a fun giveaway, my spicy thai recipe...and a grand short-story about a table.

i did a little 'blog research' before beginning coffee and chocolate milk.

in doing this i came across a lovely little place called

'lola b's'.

it is the first blog that i have consistently checked back on, on a [semi] regular basis.

of course, i love it b/c she has shockingly similar tastes to mine, and i find a 'comfort' and 'joy' in the peaceful white backgrounds and 'flowy' cursive lettering.

isn't that what we love to see, though? someone who reflects in some way, pieces of ourselves, and allows us to see another facet of life lived beautifully?

any-who.

miss kasey is holding a giveaway and i wanted to share it w/you.

i also would like very much to win the A-mazing anthropologie picnic suite.....

click here to see what some of us are vying for!

[as a side-bar here, in the middle of writing this post my L came down with a fever and therefore the afore mentioned 'giveaway' has been closed for entry. i apologize for this and yet have chosen to keep my 'spiel' at the top of this post in order to allow you to 'take a gander' at this lovely blog and to ogle over just the sort of thing lola b's likes to give away...]

now. for my spicy thai recipe.

this recipe is a combination of two different recipes found in one of my dearest-to-my-heart cookbooks:

the healthy kitchen, recipes for a better body, life, and spirit; by andrew weil, m.d. and rosie daley.

this cookbook is incredible. it goes far beyond setting out recipe after recipe.

it takes you through everything from re-stocking your kitchen to make it more accustomed to 'natural' cuisine, to little blurbs about which wine is best, or how to correctly and best use what is in season, to the differences in preference of ingredients b/w the two authors.

recipe #1 is a peanut dipping sauce from a chicken satay dish (that i have yet to try, b/c i am so in LOVE w/the way these things here all mesh together so well)

i normally make this sauce sometime earlier in the day in a small saucepan and then place the lid on it and store it in the refrigerator to be heated up while recipe #2 is cooking (about 15-20 minutes prior to dinnertime, really, will suffice)

i also make only half of what the original recipe calls for and as always, edited a small amount of ingredients...

here is the halved recipe that i use:

saute 1/2 cup of onions and 1 clove of garlic in about 1 1/2 T sesame oil.

yum.

wait until garlic is golden brown in color (and smells amAzing).

add 1 cup natural chicken stock (it calls for vegetable, but i always use chicken), 1 T soy sauce, a 1/2 T sriracha hot sauce or chili flakes (i have used both and the difference is a non-issue here), a 1/2 T paprika, and 3/4 tsp ground cumin and whisk until blended.

toss in 1/2-1 T ground ginger (or a little more if you are using fresh. or less if you don't have it. i have found, in this recipe anyway, that the trivial amount of ginger or lack there of, is also a non-issue), 1/2 T honey, and 1/4 cup natural peanut butter.

[i ALWAYS use peanut butter and co.'s peanut butter w/honey (the bee's knees). it is irreplaceable as far as pb goes once you have tasted it!]

stir and simmer for about 10 min. until the sauce thickens.

sometimes it takes a little longer. you just don't want to burn it.

remove saute pan from heat and add 1/2 T parsley, 1 1/2 T chopped fresh green onions, and a little less that 1/2 T mint.

voila.

either keep it warm, if you are making right before dinner,

or refrigerate until closer to time.

recipe #2 is actually a recipe for slow-baked tofu with stir-fry, but i use chicken instead and often throw all of the ingredients in the crock-pot for an unbelievably yummy taste equal if not better to the version baked in the oven.

no. i'm going to have to rate the crock-pot version more tasty than the oven version.

okay, cutting the stir-fry part out completely, and changing the 16 oz. of tofu to about....1 1/2 lb. chicken (give or take a little), and editing the basic ingredients JUST a bit, here is what i do for the first 1/2 of this fabulous meal...

whisk together:

1 tsp sesame oil

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 T ground ginger (or more if using fresh...or less...again, it seems to be a moot point)

1 T dijon-style mustard

and 1T ground cumin

next, add chicken.

i have used both breast-meat and thighs-meat, both with the same yummy reviews!

throw chicken (with marinade) into either a crock-pot and let it cook for around 4-6 hours, or into a glass dish in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes (turn) and then another 20 minutes or more.

do you love these lackadaisical instructions? i do, i must say. watch your chicken and you will know when it is done. (=

WHILE THAT IS COOKING, boil about one half-dollar sized amount of either linguine noodles (my preference), or any spaghetti or asian style noodles that you have/decide upon.

drain them.

when all of the individual dishes are completed and ready, place the noodles and chicken in a [pretty] bowl.

and serve the peanut dipping sauce along-side for, with which everyone may cover their noodles and chicken to their discretion.

this will be very spicy.

and very, very, delicious!

[i love our table, an antique belonging first to my grandmother, then my mother, and now me. as the years went by, the top layer has chipped and peeled, and we decided to completely remove it and allow our beautiful children to cover it with their artwork; paintings, crayon drawings, letter-practicing. soon we will sand out the remaining rough patches, give them one last 'hoo-rah' at finishing their pieces, and seal it in with a clear coating.

to even greater sentimentalize the beauty of this treasure.]

with this recipe, for the kiddos, by the way, i actually make a non-spicy version of the peanut dipping sauce.

it is a simple mixture.

whisk in a saucepan on low heat:

a spoonful (or three) of peanut butter. again, i use peanut butter and co.'s pb w/honey.

a T (more or less) of honey

and a pinch or 2 of fresh, chopped green onions.

they LOVE it!

and A likes to throw sugar snap peas onto hers.

A likes to eat sugar snap peas w/anything.

this, i love. (=

and it truly does add a desirable crispness to this dish.

one more thing today.....

we had waffles for dinner a night or 2 ago (breakfast is a favorite dinner menu item in our home!)

and while A, 'B, and L were 'assisting me' in the kitchen; baker's hats, aprons, utensils and all,

A decided that she and 'B should mastermind the perfect 'dip' with which to top their portion.

i allowed them to experiment, being the 'free spirit' that i am. (=

and quite frankly, what they came up with was AMAZING!

and simple as well.

so i want to share.

in a small bowl simply stir together your desired (semi-equally proportioned) amounts of the following:

wild blueberry all natural jam

peanut butter (we used, again, our favorite, though i am sure any kind will always suffice)

and a [non-high fructose corn syrup-containing] syrup

'B decided to omit the pb.

and both girls' 'dips' were fantastic on our waffles!!!!!

the beauty for all of this is that whatever jam you happen to have in stock would more than likely be just as delicious!

[normally, we use fresh blueberries, strawberries, and sometimes honey and cream to adorn our waffles, but we had none on this particular evening. three cheers for the glory of a creative youth!]

that last statement leads me to add this...

LOVE YOUR FAMILY, your husbands and your kiddos, LIKE NEVER BEFORE,

every MOMENT OF YOUR every DAY.

these moments are so precious.

and so irreplaceable.

and so ultimately beautiful.

this sounds desperate,

and urgent.

but really,

it is.

sometimes we just need to be reminded. (=

okay, i am totally going to cuddle w/L (who just woke up from his afternoon nap, still not feeling 100 percent) and start watching season 1 of VOLTRON on netflix!!!!!!!

did you not love this show?

recently L has become a fan of star wars (inexplicable to A2, this has been a looked-forward-to moment in my career as the mother of a sweet, sweet boy. possibly a little inexplicable to myself. but i have my philosophies.),

he has also become an avid light-saber user.

although he refers to it all as 'peter potter', resulting from my love of harry potter i am sure. (=

not that we watch a lot of t.v.

we don't.

especially the kiddos.

we do, though, look forward to the occasional family movie.....and wed. night lost episodes on hulu for O and i!

anyway, i am looking forward to this new introduction of an old favorite!

i have heard the stories (repeatedly) from my lovely mother, recounting my insistence on being referred to as 'commander keith' for a short period of my childhood....

this has been really lengthy.

enjoy! (=

-C.

follow-up

so i told you that my steak-chocolate cake expedition has begun.
well, i just wanted to post some pictures of the chocolate cake part.....

mixing the batter (atop the recipe page!)


first layer


layer number two...


finished product (version 1)


decision to make and add chocolate shavings


and, voila! (=






YUM!!!!!!!
and, by the way, everyone that had a slice was as enamored as i.

i promise next time to [possibly] not write so much about food....but it's just so much fun!

enjoy! (=

-C.

some things are changing...

so lately things have been changing around here.
well, what i mean by saying this is that i have made a few drastic changes within myself as of late.
when i was 14 years old, my mom and dad decided that hey, we have 3 acres, let's buy some cows! and just like that, my meat eating days came to a screeching halt. ("steve holt!"--i had to write it, i misspelled halt and it was all over my brain!)
not that i quote-unquote didn't believe in eating red meat, and not even that i fell in love with the dear little things my parents so graciously named: chuck, t-bone, and ribeye. though they were pretty sweet.
no, it was the mere fact that, if i can see a cow one morning, standing outside my front room window, then i most definitely am not going to be digging in to that same cow at the kitchen table the next eventing at supper time. too much visual.
so, now being 28 [nearly 29], it has been close to 15 years since that decision was made and i have relentlessly stuck to it.
i tried to go back on this choice 3 years ago, when i was still nursing 'B as a baby. and my body did NOT take it well.
we were invited to a small get together in a new town, by new friends, and trying to be polite i ate a bowl of spaghetti with hamburger in the sauce.
yikes.
what they say is true, it will make you SICK. sick sick sick.
so long story short, my husband, who IS a red-meat eater, lovingly and graciously allows me to solely serve white meat and veggie dishes in our home. (=
but in a few of my bon appetit issues, steak recipes have caught my eye. and a few times (twice) in the past 3 or 4 months i have taken it upon myself to prepare these recipes for him. much to his delight, i might add.
on each of these occasions this meat has appealed to me so much that i have sampled it and thought it mildly tasty. of course, given the afore mentioned incident, i only allowed myself to nibble.
now, in my last post i stated that yesterday i was planning on making the korean rice bowl, and that, indeed, i did. and of course, i had to try it.
holy cow! (no pun intended) this was the most incredible, mouth-watering bit of food that i have ever ever ever tasted. so i indulged in a few slivers of marinated and seared steak as i was cooking.
i then filled my bowl at dinner time w/a picture perfect proportion of what was exactly on the magazine page, and indulged in that as well.
in all, i completely blew out of the water any chance of not regretting what i had just done by WAY over-consuming what my body would allow me in the red meat eating category.
but as the good Lord would have it, i did not get sick in the slightest! this freedom from illness also allowed me to partake in the chocolate-mayonnaise cake (also in the previous post) that i made late last night for my hubby and i while we were held captivated by (with frequent oven-timer interruptions) the latest Lost episode on hulu. which, by the way, was a really really good one finally.
any-who, chocolate is another thing i have always [for unknown reasons] prided myself on not loving. at least aside from the occasional dark chocolate cacao bean infused bite i periodically get a taste for.
but like our dinner, fittingly, this particular cake was so fascinatingly rich and BEAUTIFUL, and the icing was smooth and the most delicious, lovely thing i have EVER made (in the kitchen), and i it looked JUST LIKE the picture! [i also took some pictures of my own of this monumental event and i will post them soon]
and so, delightfully, and with much enthusiasm, i dive head-first into a new chapter in my life.....
my love affair with these two most amazing entities: the steak and chocolate cake.

sincerely,

-C.

(=