Curried Fried Rice Meal by Ruth Paget

Curried Fried Rice Meal by Ruth Paget 

A fast lunch I prepare for myself is curried fried rice. The inspiration for this meal is Chinese. However, the Chinese add more ingredients like peas and ham or shrimp, especially in restaurants. 

For everyday lunches, I use the following recipe: 

Serves 1 

Ingredients: 

-2 tablespoons olive oil 

-2 teaspoons Madras curry powder or another brand 

(Look for turmeric in the curry ingredients. It is a good antioxidant.) 

-1 (7.4 ounce) container of cooked Bibigo sticky Korean rice 

-2 beaten eggs 

-salt and pepper to taste 

Steps: 

1-Heat olive oil and curry in a sauce pan till steaming. 

2-Add the cooked sticky rice. Break up the rice and turn it to coat with the yellow cooking oil. 

3-When the rice is steaming, add the beaten eggs and turn for 2 to 3 minutes or until cooked. 

4-Remove the rice and eggs from the heat. Season them with salt and pepper and serve. 

As a dessert, I eat two or three clementines after the curry rice and drink a small carton of whole milk. 

This meal is fast and easy and still relatively inexpensive even with the higher price of eggs. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Pancake Supper Fundraising in Detroit, Michigan by Ruth Paget

Pancake Supper Fundraising by Ruth Paget 

I learned about pancake supper fundraising as a child when I attended pancake suppers at my family’s Baptist church in Detroit (Hazel Park), Michigan. 

The entire congregation came often with friends to eat pancakes and raise money for children’s programs. The cost was around $5 per person plus any voluntary extra donation in the 1960s and 1970s. 

The following items came with the pancake supper: 

-3 pancakes 

-3 packages of maple syrup (This was easily obtainable in Michigan.) 

-3 butter packages 

-a fruit salad for dessert 

-cold, sweetened iced tea

-lemon wedges, if requested 

-a silverware and napkin packet

Our church had a cafeteria-style kitchen where we would get a tray and be served our pancakes, fruit salad, and silverware packet. 

At lunch tables covered with paper tablecloths, servers would bring us our sweetened iced tea on trays to avoid spills. The fruit salad was low-calorie and pretty nutritious. 

 The fruit salad was made with the following items: 

 -canned, no-sugar-added mandarin orange sections with the can juice

 -fresh apple cubes 

-slices of fresh banana 

The fruit contained Vitamin C, and the pancakes made with milk and eggs contained protein and calcium. 

Sometimes the teen group would perform a skit from the Christmas play. Little children sang Sunday school songs. 

Pancakes cost very little to make, if made from scratch. Pancake fundraisers are profitable and easy fundraisers if organized well. Check if you need catering insurance to do this for your organization. 

I always enjoyed going to pancake suppers as a child in Detroit, Michigan and think these events might do well in the 2020s as well. 

(Note: Pancakes have their origin in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, but the Dutch are credited with creating their modern version.)

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Visiting Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina by Ruth Paget

Visiting Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina by Ruth Paget 

The first time I visited Asheville, North Carolina was with my mom. She was driving me home from my childhood vacationland – Murrells Inlet, South Carolina (outside Myrtle Beach) – where I had stayed with my sister. 

Mom drove her black Thunderbird, which I thought looked like a movie-star Mercedes, back to Detroit (Michigan) up and around the Appalachian Mountains. The ride is thrilling since a lot of the freeway sits on stilts around the mountains with treetops below. 

We listened to country music on the radio. The only other choice at the time was gospel. We stopped to visit “an American castle” when Biltmore Estate surged into view. 

Biltmore looks like a French Loire Valley château notably the fairy tale Ussé château but on a grander scale like Chambord château further down the Loire River. I was so happy they had room on the guided tour for us despite not reserving ahead of time. 

I think I was in the fourth grade at the time and vaguely remember that the guide said the Vanderbilts made their fortune in transportation (railroads and shipping) in the 19th century. I was impressed that the Biltmore Estate had 100 bedrooms each with their own bathroom. 

I asked if each room had a telephone when I saw what looked like a manual dial phone by the door of each room. “Some rooms have telephones, but that is an intercom. If a family member or guest needs something, they call the butler on that intercom. The butler decides if what someone requests is a job for him or the head of housekeeping,” the guide explained. Modern hotels still function like this when you make calls to guest services to request something. 

My next question was, “Do you have a hotel here?” 

My mother intervened at this point, “We have to go home, so I can work Monday.” 

I was disappointed, but understood. The tour guide mentioned at the end of the tour that the Vanderbilts had a university nearby, if we wanted to visit that, too. 

Back in the black Thuderbird on the way to Detroit, my mom drove around Vanderbilt University to check out the campus. I thought the campus was pretty, but even as a child I liked cities. (Detroit was fun.) 

I thought about Biltmore a lot in high school. I had two pairs of favorite jeans by Gloria Vanderbilt with swans on the label next to her name that I wore to be cooler than the Calvin Klein wearers. We had anorexia wars to see who could be thinner in their straight leg jeans. 

On some more recent visits to Asheville, my husband Laurent and I toured the University of North Carolina – Asheville campus and bought a 501 German Verbs book at the university bookstore to do some verb conjugating as a souvenir of living in Stuttgart, Germany. 

The Biltmore Estate now has become a tourism magnet for Asheville, North Carolina offering an outdoor concert series, garden tours, exhibits for families like the current one on Tutankhamun, biking trails, wine tastings, and a hotel with a spa no doubt. 

I like it that this American castle can be maintained by offering services to the public that allow everyone a chance to be a prince or princess for the day. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Food History Buff book for $1.99 today on Kindle by Ruth Paget

Food history buffs might be interested in today’s Kindle deal - The Food Book by DK Publishing - 1,197 pages about the origins, traditions, and use of everyday foods from “salt to sushi” for $1.99 today.

I absolutely purchased this to learn more about what I eat and be a better consumer.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Visiting Georgia's Gold Town of Dahlonega by Ruth Paget

Visiting Georgia’s Gold Town of Dahlonega by Ruth Paget

On a pre-hurricane Helene trip to Georgia, my husband Laurent and I drove to Georgia’s gold town of Dahlonega high up in the Appalachian Mountains to visit the Gold Museum downtown. 

Dahlonega feels surprisingly close to Atlanta. To get there from Smyrna on Atlanta’s north side, you take 285 East to 19 North. 

You pass over two rivers on the way to Dahlonega – the Etowah River and the Chestatee River. When you reach Chestatee Road, you make a left turn from 19 North and arrive directly downtown. 

The Gold Museum is small, but highly informative. 

One of the first things you learn in the museum is that gold began being mined in Dahlonega in 1829, a full 20 years before the California Gold Rush. 

The gold region, which extends from today’s northeastern border of Georgia to northeastern Alabama was mostly occupied by Cherokee Native Americans. To make way for mining operations, the Cherokee were removed from their lands and forcibly made to walk westward, the Trail of Tears, to be resettled in Oklahoma. 

Once the Cherokee lands were available for mining, a lottery was held which gave the lucky winner the right to own and set up mining operations. People who did not get land in the lottery received blank lottery tickets and were said “to draw a blank.” 

People who wanted to mine gold, but drew a blank are rumored to have left Georgia for the California Gold Rush in 1849, 

Georgia’s gold is still highly sought, because it is 96% pure. The state capitol’s dome is sheathed in shimmering Georgia gold. For smaller investors, there are coins with the Eagle gold coins still providing good returns according to the museum guide. 

The gold mines in Dahlonega are closed today. The town is now famous for orchards, wine tasting, and the University of North Georgia. 

For a pleasant outing about an hour outside Atlanta, Dahlonega (Georgia) has history, culture, and food that will appeal to visitors from Western United States as well as the Eastern Seaboard. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking is $1.99 on Kindle today by Ruth Paget

Dupree and Gaubert’s Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking is on sale today for $1.99 on Kindle.

It has 600 recipes and is 1,954 pages long.

I own this book and use it for reference.  

I think this is a great buy for Kindle owners.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Rustic Spanish Cookbook - 322 pages -on Kindle today by Ruth Paget

Rustic Spanish Cookbook by Richardson from the Willams-Sonoma collection is $1.99 on Kindle today.

It is 322 pages long, which I consider a great buy for the money.

If you do not have a Spanish restaurant in your neighborhood, making Spanish food at home is a way to learn about the country and make a family meal at the same time. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France