Stir-Fry

If you’re like me you go in spurts with what you like to cook. In the summer I eat lots of salads. More recently it was soup, especially since the temps have gotten really cold, even for GA. Yesterday I was very hungry for stir-fry. So I thought I’d share with the way I make stir-fry.

First get the marinade ready. It is better to season the chicken several hours ahead of time for the meat to be more flavorful but since I picked up the meat on my way home from work, I didn’t have time to do that.

I put a little olive oil and a little veggie oil into a bowl. Then I minced some garlic. I know I’ve said it before but I feel the need to remind you that I love (!) fresh garlic. So I added 2 cloves to the oil.

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There is my beloved mincer in the background.

Since my stir-fry is usually down the Asian line, I add fresh ginger. You can find that in the produce aisles, kind of a knobby brown root.

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I cut away the brown exterior.

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I use my handy-dandy Pampered Chef chopper to mince it to bits. This is probably the equivalent of 1 tablespoon. You can use ground ginger but I think the fresh is much better.

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I added some salt and a pepper blend season salt to it yet. If you want to be bad, add a little Accent. Back before we knew MSG was wicked, we liberally added it to our stir-fry.

Now that the marinade is ready, I cut the chicken tenders into small pieces.

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Mix it all together and set it to the side.

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If raw meat makes you squeamish, ignore this picture.

Now it’s time to start on the veggies. These are the veggies I chose to use.

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Yup. That is one lonely jalapeno in there. I don’t usually add that but decided it would be good add a little kick to it. I rarely buy fresh mushrooms since they have so little food value for as much as they cost. But we love them so I decided to splurge a little.

Next get the skillet going. We have this nice big iron skillet that is well seasoned so it requires little oil for frying. I added a little veggie oil and then some sesame seed oil. This oil is quite strongly flavored so I use it very sparingly, maybe a teaspoon or two.

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Cut up the crunchiest veggies first since they take the longest to cook. As you can tell here, I’m not exactly a celery lover but it does add a nice flavor. I’m not like my dad who likes his Thanksgiving dressing made with half of it being celery.

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Set aside until oil is ready. Next get busy on the onions and cauliflower. It is Very Important to keep the whites sperate from the colors. Not really.

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Pampered Chef said their egg slicer could be used for mushrooms and they were right. These sliced in nice even slices beautifully, something they wouldn’t be if I cut them with a knife.

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By now the oil should be ready so throw them into the oil and add some salt. “Some salt” would be a relative term but I’ll say this much, you can always add more later but you can’t take it back out.  Yeah, I know. Me and my “recipes.” The word recipe must be a relative term as well!!

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Cook ’em on the high side of medium, nice and sizzly.

Next get started on the yellow squash. Don’t know if you fine folks north of the mason dixon line have access to these babies or not. I found some really nice small ones at our locally-owned and growned veggie and fruit store.

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The broccoli gets chopped up too. Hmmmmm. I’m beginning to see a pattern here. And if you’re like me, you work space may begin to look a little like this. Sloppy cooker indeed!

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So take a swig of sweet tea, honey, and wipe off that sweat from your brow; we’re about finished.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, stir the frying veggies every minute or so. It’s called Stir Frying. Get it? Stir-fry? Ha ha! *clears throat*

Sorry about that. I briefly forgot I had an audience.

The carrots and celery should be partially cooked by now so throw in the chicken, stirring it frequently.

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I briefly interrupt the cooking session to bring you this important product. These frozen egg rolls are a delicious addition to the stir-fry supper. If I was having egg rolls for a number of people, I would make them from scratch. But for a few people these work great. Plus they’re cheaper than carry-out egg rolls. I would feel kind of badly about heating the oven to 425 for only a few egg rolls but since it’s so cold, I can count that as heat for the house as well.

Get them going in the oven already!

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When the chicken is half-pink, half-white, add the “whites” to the mix. Add a little more salt.

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Trying to do the Pioneer Woman action stirring shot. It’s harder than it looks. Guess I need a tripod.

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Add the squash and mushroom. Yes, keep stirring it! If you didn’t want to keep stirring you should have made hot dogs instead.

Add the finely chopped jalapeno.

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After a few minutes add the broccoli. By this time I have it on high to finish it by steam/frying.

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That little chef sitting my stove looks quite pleased with himself. Can’t help but think he was hoping for something Italian, though.

The finished product. The veggies should all have a slight crunch to them.

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Serve them on a bed of rice or noodles. We love rice at our house. I think we could it once a day. Add soy sauce if you wish, or more seasonings if it’s not spicy enough for you.

Over and out.

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Food and Other Essentials of Life

So I’m not the only one not getting subscription emails. It kinds bums me out that I have to log on to see if anyone updated. Hopefully they’ll start up again soon.

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I feel like I have all kinds of time on my hands. I finished editing my last portrait setting & finished a baby blanket gift. I have even cooked supper for TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW!!! Amazing, I know. I’ve also been home two nights in a row. Double amazing. Now all I have to do is clean out my car, get my tax information together, organize my file cabinet, sew some clothes, straighten up my house & read a book. Boredom is not in my vocabulary, at least not since nineteen aught seven, or since I was a teenager, whichever was not most recent.

The baby blanket idea I got from my very cool CIL [cousin-in-law]. She had made one for her baby. Now that I think about it, Clarita had made one for her baby too. Anyway, it’s made from 3 different flannel fabrics and is really easy to make. And fun too.

I had intended to give a little hoodie sweater to my friend’s baby but when I pulled it out to send, I discovered it was an 0-3 months, weight of 11# and by now my friend’s baby was 2.5 months old, plus she weighed 10# at birth so she had long outgrown it. So what to give? The flannel blanket caught my eye. Linda even went along to Savannah and helped me pick out co-ordinating colors. At the fabric store there is this very [how shall we say it?] unusual male employee. He is one of the results of mixing arts with Arkansas. [Honestly, he is a student at an art & design college and is from Arkansas.] I’d love to post a picture but I’d better not. Yeah, I managed to discreetly get one with my phone. I love looking anonymous.

Her blanket on the left. Mine laying on the [clean] floor ready to be sewn together. Gotta love the combo of leather and wicker furniture. Very inspiring.

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The finished product. Snipped to pieces but not yet washed, which will help it look softer.

blanket 2

So that’s out of the way and it’s time to check some more things off the list. But first, a few recipes I’ve been wanting to share. Both come from my sisters. The rice balls come from Hannah. She had us over for supper recently and we fell in love with these things. She got the recipe from Taste of Home. The original recipe had a complicated meat sauce to serve with it but I’ve eliminated that, choosing instead to pour a warm marinara sauce over it.

Italian Rice Balls

3 eggs
2 1/2 c. cooked rice
1/3 c. butter, melted
2/3 c. Parmesan or Romano cheese
1/4 c. fresh parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 oz. mozzarella cheese, cut into 3/8 in. cubes
1 c. dry bread crumbs
oil for frying

Combine first seven ingredients. Place in fridge for about 20 minutes. Form into 1 in. balls. Put 1 cheese cube in center and form rice around cheese. Coat with bread crumbs and fry in oil, about 4 minutes.

I like to cook the rice several hours ahead of time or even the night before. The chilled rice seems to stick together better. These really are not greasy and you wouldn’t know they’ve been fried.

rice balls

The next recipe is one Lois got from a co-worker. A local restaurant serves it on their southern buffet. I think it is top-notch!

Key Lime Cake

 

1 lemon supreme cake mix
1 lg. lime gelatin
1 c. orange juice
1/2 c. key lime juice
5 eggs
1 c. oil

Mix orange juice and oil together with lime juice. Add eggs 1 at a time. Add dry ingredients. Mix well until smooth. Divide into three 8″ pans. Batter is pretty runny. Bake at 325* for 15-20 minutes. Keep a close eye on them so they don’t overbake.

Icing

 

8 oz. cream cheese
6 T. butter
1 box powdered sugar
3 T. lime juice

The icing is yummo good. I could eat that by itself. It nicely compliments the cake and I think it has such a cool flavor. Makes a great summer dessert. Yeah, I know. Summer’s not for a few months. Most of you are saying bring it on. I’m saying let’s enjoy the cool weather because summer will come soon enough. Come live in south Georgia and you will agree.

This one I made in a 9×13 pan instead of 3 layers. So I had extra icing leftover.

key lime cake

And freeze any leftover cake. It is not safe to keep in your kitchen. Trust me on that one.

And just what did I make for supper? I don’t know but it looked like this:

supper

The Unknown Main Dish was penne pasta, marinara sauce, hamburger, sausage, pepperoni, cottage cheese, feta cheese, parmesan cheese, mushrooms, black olives and a little mozzarella to top it off. Did I clean out my fridge? No I did not. Well, not all the way. It was fun to empty out a few containers. I don’t know how long the feta cheese has been in there. Let’s just say it hasn’t turned to blue cheese yet. Must take years for that.

And I know what else you’re saying. “Is that really a pea salad?” Yup. It most definitely is. Made with canned peas and it’s something our family grew up eating. Funny, I haven’t made it in ages. Lois walks in tonight and says, “just last week I was hungry for pea salad.” So there! We do sometimes agree on a few things.

The green stuff is french style green beans. I like frozen green beans much more than canned. Well, gotta run. It’s bedtime.

Of Fruit and Early Mornings – Friday October 24, 2008

This fruit thing has really taken off. I polished up this pitcher that Lois bought at my grandparents estate sale. No one seems to know where it came from. It has no significance as far as sentimental value but it really makes a statement of it’s own.

I stayed up pretty late last night doing some editing and finally decided to call it quits. Well, wouldn’t you know, I woke up extra early this morning and decided to get and do something useful. I immediately thought of apple muffins and then remembered that we had only 1 egg in the house. There goes Murphy’s Law again. The rare occasion that I have plenty of time to do some baking and we have 1 solitary egg in the house.

So I pulled out this recipe I got from my friend Sonya (who I believe might occasionally drop in here). It is a delicious Apple Streusel Muffin recipe. I had to cut the recipe in half, due to the lone egg. I got a total of 6 muffins out of it.

Since I had the inspiration last week to buy sausage (take that, Murphy!) so I made some sausage gravy served over hominy. Anyone else eat hominy? Love that stuff. Sometimes we toss it with crumbled fried sausage and the pour tomato gravy over it.

Anyway, does anyone want to come eat some fruit with me? We have plenty and the grapes are getting kind of ripe. I invited 2 of the high school girls over this evening in case they want to practise some still life shots for student convention next spring. Never too early to start. I believe one young lady got hers printed the day they left for convention.

And yeah, as to where these were taken, we have this 400 year old castle around here (best kept secret ever) and the walls are all cracked and stuff, and it’s got beautiful old furniture in it. And it was such beautiful spot that I had to go back and revisit it with fruit in tow. Kidding, kidding! In all actuality, these were taken somewhere in my house. See if you can figure out what piece of *furniture* the fruit is setting on!!

I have this flash, that is 20-25 years old, for my camera and this is the third camera I’ve used it on and it’s still working fine. I bounced it off the ceiling for nice indirect lighting. Love to bounce the flash. Great fun! (Okay, the geek is leaving now.)

The muffins:

Apple Streusel Muffins
2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. chopped apples

Mix dry ingredients together. Whisk eggs, butter and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and fold in apples. Fil muffin tins 3/4 full.

Mix:
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 T. flour
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1 T. cold butter

together for the streusel topping. Sprinkle it on top of the muffin batter. Bake at 375* for 15-20 minutes. Let cool and the drizzle with icing:

3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 T. milk
1/2 tsp. butter
1/8 tsp. vanilla
dash of salt

I love Pampered Chef’s chopper. It took me about 2 minutes to peel, core and chop 1 medium apple, which makes almost exactly 1 cup.

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The batter is quite thick. Only stir it until it’s mixed together. This is before the streusel topping.

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Fresh out of the oven:

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Mix the icing ingredients together in a ziploc bag. Snip of a tiny bit of the corner and use it as a tip to drizzle it over the muffins.

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Yup. They’re really good. Eat them warm and you don’t need anything else on them. But butter and homemade jam is really good too.

Oh yeah. And you might want to see my new fruit pictures. I must say I really, really like them. They’re edited out the wazoo but this is art.

11×14 crop:

Fruit C color 11x14 B

16×20 crop:

Fruit C color 16x20

20×40 crop (different shot):

Fruit D color 20x40

Chocolate version (somehow I think the color versions are much better):

 

fruit C 16x20

Okay, I goofed something up with the sizing so I’ll have to re-upload them later. Sorry about that!

Building a Salad

is really not all that difficult. Of course, should your fridge happen to be empty, then it does become a bit more complicated. I was inspired to add Salad Making to my list of talents by my friend Gloria O. I used to help her with learning the ropes of Quickbooks and in return, she would feed me this delicious “house” salad. I always raved over it (which is a sure guarantee that there will be a “next time”) because it was really was good!!

Tonight there was nothing prepared to eat in the fridge and since my kind sister thawed a chicken breast for me, I decided a salad was on the menu.

So I washed some greens, sliced a few things, threw it all together and voila!

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A salad was created. A regular Paula Deen, eh? Or not.

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This is what my kitchen looked like when I was finished so you can tell it took more effort than that. Either that or Paula Deen has someone cleaning up behind her. My salads vary a bit but tonight this is what it consisted of:

Bed of Romaine and Iceberg Lettuce
Avocado slices (to taste)
Green Soybeans (to taste)
Green Peppers (to taste) (beginning to see a pattern here? This is my version of a recipe.)
Tomato (ditto)
Purple Onion
Golden Peperoncini (those cool little peppers that Italian restaurants use in their salads)
Homemade Croutons (made with heavy sourdough bread, olive oil, and seasonings, baked in the oven.)
Fresh Cilantro
Monterey Jack Cheese
Grilled Chicken Breast (seasoned and grilled on our little George Foreman grill)
Ranch Dressing

Other ingredients not included but often used are crispy chicken strips (baked in the oven), hard-boiled eggs, grated carrots, feta cheese, roasted pumpkin seeds. Combine in any combination you want.

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The pepper jar

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Up close and personal. Ugh. They kind of look like a shriveled up something. But they are really good.

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Oh yeah. Two of my favorite seasonings. I use them all the time. Well, most of the time, anyway. They wouldn’t exactly be good in stuff like cereal.

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Another view of the salad just because.

The real reason I posted this was because I have a new lens for my camera and I had to try it out. It came in the mail today and was I ever excited!! See, Christy and I agreed to take wedding pictures for Ken and Carmel (yikes!) and I desperately needed a new lens. I already have 4 others but only one worked good for low lighting. One needs to be junked, the other one is junk without a tripod so I’m not as lens-happy as it seems. Well, what better way to practice than to shoot things around the house. So, you had to see my supper.

We enjoyed having Steve and Christy around last weekend! Christy and I had a little business meeting to get things a little organized.

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Oh, and the house. You haven’t seen that recently. We are still lacking grass but we are now proud owners of a sprinkler system. Hence the flags and multi-colored dirt. Our brother Henry came with Myron Mast to put it in and save us $. Chip, Jeff , Tyler and Eric helped too and they got it done in one day. Hit the water line twice and the phone line (my fault) once but those are all fixed now. Jeff and Eric are plumbers by trade so we had experts here to fix the water lines.

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Lois’ co-workers wanted to have a housewarming party for us and decided to combine it with a Pampered Chef party. We invited a few church friends as well and had about 15 ladies here last evening. We got to pick out some items from the catalog, then we got the points from the sale, and ended up with lots of goodies. We feel quite honored and overwhelmed by their generosity!

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You may have noticed this in the corner of my messy kitchen. We are having a Ladies Night Out tomorrow night. Going to a Mexican restaurant for supper and then coming to our house for games and dessert. Yeah, two kinds of cheesecake for dessert. This one:

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and a plain one with fresh strawberries for the topping.

No lens would be happy without taking it’s own portrait.

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Wowzers! Since I’m usually behind the camera, I forget how imposing they can look.

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Uhhhhh…. this one looks like a big mouth. Does the Veggie Tales song I Love My Lips come to mind? Good. It didn’t come to mine either.

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See, my mouth really isn’t that big.

Got to run before we get into an argument about that.

 

Peanut Butter Granola

Here is the recipe for peanut butter granola (finally – eh, Twila?!). I got it from the good cooks at Faith Builders. I’m not sure what the yield is other than A LOT of granola!  Actually, I think the last time I made it I cut the recipe in half and nearly eliminated the coconut (since I’m not that crazy about it). I’m sure it would store well in an airtight container in the freezer.

12 c. quick oats
3 c. flake coconut
1 1/2 c. peanuts
1/2 c. sunflower seeds
2 1/2 c. brown sugar
2 c. crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 c. butter
1 T. salt
1 T. vanilla
2 c. wheat germ

Melt peanut butter and butter. Add salt and vanilla. Mix with dry ingredients. Bake at 300° for approximately 2 hours on flat baking pans. Stir every 15 minutes.