{ I think} I can cook - Waffle Iron Cinnamon Rolls

Waffle Iron Cinnamon Rolls- where have you been all my life? These are easy, scrumptious and dare I say- EASIER than making them in the oven. They are so good my kid (the one who refuses to eat anything new or different) even thought they were awesome.

{I think} I can cook - Strawberry "Surprise" Trifle

I can't really take a lot of credit for this recipe.

Okay. I can't take ANY credit for this recipe. This is something that my mom has probably been making for 30 or 40 years. It has a trifecta of summer goodness - berries, cool whip and rum (that's the "surprise"). 

I remember as a kid having this during the summers...of course made without the rum "surprise". I have no idea what she called this concoction...maybe she called it Strawberry Surprise, maybe I started calling it that, but it really doesn't matter. One of the great things about it is there's the potential for NO cooking involved (which translates to no screwing this recipe up). Here's what it looks like:

Oh sweet berry goodness. 

I must say this first- I NEVER put raspberries on the top. It's always been just straight up strawberries. But the raspberries looked REALLY good, and the strawberries looked kinda iffy, so I went with 1/2 raspberries and 1/2 strawberries. You can of course use any sort of berry, or combination of berries.

What you need:
Trifle Bowl - the one I have is from Crate and Barrel
Angel Food Cake - either baked at home or from the grocery store. Grocery store bought = no cooking involved.
Cool Whip (8oz container)
2 containers of Strawberries (or any other berries)
Rum

How you make it:
Bake or buy your Angel Food Cake. Remove it from the pan.

Clean and slice your strawberries. Cut the strawberries in 1/4. (or maybe smaller if you have giant berries).

Slice the Angel Food Cake in 1/3 sections with a serrated knife. Take each of the 1/3 sections and cut in 1/3 through the middle - like 1" from the bottom and then 1" from the top, so you'll have three 1" slices. You should have 9 pieces of cake that resemble a "C".

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Take 2 slices and layer in the bottom of your trifle bowl. You will need to cut a small piece of cake from a 3rd slice to finish the layer.

 

Drizzle some rum on top of the cake layer.

Rum I brought back from USVI.

 

Use 1/3 of the cool whip and spread across the cake layer. Take some handfulls of berries and layer on top of the cool whip.

 

Repeat the cake, rum, cool whip and berry layers until you get to the top of the bowl. You should have about 3 layers of cake, 3 layers of rum drizzle, 3 layers of cool whip, and 3 layers of berries. For this particular trifle I put raspberries on the top. I also had about 1 slice of cake left over. There's no "pretty" way of serving this, so I usually just scoop it out with a big serving spoon.

{I think} I can cook - PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps

Let me just preface this post by stating that I TRY to cook. I watch Top Chef and other cooking shows in awe. I accept that I'm not gifted in the kitchen. Any time I make a new recipe, my family knows one of the following things will most likely happen: 1) I will leave out  a (very important) ingredient,  2) I will drop it on the floor, 3) it will be either undercooked or overcooked. However- when I do find a recipe that works out for me, it's usually AWESOME. Tonight's recipe success has set the bar high- VERY high. Tonight I attempted to (re)create PF Changs Lettuce Wraps.

The Real Deal- from PF Chang's

A few years ago, I purchased Todd Wilbur's Top Secret Recipes cookbook from QVC. This recipe was in the cookbook, so I can in no way take credit for it. I can however state that I made some changes to the recipe, which I will  note below.


Special Sauce Ingredients:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1 - 3 teaspoons chinese hot mustard (1 for for mild, 2 for medium, 3 for hot)
1 - 3 teaspoons garlic chili sauce (1 for for mild, 2 for medium, 3 for hot)

Stir Fry Sauce Ingredients:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar

Other Ingredients:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (* I used canola oil)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup (8oz) canned water chestnuts - diced
2/3 cup canned straw mushrooms - diced (* I omitted this)
3 tablespoons chopped green onion (* I forgot to buy this so I used some Tastefully Simple Spinach & Herb Dip Mix instead)
1 teaspoon minced garlic (1 clove) (* I totally forgot to add this)
1 cup fried maifun rice sticks (* I omitted this)
iceberg lettuce head
(* I also added 2 handfuls of cashews, and  made a side of brown rice)

1. Mix the Special Sauce - combine all the Special Sauce ingredients in a small bowl and refrigerate.

2. Mix the Stir Fry Sauce - combine all the Stir Fry Sauce ingredients in a small bowl.

3. In a wok or large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil on high heat, saute the chicken breats about 4-5 minutes each side and remove from the pan. Let it cool a bit and then chop into dime sized chunks.

4. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the pan and then add the chicken chunks, diced chestnuts, diced mushrooms, garlic, green onion and stir fry sauce. Saute for about 4 minutes and serve atop the fried maifun noodles.

5. Cut the lettuce head in 1/2 and pull apart leaves for the wraps.

6. Assemble the wraps and spoon the Special Sauce on top. Eat like a taco.

Special Sauce, Lettuce, Brown Rice, Chicken Filling

My assembled "Chinese Taco"