Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Day 3: Having a "Potluck"

Yeah, this picture looks like it came from a catalog!
I know potlucks typically consist of separate dishes contributing to a meal, not taking your guests' food and putting it in a recipe, but #1 only had rice to add to the meal and I wasn't feeling inspired as to what to have with a side of rice.  We still have a plethora of ham from Easter, so I went to allrecipes.com and entered "rice ham".  It brought up a few options and I was surprised to see a fried rice recipe.  I'm not all that fond of fried rice, but I figured what the heck.  I had the majority of the ingredients already.  As expected, my kids' reactions to the meal went like this.

#1:  Hmm.  Maybe it will be good. 
#2:  This is good!  (Before he took a bite)
#3:  Fine. I'll eat it.  (Expecting to be rewarded for it)
Daughter:  Stared at it in horror, but ate it.

It was actually quite tasty!  I bought some reduced sodium soy sauce from Trader Joe's, which I ended up liking much better.  My friend said, "You must have done a really good job with the rice because he got seconds."

She was referring to #3.  I ran to get my camera because he rarely likes anything I make.  I told her, "No, that's ice cream."

That figures.

Now allow me to review the recipe allrecipes.com style.  This is when you change the recipe and give it 5 stars.

This recipe was awesome!  I doubled the ham, didn't cook the green onion as long as it said to, added about half as much salt, omitted the sprouts, used fresh chopped carrots, and served reduced sodium soy sauce on the side.  5 stars!

7 comments:

  1. That actually looks REALLY good. Many of my favorite things in that rice. :)

    And I lol'd about the allrecipes.com review. So true!

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  2. The other thing I like is when someone says, "I hated this recipe. I didn't have dijon mustard so I used regular. I didn't have any gruyere so I used cheddar. This was disgusting."

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  3. I totally agree with you! If you are going to rate a recipe, make it the way the recipe tells you too! Good job on the rice. I plan to make ham fried rice to use up our leftover ham too. We really like the envelope seasoning. Great job on trying a new recipe to make sure that he contributed to the meal. ~Maria

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  4. I love your review! That is exactly how it works. "this recipe was so great! I didn't follow the directions at all, I used the instructions for my moms recipe, and it turned out so well." and then it has a ton of high ratings, so then I try it, follow the instructions, and hate the recipe. That's why I just use Our Best Bites now, I have figured out that I really like their food, and I can count on it being delicious!

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  5. Ooh, I love Best Bites. I also like allrecipes when it comes to looking for recipes using ingredients I already have, but I don't even click on them unless they have at least 4 stars. I find I have to read through many of the comments and if it's unanimous that there was too much this or too little that, I will adjust it. But I wish people would give ratings of the actual recipes so they aren't ranked so high when they shouldn't be.

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  6. Dad and I have fried rice fairly often. He LOVES it. Like you, I steam the rice ahead of time. First I saute a cheap pork steak. It has the best flavor of any meat I've ever used in fried rice. Cut it in really small pieces -- it goes further. Saute onions and mushrooms on the side. Scramble a couple of eggs. Toss it all together in a big pan with the rice, add some sliced almonds and frozen peas and let it cook a little longer. Add soy sauce. Seriously yummy. You have your starch, veggies, and protein all in one dish. I've tried broccoli, but Dad does not like it in this particular dish. Says it ruins it. Hmmm?

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  7. You inspired me this week and I've made ham fried rice twice this past week with leftover ham. It was so good! I'd never tried making it before and it was so easy!!! Thanks for the great dinner idea!
    de ja vu?? :)

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