Cashew Chicken

This recipe for Cashew Chicken was found on Pinterest and is on my "main dishes to be made" board.  I prefer Chinese food with vegetables so I added snow peas and because I love them, a can of water chestnuts.  This turned out very tasty and once all the preparations are complete it comes together very quickly.  I started brown rice in my steamer an hour before eating.  Then I made the sauce and prepped the chicken tenders and put those in the ginger marinade for half an hour.  During the marinading time I trimmed up the snow peas and cut the garlic and green onions.  I took the chicken out of the refrigerator and let it come close to room temperature and cooked it in two batches.  I put the snow peas and water chestnuts in with the garlic and followed the recipe as written from there.

Coconut Cake

I found this recipe for the BEST COCONUT CAKE and I had to try it.  It was delicious, maybe the best coconut cake ever and looks like a happy snowball.  My parents and I thought pineapple would have gone well with this cake and next time I will add some crushed pineapple in the filling.

The recipe calls for 2 bags of frozen coconut.  Frozen coconut?  Huh?  I had never heard of such a thing.   I found it in the freezer case within seconds, near the frozen fruit.  You defrost it and it is easy to work with and does not clump like the bagged coconut.  I enjoyed pressing it into the frosting though I did miss a spot or  two as my picture (unfortunately) shows.

Start the cake two days in advance as the filing needs to set up for a day, then you put the cake together and let it set up for another day.  I was not sure that the sweetened whipped cream would be a good frosting but it turned out nicely.  The cake is very moist and I will definitely make it again.