chicken curry.

Once upon a time, when I was in 3rd grade, I went to a friend's birthday party. For dinner, we had what her mom called "chicken curry". I was skeptical, because I was only used to the foods my mom made. I tried it, LOVED it, had seconds, and then spent the next 6 years begging my mom to call and ask for the recipe. 

She finally did, and in 9th grade I made it during finals week for lunch. I remember this day distinctly. As it was baking, I sat in the family recliner (which I had pulled to be about 1 foot away from the TV) and played Zelda on the GameCube. Why do I remember exactly what happened on an otherwise insignificant day so many years ago? Because after 6 years of waiting, I FINALLY got to have chicken curry again. 

And guess what happened? The recipe got lost. How does that happen!? So, for the next 4-5 years, I once again went Chicken Curry-less. It was a sad time.

When I was getting ready to move out of my parents house, I decided I needed to have a recipe book of my own with all of my favorite family recipes. My mom had an idea to give recipe cards to my sisters, grandma, etc. to have them write down their favorite recipes for my book. Now my recipe book is filled with handwriting from everyone in my family and I can think about them whenever I look at the recipes.

Something awesome happened: that friend's birthday party that I went to when I was in 3rd grade? Well it turns out that her mom works with my sister's mom, and had given her the recipe for Chicken Curry. My sister's mom then gave it to my sister, who wrote it down on one of the recipe cards that my mom had given her! 

Cheers of celebration were heard around the world. Since I got the recipe back, I have made Chicken Curry at least once a month. I.LOVE.IT. And everyone that I've ever made it for loves it. Even D, hater of mayonnaise and skeptic of anything new or different, LOVED it. If I were to ask him what he wants for dinner, I know for sure that he would say one of three things: beef stew, chicken pot pie, or chicken curry. (Recipes for the other 2 will be up here eventually, promise!)

Here you are, "my" recipe for Chicken Curry. From my friend's mom, to my sister's mom, to my sister, to me, to you. 

Chicken Curry

2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 can  cream of chicken soup

1/4 cup milk

3/4 tsp lemon juice (from bottle)

1/2 cup mayo

1/2 tsp curry powder (I use the McCormick kind, it's yellow)

1/2 cup sharp cheese (shredded)

Cook chicken. (I boil mine until it is completely cooked). Cut chicken up into bite size pieces, the smaller the better. (I actually cheat and use a slap-chop like device so that it kind of turns into chicken dust. It's also WAY faster.) Put chicken into the bottom of a 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish. 

In a separate pan, combine the rest of the ingredients. Heat over medium heat until cheese is melted and everything is combined. Pour mixture over chicken and stir to combine. Spread mixture evenly in baking dish. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until bubbly at the edges. (Everything is cooked so you are just letting it combine/heat) Once I put the dish in the oven, I start boiling a large pot of water. I then cook a whole bag of egg noodles. Once the noodles are done, I take the dish out of the oven. It's usually perfect timing.

Serve over egg noodles and enjoy! 

(PS: I make this for just D and I.. we eat 1/4 of the dish over a bowl of egg noodles each, and that leaves 1/2 of the dish for dinner another night! So it makes the perfect 2-person meal for 2 nights!)

oven baked sweet potato fries.

When I was at my parents last week, my mom took me to this little fruit and vegetable stand in town. We got some zucchini and squash for my dad to grill, some tomatoes to cut up and have with dinner, and also some sweet potatoes. 

I've never made anything with sweet potatoes before, but I have had sweet potato fries at restaurants and loved them! The first time I ever had sweet potato fries was at this really cool cafe in Binghamton when I was visiting my friend. It was called the Lost Dog Cafe. 

I got some type of seasoned sliced steak, and it was served over portobello ravioli and grilled asparagus. It had probably the most delicious cream sauce I've ever had in my life drizzled over it. Every single thing about that dish was absolutely delicious. Oh! I think I still have a picture of it on my iPhone: 

*Drool*...where was I? Oh yes. Sweet potato fries. Anyways, I got an order of their sweet potato fries on the side. They were incredible. I vowed to try them at other restaurants and to someday make them myself! Well folks, that day has come. 

I washed and peeled the potatoes and then cut them length-wise and cross-wise. Sweet potatoes are a lot harder to cut than regular potatoes! 

I've made quite a few batches of regular oven baked french fries lately, so I knew that putting them in a bowl before putting them onto the baking sheet would make things easier.

I decided to add olive oil, salt, and paprika. I've always thought that paprika was "just for looks" (like on deviled eggs), but it turns out that it really does add a nice smokey, spicy flavor! 

Plus it gives them those pretty red specks- how fancy :) After trying tin foil (major fail), no tin foil (semi-fail), and then spraying the pan with Pam before adding the fries, I've finally perfected how to get the fries NOT to stick to the pan.

At first I had the oven on 450 degrees, but after flipping the fries half-way into cooking, I thought that they weren't going to get crispy enough... so I turned the oven up to 480 for the second half. Bad idea. Some of the fries got burned and it set the smoke detector off. Lesson learned.

As you can see though, most of the fries were still perfectly edible- and they were delicious! I like salty sweet potato fries (because I'm a freak of nature and LOVE salt), so I added salt after they came out of the oven too. They were perfect- not too sweet, not too salty (this is not possible in my world), and nice and crispy!


Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries

2-3 large sweet potatoes
1 tsp salt (plus some for sprinkling once cooked)
1 tsp paprika
2 tbs olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and peel potatoes. Cut into whatever shape fries you would like. I went with traditional. In a bowl, combine fries, olive oil, salt, and paprika. I added the olive oil first so that the spices would stick better. I added the salt and paprika while "tossing" the fries around so that they would be evenly coated. Spread fries out into a single layer onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, remove fries from oven. Using a spatula, flip fries over. Bake for 13-15 more minutes.

new day, new name, new niche!

So yesterday I uploaded a whole bunch of pictures from the past week or so. As you can see, I've been busy baking/cooking/eating. Well, I've also been busy biking. D and I have taken two awesome bike rides this week, and I got some great pictures!

Why didn't I post these pictures yesterday with the slurry of other pictures? Because A) I didn't want to overload you with pictures and B) I wanted them to have a whole post of their own! 

So last night I was reading an article on how to write a successful blog. Lame? Maybe. It said that you have to have a "niche", or something special and specific to your blog that makes people read it. That made me think "why is my blog named Silly Songs with Sara? It really has nothing to do with what I write about." 

I thought about it for a while, and I realized that I needed something to do with food in the title... but there are SO MANY food blogs out there. What makes mine different? And then it hit me: I have tons of awesome pictures on my camera / iphone from bike adventures! Baking and Biking.... hmm it has a nice ring to it.

Fast forward... and here we are now! I changed the name of my blog to "baking & biking". I like it. I also like the new design better. It is easier to look at and not so busy. Another reason that I am including biking in the title is because D LOVES biking. He reads bike blogs, he goes on ridiculous 25 mile rides, and he looks at thousand dollar bikes on-line while trying not to drool. He asks me things like "If we win the lottery, can I buy as many bikes as I want?" Of course you can. As long as I can have an amazing kitchen. 

I'm hoping to fill this blog with all of the trials and tribulations that I have in the kitchen as well as pictures from bike rides that D and I take. D is a MUCH better biker than me, but I'm getting better and I'm surprising myself lately with some of the hills that I am able to get up!

That being said, baking or biking will not be the subject of EVERY SINGLE POST. I don't bake or bike every day! Jeesh! Give a girl a break. But I hope you enjoy whatever does end up on here. :)

i've been MIA.

I'm ashamed of myself. I've been slacking on the blogging home front. I've been taking all these pictures of everything I make/eat but I haven't blogged about any of them! How disappointing. Here's what you missed (in picture form):

farmers market!

chocolate cobbler.. recipe here!

spaghetti & meatballs.. D made it!

batter for oatmeal peanut butter snack squares. recipe here.

before it got squished into the pan!

the finished product. :)

take-out julienne salad. yum!

first attempt at oats: rolled oats, homemade strawberry jam,
skippy natural peanut butter, and milk.

homemade croutons! DO IT.

second attempt: rolled oats, milk, brown sugar, and natural peanut butter. super yum!

squash and zucchini with salt, pepper, and minced garlic ready to be grilled!

my dad grills some mean veggies :)

oh, and pizza! grilled pizza..mmmmmm

third kind of oats! rolled oats, brown sugar, french vanilla granola,
banana, and natural peanut butter. love!

the french vanilla granola had almonds in it. deeeelicious!

I could eat this every single day. Tomato toast. It's a family thing!

grilled salmon from ruby tuesday. it was delish!

white cheddar mashed potatoes from RT.

grilled green beans. yum!

got some new kicks today. excited to run in them!

tried izze for the first time! i liked it!

homemade beef stew. i know it's summer, but it's one of D's faves!

this was my great-grandma's. i'm having fun
going through all the old recipes :)

Well, there ya go! That essentially sums up the last....however long its been since I've last posted. As you can see, I've been experimenting a lot with oatmeal. Practice makes perfect! I promise to try harder to update more often!