Chinese Noodles-Yakamein Soup

I was so excited to find this recipe for Yakamein Soup (or Old Sober) on Mary's blog "Deep Dish South."

The reason for my excitment is because it is the same dish, that for years my family has called, "Chinese Noodles." It was one of those dishes, that I thought no one else ever had-- that our family had private ownership of it. I really thought my grandmother "made it up" ---and to be honest, even tho I loved it, I thought it was weird.



When I first got married (over 30 years ago), I was almost embarrassed to fix Chinese Noodles for my husband.   Hard boiled eggs on top of noodles?  Really?

We usually used leftovers to make Chinese Noodles...it was a good way to make a 2nd meal. We would have a roast on Sunday, usually pork, and the Chinese Noodles would be a Monday night quick meal.


My mom had these little Oriental rice bowls, that we would eat our Chinese Noodles in. They were white bowls with blue designs. I loved those rice bowls.
At Deep Dish South, Mary uses spaghetti noodles, but we always used...Chinese Noodles....

...hence the name. Other than that, the recipe is pretty much the same, or the assembly is pretty much the same. We never made a roast specifically for this dish, as I stated, we always used leftovers. And we didn't use as much broth, ours was more a "soupy pasta dish" rather than a "soup dish with pasta". But it's the same thing.


I insist you go to Deep Dish South and read the history Mary has uncovered on Yakamein Soup/Chinese Noodles. It's really interesting, and full of information, such as it being a hangover cure.



The Handyman asked if we were going to be drinking a lot at our party last night (we went to a going away party for our friends who are moving back to Australia), when I told him that it was called "Old Sober" in New Orleans.


Mary has uploaded a video telling some history about the dish...go watch NOW.


Mary's recipe is such a good one, and  it is the one I made and pictured here. 
I won't rewrite her recipe, but will leave it to you to go get her original on Deep Dish South
Leave it to your imagination how you (and my family ) could tweak it for a "Leftover" dish. It's not hard to do.


My cousin Linda has put a more modern twist on Chinese Noodles. Nowadays I fix it this way and it's very good. It's also quite a time saver.


Linda is a good cook, and should really have a food blog of her own. Or at least make a "Family Cookbook" for me, before all of our recipes are long forgotten.




The Modern Twist on Chinese Noodles
 (or Yakamein Soup)


Leftover pork roast (or chops, steaks, etc) shredded
1/2 cup white or yellow onion, chopped
3 hard boiled eggs
2 cans vegetable broth
2 pks Ramen noodles--pork flavor
2 green onions--finely chopped


Put veggie broth, flavor packets from the noodles, the onion, and pork in a large pot and bring to a boil. You can add some water if you want it soupier. When it comes to a full boil, add the noodles, turn off the heat, cover and let stand for 3 minutes.
Ladle into bowls and garnish with green onions and hard boiled eggs.
Yummy, fast and a great way to use up that leftover pork roast.

In other news.....

we took a drive into the desert today.

We took a picnic.

Fried Chicken, apples, cheese, chips and a chocolate sheet cake.

Can you spot the antelope?

how long has it been since you've run on a dry lake bed?

Or checked out how low the desert reservoir is....

Just wondering

Lately, I've noticed a couple of bloggers, have decided not to take comments anymore....both of these bloggers are food bloggers, and their reasons have been "it takes up so much time."



Of course, these bloggers have HUGE followings and receive many more comments than I do. Even when I get 5-7 comments, I find it hard sometimes to get back to people, so I can imagine how hard it would be when you have 25, 40, or 66 comments! It takes TIME.


What is comment protocol? Do we need to get back to everyone? Is it okay, will it be understood if we don't? Some people reply back on their own comment section, some go visit their commenter's blogs and reply there. Sometimes I've just e-mailed people back to reply to a comment they've left me. I don't know if that is "okay" or not, but I do it.


I can understand why these two bloggers need time away from the computer, but it makes me sad, and slightly crazy, because all I want to do now is comment on their posts. They've written really good posts and I want to tell them so....and there is no way to do so.


I'm just thinking out loud, since there is no answer to this.


How do you handle the "time" situation, for blogging and commenting?


Do you think if no one can comment, that eventually people will stop reading that blog? (I hope not, they two I'm thinking of are really great blogs...I'm just wondering?), Or does it free us up to just read and enjoy?


Just wondering.

What's Outside My Kitchen Window and Library Loot

What's Outside my Kitchen window?

Some welcomed sunshine.... and a few Quail.

(You can always check out My Big Back Yard, for more of what's outside there...

... in the high Nevada desert)

Library Loot!

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva from a Striped Armchair, and Marg at the Adventures of an Intrepid Reader,  that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Want to share your loot?


I went to the library last night to pick up a book they had on hold for me...



The Handyman has limited me to only 3 books at a time (to be checked out), because it's addicting to me...being in a library...there is NO limit to the amount of books I can have.


I asked him if he was going to get a book. He told me that there were too many to choose from and that he got confused and didn't know what to get. BECAUSE he only gets one! His theory is that he only reads one at a time.


Anyway...he finally did choose one book, and I got him two others I think he might like.


And I picked up one, two, three, four, five.....


He gave me "a look" and I said...."It's the 24 hour read-a-thon this weekend".

Sadly I won't be participating in the Read-a-Thon, but it sounds like a lot of fun. 

This week, I only picked up four books....

The 2nd in the Sooky Stackhouse mystery series, Living Dead in Dallas.  I really enjoyed the first one and also love HBO's Tru-Blood series.

The Hour I First Beleived by Wally Lamb.  I've just seen it on many book club lists, so I thought I'd see if I liked it.

Chris Bohjalian's book, Secrets of Eden, which I know nothing about, but I've enjoyed a few of his other books.

And finally, the newest Margaret Maron book, Sand Sharks.  I love, Love, LOVE, the Deborah Knott Mystery series.

While it would be fun to stay home and do the 24-hour Read-a-thon. ,
I'm headed to a "fare-well" party for my book club friend Liesbet, who is moving back to Austrailia.    She will be missed.  We plan on having a "Skype" bookclub in a couple of months!  More on that later.
Happy Reading!!

Cookbook Countdown

It isn't as toasty brown on the top as the picture in the cookbook shows, but my family was hungry (and the tri-tip was done), so, this picture is as good as it gets for you.

Garlic Mashed Potato Casserole
Cookbook Countdown, recipe #24

 How can one go wrong with mashed potatoes and garlic?

You can't!!


I made this as a side dish to our Easter meal on Sunday. Our plans of going on a picnic were derailed when we woke up to snow. Yes, snow...on Easter. In April!
It also ruined my plans of attending an Easter Sunrise Service --outdoors. I was not brave enough to venture out and sit in the snow.


But with a nice warm fire in the fireplace, a book in my hand, and some warm mashed potatoes to eat with dinner, I had a happy Easter Sunday.


I got this recipe out of "Mary Englebreit's Queen of the Kitchen Cookbook".
It's filled with wonderful illustrations as well as wonderful recipes.

Garlic Potato Casserole


2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
1/4 cup thinly sliced garlic
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper
1/4 thinly sliced green onions
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil.

1. put the potatoes, garlic, broth and 2 cups of water into a large pot. Cover and bring the liquid to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to med-low and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are very tender.


2. preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 2-quart baking dish.

3. set aside 3/4 cup of the potato water. Drain the potatoes and garlic. Return them to the pot and heat over medium heat, stirring for 1-2 minutes, until the potatoes are dry.


4. mash the potatoes, adding a little of the reserved water if necessary. With a wooden spoon, beat in the sour cream, butter, salt and pepper (to taste), add the remaining potato water, beating until the potatoes are soft and fluffy. Stir in 3 tablespoons of the green onions.


5. spoon the potatoes into the prepared dish. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and drizzle with the olive oil. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until he top is golden brown and puffed. Sprinkle with the remaining green onions (which I forgot to do) and serve.

Book Post

I am going to tackle,  "Watership Down."

I don't know why I say "tackle", it's  not like it's "War and Peace".  It just seems a bit intimidating. 
I don't even know much about it, except that I've always wanted to read it, and with all this talk about rabbits this past weekend,  I pulled it off of my book shelf...blew off the dust and today at lunch, I opened it up and read the first couple of chapters. 

Of course I SHOULD BE reading "Olive Kitteridge" because it's the choice for May  for a book club I'm in.  I can't check it out of the library again, because there is a hold on it  (someone else wants it---probably someone in my book club ~sigh~  don't they realize we have a whole other month!)
So, I have an "Olive Kitteridge" deadline, both the library's deadline and my book club's, and yet, I choose to tackle Watership Down.

It's the procrastination side of me coming out.  I've been putting off  reading "Watership Down" for much too long now.    It's time I got on with it!
~smiles~

UH OH

Every once in a while, I screw up. Well, Okay, maybe more than once in a while.... but usually not when I'm cooking. Last night I did....I screwed up big time.

I was so excited because I was finally making "Honey Walnut Shrimp"    from Honey B.
I had been thinking about it for quite some time and I was so looking forward to it.



My table was set, chopsticks, cloth napkins, background music.
We sat down to eat our Honey Shrimp and Ham Fried Rice.....I was recreating an entire meal that Honey made for Grumpy!
I sat down and asked my son, "do you like it?"
He said, "no, I don't".
I have to tell you, that it hurt my feelings. I had worked really hard on that meal and he really likes shrimp, I couldn't understand it.


At that point the Handyman said, "it's not that bad."


NOT THAT BAD?! What the heck!?


I took my chopsticks, took a shrimp, and took a bite. OMG....it really wasn't good. The Sauce....was.....not good at all. I had just ruined a pound of shrimp. I ate a few, but we mostly enjoyed the fried rice.
I was so disappointed.


After dinner, when cleaning up, I looked at the recipe an noticed that when it said to use 1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk , my eyes say 1 and sweetened condensed milk... yep, I used the whole can. Those shrimps were drenched in sweetened condensed milk...and it was gross.
We got a good laugh over that one.


So, I will definitely try the Honey-Walnut Shrimp again, but next time I'll read more slowly.


For the recipe go here to Honey's site. They really are GOOD, I'm sure.


You can't really tell by the picture, but these really were SATURATED!

The Best Strawberry Shortcakes

The Handyman and I always disagree as to what we should put our strawberries on for strawberry shortcake.



I grew up with those store-bought pre-made sponge cakes. It was the only thing I knew, but I always knew they weren't my favorite...but that didn't stop me from eating my shortcake. ~smiles~  I ate lots of it. It's one of my favorite springtime desserts.  It feels very "Eastery" to me.


Nowadays, I like a homemade scone, which is much heartier than those individual pre-made supermarket sponge cakes.


The Handyman grew up with his mom using angel food cake as the shortcakes, and that is what he loves to have his shortcake on.


People use shortcakes, scones, pound cake, angel food, sponge cakes.... what is your favorite?  (or could it be just fresh strawberries over vanilla ice-cream? Yum!)


While trying to keep up with my Cookbook Countdown, I came across this recipe for "The One and Only Authentic Southern Strawberry Shortcake", in the cookbook "My Mother's Southern Desserts" by James Villas, and thought I'd give it a try.

WOW...I'm glad I did. These are the "perfect" shortcakes and the interesting thing is, the recipe says to butter them and spoon the strawberries over them while they are still warm. It sounded weird to me, but it was THE BEST.

Villas says this of his mother's strawberry shortcake:
Don't even start Mother talking about really Southern strawberry shortcake unless you're prepared for a heated two-hour discourse. Briefly, she abhors those little, overly sweet commercial sponge cakes used to make most shortcakes; she insists that the split biscuits (broken apart, not sliced) be buttered while still hot to add depth to the overall flavor; she cringes at just the mention of Cool Whip being substituted for fresh whipped cream; and the dessert must be served warm. Strawberry shortcake is sacred to Mother, and it continues to be the highlight of every July Fourth celebration we throw at her house or mine.


I must say.... his mother is right! Even the Handyman said they were great. I don't know what the warm melted butter does, but it's wonderful.


You'll have to see for yourself.

The One and Only Authentic Southern Strawberry Shortcake

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 large egg, beaten

2/3 cups half-and-half

Butter for spreading

4 cups fresh, ripe-strawberries, rinsed, hulled, sliced in half and sugared to taste.

1 cup heavy cream whipped to stiff peaks and sweetened (if desired)

Pre-heat the oven to 450degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.

Add the butter and using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut the butter into the mixture till crumbly. In a small bowl, combine the egg and half-and-half and mix till well blended, then add to the flour mixture and stir until the mixture is thoroughly moist. Turn the dough out on to a floured surface and knead very briefly. With your hands, pat out the dough to about a 1/2 inch thickness, then, using a floured 3-inch biscuit cutter, cut out 6 biscuits. Place the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet and bake on the upper rack of the oven till slightly brown on top, about 10 minutes.

While they are still hot, split open the biscuits, spread lightly with butter and arrange close together on a crystal cake plate*. Spoon the berries and cream onto the biscuits and serve while still warm.

*I just individually plated each dessert.

I am going to use this recipe for both my cookbook countdown and Weekend Cooking, which is hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads.

   Weekend Cooking   is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend