{Recipe} Keleguin

This is a special post, because this is a recipe that isn't very common, but is amazingly delicious. My mum got it from her mother, who was born and raised on Saipan, a small island located north of Guam. My dad calls the dish "Pelican" just to drive my mum crazy and I'm pretty sure my youngest brother is convinced we're actually eating pelicans.

I want to emphasize that this is by no means an "official" recipe. My mum does it the way she remembers her mum doing it, and her mum never had an exact method. As such, this recipe is also not precise--these are all estimates, but as close as we could get to accuracy. 

While this recipe takes a good bit of time and effort, the payoff is worth it, and it's a dish that gets better after some time in the refrigerator as well. I highly recommend trying it if you're feeling adventurous.

Ingredients:

12 boneless chicken thighs
lemon pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper for seasoning chicken thighs
4 cups freshly grated coconut
3/4 of an onion, diced
2 tbsp banana peppers
1 tbsp red pepper paste
3/4 c lemon juice
salt and pepper

{Recipe} Fiesta Lime Chicken

Do you have that ONE dish at that ONE restaurant that you always have to get? Even when the restaurant has added new things to the menu? But you've been looking forward to that favorite dish for SO LONG that you can't bring yourself to deviate from the tried-and-true dish?

For me, at Applebees, that was Fiesta Lime Chicken.

Eventually, as I became more adept at cooking, I got tired of going out to a restaurant just for that one dish. So I learned to replicate it at home!

Recipe after the jump!

{Recipe} Holy Cow Cake

I don't know where this recipe originated. I did a bit of research and some people indicate that it's a Duncan Hines original, but I haven't bothered to pin it down. This is one of those recipes that transcends its originator and becomes all about who perpetuated it.

In this case, this was the cake my mother-in-law used to make for parties, meetings, birthdays at work, or holidays. None of us have had it since she passed, but since we were having a barbecue on Sunday for my whole family, I decided there was no time like the present.

I ended up tweeting that the shopping and baking process was a lot more emotional than I had anticipated, but I survived and everyone loved the cake.

Warning: this cake is DECADENT. Ridiculously so. It's one of those cakes you should only make, like, once a year, for a huge group. It's rich, it's delicious, it's sinfully fattening. But once in a while, it's totally worth it.

Yes, the ingredients really ARE this simple.

{Recipe} Chicken Marsala

I love Italian food, but I can't handle how heavy some of it feels. Going to Italian restaurants is basically a pasta smorgasbord, and I'm pretty sure most Americans really do believe that the Italians are simply incapable of making light dishes. Even the Olive Garden version of this recipe is very breaded! It's not true, Americans! Don't believe the hype!

This Chicken Marsala recipe is such a favorite of mine that I used to make it nearly once a week. I've made it so many times that it's not very precise anymore, but I'll provide close estimates.

{Recipe} Angel Food Cake

Or as geometry enthusiasts might like to call it: "Angle Food Cake."

If you've ever made an Angel Food Cake from scratch, then you know there is going to be a lot of ONE THING in this post:

{Recipe} Nutella Cookies

My brother-in-law bit into one of these, stared at me as he chewed, then asked, "Do you know what heaven tastes like?"

Apparently, it tastes like these cookies.

Recipe included after the jump!

Recipe: Jamaican Smile

Remember on "Friends," when Monica was making casseroles for her mother's party and Phoebe exclaims, "It's hard to believe that just a little while ago, this was nothing but ingredients!" I don't know why, but that always pops into my head whenever I cook. 

Yesterday was a dreary thunderstorm-y day here in North Florida, but that never stops us from having fruity blended beverages! So I threw out our old leaky blender, took Hubs to the store, and came home with a brand new blender, yay! On our honeymoon in Jamaica, we enjoyed a local drink called a "Jamaican Smile." I had probably five per day:

 

They are pretty much amazing, and when we got home, we immediately researched how to recreate these bad boys.