It's all in the sauce

Greetings All,
I have taken over my wife's keyboard to blab on about how wonderful tonight's dinner was. Now, those of who read this blog regularly know that my wife and I take our food very seriously. Well, most of the time - some of our dinners come out of a box (Shhh! Don't tell Mom!). Well, tonight's dinner was very blog-worthy, and for those in the know - book worthy.

It all started Thursday night. I was chatting with Lana, and for some reason, Mongolian Beef came to mind. We were planning on staying in Roanoke for the weekend, so we were going ot have to cook - so we needed to know what the food plans were. Leftovers? Dining out? Throw together something? - or take it up a few notches and COOK? We didn't want to get quite as fancy as what we do for a Valentine's dinner, but didn't want to do the usual "protein and stuff with sauce" type meal. We didn't exactly plan out the menus in too much detail. Although we had a vague idea.

Friday night was going to be home-made frozen meatloaf (that was made before Grace arrived), slathered with that awesome red wine glaze of ours. Breakfast on Saturday (today) was going to waffles. Lunch? - Mac 'n Cheese with Bacon. For dinner, I mentioned wanting to finally go visit that Chinese takeout place in Vinton that we found - and then it hit me. Why couldn't we make Chinese food here? And this is where the Mongolian Beef came in. It is one of my favorite dishes when I get Chinese - and very few places do it right.

Before long, I had three recipes for Mongolian Beef, and a strong desire to do it up right. I read off the ingredients quickly and my heart sank. "We'll have to buy all of this! What's Hoisin sauce?" To which my very prepared wife said. "Hang on, I think I've got that already..." Sure enough, there was a creepy looking jar of it in the fridge. Soy sauce? "Check." Sesame Oil? "Add it to the list." Sugar? "Of course we have sugar!" Cilantro? "Nope, all out." Garlic? "You are kidding, right?" (We have a mason jar full of chopped garlic.) Meat? "Add it to the list."

I took my grocery list to Kroger the next day during my lunch break. I found everything on the list. Some of it took a few trips around the store to find, but I eventually got it all.

The Meatloaf was wonderful,
The Waffles were tasty - although one of them exploded out of the waffle-iron. Messy stuff.
The Mac 'n Cheese was a particularly good batch.

And then it was time for Dinner.

Chinese cuisine is so easy to prepare! We started the rice, because we knew it would take the longest - Roughly forty minutes. Then, I dug out my cutting board, my favorite knife, and the ingredients. I sliced up the onion and green peppers and saute'ed them in some oil. Add a little garlic, and the kitchen smelled divine!

While that cooked up, it was time to dig the meat out of the fridge. We had prepared the meat the night before in a marinade. It took all the odd stuff: The Hoisin, the sesame oil, soy sauce, et al... Just opening the container made the kitchen smell wonderful - although the marinade looked cold and slimy at that point. (Ever seen Hoisin? Ew.) But, it did the job. We sliced up the meat into slivers, and cooked it. Finally, we stir-fried everything together in one pot, and heated everything to a yummy-ness that has to be smelt to believe. It smelled good, it looked good - now, did it taste good?

The rice finished cooking a very short time later. We set the table with chop-sticks and dished the stir-fry on top of a bed of rice. We started a new episode, and dug in. And boy was the food good! I think there was enough food there to feed a couple of people, but it was so good that there are no left-overs! The meat was flavorful, tender, and juicy. The sauce was astoundingly good, and the rice was perfect. Even Lana commented on how much better it tasted than Chinese takeout.

And it was cheap! Sure, the small bottle of Sesame Oil I bought was $5.00, but we only used a tablespoon of it. Same for the Hoisin. The meat was fairly cheap too - it was on clearance. Chinese cuisine may seem intimidating to anyone who'se ever gone to a Chinese buffet, but if this dish is any indication - the guys in the kitchen of that buffet have an easy time.

To finish off this very authentic meal, Lana dug out two fortune cookies that we had. I hope they weren't too old.

Mine read: "It is better to have a hen tomorrow, than an egg today." True, but it doesn't really go well with the "In bed" fortune cookie joke.
Lana's read: "Find release from your cares, have a good time." Ahh, much better.

Anyway, Grace is now looking forward to sharing in the Mongolian Beef. Soon enough, I'm sure.

Now, what are we eating tomorrow? I don't think we ever decided....

Later,
-M