Simple stir fry

Posted by on Jan 2, 2009 in Foodblogging | 4 comments

I twittered briefly about a fast, easy dinner I was making. Suddenly a whole bunch of people wanted to know how to make it too. Here’s how.

1. Make some spaghetti, enough for 1 person for a reasonable meal. Doesn’t matter what kind, just make sure it’s washed and cool/cold. Leftover plain spaghetti works best.

2. In a large frying pan, as large as you can have, put 1 diced onion, 5 diced stalks of celery, 4 tbsp oil, and salt to taste. Crank up the heat as high as it will go. Do NOT cover.

3. When the vegetables show signs of browning/burning a bit, pull the pan off and put the veggies in a very large bowl.

4. Put 2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp minced garlic in a pan. Melt the butter on low heat, then crank it to get the garlic to brown.

5. Throw the pasta in. Be careful of oil splatters.

6. Toss 2 tbsp soy sauce on the pasta after you throw it in. Toss quickly, then let sit on high, high heat for 3-5 minutes or until pasta browns.

7. Take pasta off heat and throw in the bowl.

8. Scramble an egg in the pan with the residual oil.

9. Throw the egg in the bowl.

10. Stir for a minute or two, and you have a stir fry!

The secret to a good stir fry is a large pan with surface area to spare and high, high heat. Don’t be shy – fire up the afterburner.

Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, please subscribe right now!

Get this and other great articles from the source at www.ChristopherSPenn.com

10 most recent blog posts of mine:

Subscribe to RSS headline updates from:
Powered by FeedBurner

New Year's Resolute

Posted by on Jan 1, 2009 in Awakening, Jedi mind tricks | 9 comments

A funny thing happens when a new year starts. For many of us, we craft these resolutions, these goals for the new year, as a way of making a fresh start to the year. Here’s a few tips to make those goals stick.

1. They have to be achievable.

2. They have to be measurable.

3. They have to be atomic. By this, I mean they have to have pieces and steps. It’s not enough say you want to lose 25 pounds – you want to lose a pound every week, or some granular measurement that tells you whether you’re on track or not.

But here’s the most important tip for new year’s resolutions – you have to be resolute about them, absolutely firm in your convictions about achieving them. Being resolute isn’t easy; it helps greatly to have two emotional driving forces to power it. You have to really, really, really want something that you can define in very concrete, emotional terms, and you have to really, really, really want to get away from something in the same kind of terms. Let’s look at some examples.

Bad resolution:

I want to lose weight this year.

Good resolution:

I want to lose 25 pounds this year.

Great resolution:

I want to lose 25 pounds this year at 3 pounds a month, or roughly one every couple of weeks.

Almost certainly going to happen resolution:

I want to lose 25 pounds this year at 3 pounds a month, or roughly one every couple of weeks so that I stop feeling ashamed of myself first thing in the morning in the mirror and so I can hang out with my athletic friends on Monday nights at the club and attract Samantha’s attention for a date.

See how each resolution gets more and more specific, with more and more concrete ways to measure your success and give you reasons to do it?

Do the same with your resolutions. One thing that seems to help a lot of people is to write a resolution down, perhaps on a sheet of paper or plank of wood, and carry it with you. Make sure your resolution has these emotional ties to it so that it’s there as almost a totem for when you stand the possibility of going seriously off track. If you can carry it around somehow, you should.

I wish you not only a happy new year, but a year filled with achievements and accomplishments. Thanks for being part of my life.

Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, please subscribe right now!

Get this and other great articles from the source at www.ChristopherSPenn.com

10 most recent blog posts of mine:

Subscribe to RSS headline updates from:
Powered by FeedBurner