Food!

Today post is all about food,...well perhaps other things will sneak in there too! lol! Today I am making my first ever attempt at making Chinese food from scratch at home, we shall see how this turns out, hopefully yummy! My whole life i hated Chinese food, if my family ordered it i would get a burger or toast, anything but Chinese food, but when i was pregnant i developed a taste for it and now i love it! SO tonight i am making baked sweet and sour chicken and fried rice! Sounds good, my mom is coming for dinner so i will have a taste tester as Joe will be at work, I am making my rice right now as I was told older rice is better for fried rice. This morning for lunch I made yummy "Soucy" eggs Benedict, my Dad never did come up for a name for this breakfast dish, so that is what we have always called it, you start with home made bread toasted top it with butter or cheese, then raw onions on top of that you add your fried egg and then top with home made canned tomatoes, trust me it is to die for! Plus it looks beautiful on a plate so it is a great breaky for company! This afternoon I will be making sunset gourmets brownies, i will let you know how they turn out! Here is the recipe for the Chinese Chicken: Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken The chicken coating: 3-4 boneless chicken breasts salt + pepper 1 cup cornstarch 2 eggs, beaten 1/4 cup canola oil The sweet and sour sauce: 3/4 cup sugar 4 tbs ketchup 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar 1 tbs soy sauce 1 tsp garlic salt Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs. Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes. Below is the greatness you will get when it's all cooked:

and here is the fried rice recipe: Fried Rice 3 cups cooked white rice (day old or leftover rice works best!) 3 tbs sesame oil 1 cup frozen peas and carrots (thawed) 1 small onion, chopped 2 tsp minced garlic 2 eggs, slightly beaten 1/4 cup soy sauce On medium high heat, heat the oil in a large skillet or wok. Add the peas/carrots mix, onion and garlic. Stir fry until tender. Lower the heat to medium low and push the mixture off to one side, then pour your eggs on the other side of skillet and stir fry until scrambled. Now add the rice and soy sauce and blend all together well. Stir fry until thoroughly heated! **You could really play around with this rice too! Try adding some diced ham, or green onion :) Yum!

I never got a chance yet today to make Kenzie's craft but i think instead we will have some mommy daughter time after supper tonight, just me her and ELF and of course popcorn lol! I'm not a fan of popcorn but she sure is! I love to give her treats once in a while, she sure appreciates them and lastly here comes my non food portion of this post, I made some center pieces for my house today and they turned out beautiful, i love them, special thanks to my hubby for going out and getting me some beautifully green spruce branches! And here is how they turned out :)

when the center pieces where done i made some potpourri to make the house smell homey and delicious, here is what i used for the potpourri, an orange, a few sprigs of spruce tree, cinnamon, ginger and cloves, it smells like Christmas in here and also a little like candy lol! Hope you all have a great day! credit for the chicken and rice recipes goes to pinterest