The 2nd part to the fantastic Good Cook Kitchen Drawer Sweepstakes is about building your ultimate kitchen drawer. You can win 15 items you pick from loads of kitchen gadgets on goodcook.com. As a Good Cook Kitchen Expert, I was asked to build my ultimate15 item kitchen drawer. Good Cook as so many wonderful kitchen tools so I wanted to pick everything. Then I decided if I was building a ultimate kitchen drawer I would build it for my kids or first time cooks. My kids are at the age that they love helping me in the kitchen so having some items that help organize them during the cooking process would be essential. So the first items picked were the basic measuring cups and spoons. Then I decided I need the prep items like knifes, graters and prep bowls. Of course the knives I picked are not for the kids to use. Cooking with kids means a parent should be there throughout the process and help so all the cutting would be done by me (the parent). I finished off my drawer with cooking and serving items like spoons, whisks, spatula and ice cream scoop. Why the ice cream scoop... the easiest dessert that almost everyone loves is ice cream and kids are more than happy to end a meal with a big scoop of ice cream. I absolutely love this Good Cook ice cream scoop so I have two... one scoop for each hand. I was really pleased with my kitchen drawer and so were the kids.
Then I talked to my kids about what they wanted to cook for the event. We picked a simple Chinese style stir fry, but my daughter wanted chicken and my son wanted beef. So I decided to double the fun by making this stir fry a double delight using both beef and chicken. I prepped all the vegetables and meat using the knives, but the kids did all the measuring and stir frying. This stir fry was done in less than 30 minutes and we had a healthy dinner for everyone to enjoy. I hope my kids continue their love of cooking for the rest of their life.
Ingredients:
11b of chicken breast sliced thin
1lb beef sliced thin
1 cup carrots
1 cup celery
2 cups broccoli
1 small can drained water chestnuts
1 bunch spring onions
1 can baby corn
1 medium onion
1-2Tbs of cornstarch
salt and pepper
2 Tbs of canola or peanut oil
Note: You can add your favorite vegetables here instead of the ones I mentioned above. Other choices are cabbage, zucchini, bell pepper etc...
The Stir Fry Sauce
1/4 cup of regular soy sauce 2-3 Tbs Hoisin sauce
1-2 Tbs Sambal Oelek
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 cup of chicken broth (or water/bullion equivalent)
2 inches of ginger grated or minced
3-4 cloves of garlic grated or minced
1-2 tsp brown sugar
1 Tbs cornstarch (or arrowroot) mixed with 2 Tbs water
Directions:
Prep all vegetables. Cut meat into slices or cubes and sprinkle with salt, pepper and cornstarch. Then toss until meat is all coated. 
Heat 2 Tbs canola oil in large wok. Fry meat (in batches) until browned. Then remove from pan onto a plate. Once all meat is browned, add oil as needed and saute carrots, celery and onion. 
Grate ginger and garlic then mix all stir fry sauce ingredients. Set sauce aside until later. Also whisk together the cornstarch and water to make a slurry. Make sure to whisk before using this slurry because the cornstarch will settle. 
To the stir fry pan with the celery and carrots, add the softer and/or canned vegetables. Then add the cooked meat and prepared stir fry sauce.
Cook stir fry in sauce for about 5 minutes. Finally add the cornstarch slurry to stir fry. Mix stir fry well and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Serve over cooked rice.
Cook Jasmine rice until fluffy. Serve with ice cream scoop for perfect portions. Enjoy.
Now that my kids are getting all set with cooking... I need to teach them to clean up as well. :)
I used the following 13 out of 15 items in my drawer to make this meal:
Measuring Cups, 5 Piece, Black-The kids wanted to make sure I cut exactly the right amount of carrots, celery and broccoli. These measuring cups are great to measure dry ingredients in baking as well. You get 5 sizes so it meets all you measuring dry good needs. Another plus, they are dishwasher safe.
Measuring Spoons, 6pc. -The kids measured out all the small ingredients like the sambal, cornstarch and sesame oil. You get 6 sizes.. including the 1/8 measure which is not always in a measuring spoon set. I make a lot of dishes that need the 1/8 measure.. so this is very helpful.
"Measure From Above" 3 Piece Liquid Measuring Cup Set -The kids were able to use these measuring cups to measure all the wet ingredients like the soy sauce and chicken broth. I loved that you get three very useful sizes. They are plastic so they are not heavy for small hands to hold. You can also see the measurements from above.
Prep Bowls, 5pc Set-We used the prep bowls to keep all the ingredients prepped and handy. We also made the Stir Fry sauce in the largest of these bowls. They are made out melamine so they are light weight. The only drawback is I wish they were dishwasher safe.
Touch Stainless Steel Slotted Spoon-This spoon is very heavy duty. Perfect for stir frying. We used the slotted spoon for stir frying the meat and then removing it from the pan without removing the oil
Touch Stainless Steel Basting Spoon-We used this basting spoon actually as a serving spoon to make sure we got plenty of stir fry and sauce. I love the grip you get from this spoon... it's very comfort for little hands and even big hands to use.
Stainless Steel Silicone Tip Locking Tongs, 12"-I love a pair of tongs. You can easily toss pasta or pick up items from a pan one by one. I actually used the tongs to help me plate my picture plate above. I wanted to make sure I got each of the stir fry ingredient so these tongs worked great.
Nonstick Utility Knife-Knives are a must in cooking. Sharp knives are far safer to use than dull ones. These ceramic knives are beautifully sharp and comfortable to use. My kids are not yet prepared for using knives, so I handled this part of the cooking process. I used the small utility knife to cut my green onion tops as the garnish.
Nonstick Santoku Knife, 5"-Knives are a must in cooking. Sharp knives are far safer to use than dull ones. These ceramic knives are beautifully sharp and I sailed through cutting up all the vegetables with ease. My kids are not yet prepared for using knives, so I handled this part of the cooking process. I used the santoku knife to cut cut all my vegetables for the stir fry.
Nonstick Chef's Knife, 5"-Knives are a must in cooking. Sharp knives are far safer to use than dull ones. These ceramic knives are beautifully sharp and they literally cut through all my meat for the stir fry with ease. My kids are not yet prepared for using knives, so I handled this part of the cooking process. I used the Chef's Knife to cut all the meat for the stir fry.
Folding Grater-My kids are not ready for knives, but they can use a grater. I carefully asked them to grate the garlic and ginger. Here is a tip about ginger: clean and freeze ginger in freezer safe ziploc bags. Frozen ginger grates perfectly for stir fries and you don't get any large bites of ginger when eating.
Silicone Whisk, 10", Red -My kids love to whisk things. This light weight silicone whisk worked
perfectly to whisk the cornstarch and the water together as well as mix
the stir fry sauce ingredients.
Smart Scoop Ice Cream Scoop-This ice cream scoop did double duty for this stir fry meal. We first used it to make perfect scoops of rice when we served dinner. Then I gave it a quick wash and we finished off the meal with some delicious scoops of ice cream.
Build Your Kitchen Drawer Sweepstakes runs from June 2, 2014 - July 14, 2014
The folks at Good Cook are such givers, you can head over to goodcook.com during the sweepstakes period ( June 2nd through the July 14th) to create your a kitchen drawer filled with the 15 items from Good Cook that you think is ideal for your kitchen drawer.
When you are looking for your kitchen drawer items, keep an eye out for the ADD ME icon (shown above) on products to add to your drawer. As a Good Cook Kitchen Expert, I also built a kitchen drawer with 15 of my favorite must have kitchen items. So if you need some help deciding what you want or need in the kitchen make sure to check out my kitchen drawer or any of the other experts items for ideas.
Make sure you follow Good Cook on Twitter (@GoodCookcom) and enter to WIN! During the contest, all selected items on goodcook.com will be 25% off, but remember if you enter to win you can get instant prizes as well as additional discounts.
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