Ground Beef Lo Mein

I also made this yummy dish to go with the sweet n' sour chicken & fried rice recipe...was trying to have a very small oriental buffet, can ya tell? This was quite tasty! LOL

Ground Beef Lo Mein
Original Recipe Yield 6 servings

Ingredients
• 8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
• 1/2 pound cooked ground beef
• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen stir-fry vegetable blend, thawed
• 1 (12 ounce) jar homestyle beef gravy
• 1/4 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Directions
1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Add the vegetables, gravy, soy sauce, garlic powder and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Drain spaghetti; stir into beef mixture.

Baked Sweet N' Sour Chicken & Fried Rice

This recipe is really delicious and I will be making it again. It is still not the oriental buffet sweet n' sour chicken recipe I am looking for though. I guess their chicken is more of a tempura batter. I'm still on a mad search for a clone recipe of their chicken...will certainly share it when I find it. These are very EZ recipes so as Martha Stewart would say "it's a good thing." Enjoy! One of these days I'm gonna add pictures...I know that makes it way more fun to look at. Sorry for now!

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken and fried rice

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 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.



Fried Rice

3 cups cooked white rice
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!

Finished Okra Santa

Well, I'm still playing around with how to paint my okra santas but this is the first one I have completed. I'm getting there! I have three sculpted to finish. I forgot how much fun it is to sculpt. My next project is going to be making santa faces out of clay and add them to seashells. Can ya tell that I'm all about anything santa? Love him!

I could not have made this santa without the help of a wonderful tutorial posted by the following blog:

alittlefurinthepaint.blogspot.com

Anne, is such a sweet person and very talented! Her tutorial is perfect! Thank you Anne for getting me back into sculpting which I have loved for many years.

Current Project

Can ya guess what I'm working on with a dried out okra and Sculpey clay? The shape of the okra makes a perfect santa. I haven't sculpted in years and have been itching to try my hand at this...still a work in progress...these are my guinea pig ornaments. I managed to get three sculpted. I am now in the process of painting them. Stay tuned for the finished picture...soon I hope!

Serenity

When I stepped out onto my back deck this morning this is the word that would describe how I felt seeing the lake, the sky, the moon in their glory...loved the soft colors...just soothing. Every single day this angle of the lake looks different. I have to snap it so often and for that I apologize but I just can't help it! Just wanted to share a piece of what I call my little paradise.

Big Boy Pizza

Okay, the name comes from Frisch's Big Boy hamburgers and I must say that the taste was "similar" to the taste of a Big Boy...I was curious and that is why I tried this recipe. Plus you can't go wrong with hamburger and cheese and bread can ya? I used a roll of Pillsbury pizza dough but you can use Boboli or anything you desire. I also always make my own homemade tartar sauce and used it. Next time I'm going to pile on more tartar sauce as I wasn't sure how much to add to the pizza. The baked dill chips and lettuce made it very interesting and was quite tasty...Enjoy! My sister Donna's husband Matt would probably love this as I always call him "Wimpy" from Popeye...he could eat burgers all day long I do believe.

Big Boy Pizza
Ingredients
 1 prepared pizza crust (large)
 1 lb. ground beef browned and drained
 1 jar of Big Boy tarter sauce (or other brand if unavailable)
 Lettuce (Shredded)
 Dill Pickle Slices
 Shredded cheese (cheddar)
Directions
 On the prepared crust, spread a layer of tarter sauce. Then add your ground beef, lettuce pickles and cheese. You could add the lettuce after it is cooked if you choose. Place in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until the cheese melts and everything is hot. Yield: serves 6 Note: On all my homemade pizzas I always put the dough onto a pizza stone, take a fork and prick the dough and then brush on some olive oil and pre-bake in the oven for 5-8 minutes then add all my ingredients. Makes for a crispier crust.

Notes:
If you want to add lettuce after it is baked, spread some more tarter sauce on top and add lettuce. The tarter sauce is also good for dipping if you use a thin layer to start.

Busy Weekend Painting...FINALLY!

I only have about 8 different ornaments going at one time right now and I managed to get a few finished this past weekend. Such a joy to get that done. I always paint two of everything that is a new pattern so that I will have one for myself and I won't have to try and figure out in the future how I painted something, what colors I used, where did I shade. I wish I could do mass production but I'm just not born that way...I like to get one thing done and then move on to something else. I have soooo many ideas and never enough time. These ornaments are painted on spoons I found at the Goodwill. They are such fun to do and a very cheap surface. I have them listed in my Etsy shop.