Fried Rice...One Bowl is Never Enough!

I made some beautiful fried rice for supper the other night. With rice this good, do you really need anything else? No, but if you want to add a nice side salad to go with it, that's okay, too. Gee, I wish I had some right now but I ate all of it in less than a day (for breakfast, lunch & supper). I guess another batch is in order. Sounds like a great idea to me! :)

Fried Rice with Napa Cabbage & Baby Bok Choy

Coleman Organic Chicken

Look at the gorgeous bird below...it's a Coleman Organic Chicken! Recently I published a product review about this beautiful chicken, which can be seen here:

Coleman Organic Chicken

Coleman Organic Chicken--Ready for Service

A Few Words about Chicken Nuggets....

Last week my cousin offered me a sample of some chicken nuggets that she'd purchased at a local fast food restaurant. I'm not going to mention any names here but one of the main colors used by this establishment is orange. The other is white. 

I bit into a chicken nugget. At first chew, it tasted okay and I was pleased to see that appeared to be made with real pieces of chicken, rather than the "mechanically separated" and "glued back together" version. 

I hadn't finished chewing completely before the horror struck my taste buds. Whatever they use in the batter for these nuggets tastes extremely bad--they're too salty, for one, but the chemical aftertaste was far worse.  Whoever had this "bright idea" for a recipe should have to go to a chicken farm and clean out the chicken coops for a week! Terrible! Awful! Yuck! 

I am disappointed in this establishment. These were some of the worst chicken nuggets I've ever tasted, and that includes the ones that don't use whole chicken pieces. I think they should remove them from the menu post-haste.

I might not have noticed if I had dipped them in any sauces first, but I doubt it. It could be that my taste buds just won't tolerate this kind of junk anymore...I eat fast food on VERY rare occasions, so my palate is not subjected to a lot of processed food. 

I used to eat burgers from this establishment occasionally, but I haven't in many years. The last time I did, they were still making burgers to order. They were okay. Nothing to dance in the street about, but okay. I think they should stick to burgers, really. 

Maybe I'm not being fair and I should give these nuggets another chance. I ate a total of four...all that my cousin had left in her box that she didn't want to eat. I guess I should have asked her the real reason she didn't finish them. I only ate them because I didn't want to seem rude by refusing her offer. Mistake! But I do hate to waste food and I certainly wouldn't have fed those things to any animals....so I went ahead and took a bullet. (Four of them, to be exact). 

Should I give them another chance? Not on my wallet!

And Now...Dessert...Thanks to the Screaming Strawberries...

You can view this super fast, easy recipe here:

Conchiglie di Pasta with Screaming Strawberry Compote

Another recipe was born in Dr. Frazier-stein's lab yesterday. This recipe was conceived because of the strawberries.

Mom: "Please do something about those strawberries. Please stop them from screaming!"

Me: "Okay."

I cleaned them up and threw them in a pot with some sugar on low heat. I remembered that there were some strawberries that were in the freezer...I had placed them there last month (or maybe the month before), so I decided to throw those in, too.

While rummaging around...I saw some cranberries that Mom bought at a farmer's market in Oregon when she was visiting my sister last year. The cranberries were still beautiful, and amazingly enough--free from frostbite. I threw them in with the strawberries.

At first I thought I was going to make a pie or a cobbler with this mixture. Then I thought about manicotti. I could stuff them with some cream cheese and we could eat them with the compote and some whipped cream.

The store was out of manicotti shells so I grabbed some jumbo pasta shells instead.

They worked fine, and those who made ugly faces at the thought of sweet pasta (maybe they were thinking about "Elf"), enjoyed the quick dessert. I'll post the recipe here after I write it down. I'm going to tweak it around next time, maybe. I'm happy that the first try turned out so well.

I didn't have any pastry tips handy or I would have made it look a little fancier: 

Stuffed Jumbo Shells & Fruit Compote

Patti Jean Rock Cornish Game Hens Review

Please visit: 

"Patti Jean Rock Cornish Game Hens"

For a brief history about the origin of Rock Cornish Game Hens and my review on Patti Jean hens.