Recipe - Chicken Fried Rice

Living in the USA there are a few things that I miss from home such as Salad Cream, Bisto, Custard Powder, Chocolate, Cheese and Onion Walkers, Fish and Chips and a good Chicken Fried Rice.  That list looks sinful, but that's because I can get all the same healthy food in the USA as at home and trust me I'm eating more than my share of fruit and vegetables and healthy foods every day.  I didn't think that I could make Chicken Fried Rice at home until I found a simple recipe on pinterest that Ben confessed was better than his Mom's!  I've made this a couple of times now and when I made it last night for dinner I remembered to take a picture so everyone can share in the yumminess.  Try it... so easy and so yummy!

Chicken Fried Rice

Picture: Mine

 

 

 

 

Serves: 3

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

 

Ingredients:

1 cup of uncooked rice - then cooked your preferred way

1 chicken breast - cooked and shredded or chopped

1 1/2 cups of frozen peas and carrots

2 eggs

1/2 onion - chopped

2 garlic cloves - finely chopped

4 tsps of sesame oil

1/4 cup of soy sauce

 

Method:

• Cook rice your normal way and set to the side
• Warm up large skillet/frying pan and add the sesame oil
• Add in onions and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes
• Add in frozen peas and carrots and cook until soft (and warm!)
• Add in eggs and mix in with the vegetables
• Add in rice, chicken and soy sauce and mix through really well.
• Keep stiring through until hot
• Enjoy!

I've found out that every person cooks rice differently and that's why I have said cook it your normal way. I didn't even know that you should probably rinse your rice before you cook it until Ben told me once we were married.  It makes such a difference!  Although thanks to Fito Menk, I will now be making my rice the Gok Wan way!!

 

This is a seriously easy and quick dinner that fills you up, and it is delicious.  Speaking of delicious and also surprising...  I will blog soon about an amazing and simple BUTTERNUT SQUASH LASAGNE. Oh my gosh it was sooooo good! Thanks to Jade for the inspiration.

 

Blogging will resume again next week - the next few days are pretty full for Ben and I. Lots of fun going on and lots of pictures to be taken too. Can't wait!!

 







Recipe: Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I LOVE PINTEREST... and Ben loves that I love Pinterest because he gets to reap the culinary yumminess from my love of all things pinned.  Over the next while I am going to post a few recipes which I have loved and which are now definitely on our meal menu.  Cinnamon Roll Pancakes are one of those delicious recipes I'm glad someone invented.  It's like inbuilt cinnamon roll syrup in your pancake without the mess.... soooooo goooooood!

I hope you love it as much as I do.

CINNAMON ROLL PANCAKES

 

Source: http://mybakerlady.com/2012/05/21/cinnamon-roll-pancakes/

Pictures: Mine!

 

 

 

 



Makes: 8 Pancakes

Pancake Mix:
The beauty of this recipe is that you can use your favourite pancake batter recipe, or just whip up a batch of bisquick.  It's upto you because it's the cinnamon roll butter mix that makes the difference!

Cinnamon Roll Butter:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar (packed down!)
1-2 tablespoons (3-6 teaspoons!) of cream - although I only had milk and it worked too!
Pinch of baking soda
2 teaspoons of cinnamon

Directions:

• In a pot over a medium heat melt the butter until bubbly
• Add in the brown sugar and whisk while bringing it up to the boil. **Be careful, it gets super hot and a hot sugar burn is worse than a hot oil burn!**
• Let it boil for 30 seconds to 1 minute and take off the heat.
• Whisk in the cream/milk
• Add in the baking soda and the cinnamon and whisk. **It may look like it's a weird consistency, like separated syrup, but it's ok, don't panic!**
• Leave to the side to let it cool down a little and then put it into a ziplock bag or something similar, and work it into a corner of the bag so it looks like a piping bag.
• Take as much air out of it and seal the bag.
• Put it in the freezer for 5 minutes so it goes cold and solidifies a little but is still soft and syrup like. **I found I had to do this because it was still far too hot to handle**
• While it's in the freezer, make your pancake batter.
• Take the cinnamon roll butter out of the freezer and make a little snip in the corner of the bag where the butter is - like a piping bag!  **Just a little snip though, too big and the syrup will pour everywhere - hold the bag upright while you are snipping!**
• Put your pancake batter on the griddle/pan and then make a swirl from the outside of the pancake it.
• Flip the pancake as normal and then serve and enjoy.

You could make a cream cheese drizzle icing for the full effect, but we were being semi-good and had fruit.  I promise you don't need any extra syrup for these either.  I made these also for my nephews and neices I was looking after one day and put their initials in the pancakes instead of swirls and it worked just as well - they had 3 each!!



I'm ALIVE!

For the last month or so I've had every intention of blogging again and then something gets in the way... BUT I've decided to be proactive and just do it.

Ben and I have had a pretty fun and busy summer and now its finally starting to cool down, weather wise.  It's been the first time I have had a summer where the weather has been 35c+ the whole summer and only 2 or 3 days of rain, and when I say days of rain I mean 10 or 15 minutes. =)  Really!

It's been a summer of:

1. CLIMBING THE BYU MOUNTAIN - It's STEEP AND HIGH!
2. SWIMMING AT THE REC CENTRE
3. A TRIP TO THE ZOO
4. IMMIGRATION MEDICALS AND BIOGRAPHIC FUN - It's all being processed!
5. AMAZING WEEKEND JUST LAUGHING AND NOT DOING MUCH BUT LOVING EACH OTHERS COMPANY - I love it!
6. HANGING OUT WITH FAMILY
7. VISITING A NICKEL CADE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER - Who knew how long $2 would last.
8. PAINTING POTTERY/CERAMICS - We have a new pet call Bernie and he is a Dragon.  I made something more girly!
9. GOING TO ROOFTOP CONCERTS - so much fun.
10. EXPRIENCING AN OUTDOOR MOVING FOR THE FIRST TIME - And we saw UFO's for the first time ever.
11. HAVING A FRIEND FROM SCOTLAND COME AND STAY, AND THEN STAY SOME MORE  - It was alot of fun... miss you Ruth!
12. TEMPLE VISITS - love!
13. BYU CREAMERY VISITS - Oh how I love your pineapple and raspberry ice cream
14. LONG WALKS TOGETHER
15. HARRY POTTER READING - I finally started to read the books after all the years Fito Menk told me too
16. SKYPE CHATS WITH HOME - I miss you all!
17. COOKING NEW RECIPES - Eggplant Parmesan, Chicken and Brocolli Casserole, Cinnamon Roll Pancakes...yummmmmmm
18. LOOSING WEIGHT - Me and Ben are on a mission and so far we are doing good.
19. GILGAL GARDENS AND THE JOSEPH SMITH SPHINX - No kidding!
20. THE BEST DINNER I HAVE EVER HAD - Thank you Chef's Table.

That was just a little part of our summer. It's been fun and we have definitely settled into married life and are having a great time together.  I'm glad I had to wait!

We are both looking forward to Autumn/Fall for cooler temperatures and being able to be outside more and be more active.  The leaves on the trees up in the mountains are definitely changing and looking more beautiful every day.  Hopefully Autumn will be as good to us as the Summer has been.  =)

I'll try and keep this updated with more recipes on the way and lots more pictures, but for now here is Ben and I at Gilgal Gardens. Told you it ws true and the best part is that it's hidden right next door to the TWINKIE factory. It's brilliant!

COMING UP - A trip to Lagoon and the Utah State Fair... all in one weekend! Excited!



 

4th of July Cupcakes and a Genious Strawberry Tip!

I really wanted to make cupcakes with fruit so I figured I would do a red,white and blue theme.  With lots of different inspiration from other blogs, pinterest and the food networks I came up with an idea:

STRAWBERRY FILLED RED VELVET CUPCAKES WITH SWEET CREAM AND BERRIES....

OR

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY CUPCAKES

Inspiration - Lots

Recipe - By Me

Pictures - By Me

Time To Prepare - 15 minutes

Time To Bake - 16 minutes

Temperature - 325f

Makes - 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Your normal cupcake recipe OR 1 box of cake mix (any kind you want!) I used a red velvet recipe for the red,white and blue theme.

Punnet of Strawberries - enough for 1 per cupcake

1/2 pint whipping cream

2 tbsp icing (powdered) sugar

1 cap of vanilla essence

Rasberries and Blueberries to decorate.

Method:

1. Make your cupcake recipe as directed

2. Bake for 16 minutes at 325f.  I learned this from the Wilton's cake lady and the cupcakes come out perfectly moist every time!

3. Let the cupcakes cool

4. Make a hole in the middle of the cupcake, deep and wide enough to place your strawberry.  I just used a sharp knife, cut a circle in the top and the hollowed out a little piece of the middle.

5. Place the strawberry in the middle of each hollowed out cake

6. Make up the sweet cream recipe - whisk the cream, icing sugar and vanilla essence until thick.

7. Pipe the cream on top of the strawberry/cupcake.  I used a zip lock bag with a corner cut off because I don't have a piping bag.

8. Decorate with your berries or anything else you want - sprinkles, nuts etc...

9. Share and enjoy with others, and watch the surprise on their face when they discover the hidden strawberry.

I will be making these hidden strawberry cupcakes again!

Bonus Tip for Coring Strawberries:

I always used to just cut the top off of strawberries and get annoyed with how much good strawberry was wasted until I discovered this.

1 Take a plastic straw and place through the tip of the bottom of the strawberry like this:

2. Push the straw right through the strawberry until the leaf has come away from the strawberry like this:

3. Pull the strawberry down the straw to take it off and the remove the core of the strawberry from the top of the straw.  This will result in you having a perfectly cored strawberry with no waste.  Like this:

It takes one or two strawberries to practice with but after you get the hang of it it works every time and is so quick and less mess!  I'll always use this method now!











Fireworks - what fireworks?

With the 4th of July comes fireworks - lots of fireworks!!

I had wanted to go upto the Provo Temple and watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks because I wasn't paying $60+ a ticket to be there! The temple is currently closed for maintenance and as it was so hot and we are without a car we both didn't fancy walking all the way up there to find the grounds were closed too so we decided to stay at home and watch the fireworks from NYC and Boston.  That was pretty fun too especially since Ben was surprised with just how many Patriotic songs I knew. Once the NYC fireworks ended we switched channels and watch the Boston fireworks and I sang the same songs over again much to Ben's delight!  I had to take some pictures of the fireworks so I took then from the TV because I'm that classy. Thank you NBC!

As I mentioned before I made some Patriotic treats and we had our own "firework" desserts. 

Ice Cream and Jelly (Jello!) - American Style!!  Then Ben said we should add some sparklers and this is what we got!  It was delicious but then I would eat Jelly every day if I could

Next Up - 4th of July Cupcakes



Happy Birthday America!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

I have to say that now I live here and to be honest I think the UK could learn a thing or two about patriotism from the USA.  Although I know since last year the UK have stepped it up and I think most people are loving their country again.  I'm sure we will see more of that with the Olympics in London later this month - I'm excited for that!

Anyway back onto July 4th!  Provo celebrate big style with their "Freedom Festival". It lasts for quite a few days over the first week in July, and from what I can make out they have events all year.  I've been told that the parade in Provo on the 4th is the biggest in Utah and since Ben and I live 3 blocks away from the parade route we were not missing out on this - plus this would be my first parade, well apart from the numerous parades that me and Marie have seen at Disney World on our travels.

About a week before the parade I was at the library and started to notice these little signs on the side of the road saying that you were not allowed to "stake out" out parade spot until 3pm on 3rd July.  I laughed at this because who would really stake out a spot 18 hours before a parade would start.  Little did I know that Utahn's, and no doubt most American's take this holiday very seriously as was evident on 3rd July.  I walked to the grocery store at 9am and there were sneaky people who had already "staked out" their spot.  They were sitting on chairs with blankets over them because it was already so hot.  Ben and I took a walk downtown later that day and the whole of University Avenue, on both side (around about 1.5 miles from where we walk from) were "staked out", and it was still 15 hours before the parade.  It looked like tent city... don't believe me? Check out these pictures...

Very few people were actually there at that time - the stipulation was at least one person had to be there the whole time.  The city even has active power points so people can run their fans, power their mobiles and of course go on facebook on their laptops as I witnessed. It was certainly interesting!!

Ben and I decided we were not going to be crazy and stay outside in the heat all night just to see a parade, it was 98f (35c) at 7pm, but that we would get up early and try and find a spot.  That night I was grateful for a bed and AC when I thought of all these crazy people sleeping outside in that heat.

After an eventful night which resulted in me not being able to take any more of the noise I got up at 4am and cleaned - I put that part in because the whole night people in cars honked their car horns, set off fireworks constantly and played really loud music coupled with really loud singing. I guess they were really getting into the holiday. Sometimes I hate living so close to BYU!

We got to the parade at 7.30am and managed to get a space right on the corner of our intersection which meant we were 3 blocks from the apartment - perfect!!  This was the scene in front of me - I kid not they had this couch out the night before too. I loved it! This bunch of people were super friendly and even loved the fact I was Scottish...phewww!

After waiting around an hour the pre parade happened - I didn't know this happened.  We figured these were the people who didn't quite cut the actual parade but in the spirit of Independence Day they let them go down the parade route.  It was fun.  I'm just going to overload you with pictures now BUT the highlight of the parade for me was seeing The Nielsons. I've followed Stephanie Nielson's blog for about 3 years now and she has an inspirational story and is an amazing example.  Her family were the Grand Marshalls for the parade.  You can read her blog at:  nieniedialogues.blogspot.com

Enjoy the photos!  We really did have a fun time, especially with the Slurpee drinking at 8.45am!