The Bread I'm Baking Now

Ever wanted to make those soft long french bread loaves with a tender crust that you buy fresh from the grocery store bakery in your own kitchen?

Me too.

A while back I finally found a recipe that delivered on its promise to make just that sort of bread, which isn't traditional french bread at all (that having a texture more similar to the artisan bread that I've posted here before). It conforms to my requirement that any bread that I'm going to make on a regular basis needs to be unfussy and not require kneading or a great amount of my time.

I've been making it for a while now (months? a year?) and it's so easy I've not bought *bread since!

*for myself or dinners. My husband has a particular sliced wheat bread he likes for toast and sandwiches so I have bought bread, but it merely exists in my kitchen and I ignore it. 

If I get this started at 3pm, I can have a loaf of fresh bread on the table by 5 or 5:30p. It mades two loaves - one for now and one for later. It freezes well if you wrap in saran wrap and foil. I try to keep a loaf in the fridge so I can easily make homemade croutons or bread crumbs. I love this bread for buttered toast, dipping in oil, hot roast beef sub-type sandwiches, and garlic bread.

Other notes: 
Because it can be hard to find yeast and I'm not sure how long it will be until I can buy a new container, I've been reducing my yeast in this recipe to ~2 teaspoons. It's been turning out just fine, although the initial rise to double the dough may take a little longer than 45 min.

Yes, use the sugar. It's food for the yeast and will help get a faster rise and make the texture of your loaf what you want. Not using sugar in some of your bread recipes is like making your cat vegan. Please be a little flexible for whatever food rules you have. Sugar used in this way isn't "added sugar" in your food, it's food for the yeast so the microbial and fermentation magic can happen.

Yes, just use regular flour. The place on the internet where I got this recipe (which I have lost over the months as I've been using a few lines of pen jotted on a piece of paper shoved in my recipe binder to make this bread) used a bunch of different flours and combinations of flours and concluded that all-purpose really did the best job. I have zero complaints about the texture of this bread, so I've never been tempted to try any other flours.

If your loaf isn't going to get eaten in 24-48 hours consider putting in a ziplock in the fridge. Like all homemade bread it goes stale and gets moldy quicker than store-bought bread on the counter and I find it stays soft and edible for a week in the fridge. I've stored a whole or half loaf in the freezer for a couple of weeks. Always find myself with a need for bread at that point so haven't tried longer.

I'm changing up the format of how I write my recipes. I've found I prefer the Joy of Cooking format because I don't have to keep darting between the quantities of ingredients and where to use them. I understand that some people want a list of the ingredients up front so they can decide whether they have what they need in the pantry, so this is my compromise.

Let's git 'er done: 

Mix together in a small bowl:
2 1/4c. lukewarm water (slightly warm to the touch, don't kill your yeast!),
1 Tablespoons yeast, or one packet, and
2 Tablespoons sugar
Set aside for 10 min while you mix your dry ingredients.

In in a large bowl or mixer bowl, combine together:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons oil (I like olive oil), and
1 Tablespoon salt (I use Diamond Flake. You may have to adjust quantity down if using other forms of salt).
Add the liquid ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or paddle attachment of your mixer (you won't need a dough hook for this recipe. I promise).
Add an additional 2-3 cups of flour until the dough comes away from the side of the bowl and isn't terribly sticky also holds its shape in a ball reasonably well. This is a soft dough that is less sticky than artisan bread, but softer than the bread you've been kneading and sweating over. My stand mixer doesn't have a problem mixing this dough with the paddle on a medium speed.

Add some oil to the side of the bowl and let dribble to the bottom. Make the dough round-ish and then turn, coat with oil, cover with saran wrap and let rise until doubled, about 45 min.

After the rise, punch dough down and then dump onto the counter that has either been oiled or floured. Cut into two equal pieces.

Shape each piece into a large rectangle just smaller than a half sheet baking pan (something in the range of 12'-14' by 8') and then starting on the long side, roll the dough away from you, pinching the seam and tucking the ends under. What you have is a piece of dough that resembles a familiar french loaf once it rises a bit.

Either use a bit of cornmeal on the bottom of a baking sheet or line with parchment paper. Both loaves will fit on a single baking sheet. Cover with that piece of saran wrap and let rise for another 45 min. About 30 min into the rise preheat the oven to 375F with one rack on the upper third of the oven and another on the bottom. Slash with a sharp knife or use scissors to make cuts in the top of the loaves (you know, the ones you see in the supermarket bread. It's not rocket science). Whisk an egg white with a tablespoon of water and brush onto the top of the loaves. (I've also left this step out when I was low on eggs, or used cream instead. While the tops were not as shiny, the loaves cooked and tasted just fine)

When ready, put sheet on the top rack of the oven. Carefully pour boiling water into a dish on the bottom rack and quickly shut the door. This sounds way more difficult than it is. I use a throw away foil baking pan for this step, boil water in an electric kettle, put the bread sheet in, and then pour the water into the foil pan and shut the door.

Loaves will be done in 20-30 min. If the tops look golden it's worth it to peek underneath the loaf to make sure the bottoms are browned as well. I find that when I pull  the loaves out of the oven, however brown I thought the top was, it reverses in color one shade during the cooling process.

Try to wait until the bread is cooled before slicing. The crumb will thank you.

Variations
Last weekend when I made two loaves, I used some cinnamon and sugar, raisins, and walnuts on the rectangle of dough before rolling it up for the second rise. It was absolutely delicious.

One last word

If you are looking for a bread recipe that requires less yeast (1/2 tsp of yeast for the whole thing!), you have more time (no kneading required but an overnight rise is) and like foccacia bread as an alternative for sliced bread, check out Samin Nosrat's focaccia bread. I haven't made it enough times to post here as a stand alone recipe, but it's the other "bread" I'm making nowadays. Go grab the recipe from The Kitchn (https://www.thekitchn.com/samin-nosrat-salt-fat-acid-heat-ligurian-focaccia-22949343), and then watch this video (yes, it's totally worth watching the whole thing and not just relying on the written recipe). One note - the recipe makes a big deal of cooking on top of a stone and then moving the pan up to the top of the oven to brown. I've found that isn't necessary in my oven depending on the sheet pan I'm using. No stone required, no moving the sheet required in my experience. Samin also skips over this step in the video so I think it's probably not needed in most circumstances. I've found that the recipe, when used with the video, is very straight forward, HOWEVER, be careful with the finishing salt you sprinkle over. Add just enough for texture and salty bursts...but it is REALLY easy to get the bread over salted in this last finishing touch 😬.

Pictured: Focaccia sliced down the middle for a breakfast sandwich. The next day I made the same sandwich, but served it open faced and covered it with bacon gravy. Mmmmmm......

Spicy Korean Pork and Rice Cakes

Like most recipes that start off as Blue Apron meals, when this one showed promise as a keeper I made some modifications to it to suit my family's tastes and the ingredients that I can find in my local grocery stores (with perhaps one exception, but I'll get to that).

This recipe was the first time I had cooked baby bok choy at home, and it's quickly become one of my favorite vegetables for pan satueeing. It's not bitter, has a wonderful texture (not stringy!), and looks pretty.

Korean rice cakes may be something you haven't seen before in your grocery store. The closest store that carries them in my area is an hour away, but fortunately a local friend had picked some up last time she was there and graciously gave me a bag. I've also seen them on Amazon. If you don't have them, the best substitute I can think of is to serve the dish over a bed of rice.

The addition of creme fraiche (or the substitute) may seem a little weird in this dish, but it does a great job of bringing the sauce together. It's a technique that I see Blue Apron use a lot, and it works. It really elevates the dish to another level. The sauce clings to the meat and vegetables and gives it a smoothness on your tongue it won't otherwise have.

What you'll need

1 lb ground pork
1 package rice cakes (~13-14 ounces)
2 bok choy heads, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp Creme Fraiche (can substitute 1:1 sour cream:cream cheese, or leave out)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 inch fresh ginger minced, or substitute ground ginger or 5 spice seasoning to taste
1 Tbsp soy glaze or 2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp gochujang (or 2-3 Tbsp "asian garlic chili sauce" or sirracha) to taste
*1/4 cup savory black bean-chile sauce
Sesame seeds and/or chives for garnish

*If you don't have this sauce, I've used hoisin sauce instead and it works very well! The dish ends up sweeter and it's not hte same flavor profile, but it still works! The hoisin/chili/soy sauce is a combination my family loves and I'm quick to substitute it as needed in recipes.

Git 'er Done

Boil salted water (like you would do for pasta) for the rice cakes. When it's at a roiling boil, add the cakes and cook until tender, drain well.

Combine glaze with 1/2 c. water (or soy sauce and 1/4 c. water), black bean sauce (or hoisin), and chili sauce in a small bowl.

Cook the pork in a skillet until browned and cooked through.

Add the white parts (stems) of the bok choy stems, garlic, and ginger. Cook until bok choy is slightly soft.

Check your water. Is it boiling yet? Add your rice cakes to boiling water, cook 2-3 minutes until tender.

Add sauce and green parts of bok choy to the skillet. Turn the heat down and stir to combine and heat through. Taste and adjust the sauce to taste.

Add the cooked rice cakes to the pan and stir to combine. Remove from heat. Add the creme fraiche (or substitute) and stir until blended.

Garnish with sesame seeds and/or chives.

Notes
You do NOT want to overcook the rice cakes or let them sit there congealing as the rest of your dish is cooking. For me, starting the water boiling as I'm washing and chopping bok choy, and have the pork browning in the skillet is about right.

Easy egg breakfast

I guess if I was being fancy I could call them "crustless quiches", but then you might think they were more effort to make than they actually are, and skip over this so-easy recipe, and miss out.


Pictured: Purple onion, spinach, and cheddar cheese egg cups hot from the oven

Everyone who sees my little egg muffins has the same question - are eggs edible after you freeze them, and then microwave them? ABSOLUTELY. There are whole freezer aisles that are devoted to this exact truth. Are they as good as fresh out of the oven? No. If you use a toaster oven instead of a microwave to reheat are they better? Yes. Does the microwave do a perfectly adequate job? YES. From fridge or freezer, I can pop these babies in the microwave and have a hot yummy breakfast in minutes, as I juggle getting myself and a toddler ready for the day and out the door.

The thanks for this recipe/concept goes to my sister in law Ardella who gave me a whole platter of these things after I gave birth to my daughter. They were the perfect snack in the first couple weeks, as I got hungry at all times of the day and night but wanted REAL food, not some sort of processed junk.


Pictured: cold egg cups (see how the middles sink in after they cool?) ready to heat and heat. The one on the right has been cut so you can see the chunk of ricotta cheese! This on is a spinach, bacon, and ricotta cheese variation.


What you need

• About a dozen eggs
• Splash of milk into the scrambled egg mixture, just for luck
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Fillings/add-ins. Reserve them in a separate bowl, do NOT add to scrambled egg mixture. 

How to get 'er done

• Preheat oven to 350*F
• Pour equal amounts of egg into a GREASED (I use spray) nonstick muffin tin (or use foil liners)
• Add fillings to each tin.
• Cook until centers are set. This is usually about 18-20 minutes.

Fillings

I find that the magic combination is 1 vegetable, 1 cheese, and 1 meat. There's a reason that most frozen egg products have a very tasty flavorful meat added in like bacon or sausage - it helps compensate for the slight hit of flavor and texture that the egg takes when subjected to the freezer and microwave. If you will be serving these fresh, you will have more lee-way. However, I still think that choosing an average of 3 filling add-ins is about perfect. Here's some of my favorite combinations: 

• 1/2 slice of bacon, a couple fresh spinach leaves, chunk or shredded cheddar cheese
• spoon of ricotta cheese, fresh sage leaves cut up, bacon
• smoked salmon, capers, spoon of ricotta cheese
• sauteed zuchinni, mozzerrella, olives
• Canned green chilis, chipotle hot sauce, cheddar cheese, minced purple onion
• sausage, shredded carrot, swiss cheese cube

Pictured: a pan of onion, spinach, and cheddar cheese egg cups ready to go into the oven. These cooked down in the cups pictured at the beginning of this post. Without the meat add-in, I used a little Penzey's sandwich sprinkle on top to make sure these had a good seasoned flavor. 

Making Ahead

The egg muffins reheat well from fridge or freezer with a couple minutes in the microwave. For a really stellar result, allow to thaw in fridge overnight and reheat in a toaster oven.

Hints

• Eggs like to stick, so make sure the non-stick coating on your muffin pan is in very good shape in addition to oiling the cups, or use foil muffin cup liners. I think the key to good muffins is to NOT add the fillings to the egg mixture. Instead, add it individually to the muffins tins AFTER you pour the egg mixture.
• I find that about 1 egg per muffin tin is perfect. I use 12 eggs for my 12 muffin tin pan. Scramble in a bowl. If you are going to add a LOT of "other" fillings to your muffins, reduce to 10 eggs for a 12 tin pan.
• If you are not using a seasoned meat for one of you fillings, consider seasoning your egg muffins more heavily. 

Pasta Fagioli

Pasta "fazool" is my husband's favorite Olive Garden soup. Always looking to expand my very meager homemade soup options, I offered to try and replicate it at home. The result was a soup that even I, a non-soup sort of person, could get excited about. Easy enough to make after work for dinner, good enough to eat for left overs, and I've heard it freezes well (but I've never personally gotten to freeze it, since in this household between lunches and dinners it's gobbled up within just a few days).

For those of you that haven't had it before and need an idea of what this is going to look and taste like (since apparently unless you are a pro food photographer, soup is never ever going to look good in a photo), it's a tomato and broth based soup that is built on mire pox, with the ground meat, beans, pasta, and vegetables all in such a perfect balance so that it is impossible to decide which is the dominant element.


What you need

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound italian sausage (I find that substituting sausage for all or part of ground meat in many of my recipes gives a more flavorful result and it's not as hard to get a good finished well-seasoned flavor in the end.)
• 2 carrots, small diced 
• 3 celery sticks, small diced
• 1 medium onioin, small diced
• 2 gloves of garlic, minced
• 2-14 oz cans tomato sauce
• 1-14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 2-14 oz cans chicken broth
• Either an addition 14 oz can of tomato sauce OR chicken broth, depending on taste. I prefer to use an extra can of broth to lighten the soup a tad. 
• 1-14 oz can kidney beans
• 1-14 oz can small white beans
• 1 cup of small noodles - I like to use the ditalini pasta type. 
• Fresh Parsley - chopped, small handful or about 3 tablespoons
• Dried italian herbs to taste - like oregano, majoram, or penzey's sandwich sprinkle. If you use the italian sausage for all or part of your meat the exact seasoning you do will be less critical. 
• Optional - 1/2 c. of water to thin the soup

How to get 'er done

• Choose a bigger pot than you think you will need
• Cook the meat, and then remove meat.
• Cook the carrot/celery/onion until soft. About 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. 
• Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, and herbs. Simmer for a minimum of 15 minutes. In the meantime cook the pasta in a separate pot, and then drain. 
• Add the meat, pasta, beans and heat through. 
• Add the parsley just before serving. 

Hints and Notes

My version is a touch heavier on the meat than it needs to be because my husband likes it that way. I think you could eliminate about 1/2 the meat and still have it be very tasty.

Especially if you want to get this soup cooked and served quickly, cutting your vegetables small is the key. They will actually cook and be soft after sauteeing and minimum simmering. If you are vegetable adverse like my husband, consider shredding the carrots so that they are invisible as possible - but they still add to the mire pox base flavor. Don't leave them out! So far just cutting them up into very small cubes and making sure they are absolutely not crunchy works. The soup's flavor improves when kept in the fridge overnight, and he no longer noticed the carrots after it sat. This soup would probably gain that extra flavor without having to sit in the fridge if I planned ahead simmered it for much longer, or used a pressure cooker, or used a crock pot......but honestly I think the flavor is perfectly adequate the first day without a long simmer, and I'm a keep it simple person.

Joelle's Wilted Kale and Roasted-Potato Winter Salad

This hearty dish is more of a filling side dish, or could even serve as a main dish, rather than what I think of as a "salad". When one of my best friends in vet school gave me this recipe I did not consider kale edible, and I wasn't sure what tahini was. Now, I keep a container of tahini in the fridge just so I can make this recipe on a whim, and it remains the best lemon-tahini dressing I've ever had.

I have done some variations - substitute roasted broccoli for kale, or make it without cheese or substitute cheddar, or substitute roasted cauliflower for potatoes. They are all good, but in my mind the original remains the best.

Pictured: The time I made it with broccoli instead of kale, and with cheddar cheese :). There may even be some way-ward purple onions in with the potatoes!!!! 

Joelle's Wilted Kale and Roasted-Potato Winter Salad

Makes 4-6 servings depending on how whether you actually know the weight of your produce that is being used (I don't usually), and whether you are serving as a main or side course. 

What you need: 

• 2 pounds yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces 
• 1/3 cup olive oil OR a drizzle (see notes and hints below) 
• 4 garlic cloves - 3 thinly sliced and 1 minced 
• 1/3 c. grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 1/4 c. well-stirred tahini 
• 2 tablespoons of water
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice  
• 3/4 pounds kale, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves very thinly sliced crosswise 

How to get 'er done:

• Preheat the oven to 450*F
• Toss potatoes with oil - I use a drizzle of oil instead of measuring 1/3 cup. Season to taste with salt and pepper and spread evenly on a cookie sheet or other large pan. I recommend using parchment paper to keep them from sticking. Roast about 10 minutes, then stir in 3 sliced garlic cloves, and roast for about 10 minutes. The potatoes should almost be done at this point. Sprinkle with cheese and roast until cheese is melted and golden in spots, about 5 more minutes. 
• While the potatoes are roasting, make the dressing. Because of the small amount of dressing, and because it tends to thicken, I find it hard to get it out of a blender. I prefer to use a small whisk in a large bowl and give my arm a bit of a work out. However you choose to do it -  puree tahini, water, lemon juice, minced garlic, and 1/2 tsp of salt until smooth. Add more water if it's too thick. This dressing tends to thicken up as it sits, you will probably need to add a little more water than you think. 
• Dump the potatoes in a large serving dish including any garlic and oil in the pan, once they are done. Add the kale and the tahini sauce and toss. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Making Ahead

I've frozen individual portions of this "salad" and let thaw in the fridge with good results, as long as I use a "sturdy" vegetable like broccoli, or don't mind the kale getting a little soft. If you substitute vegetables such as spinach for the kale, I don't think it would freeze well. I prefer this salad hot so I warm leftovers in the microwave.

Hints and Notes

• Yes, yukon gold potato texture is best for this dish. I think 2 pounds is about 4-5 medium sized yukon golds. I usually cut up potatoes until I have an even single layer on a cookie sheet for roasting,
• Especially if you are using cheese, this makes everything REALLY greasy IMO. So, my advice would be to "use a drizzle" as described in method section.
• I almost always use pre-prepared garlic and use whatever I have in the fridge - usually minced - and don't worry about slices or preparing cloves in different manners. 
• I prefer the shredded Parmigiano cheese. I've also made this dish without cheese and it still tastes great if you want to do this dairy free.
• Tahini separates and thick in the fridge, where it should be stored after opening. Leaving it out on the counter for an hour or two before you use it will help make it easier to stir and use.
• 3 tablespoons of lemon juice is about 1 lemon's worth. If you want to serve with lemon wedges (I usually don't), then have another lemon available.
• I consider 3/4 pound of kale = the bunch of kale that is sold twisty-tied together at the grocery store. There is a trick to getting the stems/center rib separated from the leaves. Hold the stem with one hand, and then place the thumb and forefinger of your other hand on either side of stem, where the leaves attach and then draw the stem away in a smooth motion, while strippping the leaves from the stem with your thumb/forefinger. If the stem breaks, repeat the motion until the entire leaf has been stripped). 

Grandma's Persimmon Cookies

These are a different kind of cookie than what I've posted before. Somewhere between a cookie and a spice bread with a fluffy crumb interior but enough sugar to get a caramelized crispy edges.

 I grew up with frozen persimmons in the freezer ready to be thawed just for these cookies. I didn't know until I was an adult that there are two types of persimmons - firm flat ones that you can eat like an apple fresh, and the ones with the "pointy" bottoms that are used for cooking and cookies when they are incredible soft and squishy. 


How soft should your persimmons be? Soft enough that the pulp slips from the skin with very little encouragement and plops into the bowl below.


The recipe notes that the "Grandma" was my Great-Grandma Giva.

What you need

1 cup persimmon pulp
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup nutmeats (typically I use walnuts)
1 cup raisins (I think dried cranberries would be good too)
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves (optional, says the original recipe - but I why I can't fathom!)

Git 'er Done

Preheat the oven 375 degrees

Into that lovely bowl of persimmon pulp, mix in the baking soda.

Like a typical cookie recipe, cream butter and sugar, then add the egg and mix.

UNLIKE a typical cookie recipe, add the nutmeats and raisins at this point and mix.

Mix together the remaining dry ingredients and then add to the creamed mixture, stirring in.

Add the persimmon-soda mix. Surprise! It's like jelly now! Mix until blended.


Drop batter onto ungreased cookie sheet in large spoonfuls and then (VERY IMPORTANT), spread cookies out to flat cookie shaped objects with a fork. If you don't do this, you will end up with tall, dense cookies you have no one but yourself to blame for.


"Bake until cookies are golden brown, with fairly dark edges".

The original recipe doesn't give a baking time. Unlike the other cookie recipes I've posted here there's lots of lee-way on the cookie time. They don't overbrown and burn if cooked 1 minute too long. In fact, I cooked one batch of cookies for ummmm...30 or 40 minutes. Completely forgot about them. Took them out and they were BROWN. As the cookies sit they soften up and they were perfectly edible and delicious - better than the batch that was barely brown at ~15 minutes. I think a good range is 20-25 minutes, check them at 15 minutes.

• Do NOT take them out too early
• Error on the side of more brown
• Let them sit and cool and soften before making judgements
• Don't throw out "burnt" cookies without letting them have a chance. 

On the left is a 15 min baked cookie. On the right is a...ummm..30 or 40 or 45 min baked cookie. Something in between is your goal! You want the edges brown like the right hand cookies, but the middle will be closer to the left hand cookie.

What about freezing? Because they have to be mashed flat, they don't lend themselves to being rolled into balls and freezing, then they have to be pretty thawed to flatten out. My solution has been to freeze them in flat "sheets" in quart size ziplocks at approximately the thickness of the cookies. To bake, I cut the ziplock off my cookie dough slab and then break into pieces and put on a cookie sheet.

Kitchen Sink Fried Rice

I have a couple of "kitchen sink" recipes - the versatile recipes that I can throw left over vegetables +/- meat into at the end of the week so that nothing goes to waste. The fried rice is perfect for this.

Before making my own at home, I wasn't a fried rice fan. I never ate it in restaurant and it never dawned on me that it would be something I would be interested in actually making or eating. The color was off putting (why was it brown?), the name horrifying (frying something that was already a simple carb?), and the vegetables and meat unimpressive (what was that speck of orange and green?).

Simply recipe's dish looked so simple and straight forward I gave it a try.  (also and I saw that the color was from soy sauce, and it wasn't fried as much as sauteed). The first time I made it I used left over chicken, and stuck closely to recipe. After that the field was wide open and I've made several variations - all of them good. I can stuff almost any left over vegetable into this recipe which is probably why I've made this weekly since I discovered the recipe.

What you need

• Some meat. Or none. A vegetarian option works here too. SR suggests 8 ounces of shrimp. I suggest you use whatever is in your fridge. Last night I used boneless skinless frozen thighs cut into generous chunks. 
• Cornstarch
• Black pepper and salt
• Oil with high smoke point (not olive oil)
• 3 beaten eggs
• Other vegetables cut into bite sized chunks - such as broccoli, bok choy, celery, etc. 
• An onion of some sort - green onion or regular yellow onion. I usually have both left over from the week and I prefer to use the green onion.
• About 4 cups of left over rice. It fries better if it's a day old and slightly dried out. 
• About 1 cup frozen or canned peas and carrot mix. I abhore carrots and peas, but use them here because it makes the dish look like fried rice, gives it color, and I can't taste them in it. 
• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil (optional)

How to Git 'er done

Lightly coat the meat with cornstarch (a teaspoon or two) and season with pepper and salt to taste. 

Heat some oil in a skillet until HOT. This is the theme of this recipe. You want to cook stuff HOT. 

Put the meat into the hot skillet in a single layer. Don't stir too much if you want a nice brown crust. Flip and stir as necessary until cooked. Remove from skillet. 

Add eggs and cook. Remove from skillet. If I don't have meat+cornstartch in the recipe I'll add a little cornstarch to the eggs after they are cooked. 

Cook other optional veggies (besides onion). Most of them just need a good sautee in the pan. Some like broccoli need to be sauteed, and then have some water added to the pan and cooked for a bit longer until they are tender enough. Remove from skillet. 

Add green or yellow onion. Sautee. Add rice and mix. Press the rice into a sheet across the bottom of the skillet and WAIT. The rice should be SIZZZLING. Yes, that is sizzzling with 3 "z's". If it wasn't, your skillet wasn't hot enough. 

Boo hoo. However, it will still work. It just might not be brown and chewy - instead it will be closer to what you are served in restaurants that they call fried rice.  

Flip the rice and let it brown on the other side. 

When your rice has been fried (or your patience run out) sprinkle soy sauce over the rice to taste and mix. add back in all the other ingredients and heat through until HOT. Finally, add seasame oil - just a bit - according to taste.

~Adapted from Simply Recipes (simplyrecipes.com)