A Homemade Chinese Dinner

After a busy but fun weekend, which consisted of a wedding on Saturday, and a fun day spent with friends in Richmond on Sunday, we decided why stop the fun?  We would invite a family for dinner Monday night!  We did that, and two hours after the invite was given we had a microburst storm hit us and take out our power.  The same storm hit our friends and they also were without power.  Thanks fully our's came on in time to get dinner ready. 

I decided to make a Chinese food dinner, and I wasn't worried because the sesame chicken recipe I wanted to use was made in the crock pot.  Then my power went out, and I had to make it on the stove top instead.  It still worked, but it took a little longer to pull everything together than I had planned.  Instead of eating at 7 we ate at 8.  

Two of my recipes came from Pinterest.  The first , the sesame chicken came from Chef-In-Training.

This recipe was okay in my opinion, not great, not bad.  It didn't have the sesame, sweet and spicy flavor I was looking for.  I don't think I would make it again, because there are other versions out there that look interesting.

The second recipe I tried was Baked Vegtable Egg rolls from New Nostalgia.

These were excellent!  Obviously not as crispy crunchy as fried egg rolls, but they had great flavor and were very simple and easy to make. The recipe says it makes 14, but when we made it, we only got 9 out of one recipe.  Watch out, these things retain their heat!  You definitely want to let them cool down a bit before you give them a try!

The last recipe came from a Chinese friend of ours named Ling.  She lived us when I was a teen ager, she was a foreign exchange student who spent summer and some holidays with our family.  She was a lot of fun to have around, and she taught us some authentic Chinese recipes! 

Egg Flower Soup (also called Egg Drop Soup)

1 slice fresh ginger
Oil to cover bottom of pan
Green onion chopped

Sauté onion and ginger in oil
Add water to fill pan 3/4 full

Heat to boiling

To 1 bowl of cold water add 1/2 cup corn starch
Mix and add to pan of hot water

4-6 eggs scrambled
Pour slowly over a fork or cheese grater into hot pan

Add 1cup frozen corn
1cup frozen peas

Add 4 bullion cubes or more if needed
Pepper to taste
I don't have a picture, sorry, but trust me when I say this is the best soup!  I makes a full stock pot of soup, so make sure you have plenty of company, or plenty of freezer space!  It is a great comfort food kind of soup, I love to have it when I am sick!

So, our dinner turned out good, even though it was late!  We had lots of fun visiting and playing a game with the older kids, and enjoying "Chinese" donutes (the sugared kind you get at Chinese restraunts).  The only bummer, our friends got home and still had no power!  At least it was a cool evening so they didn't roast with no A/C!
I hope you all are having a great week!
Melissa