Crocktoberfest....AGAIN!

As promised, here is another recipe for Crocktoberfest, I just tossed it in my crockpot so I'll be cooking along today!

Crockpot orange chicken, is a recipe I found at Pursuit of Happiness I took the reviews and edits into account and will reflect them below after the original recipe.

Ingredients:
• boneless chicken breasts, chopped into small chunks
• 1/3 cup flour
• olive oil*
• 1/2 T salt**
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 T ketchup
• 6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate (thaw or throw it in the microwave for 45 seconds)
• 4 T brown sugar


In a bowl mix salt, vinegar, ketchup, orange juice concentrate and brown sugar.  Coat bite sized chicken pieces in flour, shake off excess and fry in the heated olive oil.  Mix and put in crockpot, low 5-6*** or high 2-3 hours.


Now for my changes
* I replaced olive oil with sesame oil, because I have it, and I love the smell/taste of the things I cook in it.
**  I changed the 1/2 T salt to 1/2 T soy sauce.  Still contains sodium, but gives it a slight Asian zing as well.
*** Most reviewers had success with this recipe on low for 2-3 hours, so I have it on low and will check it at the 2 and 3 hour marks to judge how it's coming along.  Because this is such a quick recipe, next time I am going to try making it in a skillet, because honestly if you just fried the chicken up a little longer, it would be done and could be mixed with the sauce right away.  Tonight I'll be serving this with instant white rice (I had grand plans to make a batch of fried rice, didn't happen) and frozen pork egg rolls.


I'll report back later with pictures and to let you know how it turned out!


******UPDATE******

After 2 hours, the sauce was gloriously thickened to the 

perfect consistency.

I checked the orange chicken at the two hour mark as planned (on low).  Perfection.  I set the time for another half an hour and started the rice and eggs rolls.  I took some broccoli and pineapple chunks and tossed it in to finish off.

Half an hour later I had a dish of orange chicken w/pineapple & broccoli, pork egg rolls and white rice.  Egg rolls were good, as we get the same frozen brand every time, rice was, well rice.  The chicken was.....good.  It's no Panda Express orange chicken but it is comparable to PF Chang's citrus chicken.  It was too citrusy for me, too sugary sweet.  The pineapple and broccoli lent their respective tastes (and added a full serving of both fruits/veggies to each serving of chicken) but it was not enough to overpower the orange.  I also had a slight flour aftertaste as well.  I'm wondering if the length of cooking helps diminish that, because the chicken was done and very tender.  I wouldn't want to cook it much longer for fear of it drying out and the sauce becoming overly syrupy.  I would make this again, with plain orange juice rather than the concentrate.  I would skip the ketchup as well, I don't feel it really added anything to the sauce.  I am rather disappointed so far with my two crocktober recipes.  

Crocktoberfest

We are halfway in and thus far I have been thwarted in my Crocktober project largely in part due to my poor planning and also vehicle troubles.  Me, a planner who knows what we're having for dinner in two weeks, thought I would be able to wait till the end of September and map out my crockpot meal plan for an entire month.  Except I did it after my end of September shopping trip and realized I was bringing our menu into October with not a crockpot recipe in sight.  Oops.  We also have to fix Mekius' car, so that put the kibash on any last minute shopping sprees to catch up.

So I'm trying to salvage what I can and try to hit at least 2 crockpot meals a week for the rest of the month.  Next year I start planning in July.

Today's recipe is brought you by Big Red Kitchen

Start with a large round load of crusty bread (I purchased a loaf of peasant's bread from Mary's Market for under $5 and I think it's going to a great canvas for this painting lol).

You're going to make 12 slices in the bread, making sure to only cut 3/4 of the way through (you still want it connected at the bottom), to make 6 sandwiches.  Two ends will be small and obviously the middle very large.

Now you're going to make the bundles to put in each sandwich.  This is where I had to stray a bit from the original recipe because Walmart does not carry Mortadella or Capicola.  Suitable replacements are Balogna and Ham.  I think prosciutto might also be tasty.  Next time I'll head to a nicer store for the real things as I've had Mortadella/Capicola/Hot ham (former deli workers represent!) and they are delicious.

So my bundles consisted of two sliced of provolone, three slices pepperoni, two slices salami, one slice ham, several banana pepper rings and onion slivers.  I topped it off with some dried basil & oregano.  The nice thing about this setup is you can customize.  For example on the ends I only used salami and ham, since my kids will eat the smaller sandwiches.

Fold bundles and place in between sandwich slices.  Make sure after the first sandwich, you make sure to leave two slices between each bundle, so that each sandwich slices nicely.  Conversely if you like them stacked, feel free to arrange them as such :D

The assembled product, all ready to get in the crockpot

Once the bread is stuffed take two long pieces of tin foil and set them on a counter in the shape of a cross.  Wrap the sandwich tightly from all sides.  To place in the slow cooker I took some foil, shaped 4 balls and set them at the bottom, added 1/4 water and placed the wrapped loaf on top.  Set crockpot to low and let cook on low for 4 hours.  BRK suggested even letting it go another hour or two if you're busy or out of the house while it's cooking.

After cooking is complete, remove carefully, unwrap and slice through each sandwich.  It will be VERY hot.  Drizzle a little olive oil or Italian dressing over them if you would like.  You should get 6 sandwiches out of this.  I will not because I was not able to get another cut into mine, but I'll still get 5 and we *MIGHT* have leftovers.  This was touted as being great to cook while you're out Christmas shopping and it this turns out well, I may be tempted to serve it at the holidays as it tends to be more of a casual event.  This would also be delicious served with soup or salad.  I'm thinking of serving ours with a caesar salad tonight.  Only 3.5 more hours to go and the smell has already worked through the house!

Please be sure to check back for additional Crocktoberfest recipes!  I will be sharing one a day, though I may not always be cooking along :)

Come and get Tangled with us!

I figured since someone else posted their Tangled party pics to my Tangled party messiah Paging Supermom I should get around to doing mine eh?  Our party was Oct 1 for my 5 yo daughter.  This post will be photo heavy, that is your warning :D

Flag banner.  I made something like 30-35 flags

Hung then in doorways and hung lanterns all around

Pin the pan on Flynn (was a hit)

Pans and doubled sided tape for Pin the Pan on Flynn

I made this large braid as a blindfold for the Flynn Rider game

Hot glued the end, braided and tied with a ribbon.  Took

about 3/4 of a skene.  After the party I put it on a headband

and it's an excellent addition to her dress up box.

Generic birthday cups, sunshine yellow napkins and Tangled

plates/yellow plates.  Couldn't get away from the Tangled

products completely :)

Rubber ducks for the little kids, two each complete

with snuggly duckling tags.  Image made by me.

Rapunzel paints for the bigger kids.  Label affixed.

I printed out the lantern scene coloring sheet on ivory

cardstock and rolled it up and tied them together 

like a canvas for them to paint.  This was probably my 

favorite crafty thing I did :)

Close-up of the paints

I made sun cookies following Supermom's

sour cream sugar cookie recipe and while

they were delicious, they were a PITA to make

and I held them back from an already crazy

birthday party lol.  Thing 1 and her cousin did

enjoy them at their tea party that night though!

Table all set up and waiting for delicious pizza. I would

loved to go for a more 'Tangled' menu but couldn't for

budget reasons.  Maybe next year though, because 

Thing 1 has asked for a repeat of Tangled :D

Thing 1 asked for this specifically, but I think next year

I will do a castle cake.  I've been on a break doing cakes,

because well, it's what I do professionally and sometimes 

it gets overwhelming.

So there you have it.  That's our Rapunzel party.  I have the handmade decor put away for next year when I will try to improve upon it :)

My sunshine

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl on her 5th birthday.  Here's to hoping the birthdays slow down and she never stops crawling into our bed and asking me to sing to her.  I don't have a great voice, but it's perfect for singing to my little loves <3