The Cooking Marathon: Recipes from Home

Seeing how its already been almost 3 quarters since I left home, I was surprised how hard homesickness hit me. My family is a American family with Filipino heritage, that means that family means food. Think about coming home from college, brings memories of the best home-cooked food. But why wait till you go home? Cooking is a cheap way save some meal points, especially now that its the end of the quarter. Let's start with Breakfast: Garlic-Fried Breakfast Rice.

The ingredients needed are pretty simple, but also depends on what you like in your rice. I chose Bacon and Eggs.

3 cups Rice
8 slices of Bacon
2 Eggs
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1/2 cup of cooked peas

First prepare the rice.

To prepare rice, you must first wash it. Simply pour water over the rice, swish it around, and pour the water out. Do this 3-4 times, until the water is clearer. Put the washed rice into a pot and cover with water. You can figure how much water you need by putting your finger to the top of the rice and top filling when the water reaches your first digit. Bring rice to a boil and keep it there for 5 minutes. Then let the rice simmer on low for another 10-15 minutes. Finally, take the pot off the heat and let the rice steam with the lid on for 3-5 minutes.

Use the time your rice takes to cook to prepare the fillings later

First take your breakfast protein and put it in the pan on medium-low. This allows you to render the fat from your protein. After about 3-4 minutes, you can turn up the heat, and take the meat out when its finished. Chop the garlic up, or mince it if you can.

Once the rice and meat are done, get ready, because the next steps will come really quickly. Turn the heat to medium and the chopped garlic. Only saute for 30 seconds, then add all of the rice to the pan. Quickly mix the rice and garlic to avoid burning the garlic. Turn up the heat stir the rice around. After mixing the rice, press it down into the pan. The goal is to make the rice a little crispy, but not burn it. Once that is accomplished, turn the heat back to medium and clear an area in the pan. Add the eggs to the clearing and scramble them. After that, add the soy sauce, peas, and protein to the rice and eggs, combining everything in the pan.

The result is a fusion of Chinese, Filipino, and American flavors that results in one of the greatest ways to start the day. When cooking this recipe make a lot, because people can smell it a mile away.