Ivy's Fried Rice

Putting leftovers to good use since 600 AD!

These last few months have felt like an actual whirlwind in our apartment. Between planning our upcoming vow renewal, business at work, trying to get some academic articles written and published, adopting a cat, and keeping up with the blog, I feel like I haven't really had a chance to catch my breath since... maybe February? 

Because of that, it's been very difficult to plan and prep meals, which means anything easy and quick (while still healthy - ish - and filling) has been a huge asset. I'm hopeful that once things settle down again, I'll have more time and energy to devote to non blog related meals, but until then, it's been fun to experiment with some traditional go to's that are easy to make, full of vegetables, and a way to get rid of leftovers that's been used for generations. 

I'm speaking about fried rice, of course!

Ivy's Egg Drop Soup

A centuries old soup that's perfect for beating that winter chill!

Winter has officially hit the Mid-Atlantic, and last weekend I decided we were in need of some soup. Not just any soup: egg drop soup. 

This light but filling dish has been on my to do list for a super long time, and now I wish I'd tackled it sooner. It's extremely easy to make, with only a few ingredients and is ready to eat in about fifteen minutes max at the absolute most. Read on to find out how you can give this a shot yourself!

Chinese Takeout with Lindsey

A staple of Christmas day plans for generations!

Last year, NPR posted an article discussing the history of different holiday traditions that often go undiscussed: eggnog, jelly donuts for Hanukkah, and, of course, the tradition of Jewish families eating Chinese food on Christmas. Did you know it goes back to at least 1935? 

This year, we decided to pay tribute to that tradition with our own "Jewish Christmas". Read on to find out a little more about this classic holiday treat!

Ivy's Chop Suey

The spaghetti and meatballs of Chinese American cuisine!

We've talked a bit in the history of this blog about the misconceptions regarding some "foreign" additions to American cuisine. People can say all they want that corned beef and cabbage or spaghetti and meatballs aren't authentically Irish or Italian food, but the fact of the matter is that they are authentic Irish American and Italian American. People dismissing them as somehow lesser or not as worth eating just because they didn't come from the mother country are essentially dismissing the history of the people who invented, improved and enjoyed the dishes over the years as being unimportant, and it's a trend I wish people would get over.

Another victim of this slander is chop suey, a dish that's notorious for being a terrible American version of good Chinese food.

But what you might not know is that chop suey isn't actually that American (read: white bread, probably Anglo-Saxon) at all.

Ivy's Chinese Almond Cookies

Crispy cookies with tasty almond flavor!

When I was a kid, I definitely fantasized about making some of the food my favorite AG characters talked about making and enjoying in their books. I know I've talked about this before, so it's probably not news or especially surprising to my readers, but it really was a big dream of mine. Now that I'm an adult who doesn't need supervision in the kitchen (most of the time), I get to actually put those plans in action, and it's always fun when I have an official AG recipe to go off of to help make these creations.

Of course, sometimes those recipes haven't worked out that well for me in the past, so I always go in with a little bit of informed risk. Considering the way these cookies are presented in the books, it actually might have been appropriate to run into a minor disaster while baking them!

Ivy's Chinese Fruit Salad

Looking for a way to spice up a fruit salad?

Is there anything more refreshing than a fruit salad? Probably not, especially when the fruits are in season. And summer is definitely the time to enjoy most of my favorites, whether it be in pies, cobblers, or just eaten immediately after getting home from the grocery store. Summer can also be a difficult time of year for fruit, though - my mom always complains about fruit rotting before we can eat it because of the humidity and temperature - so it's good to have a couple tricks in your back pocket to make sure you're using your fruit creatively!

I've found a couple different fun recipes that can be a good way to feature some of your favorite fruits, but this was the one that excited me the most. With a perfect combination of interesting fruits and just the right amount of extra sweetness and spice, this is a lot more exciting than your average fruit salad. The fact that it used a lot of my favorite fruits was sort of just an extra bonus.

Ivy's Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

A quick, tasty meal, perfect for the middle of the week.

Stir fry is a very forgiving dish with a lot of room for creativity, considering the name refers more to the way it's prepared than what's actually in it. Considering this particular recipe featured my favorite protein (besides cheddar cheese) and my favorite vegetable (no joke, steamed broccoli with nothing on it is absolutely my favorite vegetable side dish to pretty much anything), I knew I had to give this recipe a whirl and see where it took me.

To make it all the more appealing, I'm really trying hard to eat healthier this year, and unlike most things on this blog, eating this for dinner won't set you back for the whole rest of the week diet wise.

Ivy's Nian Gao

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hinted that another Ivy post was on the way, and here it is! Today marks the start of the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, and celebrations will be going on until February 15th. Chinese New Year starts on the first day of the Chinese calendar - which is lunisolar - and ends on the 15th day of the first month. This year is the year of the Horse, which I'm sure Kaya and Felicity are thrilled about, and while we don't celebrate the holiday in this household, it's very culturally important to one of the American Girls so there was no way we were going to pass this by.

Nian gao is also known as year cake, or Chinese New Year cake, and I will admit, the recipe sounded super intimidating at first! It turns out as long as you're willing to make the time commitment (and it is a big one!), it's totally feasible and can make you feel like a real culinary MacGuyver!

Ivy's Pan Fried Pork and Shrimp Potstickers

The recipe that almost killed A Peek into the Pantry...

Finally, the long awaited Ivy post is here! I'm sorry it ended up taking so long. There were a couple bumps in the road on the way to getting this on the table, which didn't end once I actually had all the ingredients on hand!

By now, you're probably wondering what on Earth I mean by this recipe almost killing the blog, and I promise, it's safe and I want to keep doing it. This cooking adventure just kind of developed into one of those "a million other things are bothering me, but this one trivial thing is what's going to push me over the edge" incidents, and it wasn't exactly pretty. I actually waited a while to do this post - the potstickers were actually an accompaniment to dinner last night, but I was so frustrated by the end of the experience that I thought it might be for the best to sit on it for a while and cool off before jumping into a post that was all about how awful I felt while making these.

 For the record, most of my complaints are directed at myself, and the recipe was sort of just the unfortunate target of my frustration. Now that some time's gone by and I've cooled off a bit, I can say that while very labor intensive, these were actually super tasty and I wish I'd made more of them. Fortunately, we saved the filling we didn't end up using, so I might make a couple more for dinner tonight, too!