Chinese food for any day

Before we moved overseas, I attempted many times at Chinese food. I found it to be entirely intimidating...and most always ended in a plate of mushy, soggy food. After 5 years, I'm finally to the point where my dishes turn out...but only if I stick to the simplest of dishes. So I thought I would share a step by step on fried rice...a favorite of our kids!

First make a big pot of pice. I usually make about 4 cups of (dry) rice if it's just the kids and me, or add another 2 cups if Tim around. Always better to have too much than too little! You can make it up to a couple of days ahead. Use whatever kind of rice you like...just not instant. I'm not sure that anyone over here even knows that there is such a thing! It just won't do!

Next, vegetables. I'm using carrots and cucumber. Cucumbers here a bit different. You can use scallions, peas, fine cut broccoli or cabbage...whatever your family with eat. You'll also need garlic and ginger. Finely chop the garlic or press it and shred the ginger. I couldn't find ginger yesterday, so I used powder as a last resort. Fresh ginger is much better. You only need about an inch piece, peeled. A little goes a long way. In the grocery store, don't be shy about breaking off only what you need. I heard Martha Stewart recommend doing that, and have done it ever since, because I only use it every once in a while.

I used one and a half chicken breasts. First, I sliced them and then chopped it more finely.

Mix the chicken with soy sauce(NOT lite), and if you can find it Mushroom soy sauce, garlic and ginger. Let sit while you stir fry the veggies.

I once heard a Taiwanese chef on tv say that it is stir fry not "stare fry." The key is to constantly move it and not to cook too long, maybe 3 minutes at most! I only used a bit of oil for this part.

Pull the vegetables, add more oil and stir fry up the chicken. Make sure it cooks through...still will only take about 5-7 mins.

Put the chicken in with the vegetables in the separate bowl. Fry up some scrambled eggs, I used 2, with a bit of soy sauce. And add to the chicken and vegetables.

Now, add quite a bit of oil. I would say a quarter of a cup to a half a cup. I know it's not low fat...nothing here is! Add the rice and stir until its been well coated with the oil.

Then add soy sauce and mushroom soy sauce (again it's not necessary, but it makes the dish look quite a bit darker, so if you don't have it, yours should look a lot lighter.)

Stir fry until well mixed, then add all your other stuff.

Mix well.

And eat!

The key is to work at it bit by bit. I hope you enjoy!

What to do on "One of THOSE days"

We've all had "one of THOSE days." The first day back to school after break. The first day after vacation. When the police call and say that you have to come down and register...again. You go grocery shopping, and they're out of (fill in the blank). We all have these days.
This week, we got back from vacation on Sunday. I was being entirely too ambitious to think that I ought to start back to school on Monday. Add to that the police calling, and the normal 4 store trek to find all the things we use. And finally discovering, the store I usually buy flour at is out. On top of this, while you all are celebrating Valentine's Day, we have Chinese New Year's. It is the biggest holiday of the year. I kept hearing that every store would be closed. Turns out it's only the wet markets, but earlier this week I bought, like a good American, enough groceries to last a couple of weeks. But fresh veggies have to be prepared so that they don't go bad.
Fast forward to tonight. I finally started to feel like I had caught up. Around 4, I looked at my list of meals...sausage and barley soup with bread. The bread was not started and the sausage was not even made. It was NOT happening tonight.
The first thought at this point is, let's go out to eat. With the holiday, it might have been possible, but not likely. Many of you may have felt this way, too, with the economy. Ten years ago everyone just headed to Pizza Hut or Chili's. We are blessed that we have tons of really cheap restaurants, although I think when our gallbladders have to be taken out, we'll pay for it in the end! But tonight, we didn't go out. My great husband said, "I'll cook." I laughed (completely unfairly) because he's not much for following recipes...can do it, just doesn't like to. And it's not like our cabinets are stocked with hamburger helper! But fresh eyes did the trick. He poked his head in the fridge and out he came with dinner. My knight in shining armor!
We don't often keep our fridge or freezer stocked with "one of the THOSE days" meals...Do you all keep things and if you do what are your favorites?

Hopefully next week I will be adding a Thankful Thursday. I'm copying the idea from several other blogs that I've read. I am thankful this week, I want to add, that we waded through all the stuff I mentioned above and it's done and over! Happy Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year!

Caramel Apples and DIY Donuts

As part of the glories of Fall, we made caramel apples. A friend of mine gave me a recipe that used honey instead of corn syrup...one of those many things that nutritionist say to avoid at all costs but is nearly impossible to completely cut out of your diet! We tried the recipe and it was ok...but smacked strongly of honey-flavor (shouldn't have been surprising) and so was not nearly as appetizing as I had hoped. Maybe I'll try a new recipe one of these cold days! Yep, those are chopsticks. I only had enough sticks for five.
Kids very excited about the camarel apples!

The end result!

And since we're wrecking diets, I decided it would be a good time to try a new donut recipe. (Thank you, Alton Brown!) So we made some DIY donuts. I made the donuts, and then we powdered them and dipped them in chocolate as desired. Some of the donuts I did myself, make a mock Bavarian creme and filling the donuts...there was no way I was going to let the kids get involved in that! They were enjoyed by all, except Lydia who isn't much of a breakfast eater and simply licked the chocolate off hers. A couple of hours later, she came back and finished it.

Elijah enjoying the DIY part.

Bella taking a dip!

Yummy!

These are the creme filled!

Like I said, Lydia was only interested in the chocolate. Ellie here is about to take advantage of Lydia's disinterest. Just so you know, I saved the donut. As the cold weather has really set in, I've got to find a new, low-calorie habit!