Tag: chinese food

Mongolian Beef

It’s been hard getting back into the blogging groove lately. I surprised myself when I kept things going so consistently ever since baby #5 came last July, but those days of sleeping babies are long gone, and my little rascal is crawling around putting every last tiny speck and crumb into her mouth.


I also lost my cleaning help (of 6 years!)  recently, which any mom knows is the single most important thing to help us keep our sanity. I mean, who do you think did the dishes after every cookfest I had in the kitchen? I mean, I love to cook, but I don’t love to clean up after myself. ;) Yes, my friends. That is my dirty little secret.

People always ask me, “How do you do what you do?” and the truth is, I’d never be able to do it without help! I always say – somethings got to give. Having five kids is a full time job in and of itself, so how I manage recipe testing, blogging, cooking classes and photography work boils down to this – I can’t do it all. I’m not very active in the gazillion whatsapp groups I belong to. I went off Facebook. I cut down on volunteer work (and send a donation instead!) and I have, ahem – had, cleaning help.

Luckily, this recipe was photographed and tested months ago, and I love saving things like these in the archives for those stressful times when I don’t have time to work on new recipes. I had made it for dinner one night and it came together super fast with little fuss. Who doesn’t love recipes like that?!

With summer coming and school coming to an end, we all need those quick and easy stir fries that we can throw together at the last minute. I hope you all enjoy this one as much as we did!

Related Recipes:

pepper steak with plum sauce
soy and ginger glazed sugar snap peas

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Easy Pineapple Fried Rice

Have you heard about the custom for Jewish people to eat Chinese food on Christmas? It all started back in the day when there weren’t so many kosher restaurants to eat at, and the only places open on Xmas were Chinese joints. And the only people frequenting their restaurants were the Jews, since they do not celebrate the gentile holiday. To clarify things: it is not, in fact, a Jewish custom to eat Chinese food on Christmas, but some people enjoy doing so just for kicks. This year, my family decided to follow suit, and we ordered takeout from our favorite Chinese spot, EstiHana.

Have you seen this picture that’s been circulating around the web?  Cute, isn’t it?

You know what the best part about ordering Chinese food? All that fresh hot rice they send you, which turns into day-old rice the next day. Leftover rice is the perfect starter for dishes like pineapple fried rice. And contrary to popular belief, most fried rice dishes are not fried at all (we are dispelling lots of myths here today!).  So the next time you have leftover rice, think twice before throwing it away.

Other ways to use up leftover rice:

Rice pudding or breakfast cereal (use in place of oatmeal)
Tomato rice soup like this one
Stuffed peppers
Rice stuffing for chicken
Cheesy Mexican rice
Arancini
Chicken and rice soup

Do you have any good ideas for using up leftover rice? Share them in the comments below!


1 year ago: black grape and plum compote
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Spicy Roasted Edamame

I am so excited about this post. And not because of the recipe (even though it is incredibly delicious!). It’s because I finally cracked the code to the mystery of food photography. OK it’s not exactly a mystery, but it was to me. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you  may have noticed how my photography has been slowly evolving. First, I ordered this book. And then this ebook. Then I took a photography class. And then I listened intently to the talented food photographer Noah Fecks at the Kosher Food Blogger Conference. And finally, finally, I pulled out my tripod from the basement. As if 2 books and a class in photography didn’t stress it enough! I was just too lazy to set up a whole mini “studio” to photograph my dishes. But slowly I’ve been pulling out little things here and there (like my son’s old portacrib mattress that serves as my lightboard!) to form my little space in the corner of my kids playroom. Here’s a peak at my “studio”!

So, now for the food! I absolutely love those spicy wasabi roasted peas that they sell with the nuts in all the drug stores. You know what I’m talking about right? Well I wanted to recreate them at home, so I started playing around with some recipes. And here’s what I learned: wasabi loses it’s potency when heated. That’s right. Once you put wasabi-anything in the oven, it loses it’s flavor and it’s like you added nothing! So, to get that spicy kick, I added Asian hot sauce (sriracha) and sprinkled on wasabi powder once the edamame were browned and toasty. The resulting healthy snack is incredibly addicting. I like the medium spice level but you can adjust the sriracha to make it more or less hot. Roasted edamame beans are best eaten fresh, straight out of the oven!

For more Chinese recipes, check out the kosher connection link-up below!

1 year ago: crunchy shriveled green beans
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