Sweet Saturday

It is a beautiful Saturday day! The birds chirping, sun's shining. We went peach pickin'. Woo hoo! So many lovely peaches so little time.

 But, I can't wait to bake things with these. Posts will come later on the yummy goodness I make. I think I will even freeze some for later use.

I had so much fun today with my hubby picking fruit. We even saw a sign that said apples and plums would be ready June 10th. Another trip is already in the works. HeeHee:)

Hubby was such a good sport:)

I can't wait to use some of these! I will tell you what I did make this week that was delicious. Wait for it, wait for it....Sweet and Sour Chicken. Yum. I was craving it all week. As you know I have been making a lot of dishes this week from my childhood. Sweet and Sour Chicken was one of them. I love this dish but I am a little scared of the kind you sometimes get at some of the Chinese restaurants. They can be overly sweet, heavily breaded and a scary red color. I think this recipe is very good. It was not too sweet and not scary at all. I found it on line and only made a few changes to it. It is from about.com by Darlene Schmidt.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

adapted from Darlene Schmidt

Ingredients·


2- boneless chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch pieces


· 1/2 cup flour
· 1/4 tsp. baking powder
· 1 tsp. garlic salt
· 1 red bell pepper, sliced
1/2 onion sliced
· 4 oz mushrooms
· oil for frying


· SWEET & SOUR SAUCE:
· 1 20 oz can of pineapple chunks with juice
· 1/3 white vinegar OR red wine vinegar
· 3/4 cup white sugar
· 2 Tbsp. fish sauce
· 3 cloves minced garlic
· 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
· 1/3 cup water
· 1+1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch

Directions

1.    Make the sweet & sour sauce first. Drain the juice from the can of pineapple, squeezing out all the juice from the fruit. Place pineapple juice plus the chunks from the can in a wok or large pot. Add the vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, garlic, chili and lemon juice. Boil for 10 minutes, or until sauce reduces by one quarter.

2.    Simmering the sauce over medium heat, add the red pepper plus other vegetables and continue cooking 5 minutes.

3.    Stir cornstarch into the water with a fork until dissolved and add to the sauce. Reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes, or until sauce has thickened slightly.

4.    Taste-test the sauce, looking for a balance of sweet and sour, plus a hit of spice and just a hint of salt. If you find it too sour, add more sugar; if too sweet or too salty, add more lemon juice. Set sauce aside.

 5.  roll chicken pieces in the flour mixture, then pan-fry in 4 Tbsp. oil. Fry 3-4 minutes per side, or until light golden brown and cooked through.

Mix the chicken and sauce together and serve it over rice. It is goood:)