Reunited and it feels so good.

This weekend brought an old roomie into town from NYC and we got together with a few friends last night for some bevvies, tasty treats, Taboo and Guitar Hero. Ahh good times :)

Since I had a TON of wonton wrappers leftover from Wednesday's dinner with V, I came up with two fillings I wanted to test out on my unsuspecting guinea pigs. I had randomly bought a package of cream cheese the other day plus I had a leftover can of crabmeat from Thanksgiving dinner...um, how often does someone have all the ingredients for crab rangoon in their kitchen?

Now I'm not a crab rangoon fan, but it seemed like the best use for all these wrappers. I knew I wanted to bake whatever I made with the wonton wrappers so I figured I might as well go all the way with my experiment. I decided to add all the things I wish regular crab rangoon had in it. The result? A zesty, but creamy alternative.

Zesty Crab Rangoon

6 oz crabmeat

4 oz reduced fat cream cheese

1 small shallot, minced

1/4 tsp lemon zest

1/4 tsp sriracha sauce

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 egg, beaten

24 wonton wrappers

Combine first 6 ingredients and 1 tbsp of egg in a food processor. Pulse until combined.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment or foil. Spray with nonstick spray and set aside.

Lay out wrappers and place a teaspoon of the crab mixture in the center. Swipe egg on two sides of the square wrapper, fold over to make a triangle and pinch sides to seal. Fold corners in to meet each other and seal with egg. Bake for 5-7 minutes on one side, flip and bake for another 5 minutes or until golden brown.

I served these with some sweet chili sauce since I didn't really think about sauces until it was too late. Also, I actually used more lemon zest in my experiment and thought it was too zesty so this is includes the slight change.

Hoisin Chicken Triangles

1/2 c hoisin sauce

1 tbsp mirin

3 tbsp chicken broth

1/2 tbsp sriracha sauce

1 tsp grated ginger

2 scallions, chopped

1/3 c water chestnuts, chopped

1 tbsp sesame oil

salt

pepper

1 1/2 c Five Spice Roasted Chicken, shredded (see recipe)

1 egg, beaten

10 wonton wrappers

Combine hoisin, mirin, broth and sriracha in a bowl and set aside.

Heat sesame oil in a pan and heat chicken and scallions for 3 minutes. Stir in hoisin mixture and cook for 5 minutes on medium low heat. Add water chestnuts and ginger, combine well and remove from heat. Chill for 20 minutes and spread mixture out on a cutting board (you'll need to do this in batches). Quickly run a knife through to coarsely chop the mixture.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment or foil. Spray with nonstick spray and set aside.

Lay out wrappers and place a heaping teaspoon of the chicken in the center. Swipe egg on two sides of the square wrapper, fold over to make a triangle and pinch sides to seal. Bake for 5-7 minutes on one side, flip and bake for another 5 minutes or until golden brown.

These were pretty freaking delicious if I do say so myself. I didn't serve these with a dipping sauce, but I could picture them with a yogurt or sour cream based dip. I dunno. I know that whole random chopping the mixture thing seems weird, but I was worried the long shreds of chicken wouldn't fit properly in the wonton wrappers.

I thought they would make decent taquitos too (translation: I ran out of wonton wrappers before filling ha)

Five Spice Roasted Chicken

1.5 lbs split chicken breast

1.5 tbsp five spice powder

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar

1/2 tbsp oil

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine five spice, sugar, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper in a bowl. Rub all over breast, including under skin. Place on baking sheet and cover loosely with foil. Roast for 20 minutes covered. Remove foil and continue roasting for another 15 minutes.

Have I mentioned I'm not a fan of five spice? I wouldn't say I hate it, but I generally avoid it. Maybe it's the combination of star anise and cloves that gets me. Who knows. Anyway, I used it in this recipe because I thought it would be appropriate with the hoisin sauce and the route I was taking with this filling.

I hope you enjoy these recipes :) And yes, I spent my day off prepping wonton fillings, gymming and cleaning haha. So much for relaxing!

It was pretty busy today at the store and I was kinda hurting from last night's antics so I was STARVING by 3pm. I decided to go with takeout from Paragon Thai (surprise!) and I actually got something different this time! Linner consisted of Pad Thai with Tofu and a little bit o spice (too hungry to photograph!).

I forget that Paragon Thai doesn't mess around with spice so I should have just gone with the regular level of spice because holy mouth on fire! It was a wonderful fire though. SO yummy! I liked that they used tofu puffs because those spongy little suckers suck up all the saucy goodness. Two thumbs up :)

They give you a TON of food too. I ate about half of it around 3 and saved the rest for when I got home. A perfect portion for snacking before I popped my Skype cherry. Yes, I am just now discovering Skype...it's kinda fun being able to see Jamie while I'm talking to him!