cake mix in the cupboard; I wanted to use it up, but it didn't have to be used in a GF way.  So I mixed it with half a cup of all-purpose flour, half a cup of brown sugar, two teaspoons of baking powder (there was some in the mix, also some sweetener, but just in case), a cup of milk, a third cup of oil, an egg, and a teaspoonful of vanilla.  This is more or less a standard muffin recipe, except that it's chocolate. 

I spread half the batter in an 8-inch square pan, dribbled the end of a jar of thin berry jam over top, sprinkled that with frozen raspberries, topped that with the rest of the batter, and sprinkled the whole thing with a small handful of chocolate chips.  I baked it in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for about forty minutes, when it tested done.  It worked! Good with plain yogurt.  Probably best stored in the fridge, because of the fruit.

No comments: