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Personal DNA

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Another one of those weeks where I’m catching up on chores, writing, reading, crafting, mothering… I wanted to take a break and thought to share this personality quiz. I used to take a bunch of these in high school and college. Now that I think about it, why did I keep taking these quizzes? Is that was girls do? My daughter has two quiz books from American Girl… we start so young, don’t we? I’m not sure what I was looking for then. Maybe it was some insight into the person I was versus the person I wanted to be. Maybe, back then, it was to confirm that I was the right girl for my crush-of-the-month.

Well, this quiz assessed me (now) as a Dynamic Inventor. Figures, hehe.

My personalDNA Report

Cha Chiang Mein

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Julie at the cooktop

My mouth was watering after watching a segment on Martha Stewart’s Noodle Show.  There was this little Chinese lady standing over the cooktop with a big wok and speaking in broken English.  “We make, uh, dish, Cha Chiang Mein, uh, like, uh Chinese spaghetti.”  Awesome!  Note: We really like this dish at Yu’s Mandarin in Schaumburg.  However, the dish on television was more like home-style cooking.  Yu’s Mandarin has a sauce that’s as dark as mahogany and as thick as molasses. We’d probably be afraid of how much soy sauce is actually in it.

So, I looked up the recipe on Martha Stewart and tweaked it to how we would make it, with what we have.

Cha Chianh Mein ingredientsChinese cooking wine

  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped fine
  • 3 cloves garlic (I’d use more next time), minced
  • 1 lb. ground pork
  • 1 lb. spaghetti

Sauce

  • 1-1/2 tbsp. soy sauce
  • 2 tsp. black bean sauce (found in Asian stores or aisle)
  • 1 tbsp. hoisin sauce (not the same as plum sauce)
  • 2 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine (white wine)
  • 2 tbsp. water
  • 1 tsp. sugar

Cook spaghetti according to directions.

Prepped onions and garlic

While pasta is cooking:  Prep your garlic and onion.  Mix all sauce ingredients in a bowl or mixing cup.  Should be about 1/2 cup of liquid.  Heat up the vegetable oil in your wok or pan over med-high heat.  Add garlic and onions, saute until they become slightly translucent.  Add sauce mixture and stir until heated – a few minutes.  Add ground pork and break it up as it cooks.  Continue stirring/breaking up meat until water/liquid has evaporated.  Meat should look dark/seasoned.  This will be about 10-15 min.

Cooking Cha Chiang MeinAdding pork

Finishing the Cha Chiang MeinCha Chiang Fan instead

Serve meat mixture over spaghetti, but in my case, I had white rice available.  So now it’s Cha Chiang Fan instead of Mein.

Candied Orange and Lemon Peels…mmmm

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Over the weekend, a friend brought over the most beautiful lemons from her parents’ lemon tree. Note, we’re in Illinois. Her parents’ tree is in Arizona. She was sharing because her folks had a bumper crop this spring. My friend was greeted by 3 dozen lemons… what to do, but share! She mentioned juicing the lemons and freezing the juice in ice cube trays. Then she mentioned saving the peels to candy them. Aha! Lemon, citrus, orange, citrus… helloooo?! I thought it’d be delicious, AND I was planning on making some candied orange peel this week. I’m experimenting with frozen peels; thawing them first and then continuing with the typical recipe.

Just type “candied orange peel” in your favorite search engine and there are tons! They’re all basically the same. Mine isn’t that different.

  • Peels from 4 – 6 oranges (this time around, I also had 2 lemons): The peels were in sliced sections and the pith (white) was already trimmed. You want very little pith, but I still leave a but. I sliced these into 1/4″ strips. The lemon peels were smaller.

Using a 3-1/2 qt. pot, I filled it with about 4 cups of water. This should be enough to cover the peels. Heat until boiling, then add the peels. Blanch the peels for about 3-4 minutes. Turn off heat, drain/remove the peels (I just used a slotted spoon not a colander), discard water and repeat. You will blanch the peels 3 or 4 times. This is to soften the peels, but more importantly, to remove the bitterness. It sort of cooks out, cooks down any pith, too.

After 1st blanch

After 1st blanch

  • 4 cups water
  • 3 cups granulated sugar
  • Extra granulated sugar in a separate container for dipping

In your clean, empty pot, combine the water and sugar. Heat until you get a rolling boil. You can use a candy thermometer, and heat until 210 degrees. Add peels, boil for a couple minutes, and then lower heat to a simmer. Continue to simmer peels for 45-60 minutes, or until peels are translucent. (I’ve read recipes where they only simmer for 30 min.)

Remove peels after they are to your liking and dry on a cooling rack. While still warm, dip the peels in sugar and lay out on the racks to dry. I like to leave them out overnight. The next day you can take the dry candied peels and dip or drizzle with chocolate!

Don’t discard the simple syrup that is in your pot. Keep in the refrigerator and use for iced tea! Delicious!

(Note: The fresher the fruit, the softer the peel. I like thicker skin, but just make sure to blanch less if the peel is really young.)

Crazy Cake

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I read about this in an old Bon Appetit magazine. The author of the article was recalling how her aunts argued over whose chocolate (crazy) cake was better. Why called “crazy” cake? Because of the way it’s made. No eggs, few ingredients that can be found in the pantry, mixed by hand in the pan that you’re baking it in… I LOVE this because it is so SIMPLE!

  • 1-1/2 c. flour
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 3 tbsp. cocoa
  • 6 tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1 tbsp. white vinegar (I’ve used black cherry balsamic, but it’s a little pricey and the flavor doesn’t shine through like I thought it would)
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 c. warm water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift dry ingredients together in 8 x 8 baking pan. Make 3 depressions/wells and fill with liquids. Pour in water and mix with fork until most lumps are gone. DO NOT beat. Bake for 30 minutes, or check center with toothpick until it comes out clean. If you’re really confident with your baking, the cake is done when the center should spring up if you push slightly with your finger.  Frost the cake with your favorite flavor icing… I like vanilla.

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