Cheesecake Factory's Bang-Bang Chicken and Shrimp

I just typed this recipe up for my sister, so I thought I might as well put this on the blog for anyone who might be interested in this dish. It's not one of Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals, but it is perfect for a special occasion. I'll have to double check with Dave...but I think we agree that this is our favorite entree to step foot in our mouths. We LOVE it. Don't let the long ingredient list or the long list of directions scare you. It's worth it, I promise. That is, if you love curry and peanut sauces and coconut the way we do. We're making it together for our anniversary next week. Can't wait.

Cheesecake Factory’s Bang-Bang Chicken and Shrimp

Curry Sauce

2 t. chili oil
¼ cup minced onion
2 T. minced garlic
2 t. minced ginger
1 cup chicken broth
½ t. ground cumin
½ t. ground coriander
½ t. paprika
¼ t. salt
¼ t. ground pepper
¼ t. ground mace
¼ t. turmeric
3 cups coconut milk
2 medium carrots, julienned
1 small zucchini, julienned
½ cup frozen peas

Peanut Sauce

¼ cup creamy peanut butter
2 T. water
4 t. sugar
1 T. soy sauce
½ t. chili oil
1 t. rice vinegar
1 t. lime juice

2 skinless chicken breast fillets
16 large raw shrimp, shelled
¼ cup cornstarch
½ cup vegetable oil

4 cups cooked white rice

Garnish

1 ½ c flaked coconut
½ t dried parsley, crumbled
2 T chopped peanuts
2 green onions, julienned

1. Make the curry sauce by heating the chili oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. When the oil is hot add the onion, garlic, and ginger. Saute for about 30 seconds then add the chicken broth. Add the spices and stir well. Simmer for 5 minutes then add the coconut milk. Bring mixture back up to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until sauce begins to thicken. Add the carrots and zucchini, and the frozen peas. Simmer mixture for 10 minutes or until carrots become tender.

2. Make peanut sauce by combining peanut butter, water, sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice, and chili oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat just until mixture begins to bubble, then cover the pan and remove it from the heat.

3. Toast the flaked coconut by preheating your oven to 300 degrees. Spread coconut on a baking sheet and toast it in the oven. Stir the coconut around every 10 minutes so that it browns evenly, but watch it closely in the last 5 minutes so it doesn’t get too dark. After 25-30 minutes the coconut should be light brown. Take it out of the oven and let it cool.

4. Cut the chicken breasts into bite-size pieces. Coat the chicken and shrimp with cornstarch. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Add the coated chicken to the pan and sauté it for a couple minutes, turning as it cooks. Add the shrimp to the pan. Cook the shrimp and chicken for a couple minutes, until it’s done, then remove everything to a rack or towel to drain.

5. Build the two plates (or you can divide the meal into four portions) by filling a soup bowl with 1 or 2 cups of white rice. Press down on the rice. Invert the bowl onto the center of a plate, tap it a bit, and then lift off the bowl leaving a formed pile of rice in the center of each plate. Arrange an equal portion of chicken and shrimp around the rice. Spoon the curry sauce and vegetables over the chicken and shrimp, being careful not to get any sauce on top of the rice.

6. Drizzle peanut sauce over the dish concentrating most of it on the rice. Sprinkle ½ t. of crumbled, dried parsley over the center of the rice. Add a T. of chopped peanuts on the parsley, and then place a pile of julienned green onions on top. Sprinkle ½ cup to ¾ cup of toasted coconut over the chicken and shrimp and serve it up.

Makes 2 to 4 servings.

Happy Halloween!

Here is the picture for the grandparents that want to see their cute grandkids in costume!

The rundown on the costumes:
Nate - got that for $5 at the consignment store
Ashlyn - a mummy and it was all her idea. $4 on a sheet at Walmart and Sadie ripped the sheet while Dave pinned it on her shirt. Super easy and cheap. Go Ash!
Sadie - a witch and it was all her idea. Her friend gave her the top piece and the tights came from friends in Georgia. I think the hat was $2 at Walmart, if not $1. Super easy and cheap. Go Sadie!

We had a fun night. Perfect weather (it was suppose to rain, but didn't). We trick-or-treated starting at 5:15 (yes, it was still light, but we had a lot to do in one night...so we just had to get started). Then we went to our ward dinner and trunk-or-treat, then on to our neighborhood party, then on to our neighbor's bonfire, then home to sift through the candy, eat a few pieces, BRUSH TEETH, then flop into bed exhausted from a fun day.

Nate quite liked the idea of Halloween. From what I have seen enter his mouth, he has not had any candy in his long 14 months of life. So we wondered what he would do with candy everywhere. Mostly, he had fun knocking on doors and standing (or sometimes kneeling) with a a big smile on his face. He held onto a few pieces, and sucked through the wrapper and managed a little sugar before it was snagged and he was distracted (call us mean parents, but he'll have plenty of years to enjoy sugar...why corrupt such a cute little body that thinks bananas and unsweetened applesauce is a TREAT?).

NKOTB Halloween

It was 18 years ago on Halloween that my friend Ling-Ling and I got tickets to go see New Kids on the Block. My dad agreed to take us since we were only 11. I remember being so extra excited going trick-or-treating knowing that I had tickets to the dream band in less than a month.

Last week when I was driving to St. Louis to pick up my parents, I saw a billboard with NKOTB coming in concert. What??? I screamed, and called Dave right away. I started singing "Please don't go girl" on the phone to Dave, and I'm sure he was rolling his eyes over the phone. I got off the phone, and my girls were wondering what their crazy mama was so excited about.

A few days ago Dave told me he was excited about a present he got for me for our upcoming anniversary. NKOTB tickets???? But no, that wasn't it. Yesterday Dave told me that if I really wanted to go, he would take me. That must be true love. I considered it, and I would for sure go if they sang all of their old stuff. But I'm not so sure their new stuff is worth paying the bucks for the tickets.

Thanks Dave, and don't worry, you don't need to be jealous of the New Kids like all of the boys were in those days. I love you much more than Danny, Donny, Joe, Jon and Jordon.

Happy Halloween!

So much fun, so much yummy food! Does it have to end?

This past week we had my parents in town for a visit! Looking back at the pictures we took over the week, I realize how much we packed in! Thanks Mom and Dad for such a great trip!

Who's happier here? The trainer or the boy-in-training? Daddy and Nate working on our picnic table.

Grandma Shelly was so fun to bring white t-shirts and Halloween colored puffy paints for the girls to make their own Halloween shirts. They had so much fun working on their creations.

The boys showing off their finished product. We really wanted a table to put back in the trees to enjoy some picnics. Not that we'll be picnicing too soon - but it will be ready for spring. Thanks Dad and Dave - I love it!!

It's not too often that there is another adult around to take a picture - so we took advantage at the beautiful Meramac Springs. We had a fun hike around the springs and loved all of the fall colors.

Making m&m pancakes with Grandpa John...a tradition that's been going since Ash could walk. Grandpa let's them do EVERYTHING! They are experienced pancake makers because of a nice grandpa!

Nate loves his pretzels.

Grandma went out a couple times to help the girls with their animal chores in the morning. Nice grandma since it was freezing that early in the morning!

Another "too cute to resist posting" picture of Nate. He's been a happy man with his new freedom of walking everywhere.

The girls at Meramac Springs. I think their favorite part was the m&m and peanut bags they packed for everyone to bring on the hike.

Nate LOVED the pumpkins. He hugged them, kissed them, and patted them.

Going on a walk through the trees in our backyard while taking G and G on a tour of the yard. We were sooooooooo happy to have them with us!

Last but not least, wasn't everyone celebrating Thanksgiving last Friday night? Dad loves turkey dinner, so we decided to go all out and make a TG dinner while Mom and Dad were here. The girls went to town decorating the table. We could harldy find a place to eat, let alone THINK with all of the decor, but it was worth it because they were so proud of their work! It felt so much like the real Thanksgiving with the crisp fall air, the smell of turkey in the house and leaves falling all over the yard. It felt so much like TG that when I said the prayer at dinner, I felt like I should be saying an extra long list of all of the things we were thankful for.

The Glad Game

Lots of times I've heard my sister-in-law saying how they needed to play the "Glad Game" when they were sad. Did you get this game from Pollyanna, Jamie? I remember watching Pollyanna when we were little, but I had forgotten about the Glad Game. So when I was reading to the girls this week, and we read all about Pollyanna's Glad Game, we decided to play it ourselves.

Ashlyn's sad thing: I didn't want to play dodgeball with my class at school.
Ashlyn's Glad Game: At least I could get out a few times (meaning, out of the game) so I could talk with my friends who were already out.

Sadie's sad thing: I don't get to be the line leader at school very often.
Sadie's Glad Game: Sometimes when I'm not the line leader, and I hurry up, I can be close to the front of the line.

Nate's sad game: I still mess my diaper so many times a day, and it gives me owie diaper rashes.
Nate's Glad Game: At least I know how to mess my diaper. (This will only make sense if you knew about Nate's surgery.)

Mom's sad game: By 10:30 a.m. every room in our house has been torn apart by Nate.
Mom's Glad Game: I am so glad to have a baby. I love how happy it makes Nate to one by one, take everything out of every cupboard in every room. It makes me smile.

Nate has turned into a super picky eater. He has a few favorites, like his oatmeal and mashed banana every morning. He doesn't like to try new things, and most of the time will spit it out if he happens to try it. What to do? I sure don't know. So you could imagine our surprise when I fixed tilapia, brown rice and peas - and Nate devoured every last bite. He got lots of claps from his family around the table, and he loved cheering for himself, too! He loved working on getting each little pea on his fork, and sometimes got two...and then he really cheered for himself. Nate's clap includes a vocal cheer of delight with himself.

Mama and Nate looking for fish at the local Meramac Springs. They had a little festival where they went back to the 1800s and demonstrated all sorts of crafts done in those days. We watched a woman make her own dolls and the girls each got a little kit to make one themselves. The highlight for Nate was feeding the fish. Too bad he also wanted to feed himself the fish food. Why is it that Nate is so super picky with human food, but will try whatever it takes to get fish and goat food in his mouth?

In addition to eating animal food, Nate's other pasttimes include sitting in his dresser drawers while dumping his clothes out. He gets so tickled to be sitting (or standing) inside his drawers.

Jamie - Ashlyn wants me to tell you that she has a girl in her class at school named Jamie, and she saw her at the bookfair at school.

Opposition is a good thing, I suppose

The good days feel sooooooooooo much better after the bad days. Dave glued together the lid of my favorite dish that Nate broke yesterday, my girls didn't complain about the veggie stir-fry I made for dinner (and actually ate it), I got to spend time outside (always does wonders for me) cleaning the barn/shed/coop (we still don't know what to call it), I got to exercise (another thing that does wonders for me), the girls had a great piano lesson today, and now if I could find my retainer that Nate lovingly placed somewhere - that would really make it a good day.

I can't take pictures of Nate very well any more. Once he can see the camera, he wants to be all over it, hence the close-up picture.

Ashlyn and Sadie have made oodles of these hotpads. I'm guessing they've made at least 30 by now. They are addicted!!
Last week we had some neighborhood kids over to do some Halloween crafts. While we were having fun at the table, Dave comes in with this critter in a cup. There's something about it that just grosses me out about it. And he put it on our table to take a picture of it?

I couldn't stop laughing at this picture. Ash was hanging up the little spider web today(the girls were complaining that we only had cute fall/halloween decor, and they wanted something much scarier) when I heard her talking to someone. I didn't think anyone was over, so I walked in her room to find this. I quickly grabbed the camera. Ashlyn is SO not into boys, so this was extra funny to me. This is a neighbor boy that they know pretty well, just chatting through the window. It just looked funny to me. And I can just see it happening again down the road in 10 years (or less???).

A sweet sorry note

We had just put the kids to bed (and yes, it was another hard day). Dave and I were cleaning up the kitchen and I thought I heard someone coming out of bed, but crossed my fingers that I was just hearing things. A few minutes later when I walked out of the kitchen, I found a piece of paper on the floor...secretly placed there by a tip-toe-ing girl.
Dear Mom and Dad,
I am sorry I wasn't behaving well. I hope we'll have a better day tomorrow. I want to be better for you guys. I wish today was a better day. I love you so much, and want to show it better. But at times we all can get crabby (Mom's note: Their piano teacher uses that word. Funny that now she's using it, cuz we never use that to describe our mood). I'll try hard to show respect to you. Sometimes a little after one of you are serious (which I used to call mean), it seems I'm happy after it. I love you. Love, Ashlyn

Sometimes when I'm in the middle of a hard day, I try to think of what my favorite part of the day will be. I knew it right when I saw it yesterday. I was popping some popcorn for a snack for the girls. Nate has never seen this before. He sat on the counter, watching, mesmerized, as the little kernels started bouncing. His eyes turned from being mesmerized to total shock and wonder when the whole neck of the popper filled to overflowing with big, white popcorn. Yep - that was my favorite part.

My second favorite part was when Dave and I were watching the debate last night. There was a funny part (probably only funny to us) where McCain attacked Obama, and the look on Obama's face was as if his secret was out and he was surprised that someone else knew about his secret. I can't explain it well, but we were laughing so hard. I love to laugh.