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| Ree Drummond's Orange Chicken |
Ree Drummond is a ranch wife, writer, photographer, and obviously a great cook. Her teen daughters love Chinese take-out, unfortunately they live to far from any restaurant. Ree figured out how to make her daughter's favorites: orange chicken and beef with broccoli.
The closest restaurant to me is thirty minutes. My choices there are: McDonalds, Big Boy, yeah, nothing fancy. To get to a nicer restaurant hubby and I have to travel one hour. I find myself in the same boat as Ree. If only I could cook as well as she does.
*Chefs take much less time to cook a meal than a novice like me. The forty minute chicken took me two hours. Gack! I know!! It's that perfection thing going on in me.
I decided to make the orange chicken for my guests who were coming for lunch the next week. To make sure I had a handle on the process I made the dish on Saturday for my family. They totally loved the taste. Yeah, success!
I want to share with you what happened during one particular step in making this oriental dish. I needed to heat the oil to 350 degrees. After watching her video, I realized this temperature could easily give me a good burn. I kept a screen over the pot to prevent any drops of oil from wanting to escape.
When the thermometer reached 250 degrees, the oil spared no expense to remind me this was a very hot temperature. I slid the screen back on top of the pot immediately after taking this photo.At 293 degrees the oil continued to froth and demonstrate the high heat.
Even though I have a gas stove, it seemed to take forever for the oil to reach 350 degrees.
As I waited, I guessed the oil would continue to increase bubbling, swirling, popping, etc. I kept a safe distance with potholder in hand not knowing how violent the oil would get!
To my surprise as the temperature neared 350 degrees the oiled seemed to calm, giving a deceptive appearance of being cool.
The brown residue is from cooking the first set of chicken pieces.
The oil response to the higher temperature became a mystery.
I began to wonder if this is how we appear when we get angry. The people around us can see us lose our cool at first. But minutes, hours, days later, when we allow ourselves to become consumed with our anger others can't tell. We appear to be content but aren't. We give the illusion that everything is fine when inside it really isn't.
The detriment, of course is when one simple word or action reminds us of our anger and sends us into an uncontrolled response.
No matter how others have wronged us, we need to seek God's help right away. Ask Him to give you exactly what you need to calm your heart and help you forgive the other person.
When another word is added and rekindles the heat, run to God and ask Him again to give you exactly what yo need to calm your heart and help you forgive the other person.
Repeat as often as needed. Even years later. Only God knows you well enough to provide the calm you need. God can calm a storm. He can also calm your heart.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/beef-with-broccoli.html
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