Pork Lo Mein

I made the Pork Lo Mein recipe from the Comfort Foods Makeover book since I had some pork loin in the freezer that I wanted eaten.  I was surprised by how tender the pork was.  Mike didn't like the dish because he doesn't like pork.

The dish was a little salty, but that's probably because I didn't use mushrooms.  Mike hates mushrooms so I don't buy any, and I didn't put any in the dish since I thought he might like this dish.  He didn't like the dish, because he doesn't like pork.  I was under the impression that he didn't like pork because it's often overcooked and dry.  This pork was definitely not overcooked or dry.

The recipe called for spaghetti, but I used some chow mien that I had bought to make chow mien and never did.  I also used spinach instead of napa cabbage.

Orange Chicken

Mom gave me a number of oranges from her orange tree.  I decided to try to use those oranges to make Orange Chicken.  I then found this orange chicken recipe.

I didn't have any Panko breadcrumbs since Mike used all of it, even though he only needed half of it, for the Chicken Parmesan recipe.  I used regular breadcrumbs instead.  I also didn't have Mirin, so I didn't use any.  I also don't like Siracha sauce, so I didn't put any in there either.

The dish turned out OK.  The chicken wasn't as "crunchy" as it could have been.  This might have been because I didn't use Panko breadcrumbs.  Also, the smaller pieces of chicken turned out a little overcooked.  I would cut the chicken into larger pieces next time.

Also, the recipe said to add the cornstarch directly to the sauce that was cooking on the stove.  This caused the orange "glaze"/sauce to have lumps of cornstarch in it.  I then remembered that Mom always told me to add cornstarch to cold water and then add that to the sauce.  I put some more cornstarch to about a quarter cup of cold water and added it to the sauce.  After I did that, the sauce started thickening up.

I squeezed almost two whole oranges in order to get the amount of orange juice I needed to make half the recipe.

"From Scratch" Pumpkin Pie

Another one of Mike's all-time favorite foods is the Pumpkin Pie. This Thanksgiving classic dessert can actually be consumed year-round!

I semi-jokingly call this from "scratch", as it was made with a can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix). The name "from scratch" is a joke that our friend "Tshay" called their's from scratch, when it was sourced from a can of pumpkins. We added in our own repertoire of herbs and spices from a Top Secret source (okay - fine, it was the "Libby's" Pumpkin container.)

-Mike

Note: Names have been obfuscated for the personal safety of the sources.