Chicken Fried Rice with Vegetables
This recipe started when I made a fried rice recipe (can’t remember which one, I looked at alot that day) and it eventually evolved into this recipe. I wanted a complete meal in one dish.
My husband likes alot of vegetables and I kept adding more and more until he stopped complaining. You can use whatever combination of vegetables you want. These are only suggestions.
I loooove Sesame Seed Oil. I could eat the smell. I have read that you are not supposed to use it to cook with, that it’s only a flavoring. Oh well, I disagree.
Also, alot of fried rice recipes call for the rice to be cooled before stir frying. I have eliminated this step. I’ve done it but I really can’t tell the difference.
I originally had twice the amount of chicken but saw my son’s plate after eating, with a dozen or so chicken pieces left. I reduced the amount of chicken. He also told me he thought the pieces were too big, thus the small size. Feed back from your family is good: you want to make sure they eat what you have lovingly prepared!!
Chicken Fried Rice with (alot of) Vegetables
5-6 carrots, peeled
5-6 celery stalks
1 package of Snow Peas
2-3 crowns of broccoli
1 pound of chicken tenders
6 teaspoons of Sesame Seed Oil, divided
2 cups of cooked rice
2 eggs, scrambled
1 cup of Mikee Sesame Teriyaki Sauce
Cut the vegetables into uniform pieces (you should have about 8-10 cups) and set aside in a large bowl. Cut chicken tenders (make sure to remove the white ligament, see Chicken Tenders), into 1 ” X 1/2 ” pieces. If you don’t have cooked rice already, start cooking it now.
Put a very large fry pan or preferably a Wok, (I have a 12 inch Joyce Chen Wok, which I love) over medium high heat. Sprinkle in about 2 teaspoons of Sesame Seed Oil. Add the chicken and stir fry the chicken pieces until done, about 5-10 minutes (The chicken should be sizzling when cooking. If there is too much juice coming out of the chicken, turn the heat up). Set aside in a small bowl.
Put another 2 teaspoons of Sesame Seed Oil into Wok and add vegetables. Toss vegetables with oil until coated. Put in about 2 tablespoons of water, cover and let steam for 2 minutes. Uncover. Put in another 2 tablespoons of water, toss, cover and let steam 2 minutes. Test vegetables. They should be crisp tender. If not, do process one more time. (3 times does it for me) Put vegetables back into large bowl and set aside.
By now, if you had to cook rice, it should be done. Put another 2 teaspoons of Sesame Seed Oil into Wok, add rice and stir thoroughly, coating rice with oil. Add eggs and stir constantly until eggs are cooked and rice is coated with the cooked eggs. Put back the chicken pieces and vegetables. Stir thoroughly. Add the Teriyaki Sauce and stir until heated through and coated with the sauce. Serve immediately.
Makes great leftovers for lunch or a quick dinner the next evening.
chicken pieces:
vegetable size:
key ingredients:
my ‘mise en place’:
vegetables in wok:
rice coated:
all done:
Recipe Index
So, I now have a recipe index, which you can see on the far right top of the page. I thought it was needed and wanted to start it now before things got too crazy. It was tedious, probably didn’t need to be tedious but my computer skills in this area are limited. So I hope this is helpful! And I will get back to writing now so I can put more stuff in my Index!!
Creamy Tomato and Sausage Sauce
I make this recipe a lot. I often turn to it when I need something quick and simple. There are not too many ingredients, I usually have some if not all of them on hand and everyone in my family likes it. A real plus. The first time I made it was in 2006 (among my many notes on a recipe is usually the date I first tried it) and I have been making it regularly ever since. I have substituted onions for the shallots when I am in a pinch, though I prefer the shallots. I have also substituted half & half for the heavy cream, though the heavy cream is better. You can definitely tweak this recipe to your liking, maybe adding other spices or using hot Italian sausage instead of the sweet. Hey and use that Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus that I talk about! It’s a time saver for choppin’ up those shallots and garlic!!
Creamy Tomato and Sausage Sauce (adapted from Bon Appetit)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 shallots, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 pound sweet Italian sausages, casings removed
1 cup heavy cream
2, 14.5 ounce cans petite diced tomatoes in juice
1 tablespoon dried sage
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add sausages, breaking up the sausage by pulling it with 2 forks in opposite directions and saute until no longer pink, about 5-10 minutes. Remove most of the oil and fat from the sausage mixture by draining it. (Put cover over pan, with cover ever so slightly askewed and holding onto the cover tightly, tip pan carefully, draining fat off.) Add cream and simmer 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with their juice and sage and simmer until sauce thickens, about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over pasta of your choice and plenty of grated Parmesan cheese.
Sausage simmering in cream:
Ready to eat:
Dear Mom,
I remember going to Star Market when we came to visit once. We just went there to get cut flowers and I remember wanting to look around. (Dad and Ian were both with us: haha!) It looked really nice! I would like to visit again so when we are up in Boston, please take us to HMart (which sounds amazing!!) and Star too.
I also have a few favorite markets besides my usual Shoprite and Hannafords. When I am in their area, I make a point to stop by.
Aunt Kitty’s Raspberry Dessert
Aunt Kitty was my father’s sister. She and her husband Frank, lived in the same town as my family and once in awhile we would be invited for dinner.
Kitty was a really good cook. Her meals were not exotic or gourmet, just really good food cooked exceptionally well. Her true love, though, was gardening. They had a fairly large glass greenhouse attached to the house, where she grew flowers year round and plants for outside in the spring. She had a beautiful border garden where she grew all kinds of perennials, annuals and bulbs. She also grew raspberries. I remember going over to her house with our daughter, who was maybe 2 or 3 at the time, and we would tour the garden before going inside for tea. She showed me her raspberries, covered in mesh to keep the birds away. It was always a fight for the raspberries. I think my Aunt won.
When she harvested the raspberries, she would make jam or jelly and then freeze the rest. The frozen raspberries were for this dessert. When we went for dinner at her house, ocassionally she would serve it. It was delicious. I finally asked her one day how she made it. “Oh, it’s really 2 desserts put together. This is how it goes……” and I proceeded to write down the recipe.
Aunt Kitty’s Raspberry Dessert
2, 12 ounce packages of frozen raspberries, thawed completely
3 large egg yolks
6 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Take half the thawed raspberries and put them in a medium strainer over a medium bowl. Press on the raspberries with the back of a large ladle. Juice will strain into the bowl. Under the strainer will be some pulpy juice that hasn’t gone into the bowl. Very carefully scrape this into the bowl, as well. (you are trying to get rid of the seeds) Scrape out the strainer of seeds and repeat with the other half of the raspberries. Scrape out the seeds again from the strainer. Strain the whole mixture , getting out more seeds. You should end up with 1 cup of very well strained crushed raspberries.
Getting ready to crush the raspberries:
Crushing raspberries with large ladle:
The result of all your efforts:
In a medium sauce pan, put the crushed strained raspberries, egg yolks, sugar, salt and lemon juice. Cook over medium low heat, stirring until mixture boils. Remove from heat. Pour into a medium glass bowl.
In a small bowl, combine and stir until dissolved:
2 tablespoons hot raspberry juice (I can only find cranberry/raspberry juice, which is what I use)
4 tablespoon raspberry flavored gelatin (this is raspberry jello)
Add the above mixture to the crushed strained raspberry mixture and stir until combined. Cover with plastic wrap, place in refrigerator and let cool until partially set. This will take about 1-2 hours (check after 1 hour) and the consistency should be like a soupy pudding.
Something like this:
Beat this mixture with:
1/2 cup of heavy cream
Set aside.
In another very clean bowl, put:
3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar
Beat with a mixer until soft peaks form. Then gradually add:
6 tablespoons of sugar
Carefully fold the above meringue into the raspberry/cream mixture.
The end result:
2, 3 ounce packages of Ladyfingers
In an 8 inch spring form pan (the smallest I have is a 9-1/2 inch which is fine) line the bottom and sides with Ladyfingers.
I found these in Hannafords, which always has them. Most supermarkets carry them:
Lined in the spring form pan:
Usually one package takes care of the bottom and one package takes care of the sides.
Pour the raspberry/cream/meringue mixture into the ladyfinger lined spring form pan:
Cover with Saran Wrap and then aluminum foil. Chill at least 2 hours but can be made up to 2 days in advance. ( I highly recommend making it in advance. Take advantage of this tip.)
When ready to serve, garnish with whipped cream.
My desire has always been to make a sponge cake instead of using the Ladyfingers to line the spring form pan.
I tried. But unfortunately I was not successful.
My first attempt, I forgot to spray the wax paper lined sheet pan. The cake stuck.
Not a pretty site but it was tasty!
I didn’t give up and made another one. For some reason, I put the next batter in a smaller sheet pan, why I have no idea. The cake was thicker and there wasn’t enough to line the pan. So I tried to combine the two mistakes to line the pan. Well, that didn’t work either. It was a mess.
I went to Hannafords and bought Ladyfingers. I was not going to make another cake.
But I am still determined to make a spongecake to line the pan. It will definitely enhance the dessert. So stay tuned for Part II of the recipe in the future!!
My Coffee Journey
I love coffee. If I didn’t have to be careful about how much I drank (too much bothers my stomach), I would drink it all day.
I first started drinking coffee with my Mom. She made me Cafe au lait, which to my Mom meant 1/2 coffee, 1/2 hot milk. I was 12 or 13. I loved it. I probably continued to drink it like that until I went to college. During college, I don’t remember any memorable experiences with coffee.
When I first started working full-time ( after college and marriage), I remember drinking coffee all the time at my work place because everyone else did and it was readily accessible. That’s when I discovered that it bothered my stomach. When I made coffee in our apartment I used a Farberware Percolator given to me by my Mom because that is what she used. I used that for a long time.
When we finally got our own house and sometime after we had children, I couldn’t get the Farberware to make coffee strong enough.(Ah, you say, the aftermath of children, or maybe my taste buds changed) I would use enormous amounts of canned ground coffee just to get some flavor. My mother bought me a French Press. ( I still use the Farberware for parties, I have a 12-cup too, comes in handy. ) That was heaven for a long time. I even brought it with me on a Girl Scout Camping trip (the other 2 leaders loooved me!). I used ground coffee at first, going from Maxwell House to Medaglia D Oro Espresso.
Then I switched to grinding my own coffee beans with a Krupps Coffee Grinder using Green Mountain Coffee Beans. That was yummy for a while, until it started tasting bitter. I read that a blade grinder just keeps on regrinding the beans and makes inconsistent sizes which can result in bitterness. A Burr Grinder does not have this issue, so I bought one of those (they are not cheap, let me tell you, had to justify THAT one). And I switched to buying Peets. I had to send away for the beans, no local Peets store and the supermarkets weren’t selling it yet. I ended up as a regular customer with a shipping program/schedule. For a long time I was happy.
Then I went to Italy. I visited my daughter who was there for a study abroad college program. The hotel that we stayed at (my daughter stayed with me too) provided breakfast as part of the package. We decided to have cappuccino, in the traditional Italian way, instead of American coffee. They had this incredible machine and each cup was made individually by our waiter. Well, my daughter and I were hooked. It was the best coffee we had ever tasted. We were tainted. Nothing was going to taste the same. And we tried. Everytime we were together we would try a cappuccino at some restaurant or coffee place. But then we would look at each other, “I wish we were back in Italy”.
For a long time we dreamed of that cappuccino and reminisced how delicious it was.
Last year, I visited my daughter in Boston and we decided to go to the Copley Place Mall and of course we stopped in at Williams Sonoma, our favorite store. (lots of kitchen stuff to dream about owning) A woman was there representing Nespresso and was making espresso for the customers in their new machine, the Pixie. At first I just passed by, it looked like a pod machine, yuk, the coffee is weak in those. But I turned around and said, What the heck, let’s give it a try! We saw her make it, looked easy, and then saw the crema on top! Wow, I didn’t know a pod machine could do that! Well, after tasting, my daughter and I were transported back to Italy. I was so excited, got all the literature and talked about it with my daughter for the next hour. But it was very expensive and extremely difficult in my mind to justify buying it for myself.
So I did nothing. My daughter asked me in one of our phone conversation, When are you going to buy that machine??? I told her I was having a hard time justifying putting out that kind of money. She sighed.
A month went by, our Birthday’s were coming up. (my daughter and I celebrate the same day) In the mail I get a lovely card from my daughter and a gift certificate to Williams and Sonoma with a note: Please go buy that yummy espresso machine! I buy the ‘machine’ and have been extremely happy every morning with my delicious cappuccino (my daughter has since bought one herself.)
My husband and son are now on board with the Pixie. My husband was a devoted tea drinker for many years. Then he started going to Starbucks and now drinks our Pixie espresso/cappuccino (a more consistent cup of Joe). I tell him he has gone over to the dark side!!
But I don’t know if the journey has ended. My daughter and I keep eyeing the bigger espresso makers on the Nespresso website with a built-in milk frother (our Pixie comes with a separate milk frother, the only annoying thing) so maybe, someday……..
Yum!:
Cows
So this is not exactly a recipe for food but it’s food related. My husband and I go to Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York frequently, at least 3-4 time per year. Below is a brief description taken directly from their website: Stone Barns
“Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture is a non-profit farm and education center located just 25 miles north of Manhattan in Pocantico Hills, New York. Stone Barns operates an 80-acre four-season farm and is working on broader initiatives to create a healthy and sustainable food system. Through our Growing Farmers Initiative, children’s education programs, and diverse public awareness programs, we aim to improve the way America eats and farms.”
It’s a great place to see farming at it’s best, where you can see and taste the farm to table relationship. The farm houses 2 eating establishments, the Blue Hill Cafe and Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant.
The Cafe is a casual restaurant where you can get lunch or a snack. Whenever we go to Stone Barns, we always stop at the cafe. The food is made by the Blue Hill restaurant chef and staff. It is always fresh, innovative and delicious using foodstuff grown on the farm.
The Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant is incredibly amazing. Not your typical fare and not your typical service. The food served is what is in season at the time and what is available on the farm. There is no menu. The service is the best I have ever experienced. You feel well taken care of. But it is expensive (we have only been there twice) so it’s best saved for a special occasion.
My husband and I have a special place in our heart for cows, not exactly sure why. Maybe we are farmers at heart. Anyway we are always photographing the livestock and the scenery on the Farm and these are my two recent shots:
Amazingly, Stone Barns are neighbors to Rockefeller State Park, so you can extend your walk from Stone Barns to the park. The park has extensive carriage roads which are wide, not too hilly and paved in a nice gravely dirt. A good way to walk off anything that you have eaten at the Cafe!! No food but great scenery. The park allows horses so once in awhile you might see one or two. One of the laws of the park is that the horses have the right of way, a point I find amusing but I am sure necessary.
Correspondence with my Daughter: Chili
In the future I think I am going to try it with turkey, and possibly a little less bacon to make a healthier version.
Comfort Chili ( I can’t think of a good name)
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 jalapeno peppers chopped
1 pound ground chuck
1 pound ground pork
8 oz. hunts tomato sauce
2 cans petite diced tomatoes ( i liked the petite cause they were perfectly bite size)
16 oz can kidney beans
16 oz can chick peas
Couple slices of bacon chopped finely (to taste)
1/4 tsp pepper
I did look in my cookbook archives for a chili recipe with turkey. I had one and looked it up on the Cooking Light website but they only had one review and it was mediocre. So I put turkey chili in the search box and came up with one that I thought was pretty good, with about 40 very good reviews. I went to the store, got all the ingredients. But of course as soon as I get home, I think of the Epicurious website. So I went on there and found a better recipe, with over 300 excellent reviews. Good thing the ingredients were similar or back to Shoprite (that would have been my fourth visit this week, starting with Tuesday, geez). Anyway, I like it. Of course, I did change a few things: I only used 2 cans of beans instead of 3 and one of the cans was garbanzos peas (I love them!), added sugar and the Chipolte Pepper in Adobe Sauce. It called for beef stock/broth but I used chicken broth instead. I wanted to use a different chili powder, like McCormick Hot Mexican-Style Chili Powder but I was afraid. I do not have the tolerance for that much heat as you and Ian do. So that could definitely be changed. Or adding the ground ancho and chipolte chili and the mexican chocolate like your recipe, would be excellent additions. (I need to look for those, somewhere, my supermarkets are not that ethnic).
Turkey Chili with White Beans
(adapted from Bon Appetit)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1-1/2 teaspoons cumin
1-1/2 pounds (24 ounces) lean ground turkey
2-4 tablespoons of chili powder, depending on your heat tolerance
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2, 15.5 ounces of petite diced tomatoes (I like this size too!)
3 cups of chicken broth
1 Chipolte Pepper in Adobe Sauce, finely chopped
1, 8 ounce can of tomato sauce (or homemade)
1, 15.5 ounce can of small white beans, rinsed and drained
1, 15.5 ounce can of garbanzos peas, rinsed and drained
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat.
Add onions and saute until translucent and tender about 10 minutes.
Add oregano and cumin and stir one minute.
Increase heat to medium high and add turkey, stirring until no longer pink, and breaking up with spoon or metal spatula (haha!).
Stir in chili powder, cocoa powder, salt, sugar and cinnamon.
Add tomatoes, broth, Chipolte Pepper and tomato sauce.
Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add beans to chili and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Serve with garnishes of your choice: cheese, onion, fresh cilantro, sour cream, fresh squeezed lime juice and also Cornbread. This is my super quick Cornbread ‘recipe’: “Jiffy” corn muffin mix, follow directions on box but then add 1/3 cup sour cream to mixture. Continue with the mix directions. I have also read, to add a small can of creamed corn to the batter. Sounds delish.
Recommend making the chili the day before. (but we ate it same night and it was very good.) Also can store extra in freezer.
Love always,
Mom
Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus
So this is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets. One I sorely ignored for quite awhile before I began using it on a regular basis.
My daughter had given it to me as a gift (she loves hers) but I still continued to cut everything with a knife after I received it. I would cut my finger dicing onions and my daughter would scold me “Ma, use the mini-cuisinart!! ” Then one day I had to chop onions and garlic for a recipe. I loath to cut/mince or whatever garlic. It occurred to me that I could do them together in the Min-Prep. Eureka!! It had been sitting there the whole time, waiting.
Needless to say, I use it regularly now. Not only to chop onions and garlic but to make a small amount of breadcrumbs, whip up a salad dressing, chop nuts, the list goes on.
So here it is on Amazon: Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus. It’s not that much money and comes in a lot of awesome (cute) colors, if you would like to match your kitchen decor. (I leave mine out all the time.)
Resting:
Hard at work:
Perfecting Deliciousness 