Shut Up and Eat It - Fried Rice

We move around a lot for my husbands job which means we start over A LOT. Finding new doctors, new jobs (for me), new friends, learning new roads and most importantly, finding new places that deliver food. Like most Americans, I can appreciate a great Chinese restaurant. Its so disappointing to move somewhere new and have terrible takeout/delivery options. We recently moved to the Midwest from Orange County California, where we left behind the best hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant I've found in years, as well as some killer Ramen joints. Oh Ramen, how I miss you.

I absolutely love Asian food and have been making some of my own, in the event I cant find a good place to order out from. I've made some great sesame noodles, General Tso's Chicken, Sesame Chicken, Lumpia and one of my favorites, Fried Rice. This is something I make all the time because the ingredients are usually things that I always have on hand, and it is also a recipe that you can play around with. If you have left over rice, chicken, pork, shrimp you can just throw it in!

It took me about 5 hours to make fried rice today. Don't be alarmed, I was in no rush. I have found it  much less stressful to prep and cook randomly through the morning/afternoon, rather than cook a meal in an hour while I'm starving and annoyed because I have a child who is not cooperating and dogs that are going nuts.

Fried Rice

This is what we are working with.

3 cups of cooked rice

1/3 cup soy sauce

2 T Sesame oil

2-3 carrots diced

1/2 onion

1/2 stick of butter

1 cup frozen peas

2 eggs scrambled

salt and pepper to taste

Around 10 this morning I made the rice and just let it sit out on the stove, until I got around to pulling the rest of the fried rice together. I suppose you could refrigerate it, but I wasn't feeling that adventurous.

EJ went down for a nap around noon and I decided to give my mom a call. While I was chatting with her I peeled and chopped the carrots and diced the onion. I love carrots and onion, so while I wrote 1/2 an onion above, I used a whole one. Again, this is super simple so tailor it to your taste. If you hate onion leave it out. I also like to add a couple cloves of minced garlic but our call ended and I had other things I wanted to do while she was napping so I left it out. Its all about balance, people.

I threw my diced vegetables into my dutch oven and covered them until I was ready to start making my rice.

I was able to get in a short workout and a shower, they were both much needed. Yesterday was a "me" day where during naps I did nothing but lay on the couch, watch Lifetime and stuff my face with copious amounts of cheese. I caught EJ's cold and nobody was here to baby me except for the block of parmesan that was in my fridge. We've all been there....right?

After EJ woke up, she was in a fabulous mood so I figured it was my chance to finish my rice. I threw half the butter into the veggies and set the burner to medium and let them cook, while I scrambled and cooked two eggs. Once the veggies were done, I like them soft but with a little bit of a bite, I added a cup of frozen peas. Now, I LOVE peas so a cup might be a bit overboard. I don't care, peas make the world go round... or something like that.  After a few minutes and they start looking less frozen and a little plump, I add my rice and butter and stir everything together. Once everything is combined, I will add my soy sauce and sesame oil. Now, you don't necessarily need the sesame oil but it adds such a delicious scent and flavor to the rice.

This was EJ's breaking point. She had been entertaining herself for far too long (roughly 15 minutes) and it was time to demand my attention. Thankfully, for dinners sake, I was done!

"Pick me up damn it"

Now that everything is combined and your rice is nice and hot, give it a taste (you can do this with a child on your hip) and add a little salt and pepper if needed. Soy can be a bit salty but there is a lot of rice to soak it up, so I always find that I need some salt and some pepper. I also like to add some chopped green onions at this point but I'm lazy and didn't feel like making a trip to the store.

 Ricey-goodness come to Momma!!

EJ ate some and Mr. P and I polished off the rest. I'm kind of disappointed there are no leftovers.

Note to self: Next time double the recipe.

Again, this recipe can be tweaked to your liking. If you want to add some diced chicken, try cooking the rice in chicken stock for some added flavor. Get carbie crazy my friends!



The Anti-Lifestyle Blog

First let me start out by saying that there is nothing wrong with lifestyle blogs. In fact, I frequent quite a few of them. I admire their beautiful homes, perfect decorating, trendy outfits and happy smiling children, with no hair out of place, or remnants of breakfast on their clothing.

While I love taking a peek into their perfectly pictured lives, I cant help but feel sad, jealous and a bit inadequate because my life couldn't be any more different. My home is covered in dog hair, and my  decorating skills are non existent. Most days I'm wearing yoga pants or jeans that I cant remember the last time they were washed and sometimes I have to choose whether I'm going to shower, cook, clean, work out or be selfish and take and hour to myself during the coveted nap time. And EJ, sweet little EJ. Her clothes are a tie-died mess that were once splatters of sweet potato and blueberry yogurt. She doesn't wear matching bows in her hair, mostly because I hate them, but really because its stiff from the pineapple juice she wiped in it.

Its hard enough being a wife, mother, sister, friend, co-worker, boss, caregiver, lover, decent human being, than to live up to somebody's idea of perfection. Life is messy, sticky and chaotic. I want this to be a place where you can fit in. Where you can laugh at my half-assed attempt to make mason jar decorations, and share failed baking stories. Lets bond over runny-nosed children who whine all day and are never wearing matching socks. Lets form a sisterhood over that same load of laundry that's been washed 3 times yet still hasn't made its way to the dryer.

Listen to me right now. The baby is napping, forget about the laundry and the 3 foot stack of dishes in the sink. Make yourself a hot cup of coffee, sit your ass down on the couch (I mean REALLY sit on the couch. Not that half-cheek-sit-because-the-child-is-about-to-knock-over-the-bookcase, sit), let out a deep sigh and take a sip. Enjoy your coffee and these few minutes of silence in your messy chaotic world. Tomorrow is another day and those dishes will still be waiting for you. Embrace the mess and have a cup of coffee and a laugh with me.

Throw up Thursday

Shut Up and Eat It - Fettuccini Alfredo

I hope to share many recipes with you. Nothing spectacular, but definitely edible.

I really enjoy cooking, probably because eating is one of my favorite hobbies. While I'm not the best cook, I always liked to attempt a challenging recipe to test my skills in the kitchen. But now that I have a kid, things have changed. Now, I'm the kind of chef that would end up on Anthony Bourdain's hit-list.  Somedays I need to chop and prep during a nap, sometimes things get made while EJ screams at my feet. Meals get thrown together and fingers get crossed that it is edible. I still like to make more time consuming recipes but they are mostly saved for days when Mr. P is off from work.

Tonight I made a 30 minute Fettuccini Alfredo that took roughly an hour and thirty minutes to complete. It was pretty good and I'll definitely make it again.

Everything started out great, EJ was happily eating pineapple in her high hair, with the dog near by for the occasional cleanup, while I finished up the dishes and got my ingredients together.

 

I had barely got my hands wet in the sink and it started. That nagging whine coming from about 2 feet away. My happy, pineapple eating baby spotted me doing something, and just like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, she had to let me know it was not going to happen the way I had planned. I listened to her whine while I quickly finished up and pulled everything together. Then I put her down to, you know, occupy herself.

 



I gathered my ingredients together to take a picture. Its a simple recipe, I can make this before she goes into full meltdown mode.

Side note: If you are giving my box of pasta a side-eye, I don't have mice. EJ  re-organize the pantry a few days ago and it appears that she wanted to test her ever budding palette on cardboard.

This picture could have been better if it hadn't been for this:

 

I quickly had to pull it together, I got the water boiling and the butter melting and distracted her with a piece of cheese while I shredded some parmesan.

 

I was able to distract her long enough to pull dinner together. In between eating cheese, torturing the dogs and watching me stir, dinner was served.

 

 

 

I know what you're thinking... "What's with the broccoli"? Well, I know most people would serve a lovely side salad with their pasta but I'm not most people, and I also didn't have lettuce, nor was I running out to the store, so broccoli it is.

 

The sauce was simple and pretty tasty. I think next time I might add some pancetta and peas. Whenever you add pancetta to a dish, it makes people think you put in a lot of effort, you didn't, it just looks like it.

 

 

 

Fettuccini Alfredo

 

1 lb Fettuccini (or whatever you have, don't make a special trip. Who has time for that?)

A hunk of parmesan cheese (about a cup if you want to get technical)

1 cup Heavy cream

1 cup Whole milk

1/2 cup Butter

1tsp Onion powder

1tsp Garlic powder

1T Flour

 

Boil water and cook pasta according to box.

 

Melt butter and wisk in flour, stir for about a minute just to cook off the flour taste. Pour in cream and milk and let it come to a simmer. Let this simmer for about 10 minutes until it starts to thicken up. This is where you are going to have to pick up your kid if they are standing at your leg screaming like mine was. You have to keep stirring, so it doesn't burn.

 

Mix in cheese, onion and garlic powder and stir until blended.

 

Drain pasta and put back in the hot pot. Pour sauce over pasta, toss to coat and enjoy!

 

Welcome`ish

This is my first blog post. As with everything I do, this will be a mediocre, half-assed blog.

Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Terri, a wife, 1st time mom, wanna be cook, dog owner, DIY dabbler, Pinterest obsessed, chick, just trying to find her place in this world. I'm really mediocre at a lot of things but I don't particularly excel at any one thing. I thought by this age (35) I would have this lucrative career and have found success at something, but as it turns out, I'm just not really that good at anything. I'm just good enough to get by. Its ok, I've come to terms with it. I have found peace with just being ok.

I will warn you, I'm a pretty shitty writer and my grammar could use a trip back to the 8th grade. Please, judge away, I can take it. Although, compliments are always welcome. Everybody needs their ego's fluffed once in a while.

So... lets get mediocre together. Tonight I'll be making fettuccini alfredo, while my 1 year old hangs on my leg and cries the entire time. Blog post, recipe and pictures to follow.

Mom-game on point