Chinese Fried Rice

This is more or less the recipe we used in the food lab--straight from my memory.  Enjoy.


3 cups cooked rice, cooled to room temp

1 slice bacon

green onion, bell pepper, carrot diced

Dash garlic powder, dash black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1 or 2 eggs

extra vegetable oil if needed--Sesame oil is the best


If you are using regular long grain  rice, remember that 1 cup raw rice equals 3 cups cooked rice.  Follow package directions.  Cool rice a bit so it won't end up as fried mushy rice!

Fry the bacon in a wok or other deep sided skillet until crisp.  Drain and crumble.  Reserve the bacon grease.  Saute the vegetables in the bacon grease until tender.  If you don't have quite enough fat, at a little sesame oil or vegetable oil.

Stir in the cooked rice and the crumbled bacon.  You can also add chopped ham, chicken, or whatever you like.  When the rice is heated through, stir in the seasonings and soy sauce.

Lightly beat eggs with a fork.  Make a well in the center of the rice and scramble the eggs.  When they are done, incorporate the rice.  

This Bird of Paradise Quilt Won't Fly Up Your Nose

Copycat Green Sauce

Gotta post something or give it up!!  I have been so busy doing yard work that I literaly put off for ten years.  That's not to mention all the trees we had to cut that died from hypoxylon canker worsened by drought stress.  And yes, I do mean cut.  My husband and I cut about eight trees!  I should be skinny, but I'm not! 

Do you love the green sauce that is served at some Mexican restaurants?  Here is a copycat recipe that I got from my good friend, Charley McQueen.  Yum, it is good!

Green Sauce

2 ripe avocados
1/2 can Rotel tomatoes
2 ounces chopped green chilies
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 ounces cream cheese
1  8 ounce container sour cream
1 1/2  teaspoons lemon juice
3 to 4 drops green food coloring
Dash cayenne pepper

Blend all.  Chill and serve.  This freezes well, according to Charley.

Stars and Sprigs Borders

It has been too long since I did any blogging!!  We have been so busy doing tree cleanup.  Hypoxylon Canker killed 14 of our red oak trees.  You wouldn't believe what tree cutters my husband and I are!!  We have cut all but 5 of them.  Lots of work!!  I work in the yard until at least noon everyday.  Glad I am retired, so I can be outside working.

In the afternoon, I sew.  This is the border sections to the Stars and Sprigs quilt designed by Kim McLean.  I cut the borders in half to fascilitate the machine heirloom applique technique I use.  When they are complete, you won't notice the seam for the sheer beauty of these borders.  Can't wait to finish the body of the quilt so I can begin the actual quilting.  The picture above is actually two different pictures!  Looks a little odd. 

Peanut Butter Cornflake Crunch

Before I forget again, here is the Cornflake Crunch recipe we used in the lab.  The full recipe is double of this one.  It can be patted into a 9 by 13 inch lightly buttered pan and cut into squares when cool.  The following is how we made it at school.


1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
5 cups cornflakes cereal

1. Cook syrup and sugar until mixture comes to a boil. Stir constantly; do not overcook.
2. Remove from heat, add peanut butter, and stir until smooth. Pour mixture over cornflakes in a large bowl. Mix until cereal is thoroughly coated.
3. Drop by approxiamately 1/4 cup amounts onto waxed paper.  Cool and enjoy.                   

Dirt Cake

It is the 100th anniversary of Oreo Cookies.  It is only fitting that I add the Dirt Cake recipe that we did every year in the food lab.  This recipe is different than most, because I doubled the cream cheese in order to cut the too sweet taste of many recipes for dirt cake.




1/2 cup butter, softened
2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix

3 1/2 cups milk

1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

32 ounces Oreo Cookies or some facsimile of ( in other words, Walmart brand will work fine)

 Crush cookies  in  a food processor. The white cream will disappear. Without a food processor, you might use a rolling pin to crush the cookies between pieces of wax paper.  I always leave a number of cookies in fair size chunks to add a little texture to the conglomeration!!

Mix butter, cream cheese, and sugar in bowl with the electric mixer.                                 

 In a separate large bowl mix milk, pudding and whipped topping together.            

Combine pudding mixture and cream mixture together.                

 Layer in a 9 inch by 13 inch pan, starting with cookies then cream mixture. Repeat layers.               

Chill until ready to serve.   Yes!  It needs to chill.

Add gummy worms if you must. Enjoy!

                           

Nutritional Information

Dirt Cake I

Servings Per Recipe: 10
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 827

• Total Fat: 44.6g
• Cholesterol: 56mg
• Sodium: 896mg
• Total Carbs: 101.5g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.7g
• Protein: 9.9g

VIEW DETAILED NUTRITION
About: Nutrition Info

String Quilts and Memories

String quilts are colorful, old-fashioned, easy, fun, and spectacular sometimes!  I make them when I want to do lots of sewing and no thinking.  It is the quilt block I always reccomend for beginners.  It is what I taught my students to make about the last 6 years that I taught.  I let them be the designer.  String quilts can take many forms depending on how the blocks are set together.

    One day at school as we were working on a quilt, a man came in the classroom who was there to work on the intercom system.  I imagine he was about 70 years old.  His face lit up when he saw what we were doing.  He said he knew exactly what we were making, because he made string quilts when he was a child.  He said he was one of 8 children.  His mother would gather the kids in a circle, give them pieces of newspaper for a foundation , and start handing out "strings" of fabric she had cut.  He said they could turn out a quilt top pretty quickly because there were so many of them!  He was delighted to see someone still doing it.

    Here are pictures of some of the string quilts I have made over the years.  Some are not very good quality pictures, but I have given these quilts away and this is the only documentation I have.