New Name, New Address, Same Great Taste.

There are going to be some changes around here. Don't worry, the content will remain of the same vein, it's how you get to it thats changing.

The site is renaming to Life & Sundry. The new address is lifeandsundry.com (the current address will work for a little while, but please switch your bookmarks and such to the new one). 

I'm also switching to a combined RSS feed for your feed readers. Right now, everyone has to subscribe to all four feeds. Now, people can subscribe to one feed and get everything. Click this for the new feed.

You can also get site updates on Twitter from @lifeandsundry.

Egg Fried Rice.

My first real date with Chris was to a school dance. We went on a double date with mutual friends, and we left the pre-dance dining choice up to them. They chose a local Chinese restaurant that I enjoyed and had been to many times with my family. Unbeknownst to me, at this time, Chris hated Chinese food. He was, (and still sometimes is), a notoriously picky eater, and didn't know of a single dish he enjoyed there. He wanted to impress me though, and didn't protest the restaurant choice (especially after I made known that I enjoyed going there). If I remember correctly, he discovered he liked beef fried rice that night. I ordered the chicken fried rice, which was my favorite dish there, and is my go to dish to order at any new Chinese restaurant we're trying out. Since that night, Chris has found many Chinese dishes he enjoys, as have I, but we keep coming back to our mutual favorite — fried rice.

I usually halve this recipe (it's huge!) and it barely fits in my wok. I also tend to throw in whatever vegetables I have on hand. In fact, I don't think I've actually followed this recipe to the letter yet! It's very flexible, and forgiving if you accidentally put too much soy sauce or too little ginger, or any other adjustment you may find yourself making. Fresh ginger is a wonderful thing in this, and completely worth buying if you don't keep it on hand, but ground ginger can be substituted in a pinch. Make sure to precook any larger/thicker veggies you want to use, otherwise they will end up undercooked. 

Egg Fried Rice, from Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong

Ingredients:

6 eggs

2/3 cup finely sliced spring onions (scallions)

2 T light soy sauce

1 T finely diced ginger

2 T vegetable oil (I use peanut oil)

1 small red onion, finely diced

4 cups steamed rice

1 T light soy sauce

1 1/3 c. finely shredded chinese cabbage leaves

optional other vegetables: peas, broccoli (precook), corn, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, etc.

Directions:

Place eggs in a bowl with spring onions, soy sauce, and ginger, and beat lightly with a fork.

Heat oil in a hot wok until the surface of the oil seems to shimmer slightly. Add onion and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Pour in egg mixture and leave to cook for 10 seconds before folding egg mixture onto itself with a spatula and lightly scrambling for about 1 1/2 minutes or until mostly cooked through. Add rice and extra soy sauce and stir-fry for about 1 1/2 minutes, using the spatula to break the egg up into smaller pieces. Lastly toss in cabbage and any other veggies you choose and stir-fry about 20 seconds, or until vegetables are combined and heated through. Enjoy!

Bagels.

Bagels are a lovely thing. Made well, they are chewy, lightly browned, with a lovely light texture. Poorly made, they are so tough your jaw may just wear out before you finish eating them. Now, I do not claim to be a bagel connoisseur, I have not had the famed H&H bagels or anything like that, but I do know that I do not want to wear my jaw out on food that is supposed to be tasty. On top of all that, storebought bagels, the ones that are usually the worst offenders of the toughness issue, are much too expensive per bagel for me to justify buying regularly.

Normally, I would attempt to solve these problems by making them at home. You see, though, I've tried that. Back when I was a newlywed, still trying to figure out what I needed to learn in our little postage stamp sized kitchen, I attempted to make mini bagels. After several hours in a hot, steam-filled, noisy kitchen, (our smoke alarm was ridiculously sensitive - it went off every time the oven door was opened, no matter what temp it was set to!), the only passable results convinced me that bagels simply had to be purchased, not made.

Recently, I came across a few different bagel recipes that made me rethink my stance on bagels. Many called for ingredients I didn't readily have on hand, though, so I kept putting off the attempt. Then, yesterday, I found this recipe. I decided the wait was over and the same day began the process of making what resulted in delicious bagels.

My advice to you, if you choose to attempt these, (and you should), make sure you read through the entire recipe and consider how much time they take to make. They are very time consuming, at least in the "hurry up and wait" department. You work with the dough a bit, and then put it in the fridge. Then you pull it out, shape it, and put it back in the fridge. Then you leave it overnight, and then pull it out, let the dough rest for an hour, and then you begin the baking process. Consider yourself warned, but know that it's totally worth it. Enjoy!

Ratatouille.

This is NOT a traditional ratatouille recipe. If you think I could get eggplant in any form past my guys, you don't know us very well. :) Still, this is a delicious sauce-like creation to serve over pasta, that changes it just enough that I'm not bored, and is similar enough to other pasta dishes that my guys will still eat it. Jonathan even agreed to eat one of the tomatoes! (After which he promptly declared he still doesn't like tomatoes.)

Ratatouille, from the Hy-Vee Test Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 T garlic-flavored olive oil (or chop some garlic up and toss it in when you heat the plain olive oil.)

1 med onion, chopped

1 green pepper, seeded and chopped (or any color) (:

2 cans diced tomatoes (preferably no salt added)

2 med zucchini, cut into 1-in chunks

1 tsp herbes de Provence

salt and pepper, to taste

penne, optional (this recipe is great served over pasta, but you technically can eat it on its own. We always have pasta.)

Directions:

Heat oil, (and garlic) in a large pot over medium heat. Cook onions and green pepper, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 10 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes, zucchini and herbes de Provence. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cover and simmer until vegetables are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. During this time, cook pasta according to package directions.

Serve ratatouille over pasta, if desired. Enjoy!

Coconut Whipped Cream.

This isn't so much of a recipe as a suggestion. If you like coconut, and want to try it in a completely different way, try this. You must start with full fat coconut milk, the light has too many additives that interfere with this process. 

Chill your can of coconut milk. Open, if it has seperated at all, pour in all the white stuff, none of the oily stuff. (Usually it won't seperate, as there's not as much to seperate with the higher fat cans.) Pour into a medium bowl, and whip until thick and the consistency of whipped cream. Add sugar if desired.