Day 1 in becoming an excellent chef

Sooo about this New Year's Resolution...this is going to be the hardest one! But I'm going to hold myself to it. By 2010, I will be an EXCELLENT chef. So Monday night I stocked up my pantry, this afternoon I checked out Martin Yan's Invitation to Chinese Cooking from the local library. I even picked out a recipe 'Yang Chow Fried Rice', excited by the byline "You may want to call this dish 'ultimate fried rice'"...but then what?

My only option left was to dig in and cook it. Rule number 1 in cooking according to Mr. Yan is to organize your ingredients. Chop those vegetables! Make that seasoning! Dethaw that frozen chicken! Verify that yes you do have 2 large eggs in the fridge! Check, check, check and check.

So...I did it! I had to substitute a few ingredients, (trader joes frozen mixed vegetables for peas and carrots...chicken instead of shrimp, no bacon, no pork.).... I forgot to whisk my eggs. After about 5 phone calls to my dad asking how to use the rice cooker, I still managed to leave the rice cooker on for 2 hours due to my brilliant idea to forget my keys as I headed up to play some pick up basketball at the gym. But--the house was still there, Jaline let me in, and truthfully, my fried rice turned out pretty darn good, with lots of cooking lessons learned!

UPDATED 1/8/2009: I'm on day 2 of leftover fried rice for lunch, and I think it tastes even better...perhaps because its in my new little bento lunch box that I adore.