Who Knew Fried Rice was SO Easy

Who knew? Even though I have made fried rice before, I always seem to forget how ridiculously easy it is to make at home.
I have been told that day old rice or leftover white rice is the best to use, but I’m not sure why. Perhaps it has had the opportunity to harden a touch and won’t mush as you cook it again.

The ingredients, more or less

• 3 tbs sesame oil OR dump some olive oil in the pan and about one tablespoon of sesame seeds

• 1 large onion, chopped or diced

• 1 TBSP minced garlic

• 3 carrots, peeled and grated

• 1 large green pepper, chopped

• 2 eggs, slightly beaten

• 3 cups cooked white rice (day old or leftover rice)

• 1/4 cup soy sauce

Directions

-Saute sesame seeds and garlic in oil in a large wok or large bottom soup pot.

-Add the onions, green pepper and carrots. Add any veggie you prefer really. Most people do the frozen veggie mix of peas and carrots.

-Move all the veggies to the edge of the pan (make a hole) and scramble the eggs in the middle. When they are fully cooked, mix everything around.

– Lastly add the rice and soysauce. I added less than the 1/4 cup the recipe called for and I thought it was perfect. Just remember that is is easy to add a bit more soysauce than add a cup more of cooked rice.

-I added a tablespoon or two and mixed it all around to see if I needed more soysauce or not. Since everything is cooked, go ahead and taste it as you go to make sure it is the way you like it.

Day 351: Cabbage Blanch

Cabbage blanching!
Step one in making the cabbage rolls that our cousins taught us how to make. My hubbster had some Polish Aunts in his family. There are many carefully written recipes in teeny cursive that those lovely ladies left behind.

Maybe blanching is the wrong word, but essentially we submerged the cabbage heads in hot, near boiling, water until the leaves peeled away easily. Each leaf becomes the delectable wrapper for the meat.

[Not pictured] Kit mixing the 2 kinds of ground meat, rice and spices together in a large bowl by hand.

Day 346: Meat n’ Veggies

Cooked up a bunch of veggies and a pound of lamb (on sale). I did a lazy shepherd’s pie for supper because I didn’t want to chop all those vegetables.

Peeled and boiled potatoes for the mashed potato topping. Thawed and cooked two bags of veggies. I chopped and sautéd mushrooms and an onion in the grease leftover from the lamb and a dash of olive oil.

The taters got a half stick of butter, salt and pepper. The veggies got salt and a Mediterranean seasoning and the meat got a mesquite grinder seasoning mix.

Mixed the veg and meat together, put it in a dish, layer of mashed potatoes and topped with Cheddar cheese. Baked for 20 minutes on 350. Boom.

I am melting. It was awesome!

Day 319: Seeds!

Quick photo of some of the seeds we bought from Sustainable Seeds and Park Seed respectively. Not all of the seeds because by the time I took this picture we had already planted four trays of 72 cells each.

Already planted are the three varieties of kale–Winterbor, Red Russian and Siberian Dwarf.
We also started the Kellogg’s Breakfast, German Johnson, Roma, and Hungarian Paste tomatoes, and some golden acre cabbage.

What’s left are what you see here. Pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, honey dew, cantaloupe, birdhouse gourd, spaghetti squash, loofahs gourd, peppers, one tobacco variety, herbs, and a coupla flower seed packets.

Not pictured/purchased will be corn varieties, limas, okra, Derby green beans and more that I can’t remember.

So excited. If we get a better harvest this year then we won’t need a garden next year. Last year, the drought was so bad that some of our stuff didn’t come up.