You should also only try this recipe if you have a lot of spices lying around (or are willing to go out and buy them). They don’t call this 16-spice chicken for nothing!

Sixteen-Spice-Rubbed Chicken Breast with Black Pepper Vinegar Sauce and Green Onion Slaw

Green Onion Slaw:
1 cup coarsely chopped green onions, white and green parts
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons honey
2 serrano chiles
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 cup canola oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small head of purple cabbage, finely shredded
1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Chicken:
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon pasilla chile powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon chile de arbol
Kosher salt
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 (8-ounce) boneless chicken breasts, skin on
1/4 cup canola oil
Black Pepper Vinegar Sauce (recipe follows)

To make the dressing for the slaw, combine the green onions, vinegar, honey, chiles, mayonnaise, oil and salt and pepper to taste in a blender and blend until emulsified.
Combine the cabbage, red onion and poppy seeds in a bowl, add the dressing, and stir until combined. Fold in the cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate while you grill the chicken or for up to 1 hour.

Heat your grill to high.

Stir together the ancho powder, pasilla powder, cumin, coriander, ginger, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, chile de arbol, 2 tablespoons salt, black pepper and cayenne in a small bowl.

Brush both sides of the breasts with the oil and season with salt. Rub the top side of each breast with a few tablespoons of the rub and place on the grill, rub side down. Grill until golden brown and slightly charred, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the breasts over and continue grilling until just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes longer.

Remove the chicken from the grill and drizzle with the black pepper vinegar sauce. Tent loosely with foil and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve the slaw on the side.

Black Pepper Vinegar Sauce:
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Combine the vinegar, oil, mustard, honey, salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth. The sauce can be made 1 day in advance, covered and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before serving.

[via Food Network]

And though some people are turned off by the word “vegetarian” you’ll never miss the meat in this chili. It’s colorful and delicious. The recipe says to serve with cornbread, but I find tortillas heated to soften them make a wonderful accompaniment as well.

Vegetarian Chipotle Chili

• 2 tablespoons 365 Everyday Value™ Extra Virgin Olive or Canola Oil
• 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
• 1/2 cup diced carrot
• 1 1/2 cups frozen Stoplight Pepper Strips
• 1 small package chili seasoning mix
• 1–3 tablespoons chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced
• 1 can (28 ounce) diced tomatoes
• 1 can kidney beans, drained
• 1 can (15 ounce) black beans, drained
• toppings: chopped scallions, sour cream, shredded cheese

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat and sauté onions and carrots about 3 minutes, then add peppers and continue cooking until warm. Stir in seasoning mix and minced chipotles. Add tomatoes, beans and 1 cup water. Gently simmer over low heat, uncovered, 30 minutes. Garnish individual bowls using vegan and gluten-free toppings, if desired. Serve with warm cornbread (may contain dairy and gluten).

[via Whole Foods Market]

Now, I didn’t stick to the recipe completely (I’m not a cucumber fan and I love ketchup, so sue me!) but the basic idea was preserved. The recipe follows–it serves 4. I never knew a hot dog could be so good and good for you! There’s nothing like biting into this dog and taste the sweet tomatoes, experience the crunch of the pickles and pepperoncinis (yes, another change to the dish) and the tang of the onion. The key here is the all-natural uncured franks. They make or break the dish.

• 4 all-natural uncured franks
• 4 hot dog buns, preferably studded with poppy seeds
• 4 1/4-inch-thick cucumber rounds, halved
• 1 ripe tomato, cut into 8 wedges
• Yellow mustard
• 4 dill pickle spears
• 8 hot “sport” peppers or sliced banana peppers
• 4 tablespoons finely chopped white or yellow onion
• Sweet pickle relish
• Celery salt

Bring a small saucepan filled with water to a boil. Add hot dogs and cook 4 to 5 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 170°F. If desired, warm buns in microwave for 10 seconds or toast in a pan. Nestle each hot dog into a bun.

Arrange cucumber slices along one side, tomato wedges on the other. Top with mustard, pickle spear, sport peppers, onions and relish. Add a fine sprinkle of celery salt and your dog is ready to enjoy.

[via Whole Foods Market]

Pempek or Empek-Empek is a delicacy from Palembang which is made of fish and sago. Pempek is eaten together with a dark sauce called cuka or cuko (in bahasa Palembang). Cuko is produced from adding brown sugar, chili pepper, garlic, vinegar, and salt into hot boiling water.

There are different types of Empek-Empek, the one we ordered were Pempek Kapal Selam (Submarine) which comes with boiled egg wrapped inside the Pempek itself. Other types of Pempek are “pempek telur kecil”, “pempek keriting”, “pempek pistel (or pastel(?)”, “pempek kulit ikan”, “pempek adaan”, “pempek lenjer”, and “pempek tahu”.

The way most Indonesia eat them is by cutting the Pempek itself into small pieces, with the egg noodles, meehoon, and diced cucumber – top it with the cuka (vinegar) soup. It does taste and smells a little fishy, but again it is made of fish.

I put all the shrimp into food processor and mix it with salt, pepper, and a little of rice flour. Shaped the shrimp mix to fit my buns and then fried them up. It was easy, fast, and very convenient way to consume all the shrimp I had at once.

She cuts the Dikon into several pieces (around 2-inch thick), sautéed it with sesame oil and salt and then top it off with grated Dikon, dried bonito flakes and water crest. With a little sesame oil drizzle on top, makes the Daikon very flavorful.

Do I still hate Daikon radish? Yes I do! But not this one.

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients are Shrimp, Lemon, Mayonnaise, Ketchup, ginger, green onion, lemon, salt, and pepper. (Amount is personal preferences – I love more mayo rather than ketchup)

Boil the shrimp with ginger, green onion, and lemon for at least 3 minutes on medium heat, then let it cools down. After it cools down, mix the shrimp with Mayonnaise and ketchup, salt and pepper. The amount of these mix are depending on your personal preferences.

Chicken Salad

Ingredients are chicken breast, relish, onion, grapes, mayonnaise, ginger, green onion, celery, salt, and pepper.

Boil the chicken with garlic, ginger and green onion for at least 30 minutes. Cool down the chicken. Cut it into cubes and then mixed it with mayonnaise, relish, chopped celery, salt, and pepper.
Cuts the grapes into half and add it into the salad mix.

It’s pretty simple and tasty when you eat them with slices of toast bread and butter. I also eat it using lettuce as its wrap.

So I’m sharing the bento box pictures my wife made for my sister and me for lunch almost everyday. These Bento boxes are tastier if you eat it several hours from its packing. Enjoy!

I grilled up several hot dogs and heat up some hot dog buns and rather than using the normal hot dogs condiments, we top the hot dogs with pasta meat sauce, chopped green onions, sauteed onions, sour cream, pesto sauce (made from spinach) and finish off with Parmesan-reggiano cheese. Our buddy Daniel adds some grape tomatoes on top of his hot dogs.

The outcome? While the result looks pretty messy, the taste was simply amazing! I would have to try to use beer batter sausage next time and see if it’s any better than this one.

We call it StrawNana Chocolate River, but I’m sure there are plenty of similar desserts out there with different names. We cut the strawberries in half and diced the bananas then we melt some Hersey’s chocolate milk bar with some heavy cream to thicken it and keep it from harden when it cools down. After that we pour the melted chocolate over the strawberries and bananas, and top it with whip cream and chopped nuts. Boy oh boy, it was delicious, and it took only 12 minutes for the two of us to do it!

So if you want a quick dessert, this might be a nice one to whip out. A little warning, calories might be high and it can very addictive! But again, it’s Thanksgiving!