Chinese – making our fortune…cookies
I was reading the Y-2K Hippie blog last week and saw they had posted a recipe for fortune cookies. I love Chinese food but am usually not brave enough to eat it at a Chinese restaurant. That leaves us with typically not eating Chinese…but the homemade fortune cookies seemed like a really cool idea so we decided to make some and along with a Chinese entree. I cut come strips of paper and asked the kids to write some fortunes. Being young and inexperienced at it, they quickly ran out of wisdom to impart.
I said, “just write anything, draw a picture…just fill out all the papers.” Well, they made up in ink what they lacked in content. Isaac drew all sorts of epic battles on his half-inch wide sheets. Abigail wrote things like, “dog, dog, cat, cat, Dad, Dad, Mom, Mom”. Oh, the fortunes we’re great fun. They were certainly cryptic which made them feel more fortune-like. Anyhow, we mixed up the recipe :
Fortune Cookies
1 cup Margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 1/4 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
I kneaded it some and then rolled it out thin (though not thin enough….it needs to be really thin). We cut circles with our biscuit cutter, added the fortunes, then folded the circles in half, then in half again. We baked at 425 for 10 min….and then 5 minutes more.
Ok, the most important part was done. We also stir-fried some beef and broccoli with a seasoning packet we bought at the store. Based on the fact that we had to add soy sauce and some other stuff, I am pretty sure we just bought a packet of corn starch with Chinese lettering. As we cooked, Mohinder our cat bravely wandered into the kitchen. He made a lot of racket and never realized the fate he could have met.
Anyhow, Emily and I stirred and tended the stuff with bamboo cookware (just to be authentic – plus, it is all we have) and bowed to each other a lot (apologies to all my Asian friends for all of the terrible cliches and inaccuracies).
It was a lot of fun! Anyhow, it cooked up great along with some delicious fried rice. We plowed through every bit of what we cooked as well as a plate full of cupcakes the kids and their Momaw decorated. Our fortunes were interesting, but I am sure I found my real fortune in good food and good times!
“I’m pretty sure we bought s packet of corn starch with chinese lettering on it” Priceless!!
Stir fries are big here too. Although I usually do eggrolls instead of cookies….toether we’d almost have a decent meal, eh? (Although we’d have to draw straws to see who’s cat is the star of the meal! 
This looks like fun – we love Chineese, but no one is brave enough but me to eat it in a restaurant!
Very cool! I love that the kids wrote their own fortunes!
Goodness, I can’t wait to do stuff like this with our kids!!!
Blessings!
Lacy
Wow, your dinner looks great! Too bad I live so far away I would have stopped in for some.
I rolled out my cookies thick too. I still liked the taste of them and the kids had a blast making them.
I just love your blog.
Dora Renee’ Wilkerson
Your post made me LOL!!!
What do you mean you are not brave enough to eat in a Chinese restaurant?
You should try making your own wontons and egg rolls next time. I think your children would have a fun time making those as well.
What a cool thing for the family to do!
I totally get the not being brave enough to eat in a Chinese restaurant. To quote a song from a cartoon that didn’t last (but I loved) called “The Bugitos”: “Cats! Can’t beat ‘em. Cats! Please don’t eat ‘em. Better than a fur purse full of nails.”
PS: I laughed out loud at your tagline about the air being cleaner in WV in light of my post today and our shared hate of the smells that waft from the local poo plant.
Oh my goodness! I love chinese, I will definetly have to try the fortune cookie thing. That would be so much fun for the kids. Everything looks so good!
I LOVE their fortunes! Totally marketable, I think!
My kids have stomachs made of steel since we’ve gotten them to eat all kinds of weird things from the ends of the earth, not to mention the vast amount of dirt they have eaten naturally. Even so, Mayla threw up once after eating at our only local Chinese restaurant and each time we pass it, even though that was over a year ago, she announces loudly, “There’s the place that made me sick!” I cannot convince her that the stomach flu really was going around, even though I really think that’s what it was!
After reading Lynnie’s comment I just had to mention that my hubby is the same way as her daughter. He ate at a Mexican restaurant once and was sick afterwards and now I cannot convince him to try another Mexican restaurant.
Lynnie and YD, I have not eaten spaghetti since 1996…for the same reason! We really did have a lot of fun even though the kids grew less enthusiastic as time went on…they were tired of my slave-dring them to write more fortunes. Still , it was fun for me, and afterall, that’s what counts!
Where do you find all of this time you seem to have?!?! Please, if there is a trick….let me know!
N-E-Ways…..once again, you guys ROCK!
No way! No spaghetti??? You don’t know what you are missing.
Now is it just spaghetti or all kinds of pasta?
MM – we basically don’t watch TV. Getting rid of that frees up all sorts of time. We do stuff with the kids until they go to bed usually around 8:30. After that we have 2-3 hours to do whatever we want. We just do other stuff that interests us. Sometimes we read or web surf or build something, cook, etc. It has allowed me a lot of room to massage my curiosity.
YD – I am shaky on all pasta but will eat lasagne or beef stroganoff, things like that with noodles. But definitely no spaghetti! Lasagne is not much different than spag. but it’s just enough to make it ok!
I love that you all made your own fortune cookies – what a great idea. The “messages” your kids wrote absolutely cracked me up!
mmmmm, Sounds soo yummy! We enjoy chinese very much around here. My husband enjoyed your vibrobot, tehe. I bet your kids enjoyed it as well.
We did have a lot of fun doing the fortune cookies. We made stir fry again the next night. I really need a big wok to properly overdo the stirfry…we’ll see about that!