Comal County Fair

Today was fair day. There is something really special about living in a small town. New Braunfels has about 50,000 including county and it is considered small. The county fair is really special. It is a time when families are out together, enjoying the competition with their animals and riding the ferris wheel. Our fair is about 50 years old. It has become a family tradition to enter your prized animal in competion. We have a large FFA and 4-H population. I wish I could have captured the look of pride on young handlers in the ring with their goat. It was really inspiring. On the other hand, the look on their face when they were eliminated was humbling. Learn more about Comal County Fair here: http://www.comalcountyfair.org/

Did I mention the Asian food prepared yesterday? I cannot name it Korean, Chinese nor Taiwanese because I used a combination of all those things. It all started with Bok Choy being on sale at the grocery. Well, then I saw the snow peas and fresh green beans....I already had rice noodles. So, before leaving the store, I picked up thin cuts of pork loin.

Advice when cooking Asian: have all your veggies cut about the same size and have them ready before heating up the wok. Use clean oil...meaning fresh. I use canola oil but any clear oil will do. Do not use lard or Crisco for stir fry. Just use enough to oil the wok. Swirl it around a bit and heat it to almost smoking. Put the meat in first and stir and turn until done. Remove from the wok. Then place whatever veggies will take the longest to cook. For me that was carrots, onions, green onions and snow peas. Keep the heat high. When those are almost tender put in the bok choy and I also put in some mung bean sprouts. Now, here is the good part. I put in one tablespoon chile garlic sauce. http://www.huyfong.com/ That adds a nice kick. Final addition are the rice noodles which have soaked in hot water and drained. I then added a bit of seseme oil and some sherry. I brought it back up to sizzling, covered for about 2 minutes and done!Well, this dish gave us 3 meals! I love leftovers! This meal was low in fat but high in protein. Next time, I will add tofu instead of pork and see how that goes.