Fried Rice Quick and Easy

 (slightly adapted from The Recipe Critic)

Servings: about 8

Hubby Ken just LOVES Asian food.  I had some crispy orange chicken from Costco in the freezer, along with some Costco egg rolls.  I made this easy fried rice and it was so tasty!  I also served this easy wonton soup as a starter.  What a fun and easy dinner!  

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups cooked rice (leftover cold rice works great!)

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1 small sweet onion, chopped

1 cup frozen peas and carrots, thawed

2-3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce (or to taste)

2 eggs lightly beaten

  

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat large skillet to medium heat.  Pour sesame oil in the bottom.  Add onion, peas and carrots and saute until tender.

Slide the vegetables to one side, and pour the beaten eggs onto the other side of the skillet. Scramble the eggs. Once cooked, mix the eggs with the vegetable mix.

Add the rice to the vegetables and egg mixture.  Drizzle soy sauce over mixture and stir fry until heated through.

Brioche Bread Pudding

New York Times Simple Bread Pudding

  (Mark Bittman)

   Adapted slightly by Patti

I'm just loving the brioche loaves from our grocery store... plain, chocolate, and cream cheese.  The chocolate is especially good!  Since I had a loaf of the chocolate brioche, I made a bread pudding based on this easy recipe from the New York Times.  It turned out great!  I'll have to post a photo of a serving topped with sauce so that you can see  how divine this is.  I got the tip of using melted ice cream as a sauce from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa.  Perfect! 

Servings: 6 to 8

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, more for greasing pan
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch salt
1/2 to 1 loaf sweet egg bread like challah or brioche, cut into 2-inch cubes (about 5 to 6 cups)
3 large eggs, beaten

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan over low heat, warm milk, butter, vanilla, almond extract, sugar and salt. Continue cooking just until butter melts; cool. Meanwhile, butter a 4-to-6-cup baking dish and fill it with cubed bread.
Add eggs to cooled milk mixture and whisk; pour mixture over bread. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until custard is set but still a little wobbly and edges of bread have browned. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Tips:  Let the pudding soak about 20 to 30 minutes before baking.  If necessary, add a little more milk to cover the bread, and stir the mixture slightly to combine.

*I used a chocolate brioche loaf and it was yummy!

*An easy sauce for the pudding is melted vanilla ice cream (I used vanilla cinnamon gelato).