Chinese Green Beans

This is my FAVORITE way to eat green beans, taught to me by a friend who was born and lived in China until she was about 40 years old.  It is packed with flavor and absolutely delicious.

• Buy fresh green beans from the produce section.  (1 pound will make one serving for a family of four.  2 pounds will give you enough for either a couple families, or to have a bit for leftovers.)
• 1-2 large yellow sweet vidalia onions, sliced.
• garlic (either 2 garlic heads or 2 Tbsp. of garlic), chopped
• Salt & Pepper
• Canola oil

(1) Take your green beans to a cutting board and line them up, 10-20 at a time, with the ends all pushed to the same height, and then cut off the ends.  Flip the beans, line them back up, and cut off the opposite ends as well.  

(2) Take each bean, and slice end to end in long lines (3-4 long, skinny slices to a bean pod).  Place in a separate mixing bowl/plate.

(3) Repeat steps 1 & 2 until you're through the whole bunch.

(4) Pour enough canola oil into the frying pan to cover the bottom of the pan, and heat over high heat for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

(5) Place the thin onion slices into the oil & cook until softened and they become more caramelized.

(6) Next, pour the green beans over the top of the onions, and carefully stir and fold the green beans until all are moistened with oil.  Then, top with a lid and leave to cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so (replacing the lid each time).   The heat should stay on high heat.   About 10 minutes into cooking, add in garlic and season with salt & pepper, and cook at least 5 minutes longer.  Once the beans are a nice dark green color and softened, and the onions are all browned, remove from heat and serve.

I hope you love these as much as I do!!!   Enjoy.

Spanish Rice

Long-grain rice

Vegetable oil

Tomato paste

water

garlic salt

chicken bouillion cubes

red pepper flakes

In a small omelet-size frying pan (or the bottom of a saucepan), cover the bottom in corn oil. (***If you have extra or want to include it, you can toss in one small chopped onion to the oil at this point.***) Then add in the amount of rice you'd like to use (we generally do 1-2 cups for our family if we're having it as an add-on to our meal). Saute just a minute or two until the rice turns clear and is coated in the oil.

Then, cook rice as you normally would, but to your normal rice & water pot, FOR EACH CUP OF RICE, add in:

• 2 cups water
• 1-2 tsp. tomato sauce
• 1/2-1 tsp garlic salt
• 1 chicken bouillion cube
• red pepper flakes to taste.

Pancakes & Syrup

Here are my go-to from scratch recipes for pancakes and maple syrup.

• Homemade pancakes
• Homemade maple syrup (yes, it's fake, but overseas, it's a great pinch-hitter)

Tempura Batter

This recipe is from my Japanese friend, Ai, who spent several family holidays with us during college, and taught us this basic recipe.

• 1 egg
• 2 c. ice water
• 2 c. flour

Combine, and coat fish, shrimp, veggies, whatever you want, in this batter, drop into frying oil, fry, and serve over rice! Delicious.

Kristy's Enchilada Sauce

This one is very non-specific, and I'm sorry about that. I just wrote down the basics when my friend made it several years ago, and I'm basically posting it here to remind myself.

• Sautee garlic & 1/2 onion in butter.
• Add: milk, sour cream, cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes (is this the same as paprika? I can't remember...)

Use this to pour over whatever kinds of enchiladas you want.

For chicken enchiladas: Flour/Corn tortillas, each with shredded chicken & salsa inside.

Chicken Cracker Casserole

3 chicken breasts, or 6-8 chicken thighs

2 sm. cans cream of mushroom soup (or, 2 prepared packs of cr. of mush. soup)

1 pack of twisty/swirled noodles (egg noodles work great for this)

16 oz sour cream

1/2 c. butter

1 pack saltine crackers

1. Cook & shred chicken.
2. Melt butter, set aside.
3. In a 9 x 13 casserole dish, combine chicken, cooked noodles, soup, sour cream & mix well.
4. Stir crumbled saltines into butter, until moist. Top casserole with buttery crumbs.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until top is golden brown & crunchy.

Serves 8.

Bread Machine- Country White Bread

This is a classic white bread recipe, good with butter, or for sandwiches. It's intended for use in a bread machine.

1 cup + 1 Tbsp warm (not hot) water

2 & 3/4 cups bread flour (all-purpose works OK too)

2 Tbsp dry milk

3 Tbsp sugar

1 & 1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp butter/margarine, cut into 4 pieces (total)

2 tsp active dry yeast

1. Add water to the pan.
2. Then add dry ingredients, except yeast, to the pan. Tap bread pan to settle ingredients, then level with spoon or spatula, pushing some of the mixture into the corners.
3. Make 4 little "wells" on each corner of the pan, and place 1 piece of butter or margarine in each well.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients; add yeast.
5. Lock pan into bread maker and set for regular (Basic/Specialty) cycle. Choose desired bread color.
6. Remove from pan when ready and let cool on metal rack.

It is easy to make up 5-10 baggies of this bread mix at a time, and then just add your water, butter, and yeast to the pan when you're ready to bake bread.