Recipe: Cream with Strawberries

Posted on February 12, 2024 by arah

Zaycon Foods- strawberries and cream Sometimes the most wonderful things come out of the simplest of ingredients, “amazing” needn’t come from complicated.

Speaking of ‘complicated’, that’s where our story begins.

When my bestie wed her hubby, they had the wedding in Daegu, Republic of Korea. This was a combination of ‘simple’ and ‘complicated’. It was a small wedding with only 8 of us there including the bride and groom, but we had a rock solid 50 nuns serving us “Sister Act” all in Korean. I’m not taking creative license here either, at one point I heard them singing “My God” just like in the movie. Perma-grin.

Anyway, that was the wedding and it was uh-MAZE-ING, but after the fact, the bride and groom (bless their hearts) realized that they didn’t have the wedding license in Korea, so after we all got back to Seattle, they got the license and we took some pics at Gasworks Park and then headed off to dinner with a few friends that weren’t able to come with us to Daegu.

The restaurant that we had the Seattle wedding dinner at was new to me. No menu, the chef just came around and served us what he was in the mood to cook. Great fun. The owners were ethnic Malaysian Chinese, but the cuisine was Italian so there was some serious fusion going on and it really kept us on our toes. There were a total of 19 courses and a bill of $1,600, so listen up folks. This is a valuable recipe.

As the dinner was winding down, the deserts started. I only remember one out of the 4 or 5 that we had. I only need to remember the one, because it was life changing.

The waiter placed a small glass filled with strawberries and cream in front of me. It looked basic. I was really quite full at this point, but was determined to see it though. That first bite and my eyes got as big as saucers. I turned to the bride “OMG! Have you tried this yet?” that’s when I saw the look on her face. She had.

When the chef came through at the end of our experience, I motioned for him to come closer. “Look here” I said “I know and understand that you’re not going to give me the recipe for this (I waved my hand over my empty glass), but PLEASE tell me what’s in it.

Then as the giggles at my ignorance subsided from my dinner mates, the chef actually told me. With jaws agape, I memorized what he told me. On my way home, I stopped by the grocery store and purchased my supplies because I had to figure out how to make this.

Since he gave me no measurements, I’ve just always done it to taste so that’s how it will be relayed to you.

-Strawberries
-Sour Cream
-Brown Sugar (I use Dark Brown)
-A very good vanilla (I use homemade, because I like the vanilla seed specks), or a vanilla bean
-Grand Marnier Liquor

**If you are uncomfortable using liquor, please substitute with just a drop of orange extract. The extract will not have the depth that the Grand Marnier has, but you’ll want that subtle bright flavor. It keeps people guessing.

There you have it. This would be fantastic over any berry, really.

Complicated simplicity. Consider yourself changed.

Matt H

Chicken Strip Fritter Parmesan

Posted on January 27, 2024 by arah

Since our first ZayconLive event, where we introduced you to our breaded chicken fritters, we have had many of our customers asking about a particular recipe Matt had made during the live event. It’s a simple recipe that has a lot of flavor.

Boneless Skinless Breaded Chicken Breast Strip Fritters
A bottle of your favorite s’getti sauce
Shredded mozzeralla cheese
Shredded parmesan cheese
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Salt & Pepper
Pasta or Hoagie rolls

Preheat oven to 400.
Put sauce in bottom of 9×13 baking dish, put Chicken Strip Fritters on sauce
Liberally dust all of it with both onion powder, garlic powder, salt & pepper
Put Mozeralla cheese on strips, then parm on top.
Bake in oven until hot, melty, browned & perfect, about 20-25 minutes.

Serve over pasta or you can spread hoagie rolls with your favorite garlic butter/spread and toast for an amazing saurinch.

See! Such an easy meal that can be done within 30 minutes. Perfect for those weeknights when there is a lot going on. I’ve made this myself a few times and my kids love it! _MG_1997

Even though the fritters are not on our website currently, you will find a few new products, like our steaks and roasts. Chicken breast sales will be open soon, really soon!

Brandlive with Zaycon

Posted on October 2, 2024 by arah

So maybe you caught the Brandlive feed today, if not, you can go ahead and catch a replay of it right here!

Mike, Matt H and Matt K before the Brandlive event.

And because we love to share, here is the recipe for the Cashew Chicken made today.

Matt’s Cashew Chicken

2 pounds of Zaycon Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
1 large onion
Bell peppers of your choice (about 5 or so)
2 Carrot sliced thin
Minced Garlic depending on taste, about 2 tablespoons
Red Pepper Flakes (the more you use, the hotter it’s going to be)
Oil about 2 tablespoons
Cashew Nuts about a cup
2 green onion sliced
Fish Sauce about a quarter cup (to taste)
Oyster Sauce about a quarter cup (to taste)
Brown sugar about a cup (to taste)
Soy Sauce about a quarter cup (to taste)

Heat up a wok or a large sauté pan (I mean this thing needs to be BIG)
Add the oil, then carrots then garlic and red pepper flakes, stir and increase heat
Add the onion, stir and increase heat
Push to the sides and then into the center of the wok add the chicken breast crank the heat to HIGH
Flip the chicken after about 60 seconds, start to break it up to let each peace start to cook.
Combine all the ingredients at this point.

Stir the fish sauce, brown sugar, oyster sauce & soy sauce together to mix then add this to the wok.

Heat to bubbly, as this will cook the sauce and finish cooking the chicken.

Add the cashews and green onions at the last minute just prior to serving so the nuts don’t get soft and the green onion doesn’t get over done.

Serve over Thai Jasmine Rice.

This will serve at least 5 or 6 a dinner sized portion.

We hope you enjoyed the show and we will be back with more!

mint limeade

Posted on June 28, 2024 by arah

A Cafe Rio restaurant recently opened not far from where we live. They have mint limeade and I have been craving its sweet goodness the past few weeks. The grocery store is much closer and I’m not tempted to order the awesome sweet pork salad. Being that my girls were bored and I was thirsty, we decided to make our own mint limeade. Lemonade, in general, is not hard to make and the kids love squeezing the juice from the lemons and limes. The best part, is you can make any flavor you want. Add strawberries, raspberries or even watermelon! Mint is our favorite.

We have a citrus juicer, but you don’t have to use one. They are good for separating the seeds and pulp from the juice. This is my girls favorite part. I used two limes and two lemons for 1/2 gallon of limeade and that was just the perfect amount of tartness for us. Add water.

I added sugar to taste. This part i didn’t measure, but I probably put in a good 1/2 cup at least.

Chop up fresh mint. It does’t need to be small bits. You can even just tear the leaves apart if you like. It makes your hands smell really good. and then just throw them in your limeade.

Mix it up, and give it a taste. I leave mine for at least a 1/2 hour before I pour a cup. The longer the mint is in there, the better the flavor. It doesn’t get really strong, unless you add a lot of mint.

And there you have it. Super easy and super delicious. Perfect for a summer bbq or even an evening on the porch watching the sunset. Make it festive for the 4th by adding in some color, like blueberries or even cherries.

What is your favorite summertime drink?

chick chick chicken pot pie

Posted on February 18, 2024 by arah

One of our absolute favorite recipes is a chicken pot pie that a friend gave to me about 10 years ago. She got it from a company that sells cooking supplies but has changed a few things and made it amazing.

This recipe is my go-to recipe whenever I am making a meal for another family. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t asked me for the recipe. The best part is, it makes two pies so you can keep one for yourself and give or freeze the second. It is so much better cooked after being frozen than fresh after you make it.

First thing I do, peel, cube and start boiling my potatoes. Then while those are doing their thing, I get on with the rest.

Because it saves time, I use my canned Zaycon chicken (I will be post how I go about canning it in the next few weeks). Canning chicken saves space in my freezer and when I forget to pull it out to thaw early in the day, I can just grab a jar. The reusable chalkboard labels came from here. They have a huge selection and I use them for more than just canning. I use a chalk pen when writing on these, similar to this.

DSC_3261a Drain the chicken and put it in your mixer. I try not to pulverize the chicken, just break it up a little.

I put all of my veggies in a bowl and mix together. I shred my carrots because then my kids can’t pick them out and they cook thoroughly. When you can poke through the potatoes with a fork, drain them and add them to your mixed veggies. Just set aside.
Now on to the BEST part. My oldest always wants to lick the spoon after I make the sauce. This is also no low fat meal…

Saute butter and onion in a pan.

when its good and bubbly, I add the flour and spices.

It’s going to get thick and smell amazing!
Chicken broth and whole milk is next.The milk makes pretty designs.

It’s going to get thick again. and look like country gravy.Mix the veggies and chicken together in a big bowl.
then add the sauce over it and mix together. I cheat and use pre made pie crust, only to save time. cover with another pie crust and…poke out a simple design on your crust. this is where one goes in the freezer and one in the oven. It comes out so pretty and I haven’t had much problem with it bubbling out over the edges, but I alway put a cookie sheet under it in the oven.
Let it cool for a few minutes before cutting into it. You should be able to get at least 8 big slices out of it.

And here is the full recipe:print it out. make it. Maybe it will become your family favorite too.

from scratch

Posted on February 5, 2024 by arah

A week or so ago, I was lucky enough to get Kelsey Nixon‘s new recipe book. I even got to meet her and make some of her recipes with a small group of awesome people. Sweetest lady ever and, oh my, she has some awesome recipes in this book.

I love being in the kitchen with my kids. Whether its making toast or a fancy dinner, I let my girls experience food. The textures, flavors, colors and aromas are useful tools. I love that they can experiment and be creative.

My girls and I were flipping through her book and they saw the picture of her “birthday cake” recipe. A birthday doesn’t have to be an excuse to bake a cake, right? So yesterday, when the snow was falling and it was too cold to go anywhere, we baked a cake…from scratch. It was delicious.

Also, I am a photographer at heart, and who doesn’t like a post with pictures?
So here you go…my girls and I baking a cake, in pictures.
We used pink sea salt, because that was all I had in my cupboard and I had to grind it too.
These are my little 5 year olds hands mixing the dry ingredients. This could have ended in a huge mess all over the table, but she gets bored easily and wanted to do the next step.
Mix the wet ingredients together before you add the dry. My 10 year old is pretty good at cracking an egg.

In the summer of 2012, my oldest daughter and I made enough vanilla to last us a lifetime. Easiest thing ever to make and great use of old root beer bottles. Add your dry ingredients and, easy peasy, you have your cake batter.
this cake is a bit more dense and reminded me of corm bread batter.

bake. cool. frost. Kelsey has a recipe for frosting too. I don’t recommend adding salt if you are using salted butter…I wouldn’t know from experience or anything…
This frosting is thick and covers pretty well.
I have girls. Girls love pink sprinkles. “We have to have pink sprinkles on our cake,” said the 5 year old. You can find the measuring spoons here.
Pink sprinkles we did have and a lot of them. A. Lot. But it made the cake pretty.
And it was pretty tasty. We gave it a thumbs up. My girls keep picking at it with a fork, so it doesn’t look so appetizing anymore.
I really like the photos in this cookbook. I also can’t wait to try some of the recipes that I can use the 40 lbs of Zaycon chicken I just got this past weekend. I plan to post more recipes.

*I am in no way being compensated for this post or for promoting Kelsey Nixon’s new cookbook, although she has some fantastic recipes in there. I do recommend getting in the kitchen and making memories with your family.

If you have any ideas or products you think we would like to try, please feel free to email me at [email protected]

stuffed chicken breast recipe

Posted on November 19, 2024 by arah

I’m sure many of you have been trying to come up with new recipes for all that chicken you have now, here is one from Sarah, one of our Customer Service Reps.

2 Zaycon chicken breasts

½ Cup (Spinach, mushrooms, finely chopped broccoli, any vegetable you like)
½ Cup cheese (I use pepper jack and mozzarella, but you can substitute your favorite cheese here)
½ Cup Sour Cream (Cream cheese for a sweeter taste)
2 Tablespoons minced garlic.
4 Slices of Bacon (Depending on the size of the breast and how much bacon you want feel free to play with the number)
1 Bottle Lawry’s Garlic and Herb Marinade.

Preheat the oven to 375 Degrees
Get out a deep pan you will need room for juices to collect in the bottom
lay out thawed chicken breasts, if thicker than ½ an inch fillet the breast or pound it until ½ thick
Cook vegetables in microwave for 1 minute to soften
Mix with sour cream (or substitute)
Mix in cheese
Mix in Garlic
Spoon out an amount to fill the center of the chicken breast
Wrap the chicken breast around the filling
Wrap the chicken breast in 2 pieces of bacon (More if needed)
Secure with tooth picks (Not necessary but helpful)
Top Chicken with extra cheese if desired
Pour Marinade over chicken make sure to saturate each piece thoroughly then poor remainder of marinade into the bottom of the pan. (Yes its a lot trust me its worth it)

yum.

Eat Fresh with Zaycon Foods (themegalomaniacmommy.com)
Zaycon Foods - Love Their Foods! (tammystwocents.com)
Zaycon : Food in Bulk Equals Tons of Savings (shibleysmiles.com)

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