anti-recipe #57 fairly decent fried rice and really super good pad thai

So. One thing we definitely miss living out in the sticks, as it were, is easy access to city food. And while dada can make the occassional fancy pants meals that we loved for years pre-kiddies it was the take out food that we really missed. You know, dada is late coming home from work. Mama feeds kiddos frozen nuggets and brocolli. Dada offers to stop at the Thai place two blocks away from his office. Mama says yes please, and pours the wine. DINNER. Of course, dada still works two blocks away from the great Thai place, it would just be cold - and mama would be HUNGRY - by the time he took the train and his little truck home.

So, we do what country folk do. We figure out how to make it ourselves.

First off, buy pad Thai rice noodles at the store. Plus some fish sauce, or hoisen sauce. I dont know the difference, I've never gotten fish sauce. The hoisen sauce is easy enough to find, in the "ethnic" aisle.

So.

(Side note, lots of cooking posts from me lately huh? It seems so boring to write about my day to day. "Today I fed the chickens. And the kids. We did school. I cleaned the house. I did a load of laundry. The end." )

Yes, so, get your pot of water to boiling. Dump in your noodles. Time it out and cook them 4-5 minutes. NO MORE. The will get gushy, and that is gross.

Mix up some hoisen sauce (1/2 cup), some lemon juice (2 T?), a bit of sugar (1 t?), and some pepper flakes in a bowl. When the noodles are done, dump them in with the sauce, mix.

In a wok, if you have one, or a large skillet type pan, fry up some chicken pieces (leftover from your roasting chicken, stuck in the freezer!) or pork, or shrimp if you happen to have some on hand, and some eggs with a dash of the sauce and 2T or so of oil.

Add the noodles, frying for a bit on medium heat.

Plate up and garnish with sprouts, (fresh!) cilantro and peanuts.

Eat.

Seriously that is as easy as it is!!

Wow, right??

Now the fried rice is not so wow, but its good and filling and what is more, THE KIDS WILL EAT IT. (Well, under durress, but still, they ate it) Also, it uses up leftovers, which is nice.

Use leftover rice, at least 2 cups of it. It fries better than fresh. If you are using fresh let it sit out for a good hour before frying to dry out a bit.

Preheat 2T of oil, or so. Add in chopped onion, grate some carrot bits in, add a sprinkle of ginger and some soy sauce. Add in your meat, if you have any on hand. Now, scoop in your rice and fry it all up. Add a few more dashes of ginger and soy sauce to taste. Now some frozen peas (not canned, ew) or some edamame, not the shells obviously. Make a little hole and crack in a few eggs, let them fry up, then stir them in.

And, yes, that is it. Its actually quite good!

So, there you have it, my Asian cuisine efforts. I actually made a good curry the other day too. But as it was using straight up curry paste, and a can of coconut milk, it doesnt seem worth the anti-recipe status.

Okay. We just had a dumping of legos emergency and little man is working on the fake tears so, I better go. Look at me, posting in the middle of the day, just like old times! Oh, for the days when I am no longer chasing around destructo-toddler!

this is a crappy picture. sorry, its all ive got. i dont
have a picture of the fried rice. it looks like rice, with stuff
in it. HA.