Fried Rice

   by: Bethany

Fried rice has to be one of my favorite meals, and it is such a great dish to make with leftover rice. Here's a recipe I've made for my family on quite a few occasions. It's really versatile depending on what veggies or meat you have on hand. 

  Ingredients:

4 tablespoons oil  (toasted sesame oil gives a really nice nutty flavor, but whatever cooking oil works)

4 eggs, beaten

1 cup chopped onion (I used red onion this time, because we happened to have it. White or green onion would be good also)

2 cups cooked pork, chicken, beef, or seafood

4 cups veggies (a frozen mix works great for this, otherwise, any leftover veggies you need to use up)

4-6 cups cold, cooked rice

6 tablespoons soy sauce

6 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon ground ginger

salt and pepper

In a large pot, heat two tablespoons of oil and add onion. 

 As onion begins to soften, add in eggs.

 Break up the eggs as they brown.

Then stir in veggies, 

rice, 

meat, and remaining oil.

 Cook until rice begins to crisp, about 5 minutes.

  Combine soy sauce, water, and ginger in a small bowl, then pour over the rice. 

Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the rice has absorbed all the liquid, 3 to 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.

 

Enjoy!

"Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits"...

      Since we've built up a nice little inventory for ourselves, besides working on a few special orders, Becca and I have been able to turn our attention to some more personal projects.
 We enjoy working on business things, but we've had some other projects on our minds as well.

  Like redecorating our bedroom!  (I'd show you a picture, but... as bedrooms go, it's not the tidiest)  :)

    We had found Becca an old wrought iron bed, if you remember (see end of post: Record Table Refinish), but it took a little longer to find one for me.

  This one needed a little help, as it was quite rusty...

Headboard

Foot-board

…but a little scrubbing, and some paint…

…. and I have a brand new bed!

  Here's a few sneak peeks on the things we're working on.

These are a pair of antique milk glass lamps we're going to fix up. I'll rewire them if they need it, and we will make them new shades. We saw this adorable crocheted lamp shade that we might try.

We'll probably do a different color

And these are some of the colors we're thinking of painting our room. My favorite is the middle one on the left side, and it's called "Norwegian Vintage Green".
(Becca: "My favorite is the second to the top on the right, 'Quaint Village Green' ")

 

The other thing we are working on for our room I'll keep a secret.  :)

But I will give you a hint...

It has something to do with these favorite quotes of ours.

(In no particular order)

"I want to do something splendid...

something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead...

I think I shall write books"

-Louisa May Alcott

"Ah! There is nothing like staying home, for real comfort"

-Jane Austen

"The best place for planning a book is while doing dishes"

-Agatha Christie

"What a pity every child couldn't learn to read under a willow tree..."

-Elizabeth George Speare, Witch of Blackbird Pond

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause and effect,

 but actually from a nonlinear, non-subjective viewpoint, 

it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...time-y wimey...stuff"

-the 10th Doctor

"Anyone who can think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination"

-Mark Twain

"If you convey to a women that something ought to be done, 

there is a dreadful danger that she will suddenly do it"

-Father Brown

"When you eliminate the impossible, 

whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"

-Sherlock Holmes

"Whatever comes," She said, "cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess on the inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it."

-Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Little Princess

"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I like it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

  "All of them at once," said Bilbo

-J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

"Hallo, Rabbit," he said "is that you?"

"Let's pretend it isn't," said Rabbit "and see what happens."

-A. A. Milne

"The Homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only- 

and that is to support the ultimate career"

-C. S. Lewis

"All life lessons are not learned at college," she thought. "Life teaches them everywhere"

-L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

"5% percent of the people think; 10% percent of the people think they think; 

and the other 85% of the people would rather die than think"

-Thomas A. Edison

"There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure He doesn't dress like that."

-Captain America, The Avengers

"A gentleman can hardly continue to sit," he explained, in his serenest and most level voice, 

"when he asks a very remarkable young lady to do him the honor of marrying him. 

"And-" he somehow contrived to grin at me wickedly, "I usually get what I want, Miss Grahame," he added, and pitched over in a tangled heap on the floor.

-Elizabeth Marie Pope, The Sherwood Ring

Which one is your favorite? We'd love to know!

Can anyone guess which one of these people said the quote in our post's title?

(here's a hint: It wasn't Sherlock Holmes...though, that is quite comical to picture)

Coral Floral Desk

By: Becca

This was one of the other finds that we "came upon" in the dim light of the street lamp, and promptly snatched off of someone's lawn. 

Mind you, there was a sign out that said "Free", wasn't that nice of them?

This piece was a sweet, and oddly petite wooden desk; we assumed it was child-sized.

I had seen pictures of a certain paint design and thought that this little desk might be a good candidate.

click to go to site

Isn't that cool? 

I love this picture, the colors, the rabbit, the curtains and the granny square blanket- so cute!

Beth and I want to try this with a dresser we picked up at a thrift store.

Now to do something like that, to my desk.

I thought it could work, but what color should I do?

Blue seemed popular, but we already had some blue in our inventory. We needed some variety.

Besides who wants to do something just because it's popular?

What about coral? It's bright, happy, girly, but not exactly pink.

Ooo!  Look at this adoral coral fabric on clearance at Wal-mart. I could line the drawers with it!

We matched the paint color to the fabric and found some new drawer pulls too.

Once I finished painting, it seemed to be needing something… 

The white was just too - blank.

Mom helped me fill visual gap with the flower design from the fabric, and it's was perfect : )

Wait! What good is a desk if there isn't a chair to sit in while you work at it?

Oh, yeah… good point, I probably should do something about that.

The space for the chair fit into was rather small, a bit wider than 12 inches across.

We looked and looked but couldn't find anything that would fit in there.

Well, does it really have to fit under there? 

Maybe it could just be a nice place for your knees to go : )

Because if that was the case, this white retro chair might be a nice match.

Bethany could recover it with the coral fabric-

like so:

And no one will mind that it's actually a 70's era Tulip chair : )

They look so cute together-

Close ups of the flower designs

 Cupboard and drawers lined with fabric.

If I was smaller, I'd be tempted to keep it! 

 I hope some little girl will love it as much as I do.