Anna Does Sorted: Sticky chicken

Spoiler alert: This is my new favorite Sorted recipe. It was another spontaneous cooking decision and it's by far the most rewarding thing I've made taste-wise. For how amazing it tasted, you would think it took a long while to make. I know I said in my last post that the next thing I would make is the tandoori chicken burger but I totally lied. The sticky chicken was too appetizing to pass up.



Sticky chicken is absolutely magical. And I loved the idea of vegetable kebabs because of how versatile they are. The vegetables I used were sweet potato, red pepper and carrots. I didn't have any zucchini around and I have never bought mushrooms in my entire life so that wasn't going to happen. Next time I'll definitely try to include zucchini though. I think adding red potatoes to the skewers could also be a good addition. While the vegetables were quite tasty, the chicken was amazing.

The sauce/glaze/marinade was so easy. Luckily we had a random jar of apricot jam in the fridge I used up and the only thing I was missing was Worcestershire sauce. I tried to find some substitutes for it but for all the things I looked up I didn't have the ingredients to make it work. I added in a little extra soy sauce to make up for it. While the sauce is supposed to caramelize a bit, that didn't happen for me. I'm not sure what the deal was with that but it didn't really make a difference. The chicken itself was incredibly tender and cooked perfectly so I didn't bother leaving it in the oven longer to see if the sauce would caramelize at all.

I didn't make a salad or rice to go with it but this morning for breakfast (yeah, I ate the leftovers for breakfast) I drizzled the sauce on some leftover rice, from my sweet potato curry, and boy was that great! I'll have to remember to make rice along with it next time. Though adding the vegetables, chicken and sauce to a salad could be fantastic as well.

If you need a super quick dinner, this is it. I love the idea of using the sauce for other things as well. Like, I don't always have chicken to use but the sauce could go great on any number of other foods. This would be a great meal to cook when having friends over as well because it's easy to make in large portions.

Last YouTube video I watched: Dent In the Moon

Anna Does Sorted: Sweet potato & spinach curry

This recipe was a super spontaneous one. I needed dinner, wanted to do a Sorted recipe but also wanted to use up some ingredients. The main thing I had in the kitchen to use was sweet potato. I've been on quite the sweet potato kick lately. The cool thing about this recipe was I somehow had everything I needed for it, except the spinach but I'm not very fond of it anyway so no harm no foul. Watching the video for this one was a nice surprise on account of how it's "old school" Sorted. They filmed this one over 2 years ago!

 

I usually don't have naan just sitting in my cupboard so I improvised with tortillas instead. That worked well enough. My favorite part of this dish was definitely the yogurt-based dip. So tasty! And a perfect complement to the kick of the curry. The other curry I made from Sorted isn't a spicy kind so this was a nice change; not that this one was all that spicy but in comparison it was much stronger. This was super quick to make as well. Once again, the most difficult part was chopping the sweet potato and onions because A) crappy knives and B) my eyes are super sensitive to onions. (I sure do hate onions.)

I'm definitely interested in adding in more things to this curry beyond just onions and sweet potato. I guess I could start by actually including spinach but I'd prefer other vegetables or maybe some chicken. Having actual naan will be the next step as well. I imagine Sorted has a naan recipe just waiting for me to discover. (And indeed it does, featured with the naan bread pizza recipe. Yum.)

My next recipe will definitely be the tandoori chicken burger, though. Hopefully I can get that one done before going to Yellowstone this weekend. I'm thinking of taking Sorted along on the camping trip by making the smokey BBQ beans and jacket. Camping food is some of my favorite, so look forward to a post on some of the things we make!

And speaking of more personal things beyond my cooking as of late, I'm now a college graduate. Or mostly. I still have a couple classes for fall but I did walk in the graduation ceremonies this past weekend. I'm still feeling pretty accomplished.

Last YouTube video I watched: Human bungee slingshot

From New York to Utah to Wisconsin to Utah

In the 5 or so weeks (now more since I keep forgetting about this post) I've been "home" from New York, I've done a lot of stuff. So here's a summary of it.

Flights I've taken: 6

Meals eaten at Chick-Fil-A: 4.

Recipes cooked from Sorted Food: 5. The pizza swirls are by far my favorite thing I've tried.

Meals/snacks cooked by Badger: 3. Possibly more.

Visits to Yogurtland: 2.

Games of Spaceteam played: Too many to count already.

Wedding receptions I attended: 1. But it was the best wedding reception I've ever been to. #camgelaforever

People we explained the mick-mack scale to: More than 3 but less than 7.

Seasons of LOST I've watched: 3 1/2 and counting.

Pieces I've written for the Universe: 2. (The first on binge watching TV and the second on the importance of mentors)

Snapchats Kelly has sent me of her dogs: At least 5. Probably more.

Letters Margaret and I have both sent to/received from each other: Around 6.

Boating trips I've been on. 0, sadly. But I did enjoy a good rope swing.

Times Becca, Ryan and I were slightly to moderately terrified while climbing down Bridal Veil Falls as rocks slipped out from under us: A fair few.

Pages I've designed for The Universe: 4.

New movies I've seen: 2. Monsters University and Great Gatsby.

Costco runs Becca and I have made: 1. It's the start of something great.

Times I've watched Wreck It Ralph: 3.

Awesome Seven Peaks visits: 2.

Games of Wii Bowling Peter and I have played: Probably around 10.

Games of Wii Bowling I've won: I'm pretty sure it's 2 but he will vehemently disagree.
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All in all it has been a crazy summer. It's hard to believe that next week I'll be walking for graduation. And then the week after that Becca and I want to embark on an awesome little camping trip. And then it will almost be time for my final semester at BYU to begin. Where did the last four years go?

Last YouTube video I watched: Vlogumentary trailer (If you only ever watch one video I post, please make it this one. Expect a post solely dedicated to that trailer within the next few days.)

Anna Does Sorted: Key lime pie

This recipe came out while I was in New York, aka living without a kitchen, and I've been stoked to try it ever since then. My good friend Peter really likes key lime pie and I'm an awesome friend so I made it with the intent of sharing. At this time, the pie is in the refrigerator setting. I'm not going to lie: it doesn't look very good right now. Like, the filling just looks like I did something wrong. But when I was pouring it into the crust, I did taste some of it and it was DELICIOUS so I'm hoping it sets by the time Peter comes over.


I had to do some improv with this recipe, more than ever before.

• I didn't have caster sugar so I just put a bunch of regular sugar in the food processor.
• I also had to guess/Google on how much whatever amount of grams certain things were. I've done that plenty in the past but today I was unsure of my guesses because of how weird it looks.
• The biggest improv moment came with not having a loose bottom pan. So instead I put parchment paper in the bottom of a cake pan and pushed the crust into it. Technically I think my pan is too big in diameter but we didn't have a smaller one. This is one reason I suspect my filling looks so weird sitting in the fridge right now.

I'm still plenty hopeful though! I mean, Peter can't exactly get mad at me if it doesn't look nice because I made him a freaking pie.

The biggest recommendation I have for anyone looking to make this recipe is make sure you don't have any paper cuts! Because when you're zesting/juicing the limes . . . What the freak it stung so bad. Out of no where the ring finger on my right hand felt like it was burning. Turns out there's a tiny, tiny cut on it.
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Well, the pie was not set by 5 when Peter came over. That was a shame. (Instead we went to the store to buy batteries so we could play Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii.) We re-scheduled pie eating time for later that night.

Well, around 10:30 that night I brought the pie to his house, ever hopeful it would be ready. But alas! Only some of the pie was set. It was pretty disappointing presentation-wise. Peter described it as crust with a lime soup on top, which did make me laugh. Just as I expected though, it tasted awesome.

I'm not quite sure what I screwed up but I'll definitely be making it again; it's a recipe I want to perfect. My favorite part of the pie was the crust made with ginger snap cookies. I quite like ginger snaps so to me it was the obvious choice for the crust on such a pie. Using the parchment paper in the pan actually worked great too!

Last YouTube video I watched: Best Teenage Magician

Salsa salsa salsa

Saturday evening after I returned from Seven Peaks and Stacy finally returned from Europe, we decided we needed to make SALSA. Stacy's salsa became quite famous following our "Feliz Navidad Christmas Fiesta."

The original plan was to make it to bring to Sunday dinner w/ Badger and others, which we did do. But we also made a big batch for ourselves to eat on Saturday. It's simple and fantastic recipe but it's also the kind of thing you can just make up as you go along if you want more mango or something like that.

• A number of roma tomatoes. (I never remember how many. Maybe 5? 5 sounds like a good number.)
• 1 cucumber
• 1 mango
• 1 green pepper
• 1 can of whole kernel corn
• 1 can of black beans
• A chunk of extra sharp cheddar cheese (However much cheese you want really)
• Some amount of Italian dressing (You just kind of keep adding it until it tastes right)
• A dash or more of salt, probably more (Once again, it's a keep adding it until it tastes right kind of thing)
• 1 avocado

You guys all know what salsa is, so chop everything up in little cubes, small enough so you could potentially get a little bit of everything on a chip. The trick is to not cut up the avocado until the very end because you'll be mixing it as you go along and if you add it in before the very end it ends up getting all smushed and you no longer have nice pieces of avocado.

So there you have it. Stacy's famous salsa. We eat it on tortilla chips but eating it on a spoon is totally acceptable as well. Or in tortilla of some sort. Seriously. Eat it however you want and it will be delicious.

Last YouTube video I watched: The Sounds of Ahh by Kurt Hugo Schneider

Anna Does Sorted: Pepperoni pizza swirl

I swear, every recipe gets better and better.

For the pepperoni pizza swirls, I enlisted the help of Becca. (She became a master dough roller.) Friday night is often considered the perfect night for pizza and in our apartment that's no exception. All the boys were at Cameron's bachelor party so we really were left to our own devices. (After dinner we did get shakes at In and Out w/ Angela on account of how her fiance and all the other boys were together being the manliest of men.)



Everything about this recipe was easy as pie. I think my favorite part was the sauce, to which I added some other things as well. Beyond the garlic, basil, salt and pepper, I threw in some parsley and crushed red pepper flakes. I might even add in cheese next time; for a manicotti recipe I have that's what you do for the sauce and can you ever really get enough cheese?

I seem to have a trend going in my posts about what the most difficult part of the recipe was . . . With the pizza swirls, it was probably rolling out the dough. It's hard to roll out dough in a rectangular shape. But Becca did a magnificent job.

Next time, for a little more variety, I'm definitely going to have a bunch of different toppings to put inside. We only used cheese and pepperoni this first time but I think it'd be neat to put pepperoni on, like, 1/4 of it and then on the other 3/4 do things like pineapple, black olives or whatever else people like to put on pizza. Though I suppose those things aren't technically toppings on account of how they get rolled inside the dough. If anyone has suggestions for what those foods should be called when they get put inside pizza, let me know.

One awesome thing we did was make a garlic dipping sauce! It was perfect for the swirls. To make that, all you need is butter, garlic powder and a little dash of salt.

Another thing Becca and I plan to do in the future is make a pesto version of the pizza swirl. Could anything sound more delicious? I submit that it cannot. I think the next party we have will probably be Italian/pizza themed.

Look forward to another food post (most likely) tomorrow since yesterday Stacy and I made her famous salsa!

Last YouTube video I watched: The Technique

Anna Does Sorted: Orange and soy chicken

Another day, another Sorted recipe! Last night I tried a recipe I've literally had on my list for nearly two years. I'm thrilled to say I finally made the orange and soy chicken.

I said it about the other two recipes I've done but "Holy easy recipe, Batman!" It was as tasty and simple as Sorted recipes get. I cannot believe it took me TWO YEARS to make this, especially since I eat oranges all the time.



I don't think I have any little tips for this recipe. It really is that simple, I don't think I can improve a single thing about it. I suppose my only suggestion would be to actually let the chicken marinade in the orange and soy sauce a while. I got home from work around 5:30 and wanted to eat right away but didn't think ahead that morning to do the marinade. Luckily, one of my roommates was using the oven so by default I had to let it sit. Mine probably sat for about an hour in the marinade but longer definitely would've been better, I think. Even an hour still made it delicious! Next time I'm totally going to add some orange zest into the marinade as well.

The one thing I really didn't follow was making bok choi because seriously: who has bok choi just sitting around their kitchen? I sure don't. (Is it just me or does anyone else think of the movie "Secondhand Lions" when they hear the food bok choi?) So I just ate chicken and rice. Though I can see myself in the future putting some vegetables in a pan on the stove and frying them up with a little soy sauce and/or hoisin sauce to add to the rice.

The real brilliance of this recipe is that it only takes the chicken 15 minutes to cook! If you need to whip up a meal fast, this is definitely one I recommend.

Look for another post tomorrow about the pizza swirls! Pizza swirl Friday could totally become a thing.

Last YouTube video I watched: Convos With My 2 Year Old

Anna Does Sorted: Sweet potato quesadilla

I know I said the next recipe would be German burritos but I couldn't find white cabbage. Rather, they didn't have it at the grocery store I went to on Friday and I haven't been to any grocery stores since. Instead, we jumped right on ahead to sweet potato quesadillas! And I can say "we" because BECCA IS BACK.

Quesadillas are fantastically easy to make and can range from decent to DELICIOUS. This one was definitely of the delicious variety. If you've never thought to put sweet potatoes in a tortilla before, don't worry, neither had I. Trust me: it's brilliant and probably better than most homemade quesadillas you've had in the past.



Literally the most difficult part of this recipe was cutting the onions but that's only because I am terrible at it because of how much my eyes water. Eye pain is some of the worst pain I've ever experienced. Other than that, dicing the sweet potatoes was also somewhat challenging but that comes down to having such weaksauce knives. Either I forgot how dull the knives in my apartment are or they've just gotten super dull while I was gone for two months. The other day I said I was plenty happy to stay single on account of how getting married would mean getting rid of my Harry Potter bed sheets. But today I realized I am totally okay getting rid of those sheets if it means getting brand new kitchen stuff!

What I love about this recipe is how easy it is to customize. Like, I didn't want to buy bleu cheese so I used cheddar and a little mozzarella instead. I also added garlic to the red onions when I fried them up, a wonderful decision. Whenever I make these in the future I'm totally going to add chicken as well; that is, if I have chicken the next time I make them. You can honestly add basically anything you want to spice up the flavor even more. I'm sure my mom would want to add a million types of peppers or something like that. Oh, and for a dip you're supposed to use creme fraiche w/ chives in it, which according to Google creme fraiche is similar to sour cream, but I forgot to have it ready in time but it will be ready for tonight when Becca and I go for round 2.

Isn't this cooking thing great?! I'm having the time of my life. I won't even bother saying what's "next up" this time around since chances are it will change multiple times before I actually get around to cooking again. Though I'm really thinking I'll make the pizza swirl dealios on Friday night. Another thing I'll probably try making this weekend is key lime pie! I figure that'd be a good one to share w/ my dear friends.

Last YouTube video I watched: Toe Story

Anna Does Sorted: Chicken & mango curry

In my "Re-commitment" post I described my plan to finally begin cooking again after having lived without a kitchen for two months. But it wasn't just cooking I was going to do; nay, it was cooking with recipes from Sorted Food. And last night that quest began.

My dear Ben took me grocery shopping and before heading out I made the most epic of lists. I organized it by the five recipes I wanted to make in the following week and even had an "other" section for food that I need but didn't go with any particular recipe. This week I'll be dining on chicken & mango curry (though technically I already made this one), sweet potato quesadillas, pizza swirl roll-up dealios, orange & soy chicken, and German burritos.

Last night, instead of hanging out with my friends, I talked with Becca on the phone while I made the curry. And goodness gracious what a great decision that was.



Honestly, the most difficult part of this recipe was the waiting. Putting together the chutney, mayo, yogurt, spice mixture takes mere minutes. Cooking the chicken doesn't take all that long either. But then you put it in the oven for 40 minutes. Granted, 40 minutes really isn't all that long but when you're cooking at 9 o'clock at night, 40 minutes feels like an eternity. And if you pre-cook the chicken and make the rice while the rest is in the oven, this meal really does take under an hour to prepare. I also made less than the recipe was actually for but still ended up with enough for a couple days worth of meals. I definitely plan on making this one again, in full proportions, for all of my friends. I know Kelly will especially love it since she's basically addicted to anything mango.

My favorite Thai dish is massaman so next time I make the chicken & mango curry I think I'll add in potatoes as well. I have a feeling they'd go really well with the flavor of the curry. Because it is made with mango chutney, the curry is kind of sweet and almost fruity. When I shared leftovers with Ben for lunch today he even asked if there was orange in it. Though there wasn't, that got me thinking that adding in a little orange could change things up nicely as well. I'm glad I got him over to my apartment to taste it because while I thought it was absolutely brilliant it's nice to have other people's confirmation. And he agreed it was delicious, evidenced by how he absolutely licked his bowl clean. (Seriously, it barely took any rinsing before I put it in the dishwasher.)

The next recipe I'll be doing? That's German burritos for Becca's return on Monday. I've already got some changes in mind for this one so hopefully it turns out well!

Last YouTube video I watched: Oh, JK Rowling - A Harry Potter Song (Yep, I'm bringing this back! I've quite missed it.)

1 week down

A handful of pictures from what has made this first week back in Utah so awesome:

 Plus, celebrating my new job w/ Ben by going out for ice cream; getting Chick-Fil-A with Stacy; catching up with Peter; eating an amazing dinner w/ DangerScorn; drinking Jones soda w/ Brandt and Badger.

I also found an illustration/comic that never ceases to make me laugh.

And tomorrow I head back to Wisconsin, meaning more lovely times with more lovely people.