Chinese Food

I made Chinese food this week. In our ward (tangent: I still love our ward! and am getting to know many in it and finally getting their names down. This is such a great ward-- YAY!) for Relief Society, we had a service auction. My service that was auctioned was a Chinese meal which was the hit of the night. It was the highest bidding auction and the Relief Society President won it, because she had the most points out of anyone. I thought no one was going to want it and it turned out that many sisters did. Several sisters spoke up and asked "can we auction the Chinese food now??"

So, I finally got around and made it. I started at 11 am and finished 3 minutes before 6:30pm. (Dinner was at 6:30-- I still ended up being 15 minutes late) Normally I'm 3 hours late for dinner when I cook Chinese, so I considered this to be a great feat!

I made everything from scratch and had Andrew as a sous chef helping me cut up meat and cleaning dishes and pans so that I could keep a continuous cooking schedule. We work great together, especially in this new kitchen where we can be doing two things at once and not bump into each other or get in the way.

SO it was 7 1/2 hours of straight cooking to get this meal done with a helper. My feet definitely hurt after this! (Tangent: I remember making Chinese food for Chinese New Year when I was pregnant. My feet swelled so badly while cooking that I ended up not being able to walk on my feet for several days afterward)

I made rice, gong bao ji ding (kong pao chicken), lemon chicken, jing jiang rou si (shredded beef with leek), broccoli cauliflower and carrot dish, fried green beans, and Chinese banana bread with home made strawberry sauce and cool whip as dessert.

Then I put them in my beautiful blue and white Chinese china dishes and it looked gorgeous. I should have taken a picture. The family said that we cooked enough for an army! (which I think is funny, because Andrew actually does cook for the army... anyway). They thought it was a lot, but at the end of dinner most of it was gone. It's amazing how much you cook and how fast it can go-- even with a small crowd!

It sure was good!!! The best part was that the only ingredients I didn't have on hand was 3 lemons, 2 leeks, fresh beans, broccoli and cauliflower. So the grocery list for such a huge meal was minimal.

Man, do I miss China!!! It's nice to get that food on hand with in the half hour vs my 7 1/2.