Chinese Sticky Rice

I love Chinese food. Well durr, I'm Chinese! One of my favorite dishes (besides Hainanese steamed chicken and chicken rice) is sticky rice with Chinese sausage, Shiitake mushrooms, and chicken. My mom used to cook this entire meal in just the rice cooker. My rice cooker is tiny so I have to cook most of it in my wok then mix it together when it's done.

Alot of these ingredients may not be found at your local grocery store even if it has an Asian section. I actually buy my Chinese sausage (DO NOT use regular sausage. It is NOT the same!) in bulk when I go visit my sister in Alabama 3 hours away. There is a local Asian market in my town, but it is owned by Taiwanese and Chinese sausage is not part of their cuisine so they don't sell it.

Let me tell you though, this is REAL Chinese food. You probably won't find this at your local Chinese buffet. As I begin my pretentious rant, American Chinese buffet food is NOT real Chinese food. Sure, it's cooked by Chinese people (sometimes) but the food served at buffets are not eaten normally by Chinese people. Plus, China is a HUGE country. There are a lot of different ethnic groups and a lot of different types of cuisine. For example, clam chowder is a dish founded in New England. Fried pickles and everything else fried was founded in the South. Get it?

The food you see in Chinese buffets originated from cuisine in southern China. Northern Chinese food is completely different and I must say that I don't think I've tried any myself. Enough information, onto the recipe!

That's not Corona Extra. It's just sweet tea. 

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Since becoming unemployed, I have been trying my hardest to cook more homemade, healthier meals. Let's say it's been like a roller coaster of fickleness. Sometimes, I really don't feel like cooking which results in us going out to eat or grabbing some greasy fast food.

It can be a little demotivating at times to cook for two. I grew up with 3 other siblings so our family dinners were always HUGE. I basically learned how to cook for a small army with leftovers. I've been striving to exercise more so I've been doing Couch to 5K, but I've been stuck on week 3 for like a month. And I've been striving to cooking healthier, fresher dishes. Here is where community markets come into consideration.

I love community markets. My town has a great one every Saturday during the late spring and summer months. Tons of fresh produce and baked goods handmade by locals for super cheap. Plus, I'm supporting local business so I feel even better for buying. Unfortunately, it runs from 7:30am to 10am which are my prime sleeping hours and I am NOT a morning person. You could say I am an afternoon wildebeest.

Anywho, last weekend my husband and I stayed up all night and went to the community market. We actually arrived a bit too early so we went to get breakfast and came back 30 minutes later. I bought 2 eggplants, handmade wheat pasta, strawberry bread, cheesy za'atar flat bread, and baklava.

My original intentions were to grill the eggplant, but then I remembered that eggplant parmesan is even tastier! I even baked it to make it healthier!

Comforting Tuna Casserole

As a Southern girl, I love comfort food. My husband and I have lived most of our lives in the South so we grew up with awesome dishes like casseroles, real barbecue, fried chicken, fried catfish, grits, and corn bread. In reality, I never took a liking to either grits or cornbread, but my husband loves all of the above.

Today's post is about a casserole. No, not green bean casserole, mind you. I won't post that recipe until closer to the holidays along with my infamous sausage balls recipe. I present to you...... tuna casserole!

As usual, I've made variations of this tuna casserole through the years so there is no definite recipe. The one I made last night was as close to the original as I hoped to get.