I am a huge fan of Alfredo sauce, but I don't dare make it very often because it's usually not remotely healthy for you. However, I played around with some changes to a recipe that (I think) originally came from Betty Crocker, substituting lower fat ingredients where I could and trying not to give up the flavour or texture. I think I've won!
Let me start out by saying if you are a souffle connoisseur, you will be mortally offended by this recipe. I chose to call it a souffle because it got puffy as it baked and stayed that way, but it is by no means the intricate, detailed, multi-step dish more commonly known as a souffle.
You know what it was, though? Tasty as all get-out!
A site I used to frequent introduced me to the term, "C.O.R.N.", which means "Clean Out Refrigerator Night". It's as good a term as any, and everybody does it. Especially after a holiday dinner, when you've bought some things that are not normally in your rotation and most of them come in a quantity or size bigger than what you need for a particular recipe.
You know what's perfect for those nights? Quiche. Stir-fry also works, but I tend to gravitate toward quiche because it's really low in carbs and appeals to my generally lazy nature. I had some debate in my head about what to call this one, and finally settled on the title above.
This is a recipe of mine from so long ago I no longer make it the way I used to. Originally, I used giant shrimp or prawns, and it had hot peppers. Over time, due to dietary and budget constraints, it morphed into what you see here. It's actually even better, if I do say so myself.
What I love is it works with pre-cooked, frozen shrimp (although you can make it with fresh and it'll be even better). Where I live, finding fresh shrimp is a virtual impossibility, and while I understand that shrimp in general are much more costly than they used to be, fresh (or even frozen raw) are through the roof.
Some years ago, I started this tradition where I throw myself a birthday party at my favourite neighbourhood bar, and the last several years I've upped the ante and also make what I've come to call my truly ridiculous birthday cakes. They're completely over the top, decadent, and you're pretty sure you're gonna die (but die happy) while you're still eating them. They tend to weigh in at five or so pounds, and they tend to cost a great deal of money. They also are something you pretty much NEVER want to even think about their nutrition information.
This year's cake was adapted slightly from a recipe originally posted by A Beautiful Bite, and it was not just everything I hoped it would be, but considerably more.
Some time around Christmas I started craving fried rice. It's not like it's hard to come by, but where I live we don't have Chinese delivery and the only restaurants are not open hours that are conducive to my being able to go there with my work non-schedule. So I just kept wanting it and wanting it, until one day it occurred to me: Make it yourself, silly!
I'd never made fried rice before. Don't ask me how I managed to be this old without doing it, but I hadn't. I started looking for recipes online, and then I realized it couldn't possibly be that hard. I already knew you were supposed to start with leftover rice, and I had some. So then I just started adding things until I was satisfied, and it came out pretty darn tasty. My mother even liked it!
Let me start by saying this is not an original recipe of mine, not by a long shot. For starters, I'd have never called it Pork Diane, because I don't even know what that means. This is one my grandmother had written inside the cover of one of her cookbooks, and I have no earthly idea where it came from. I do know that I did a quick search, and virtually every recipe on the first page of results is almost identical to mine.
So, that said... Let's check it out, shall we?
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