Around the World in the Hetzel Kitchen

I once had someone that had taught English in China tell me that Sweet and Sour Chicken was one of the more authentic foods that people in America consider Chinese. Who knew, right? Whether this is true or not, I know that I find it delicious. So how do you get it other than takeout? Very differently than I would have thought. I originally found the recipe here , but now I notice it points back to another site with different proportions. I think I'll be using the original next time, and you'll see why! The sauce is made by whisking apple cider vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, sugar, and garlic powder. My initial credulity was ketchup. Really? But ketchup originated in Asia. This is one reason why you can find it spelled differently different places, since it was being translated from a different alphabet. So I call possibly legit. With the sauce ready, I took cut-up chicken and seasoned them then stirred them around with some cornstarch. The original recipe says that they ...

Kevin and I went to Italy in 2009.  More about that when I actually get to Italy in my regular country cooking.  While we were there we had lots and lots of good food.  Amazing food.  One thing that I particularly remembered was Spaghetti alla Carbonara. Fast forward to our first Valentines Day as a married couple and I wanted to make something delicious.  I looked through my favorite cookbook and found a recipe one for that same Italian dish.  Boom.  Decision made.  It was really good and became a regular item on the menu. (Unfortunately the chocolate cake that Kevin made on that Valentine's Day got knocked off of the counter by the cat.) I highly recommend this cookbook! Before each recipe it has a long description of what the recipe is and how they came to this version.  They try a lot of different things and then taste test them all.  I kinda want that job. Spaghetti alla Carbonara is basically spaghetti noodles in a ...

Writing a post about "authentic" recipes and cooking is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  There is a lot of research and ingredient sourcing fairly complicated recipes.  If you can understand the instructions in the first place. Don't worry, I'm not planning on stopping.  I have multiple posts in progress, and Hungary on the menu plan. It is just that cooking internationally-inspired food does not have to be this hard.  We have lots of dinners that are influenced by international cuisine and we love it.  I'm going to have some posts of these Everyday International foods to both encourage myself and hopefully give you some easier ways to join in the fun. These will be a lot less vetted than other things.  I make no claims about authenticity, just about taste and process. Italy, India, and Mexico will probably be some of the first countries we visit though this, but not the last.