My mother was a lousy cook.  It’s a fact.  Lovely woman, lousy cook.

But there were a few dishes that she excelled at and I found her recipe and made one of them –

Chop Suey.

OMG I love chop suey.  And it’s a real Michigan kind of dish.  It is so popular here that you can go to the supermarket and buy “chop suey meat”. 

Really!

Okay, it’s just cut up pork, but the label says “chop suey meat”.  And that makes me happy.

It’s one of the few meals my mom made that wasn’t bereft of salt.  Probably the soy sauce counteracted her natural salt deficient cooking tendencies.  Whatever.  It is the height of comfort food for me.

Looking at the photo, I believe this may have been the origin of my belief that all Chinese food looks like it has already been eaten.

And it was just as yummy as I remembered.

½ # cubed pork
½ # cubed beef
1 C celery
1 C onions
1 C water
1 T sugar
4 T soy sauce
1 large can sliced mushrooms (drained)
1 small can sliced water chestnuts (drained)
2 C bean sprouts (drained)
½ # cooked rice

Fry meat in well greased pan till nearly done, add celery, onion, mushrooms, water chestnuts, water, sugar and soy sauce.  Cook for a few minutes (until vegetables are about half done), add bean sprouts.  Thicken slightly with corn starch.  Cook for 3 min.  Serve with hot rice.