mulberryshoots

For Thanksgiving, G. and I enjoyed having Peking Duck with wrappers that I made myself. There were some left over so I made a moo shu vegetable dish to use up the wrappers – while G. finished up the duck!

To make it authentic, I soaked some tree fungus called “moo-er” and some daylily buds that I have out in the pantry. After they’re soaked and soft, I rinsed them and cut them up into small pieces. In a skillet with heated vegetable oil, I sauteed garlic, scallions and ginger, then added fresh sliced mushrooms, sliced sugar snap peas and the moo-er and daylily pieces. Stir-fried, they combined well and I added in a half bag of raw coleslaw with carrots. This is an easy way to add cabbage to stir-fries without buying a whole cabbage. While vegetables cooked, I added soy sauce, sugar, a little seasoned Japanese rice wine and oyster sauce into a small dish. Stirred it up and added it to the frying mixture, scooping it up and turning the vegetables over with the sauce. It was really good – especially with the crunchy tree ear and daylily buds. Will add more next time! YUM!

t’s mid-November, a chilly, rainy Friday morning. For lunch, I’m making a ramen noodle dish, made with a Japanese ramen noodle (comes dried, then cooked and drained before adding to the broth.)

I used to use Sapporo Ichiban as my go-to ramen noodle, but these were worth a try. I cooked the noodles and rinsed them in cold water. Then made the “homemade” stock: purified water, 2 spoonfuls of instant Dashi, a can of Swanson low-sodium chicken broth and a 2 spoonfuls of soy sauce.

Stirred it together, brought it to a boil and added 2/3rds of the cooked noodles. Standing by for when we’re ready to eat are gorgeous fresh spinach leaves and fresh mushrooms that will be cooked just when ready to serve. YUM!

It was 28 degrees this morning, George reported – and so this afternoon, I thought I might warm things up with a pumpkin pie. I don’t make them that often, but when I have, I use the recipe on the “One-Pie” can of pumpkin (which was available online, but the cans were not, in the store.)

I compared recipes and remembered that what made the pumpkin pies of past years so tasty was: molasses and melted butter added to most traditional recipes. I also par-baked the frozen pie crust before filling it to the tippy top because the filling was so plentiful.

Placed the pie on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil and that saved the oven (mostly) from charred scraps after the pie was baked.

The recipe I use calls for: a can of pumpkin puree, a can of Carnation evaporated milk, 1 cup granulated sugar, 2 eggs, 1/8 cup of molasses, 2 T melted butter, 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. 2 T. cornstarch mixed with spices before adding. Baked the crust 10 min. to avoid sogginess, then filled it and baked at 425 for 15 min.; then turned down to 350 for 45-50 min. to make sure the center wasn’t jiggling. The outer crust got burned but no problem just cutting it off.

Looking forward to enjoying it tonight after supper.