Fried Rice

Now that fall is here, we want to cook warm dishes for the cool fall days. Fried Rice can be cooked up ahead of time and just reheated later or eaten as a cooked dish.

First I organize everything I need to make this dish, the veggies, rice, ham, eggs and the condiments. And of course the rice. So now we can get started.

• 1/2 medium Onion peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1/4 or 1/3 Green Pepper, coarsely chopped
• 4 or 5 Mushrooms sliced
• 1/4 cup shredded Carrots
• 1 slice Ham chopped (optional)
• Dry Sherry
• Oyster Sauce
• Soy Sauce, low salt if possible
• 2 - 4 cups cooked Rice
• 1 - 2 eggs lightly scrambled
• Peanut Oil

Ok, lets get stated here, first cut, slice and dice whatever ingredients your going to use. Next we get out our wok, a real steel one and not an electric one or non-stick one, you know the kind that has been used for thousands of years in China. We are cooking a Chinese dish, so lets be traditional. You can now obtain a wok with a flat bottom so it will work on most any stove. I have 2 woks, one is 10 inches across and is a perfect size for fried rice. My other one is 14 inches across and is better suited for making the whole meal. Ok, so today we will use whatever you have handy, don't tell me you have broken tradition.

So we start by heating the wok on your gas stove. What!!! You have only electric, things are not what they should be, but electric will be acceptable. Tradition has gone out the window. We will continue heating our wok. Take a droplet of water and drop it in our wok, if the water beads up and sissles then we have the right temperature. Add a tablespoon or so of peanut oil. We use peanut oil, because it is tradition and it can stand the high heat. Tradition has been restored. Add the scrambled eggs and swirl them around so that they are shredded and use your bamboo utensils to shred the eggs, when cooked, remove the eggs from the wok and set to one side. Next add onion and ham, cook until the onions are translucent. Now is a good time to add a little sherry. If the wok is too hot, turn the flame down a bit. If you are using an electric stove or wok, your on your own here. When the onion and ham are done, you are ready to add the other ingredients. You may want to use other meats other than ham, but if the meat is raw, uncooked, then you have to be sure it is cooked before moving on. Other meat choices might be beef, chicken or pork.

When we are ready to move on, we add the peppers, carrots and mushrooms. When I chop the veggies I put them in a pan of their own, so when I reach this stage I grab the bowl I want and in everything goes. Add a little soy sauce and oyster sauce, being careful not to over salt with the soy sauce and maybe a touch more sherry. When alcohol is added in the cooking stage the alcohol burns off and the flavor stays, so after this point you would not add any more sherry. Either put away the bottle or pour yourself a glass of sherry.

When all the veggies look done to you add the rice and the eggs that were set aside. Rice is usually sticky so if the clumps of rice do not break up easily add a little soy sauce or water or chicken stock. You could make chicken stock from bullion cubes, but again another salty ingredient. You need enough liquid in the pan to get everything to mix together as you are stir frying the rice. So when you have everything mixed to your satisfaction, you are ready to sit down and enjoy your creation.

You may of noticed, some ingredients did not have amounts next to them, that is so you can be creative when you wok. It's fun to wok.

Macaroni Salad

Another salad in the works, well it's summer and what works good is salads for those hot summer days and nights. This is kind of a do your own thing type of salad. So let's see what we have here.

• 1 lb macaroni, elbow or other shape, cooked, drained and chilled.
• 6 hard boiled eggs chopped
• 1/2 red pepper chopped
• 1/2 green pepper chopped
• 1 small yellow onion chopped
• 1 pickling cucumber peeled and chopped
• 1 large tomato chopped
• 1 stalk celery chopped
• salt & pepper to taste
• about 1 cup mayonnaise

Ok, I start with cooking the macaroni, when it is done al dente, but not too hard, I drain and rinse it, to cool the macaroni. then it goes back in the pan. I add the mayonnaise to the macaroni before it starts sticking together, like can do sometimes, but I also make sure the macaroni is not too hot for the mayonnaise. then I add the rest of the items. everything is chopped somewhat small, but not too small. ya, just hafta know what size you like it to be.

The ingredients can be varied to your satisfaction. Be careful of the salt, I don't use salt when I cook the macaroni, so when you add salt later you can control the saltiness better. I don't use salt in it and that is perfectly fine. You could also add chopped parsley and other herbs of your liking, but consider this as a base recipe and go from there. Another option might be chopped black olives or maybe even green olives. It your choice to create your own salad.

Bon Appetit!

Potato Salad

I have adopted this recipe from Better Homes & Gardens Limited edition New Cookbook.

• 3 lbs small redskin potatoes, cut small
• 8 eggs boiled, peeled and chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped small
  
• 1/2 medium or small onion, chopped small
• 1 cup mayionaise
• 1/4 cup dill or sweet relish, avoid high fructose sugar as an ingredient
• gound pepper to taste
• 1 TBS of yellow or spicy mustard
  

Boil potatoes till done, drain and set aside. You might want to save the potato water for soup or other uses. Mix with chopped eggs and add celery and onion.

Mix rest of ingredients in separate bowl and then mix with potatoes and egg mixture. Set in refrigerator to cool and let the flavors mingle. Wahla!!!

The Peanut Butter Story

Ya go to the store and you look in the peanut butter isle for peanut butter. And what do you see, jars with purple stripes in them and all kinds of versions of what was once peanuts. Remember when you were a kid and they used to grind peanuts and get peanut butter. Well, nowadays you look on the jar for the ingreidients and you see this shopping list of chemicals which is what they expect you to believe is peanut butter.

Now, if look around the shelf you might find something that says Old-Fashioned. I wonder when real ingredients became Old-Fashioned and if you look at the ingredients, it would probably say peanuts and salt and nothing more than that. So now I guess it is IN to be Old-Fashioned. That's what you want is peanut butter, so that's what you buy.

Now that you are home, you look at the peanut butter and you see all the oil at the top of this tall slender jar and the rest is at the bottom, so how are we to get it mixed back in without getting the oil all over the place. Well I have a trick for this I put the Peanut Butter in a plastic container that will allow me to easily stir the oil back in. Because the peanut butter at the bottom of the jar is thick and clumpy, it comes out real easy and the peanut butter jar is real clean. Give the jar a rinse under hot water and it is ready for the recycle bin.

Now I stir the oil back into the peanut butter with no loss of oil and when I am satisfied with my mixing, I cover the plastic container and refrigerate the peanut butter. The refrigeration keeps the oil from separating from the peanut butter.

And that is the Peanut Butter story.

Lemony Iced Tea

It's a hot summer day and you want something refreshing. Everyone has there own idea for this, but for me Lemony Iced Tea, just hits the spot.

So lets make some Iced tea, not the powdered stuff or anything like that but the real thing.

Ok, I just happen to have a Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Brewer, but that doesn't mean you have to run to buy more equipment. we are going to make 2 quarts of mild tea. Just strong enough to be refreshing. I use loose tea, Lipton sells Loose Tea in a half pound box, but you can use any brand, and it doesn't have to be loose, it can be in tea bags. Luzianne makes a blend in extra large tea bags just for brewing Iced Tea. If you use this Luzianne blend, just follow there instructions. The Blend I use contains Orange Pekoe and Pekoe Cut Black Tea. This mixture will give a nice blend to the tea. I will leave it up to you to brew the tea, but we want to end up with approximately 2 quarts of tea.

To sweeten the tea, I use 1/2 cup of sugar, I dissolve the sugar in hot water, can be tap water or you may want to heat it on the stove to dissolve the sugar. This extra liquid should be part of the 2 quarts and not an extra, so you might want to start with this step first. Add this sugar water to the tea. I also use ice as part of the 2 quarts, so that the tea will cool as fast as possible.

The last step I do is add the lemons to the tea. I take the juice of 2 lemons and add this to the tea. I also add the lemon rinds to the tea. I think it just gives you the impression that this was made with real ingredients and helps to keep that lemony flavor in the tea. If the Lemony Iced Tea needs some more chilling, then put it in the refrigerator for awhile.

Enjoy.

Herb Bread

The base recipe is from Bake Your Own Bread And Be Healthier, by Floss and Stan Dworkin, copyright 1972.

This bread is a quickly made bread one rise bread.

2 Tbs Dry Active Yeast or 2 Pkts Dry Active Yeast or 1/2 oz yeast cakes
1 Tsp Dill Seed
1 Tsp Savory
1/2 Tsp Dill Weed
1 Tbs Sea Salt
2 Tbs Honey
2 Cups Hot Water(about 110F)
2/3 cup Skim Milk Powder
4-1/2 Cups White Bread Flour or 2 Cups White Bread Flour & 2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

Mix all ingreients together, except Flour. Add flour 1 cup at a time. Mix the dough right in bowl, squeezing the dough through your fingers or use a beater to mix together. Dough hooks work really good here.

Grease 2 loaf pans 8-1/2" x 4-1/2" x 2-1/2". Divide dough between pans getting the dough evenly spread in the pan. Rise the bread in a warm place for 20 minutes or so. Be sure to cover the pans with a clean cloth.

When risen place in cold oven, bake at 200 F for 10 minutes and then 40 minutes at 350 F. Test for doneness. Cool on wire rack. Eat while still warm.

You can also experiment with other herb combinations, such as, 1 Tsp Basil, 1 Tsp Oregano and 1/4 Tsp Tarragon.

Enjoy

Bake Your Own Bread and Be Healthier

If you had been following my other blog, you would have seen I lost most everything in the Flood of 2007. Well almost everything, I saved a book written by Floss and Stan Dworkin., copyright 1972. It is the best darn book for cooking bread of all types.

But as the flood goes, the book, even though saved was contaminated by the flood waters, so because of this, the book cannot be used for everyday cooking. I will be extracting recipes out of it that I thought were awesome and putting them online here. Credits will be given to the original authors, etc., but most of the write ups will be mine. Please note these recipes come from a time when Bread Machines did not exist, so the recipes might not be compatible with these newfangled machines of mind boggling complexity.

Hey, I have a mixer with a dough hook, so what better way to make the old fashioned recipes, than with a little automation. I can't knead the dough as well as the machine can. But the results of homemade fresh bread coming out of the oven is awesome and doing it with all the supper ingredients that Floss and Stan used is just awesome.

Hearty Breakfast Sandwich

I have been making this awesome sandwich for some time now and wanted to share it with you, my dedicated audience.

First, we will start with Hash Brown Potato Pattie. depending on the size and shape you may want to fry 1 or 2 patties. If I buy them from one store they are usually long and narrow so I usually fry up 2 patties. I use a stickless pan, cephalon, so I do not use any oil for this step.

Next, in a separate frying pan I fry up enough bacon, ham or sausage for the sandwich. I prefer bacon, but you can use whatever you want or go meatless if you want the sandwich to be vegetarian. For vegan we would have to use an egg substitute, but we are planning to use eggs.

At this time I toast 2 slices of bread on the toaster. Use whole grain bread for the extra nutrition, but you can use whatever pleases you.

While the toast is cooking I take 2 eggs and prepare them for an omelet, I use 2 eggs nothing added, except maybe some herbs for extra flavor. I use an herb mixture called Omelette Blend, which contains Parsley, Dill, Chervil, Chives, Garlic, Onion, Celery Seed and Veggie Pepper. The Omelette Blend is from Mustard Seed Workshop formerly located in Portsmouth , NH. They are now located in Nottingham, NH and the blend can also be bought over Internet, see http://www.mustardseedherbs.com/index.html
for further info. The Omelette Blend is located under Herb & Spice Blends. I use about a teaspoon of the blend for 2 eggs. I melt some butter in my omelette pan and cook the omelette in the traditional french style. when the omelette is almost done I fold it in half on top of itself. I can now turn the omelette over so both sides get properly cooked.

While I am doing all this cooking, I am also assembling the sandwich. The Home Fried potato pattie goes on the toast. I then put a slice of American Cheese on the potato pattie. Next will go the omelette and finally the meat which you have cooked for it. Last the top slice of bread. Enjoy.

Cooking in the New Place

Moving to a new place meant, I would finally have a gas stove. No more of this electric business. The kitchen is large and open. With those large windows there is a feeling of a bright and cheerful kitchen.

We are in the process of redoing the entire place, so much is not done and yes, the overflow finds it's way into the kitchen. But even so, one can get the idea of the openness and charm this kitchen will afford in the future.

Getting Juiced

Ok, so I have been doing it for a few days and I think it is helping me lose some weight, maybe just a little. It's a good substitute for eating a regular meal and it's high in nutrition.

I currently have a Juiceman Jr, which works fine for me. Now you can get them for several hundred bucks and they will grind everything up but this one works fine and only cost about $60. If and when this one dies, I plan on getting the regular Juiceman, it has a switch for firm or soft vegetables. I think that would be an upgrade for me. Now looking at how long I've had it and how much use it's had.

The Juiceman Jr. is several years old, but has not seen regular use. Last year, when I had a roommate of sorts, she went crazy over the Juiceman and was using it all the time. She was also pretty rough with it but it held up OK. So, for the price, I think it's a pretty good deal, maybe even a steal, but don't get caught stealing it out of the store.

So what do I juice. Well the number of different stuff juiced is growing. I have a book written by the Juiceman as my new found bible. So, I always have the insider info on juicing. But, generally, I use carrots as the base and add an apple or a stick of celery(mild items) and then maybe some more potent items like a clove of garlic or a piece of ginger. Last, I like to add some greens to the drink, so maybe some spinach or parsley or both.

I am slowly branching out, no really weird stuff quite yet and final taste is important, so want to keep it drinkable. I want to add cukes, beets and maybe some cabbage to the mix. I have no formula, so each day is a new drink, a new version of whatever I feel like choosing. With all the stuff to choose from, I may never have the same drink twice, but I do love the taste of ginger in the drink, so carrots and ginger are biggies for me. Plus your always guaranteed to get your minimum requirement of veggies each day and that is something I always had a tough time doing.

Be Happy Juicing

Juicing

Well it looks like I am back to juicing for fun and profit. I am hoping this will help me lose weight besides giving me super nutrition.

My recipe is as follows. 2 carrots, 2 cloves garlic, 1 apple, macintosh and a bunch of spinach. Hope the spinach was ok. This gave me a tall glass of juice. Only thing, was a bit strong on garlic. Maybe next time cut back on the garlic. Maybe next time do the ginger instead or a little bit of each.

Am hoping to do this once a day as a pick me up tonic.

What a little bread can do for you.

Not all bread machines are created equal, but the one I have, bought at Walmart for about $35 makes a decent loaf of bread and is still going after several years of substantial use. Ok, so the expensive ones will make sourdough starter for you, etc., but if you live on a budget and are just trying to get by, then the cheapo from Walmart is a good choice.

My breadmaker will make the basic styles, white, french, italian and whole wheat, plus has a knead the dough cycle, so if you want to finish the the bread in a real bread pan in your oven, you can do it. I also have the choice of making 1 pound or a 1.5 pound loaf. Why anyone would want a smaller loaf is beyond me. To me, it is always exciting to open up the breadmaker to see what you got and to tear open that fresh bread while it is still warm.

So now, if your not convinced, run out and buy that breadmaker. In the long run, you will save money, have the freshest bread possible and will always know what the ingredients were to make that bread.

So here is a basic recipe.

• 1 cup + 2 TBS of water
• 1 -2 TBS of butter or oil.
• 1/4 cup of honey, molasses, brown sugar, maple syrup or white sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp of salt, I use 1 tsp of sea salt
• 3 cups of white flour or 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour.
• 2 TBS or 1/4 cup of Wheat Gluten
  
• 1 pkt of quick rising bread machine yeast.

Follow the recipe guidelines provided with your breadmachine. I will use butter, honey, maple syrup or white sugar with white flour. I would use oil, molasses and brown sugar with whole wheat flour. For Rye breads or pumpernickel bread, I would use coffee instead of the water. For flour substitutions I would use up to 1 cup of flour for the substitution. 1 cup of rye flour or spelt flour and 2 1/2 cups of the whole wheat flour.

I always add wheat gluton to help boost the rising of the dough. Once the bread cycle has been started, never open up the cover to the bread machine until the loaf is done cooking. There is also a point in the kneading cycle, usually a buzzer beep, when you can add nuts and fruits to the bread.

One Bowl Brownies

• 4 squares Unsweetened Baking Chocolate Squares
• 3/4 cup(1-1/2 sticks) Butter
• 2 cups Sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 cup Flour
• 1 cup Chopped Nuts, Pecans or Walnuts(optional)

In a double boiler melt the butter, then add the chocolate squares. Stir until the chocolate is melted and well mixed with the butter. Remove top pan from boiler and proceed to add sugar. Mix well. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and chopped nuts and mix well.

For extra rich Chocolate, add 12 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips with the chopped nuts. Or try one of the other flavor chips like peanut butter, caramel, butterscotch or white chocolate morsels.

For cake like brownies add 1/2 cup milk with the eggs and vanilla and increase the flour to 1-1/2 cups.

Spread Batter into a well greased 13 x 9 inch pan. Bake at 350F for 30 to 35 minutes. Test for doneness with toothpick. DO NOT OVER BAKE. Cool in pan. Cut with plastic utensils, so not to damage pan.

Yield about 24 large brownies.

Sugar Babies

You ever heard of Hypoglycemic or Low Blood Sugar, it happens when you have too much insulin for your sugar or food intake. Diabetics are kind of the opposite, they don't produce enough insulin for there food intake. Just one other thing, this is totally unscientific so don't go scientific on me. Another words, give the layman a break here.

Ok, so back to Low Blood Sugar, what causes it and how do you fix it. Most medical people will say through diet. So, here's what I was doing. I was getting a big coffee in the morn, cream and sugar, DD style and a donut or one of those sticks, etc. Probably was downing a half of a cup of sugar. About half an hour later would get real tired. One day, I got nauseous and broke out in a cold sweat. So I called my doctor and he agreed with my diagnosis.

Since then I have been playing around with different combos of sugar laden products to no avail. Finally, after admitting that some big change was needed, started looking at alternatives, such as nuts and dried fruits, etc. With these whole grain products I started noticing a change, I no longer was tired, but actually had some energy.

So, now I am reluctantly putting whole foods back on the table. I already know the results will be positive.

Just another word about the sugar. Those great tasting sugar babies were causing my insulin levels to sky rocket and then when it ran out of sugar, started taking it out of areas that needed the sugar to keep the body running. So, I was running on empty all the time, but was eating this stuff to get energy.

I guess we live and learn.

The New Drug, Brownies

So you think you've done all the drugs there are. Well I have come up with a new one, Brownies. Being that I am whatever I am, I tried making brownies, you don't even need that other stuff they talk about putting in them, yes, you might just barely be able to eat one.

These are made from deep dark chocolate or real cocoa, not this over the counter crap you buy at the market that all you need to do is to add water and bake. These 2 recipes came from the package and you end up with a product so powerful, you'd think you were able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, faster than a speeding bullet, etc.

But wait in order to receive your personalized copy, please send $14.95 to cover shipping charges to the following address. No it's now quite that bad, but you will have to wait a bit, I will have to put each recipe in their own blog. And of course that will take time. I absolutely guarantee that you will love these brownies, so ya just gotta wait a little bit more.

The New Year, 2007

It is a new year, My Blog has changed ownership and now is part of Goggle Blogs, hopefully a positive move for my blog. I haven't made a post to either of my blogs for close to a year or more. I still want to continue with my Cookin' For Fun blog. Not so sure on my on my other blog, Living in Hell, guess I am still living in my personal Hell. People ask me what that means and why do you feel you are living in Hell. Sigh. Are people still living in caves around here. I can't stand all this mental power.

So, here it is. You create whatever is around you. You live and are alive. You make decisions good and bad. It is you who is creating whatever situation you are living in. Accept responsibility for what you create. If it is Heaven, you created it, if it is your own personal hell, you created it. It isn't your spouse's fault he did what he did, you created the situation so he would do what you wanted him to do. And he obliged you. Accept it. Change it. Whatever. But the bottom line is you created your Hell, so now you cannot deny your Living in Hell!!!

I was going to scrap Living in Hell, maybe I will combine them into, Cooking for Fun while Living in Hell. So it's back to the Big Decision time. And once again it is at an impasse. So, I guess it must be, Living in Hell and Cooking for Fun.