Olive Garden Breadsticks.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 packet active dry yeast
• 4 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter melted
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. salt

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and allow to sit for 10 minutes, covered. Mixture should be frothy.
2. In separate bowl, combine flour and salt. Add to yeast mixture. Add melted butter. Mix with paddle attachment of stand mixer or wooden spoon until fully combined.
3. Knead dough for a few minutes just until dough is smooth. Do not overknead!
4. Grease a cookie sheet. Pull off pieces of dough and roll out into strips. Cover the dough and let sit in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour.
5. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and once heated, pop in the bread sticks.
6. In microwave, combine the following: 1 stick unsalted butter (or 1/2 cup margarine), 2 teaspoons garlic powder and 1 teaspoons salt.
7. After bread sticks have cooked for 6 or 7 minutes, brush the bread sticks with half the butter mixture. Then continue to bake. Bake for 5-8 more minutes.
8. Immediately upon removal from the oven brush the other half of the butter on the sticks.Allow to cool for a few minutes before eating.

These were actually very easy to make. If you do try this recipe, my dough was smooth like it states in the directions, yet a little sticky. They did still rise later and I might try to make them less sticky to see if they rise just a little bit better and would be easier to roll. But, oh do these taste just like Olive Garden's! YUM. These would make great pizza sticks for kids too. I think I might get some mozzarella and pepperoni's to melt on them and then you could dip in marinara.  I got about 12 breadsticks from this recipe. Heidi gobbled one up pretty fast. Oh and I used just a little bit of the butter mix to brush on the breadsticks while they baked. I got a little too much garlic on some of them. Oh well. Next time I will try to make mine also a little nicer. The pic is mine this time and they look silly. But who cares, right. They will get eaten fast anyway. :)

Actor tag

I’ve seen some movies lately that I’ve realized can all be stringed together by the actors in them. I’m going to call it “actor tag”. It’s kind of like a “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon” game. It all started when I saw “Water For Elephants”. Of course, the book was better, but I did enjoy the movie. What I really enjoyed was Christoph Walz as August. He was brilliant and I had to look him up at IMDB. This led me to “Inglorious Bastards” in which he won an Oscar for his role. I liked the movie, but once again Walz was incredible and definitely deserved the Oscar. He’s a German actor, but I hope he’ll continue to appear in more American movies because I’ll see anything he’s in. I didn’t mean for this actor tag streak to continue, but the next movie I saw, “X-Men First Class”, also stars Michael Fassbender who appeared in “Inglorious Bastards”. I didn’t care for the last couple of X-Men movies that came out, but this one is outstanding. I loved getting everyone’s backstory and the actors were great too. (And Kevin Bacon is in it. Ha!). As I was once again on IMDB, trying to figure out where I had seen James McAvoy (first Narina movie) before, I noticed Jennifer Lawrence was in X-Men. I did not realize that was her. So I’m taking it as a sign that I need to see The Hunger Games. I wonder how long I can keep this actor tag game going?

Great Orange Chicken Recipe!

Ingredients:
Chicken-
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1-1/2” cubes)
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 eggs (beaten)
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
Oil (for frying)

Orange Sauce-
1 ½ cups water
2 tablespoons orange juice
¼ cup lemon juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon orange zest (grated)
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon ginger root (minced)
½ teaspoon garlic (minced)
2 tablespoons green onion (chopped)
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Step 3: Combine 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water and mix thoroughly. Slowly stir cornstarch mixture into sauce until it thickens. Pour sauce over breaded chicken, and if desired add red pepper flakes and garnish with green onions. Enjoy.

* I had to share this recipe with you. It's SO yummy. Brian wanted more and I stuffed myself full. Hope you try it sometime. I know I am making this more and more. My next recipe to make is crockpot Bourbon Chicken. you know the kind that you get at that stir fry stop at the mall and is so good? I hope it turns out. I LOVE that stuff.  ENJOY!

Cooking Instructions:
Step 1: Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Dip chicken in egg mixture and shake in flour mixture to coat. Deep fry chicken in batches at 375 degrees in a deep fryer (or use a wok) until completely cooked.

Step 2: Meanwhile, in a large saucepan combine 1 ½ cups water, lemon juice, orange juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Blend well over medium heat for a few minutes. Stir in brown sugar, orange zest, ginger garlic, and onion. Bring to a boil.