Pork Fried Rice

I make a lot of Chinese dishes at home.  I still eat out occasionally, too.  Christmas, for instance.  We always order Chinese take-out for Christmas.  Have done for three Christmases now.  Next Christmas I'm getting Peking Duck.  I can't believe I've never eaten Peking Duck. I might not like it either, but, like cooking a live lobster, it's on my bucket list.  This past year, I added three more Chinese dishes to my repertoire:  pork chow mein (lovely throwback recipe from Woman's Day), pork lo mein (from America's Test Kitchen), and pork fried rice.  I'd found several recipes online for fried rice (chicken, pork, shrimp) and took something from each of them.  The resulting recipe is is really easy and tasty.  You don't need a wok; just a really big skillet will do the trick.

Pork Fried Rice (Four Servings)
I use pearl rice (sushi rice) which is in the Asian section of my local supermarket.  One cup of raw rice makes 3 cups of cooked rice.

8 oz. pork tenderloin
1 Tbsp peeled grated fresh ginger
3/4 tsp. Penzey's Chinese five-spice powder
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
3 Tbsp. peanut oil

2 eggs, beaten
1 head of baby bok choy1 onion, diced
1/2 tsp. Penzey's minced garlic
3 cups cooked cold rice
salt and pepper

In medium bowl combine pork, ginger, five-spice powder, vinegar, and soy sauce.  Marinade at least 10 minutes.

In large skillet heat 1 Tbsp. peanut oil over medium heat.  Pour in eggs and add salt and pepper to taste.  Cook until set, about one to three minutes.  Remove; let cool.  Roll up and slice crosswise into thin strips.  Set aside.

In skillet heat 1 Tbsp. peanut oil over medium-high heat.  Add pork and, tossing frequently, cook until browned, 2-3 minutes.  Remove from skillet and set aside.

Heat another 1 Tbsp. peanut oil.  Add bok choy, onion, and garlic, and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook stirring often 2-4 minutes, until bok choy is crisp tender.

Add rice and, tossing frequently, cook until heated through, about 2-4 minutes.

Add pork and egg, and, tossing frequently, and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes.  Serve

Why Teach Literature

One of the duties of my day job is to write a blog.  Today I posted an entry entitled Why Teach Literature, a subject near and dear to me.  The new Common Core Standards of English call for public schools to increase nonfiction reading, so that by senior year 70% of reading material be nonfiction.  In effect literature is being driven from the high school curriculum.  Read Why Teach Literature for my reasons why this is unacceptable, and let me know what you think.

Cowboy Cookies

Everybody from Laura Bush to Martha Stewart has a recipe for cowboy cookies, though no one seems sure of the origin of the name.  My guess is their gigantic size and heartiness invokes a strapping cowboy.  I first made these cookies this past Christmas, and they are already a staple of my baking.  The batch I made yesterday is gone already.  Many recipes contain pecans and coconut, which I can't include as my son has a tree nut allergy.  Not to worry, my cookies are still packed with delicious cookie goodness:  butter, sugar, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and pretzels.  They also contain a hefty dose of oats, so you can tell yourself you're eating a healthy snack.  And for teenagers this is a great snack: pack a few in their lunches, and they'll stay full through weight lifting and other strenuous after-school athletic endeavors.

Cowboy Cookies (3dozen)

13/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups oats
1 tsp. coffee powder
1/4 cup hot water
1 cup softened unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
l large egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup thin pretzel sticks, broken into small pieces

Whisk together the flout, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and oats.

Dissolve coffee in the hot water.

Beat butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.  Add egg and egg yolk and beat until well blended.  Add coffee and vanilla.

Add half of dry ingredients.  Mix 15 seconds. Mix in remaining dry ingredients until just blended.  Mix in chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and pretzels.  Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Using 2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie, roll into balls.  Arrange 2 inches apart and flatten slightly with hand.

Bake until edges are golden brown, about 11 to 13 minutes.  Cool slightly on sheets; then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Lum and Abner Christmas Special

One of my favorite Christmas specials is a radio drama.  Lum and Abner's traditional Christmas story, which aired every year from 1933 to 1954, is set in Pine Ridge, Arkansas, but reflects Bethlehem's nativity story.  After paying their taxes in the county seat, a young couple is forced to take up lodging in an old abandoned barn, where the wife has gone into labor.  Lum, Abner, and Grandpappy Spears, armed with blankets, an oil heater, and a box of groceries, are trudging through the snow on Christmas night to provide comfort and sustenance to the couple.  On their Christmas journey, the three old men contemplate the joy of helping others, the passage of time, and the bittersweet circle of life.

Bing Crosby Christmas

More than any entertainer, Bing Crosby is synonymous with Christmas.  In the sixties and seventies my family watched the Bing Crosby Christmas specials every year; David Bowie, of all people, guest starred on Bing's last special (Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas) in 1977, which aired posthumously.  Who hasn't heard Bing and Bowie sing "The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth"?  I'm not a fan of Bing's crooning style of singing--save "Mele Kalikimaka"-- but I did love those specials and still love his Christmas movies.  If you haven't ever seen a Bing Christmas movie, watch one (or all) of them this year.

1. Holiday Inn (1942).  Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire play a singer and dancer competing for the attentions of a beautiful ingenue.
2. Going My Way (1944).  Bing plays the animated Father O'Malley who is sent to take over St. Dominic's from its crusty old priest Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitgerald).
3. The Bells of St. Mary's (1945).  Father O'Malley is back in this sequel to Going My Way.  This time he ruffles the feathers of Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman).
4. White Christmas (1954).  A song-and-dance team (Bing and Danny Kaye) become romantically involved with a sister act (Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen), and the four of them join forces to save the Vermont inn of a former general.

To order from Amazon, click on links below.
 Holiday Inn (Special Edition)
Going My Way (Universal Cinema Classics)
The Bells of St. Mary's
White Christmas (Anniversary Edition)
White Christmas [Blu-ray]
White Christmas (the music CD)
Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth/ White Christmas Featuring Ella Fitzgerald (7 inch 45 limited edition red vinyl)

A Little History of the World

A Little History of the World
by E. H. Gombrich
translated by Caroline Mustill
Yale University Press (2008)
304 pages
ISBN:  030014332X
All Ages

When I want to learn something about a non-fiction field I have no knowledge of, I turn to juvenile books, as they tend to give me the information I want in an entertaining way.  Like E. H. Gomrich's A Little History of the World.  Gomrich wrote the book in 1935 when he was 26, and it was first published in Vienna.  But another seventy years would pass before this brilliant little book was translated into English, a task Gromrich undertook with his assistant Caroline Musthill, who completed the undertaking after Gomrich's death in 2001.  It quickly became a bestseller; the paperback and an illustrated version followed.

Through vivid imagery, engaging storytelling, and humor, Gromrich brings to life the history of our world from the Stone Age to the Atomic Age.  He uses mirrors to demonstrate the vastness of history:  "Have you ever tried standing between two mirrors?  You will see a great long line of shiny mirrors, each one smaller that the one before, stretching away into the distance, getting fainter and fainter, so that you never see the last.  But even when you can't see them any more, the mirrors still go on.  They are there, and you know it."  And so it is with grandparents.  Who had grandparents.  Who had grandparents.  And so on.  And you can never reach the beginning, because there's always another set of grandparents.

Among the topics Gomrich explores are the inventions by cavemen, in particular speech; life in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece; the Phoenicians' sound-based alphabet ,which we still use today; the growth of religion, beginning with Judaism, the first faith to worship one and only one God; the Middle Ages, which were not all dark but rather "like a starry night...showing them the way" and the Age of Chivalry; the discovery of the New World made possible by the invention of the compass; the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution; slavery in America and the secession of the southern states; and European Imperialism and the subsequent World Wars.  Gomrich spotlights some of history's most fascinating figures including Confucius, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Jesus Christ, Charlemagne, Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, and Columbus.  Believe me, you'll be glad you picked up this book, and in the reading you'll learn some history you never knew you wanted to know.



To purchase from Amazon, click on links:

A Little History of the World
A Little History of the World: Illustrated Edition
The Band
Greatest Hits(The Band)

Christmas Carols Pick Up Where Political Ads Leave Off

"When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around."--Willie Nelson

I heard last night on t.v. that 1,000,000 political ads aired this political season.  I know it.  Here in Ohio I saw every one of them.  The ads weren't just polluting the television airwaves; they were contaminating the radio airwaves, as well.  Finally, today, knowing I wouldn't have to put up with any more political ads, I turned on my favorite classic rock station, only to hear Brenda Lee singing "Jingle Bell Rock," followed immediately by Eartha Kitt singing "Santa Baby."  Oh no, they've started Christmas caroling already!  I can't bear it.  How can Christmas be as toxic as politics?  And how did Thanksgiving get crushed between Election Day and Christmas?  The only way to counter all the noise is to count your blessings, like Willie, and remember, in thought and deed, those less fortunate.  Here's a video of that traditional Thanksgiving hymn, "We Gather Together."