Thai Coconut Curry

Happy Easter! Last week, I was sequestered in a windowless room 'learning' things I already knew about Drupal. We built a practice site together during the training that was food themed, and since I had nothing much else to think about, I stole one of the recipes, which my trainer person stole from allrecipes.com, she said.

I'm blogging this mostly so I don't forget how I made it because it was amazing.

I adapted the list of ingredients in the recipe, made the rest of it up, and it turned out delicious. I used:

1 cup cooked brown basmatti rice
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup whole unsalted cashews
salt & pepper & cayenne to taste
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1.5 Tablespoons curry powder
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 cup (or so) coconut milk
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1/2 cup pineapple chunks
1/8 cup flour
chopped cilantro to taste

Phew. So....

First, cook your rice the way your package tells you too, and when that's almost done, get started on the curry.

Melt your butter. Throw in your chopped onion. Let it get a little translucent, or brown if you're me and you're not paying great attention.

Throw in your spices & garlic & ginger. Next, peas & peppers.

Once the fruits & veggies are all nicely coated with butter & spices & deliciousness, add your coconut milk. Bring to a boil & then let simmer until it thickens. Mine didn't thicken, and I got impatient, which is why I added the flour.

Once everything thickened up, I added my pineapple & cashews. I wanted those to heat up, but not actually get too cooked down, so once that happened, I removed the pot from the heat & served it, topped with some cilantro.

I used what I had on hand. I think this would be great with white rice as well. I also would have added bamboo shoots & lime if I'd had them. I'm sure you could come up with some other great combos.

I'll also be increasing the spice level next time. I don't know why I'm always so conservative...

Let me know if you try & enjoy this recipe! I'm glad at least something good came out of three long, long days of Drupal training. Sheesh!

Weeds

I finished Weeds a week or so ago. I've had a love-hate relationship with the show since probably 2008 when I started watching.

An ex-boyfriend of mine sent me off to my new life in San Francisco with two and a half pirated seasons of the show.

I kept up with season three, but then forgot about the show for a few years until I got a Netflix account.

I watched new episodes whenever they were available on DVD, and more recently (the past two seasons, I think), available for streaming.

I think the show jumped the shark in season four or five. And since seeing Mary Louise Parker in The West Wing, I can't see her as anyone other than the dreaded Amy....

The last season was much better than the previous two...so if you're watching, I suppose I'd tell you stick with it?

Or something. At least they're Silas, and he's not bad to look at, right? Right. Oy...

Friday Five

Regrettably, I spent most of this week sitting in a windowless room 'learning' things about Drupal. I'm glad it's over, and I can't wait to see what the weekend brings. In the meantime, I did have time to enjoy these things throughout the week:

1. Weeds
2. Animal prints like this one
3. Makeup
4. Italian food
5. Oregon Authors

TBT: Spring

Recently, I spent an evening going through all of my old pictures...since I got my first legit digital camera in early 2009. I saved a bunch. Some are good photos I over looked on the first round of selects & edits. Some are of strong memories I want to put deeper thought into. Some are funny photo booth pictures of myself from college.

I think I'll start sharing them here...starting with these. From springtime. Because I'm looking forward to springtime. Looking forward to it feeling like it's springtime. Oregon weather is turning out to be just as ridiculous as everyone says. Raining one minute, sunny the next. There was even a little bit of hail last week!

Not at all like back home in Arkansas. For better or worse.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

First cauliflower pizza crust. Came out too wet. Next time I'll only use one egg, one head of cauliflower (riced) & one cup of shredded mozzarella.

Tea & Scones

Sunday tea & chocolate chip scones.

(recipe ala Laura Vitale)

The River Monks

We went to Portland on a school night for a good reason: to see our good friends The River Monks play at Valentine's!

We enjoyed dinner at a Thai restaurant called E-San down the street from the venue, and arrived early for the show. No one told us it had been pushed back an hour.

The venue was tiny - intimate, and I wondered how the six-person band would squeeze into the space. Aaron assured me it could be done. And it was. After two other interesting openers.

Aaron used to tour with some of the Monks back in the day when everybody was playing more "hardcore" music.

But, The River Monks are folksy. Their lineup of instruments includes banjo, trumpet & accordion. They are all so, incredibly talented.

I had a great time listening to them and sipping on a some whisky gingers & Baileys & coffee. I almost never drink hard liquor anymore, so that was a treat.

We grabbed some Doughnuts while we waited for the band to load up, bringing my grand Voodoo total to 7 doughnuts in 5 days, meaning I'm currently in doughnut detox.

At the end of the night, the band followed us home, and the 8 - 9 counting Boone - of us squeezed into our little apartment for the night.

I'm so glad we got to host them for the second time - and in Portland this time!

More of you really should come visit. The water is fine up here!

Knitting

So, I'm knitting. I tried once before - high school? I was not very patient back then, and I don't think I've improved significantly on that level, but, for some reason this has seemed like a good idea lately.

I slipped in to Michael's last week to pick up some yarn & needles. There are a ton of great, local craft stores in the area, but I don't feel legit enough to shop at them yet. I need to figure this stuff out before I spend significant money buying pretty yarn & tools.

It's something I'd like to be good at. I feel that way about most things I do, of course, but because of impatience, I despise practice. Then again, when you're knitting stitch after stitch and row after row, thats really all the whole thing is. And yes, I've made a few mistakes!

I'm learning, and I'm telling myself that it's OK.

My biggest mistake so far was accidentally picking out LSU (& Lakers) colors for my first project. I didn't think about that at all! ...oh well.

Knitting is relaxing! I'm loving it, actually. For now?

We'll see. Please comment with your encouragement to let the crafty girl buried deep inside of me loose.

Broccoli + "Cream" Sauce + Potatoes

This is probably the grossest-looking food I've ever photographed. It tastes delicious, though!

It is:
•two, baked, gold potatoes
•two heads of broccoli
•sauce made from yellow onion, red pepper, cashews & nutritional yeast.

Again, from Forks Over Knives, and again, delicious.

Friday Five

I didn't mean to slack on updating this week, but it has been so busy! I'll be posting about those adventures in the next several days, but for now, here are five things I've been enjoying this week:

1. public transportation
2. not sleeping in
3. The River Monks
4. mushrooms
5. graham crackers

Shamrock Run

On Sunday, me and 34,999 other people in Portland ran in the Shamrock Race. I participated in the 15k with my good buddy Dave. Rebekah did the 8k, and Aaron did the 5k. We all did great and had lots of fun.

I've never done a real race before, and I'm glad the Shamrock was my first because it was a blast! The 15k route went through hilly, downtown Portland!

The hills made finishing the race (in the upper half of participants, might I add), all the sweeter.

Farmer's Market

Scenes from the Farmer's Market in Portland last Saturday.

Forks Over Knives

Earlier this month, I received a few late birthday presents/early wedding presents from my friend Karen! One of them was a cookbook I really wanted: Forks over Knives.

This is companion to a great documentary about eating a plant-based, whote-foods diet. Sounds pretty good, right?

I've tried two recipes from the book so far (but only eaten one, because I'm writing this while waiting for Aaron to get home from work!).

The first was Aloo Gobi, which is a potato-cauliflower Indian dish.

I served it with some brown rice and fudged on the recipe a tiny bit: I sauteed with butter. The book recommends adding water a tablespoon at a time to keep veggies from sticking to the pan, but since I don't have any interest in actually being completely vegan, I'm fine with a tiny bit of butter. I also didn't have the recommended amount of tomatoes: 2. The (almost) one tomato I did have pretty much completely evaporated during the cooking process as well. I think next time, I'll used canned diced tomatoes to make it feel a little more like a curry.

That being said - this was delicious!!!

The meal I just finished preparing is a lentil pasta sauce, which I'll serve with soba noodes. In the book, it's red lentils. I used brown. It also suggests serving with gluten-free brown rice pasta...

But, I'm using what I have on hand! That's just how it goes.

I never go gluten-free on purpose. I don't think there's any reason to do so unless you or someone you're cooking for has a gluten allergy.

In my adult life, I've never known anyone gluten-free. My aunt can't have it, but I don't deal with her day-to-day (unfortunately). But, one of my new co-workers doesn't eat gluten, so I'll be taking this into consideration with some of my baked treats in the future.

So far, I'm loving the cookbook, and there are a ton of recipes I'd love to try out soon. I recommend it to all!

Friday Five

1. yarn
2. ropes
3. forks (over knives)
4. sleeping in
5. finishing taxes - relief

Baths

I love baths. As a kid, I used to stay in the bath tub with my toys until I was forced to get out. I remember my parents used to use the old, "If you stay in the bath tub until all the water drains, you'll get cold" line. (JK, I don't know if that's a "line", but threatening me with being cold worked to get me out. I hate being cold as much as I love baths.)

As an adult, bath time no longer involves rubber duckies and plastic mermaids...it involves Lush, and I was psyched to order a bunch of their products once we moved into our new place.

The bathtub in our Alabama apartment never felt fully clean to me no matter how much I scrubbed. It also never drained properly, so I never took a bath in it, and I missed baths!

From left to right in the photo, we have the blue skies & puffy white clouds bubble bar and the dream bath melt.

So far, I've only used the butterball bath bomb (not pictured), and it was so much fun! Plus, it left my skin feeling super soft and moisturized I suggest lush to anyone hoping to enjoy a pretty, relaxing bath. :)

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Smith

We spent our weekend spot climbing at Smith Rock. We didn't climb anything too crazy...just tried to get a feel for things & find our bearings.

It's so beautiful, and there are so. many. climbers. EVERYWHERE. AND they're all super nice. It's awesome.

We camped on Saturday. Cold camping. Cuddly camping.

I know we'll be back there soon, and I'm glad. It's a beautiful place.

Debateably it's even more beautiful than the meal we had on the way home.

We were so, so impressed with Three Creeks Brewing in Sisters. We were starving at the end of the weekend, and still had a long trip over the pass. The meal was:

•Tillamook Cheese dip with garlic bread & pears
•A crazy burger for Aaron, a burrito bowl for me
•Marionberry Cobbler with homemade ice cream

Until the other day, when I saw some marionberry-flavored Tillamook yogurt in the fridge at work, I thought Marionberries were a thing Portlandia made up to be funny.

Upon further Wikipedia-based research, it turns out that marionberries are native to Oregon. In 2009 there was a proposal in the state legislature to make marionberries the official berry of Oregon. BUT, the proposal didn't pass...because everyone was worried about making the other berries feel bad (and you know, hurting their sales).

This is where we live now.

Friday Five

Happy Friday! I hope it was great for everyone, and I hope you have just the kind of Friday night you're hoping for. After a SECOND, exhuausting week, I'll be relaxing at home before another fun weekend adventure. I feel bad about my lack of blog posts, at the same time, I don't feel that there's an abundance of things to share at the moment, because while everything here is new and exciting for me, it's going to take a while to figure out what's exciting because it's new, and what's really exciting.

Regardless, here are five things I'm enjoying this Friday:

1. Brew Pubs! 2. Climbing inside! 3. Public transportation 4. Sunny afternoons 5. Dean Young

Newport

We took an adventure to the coast today!

This precious puppy turns three whole years old tomorrow. He's changed my life for the better. I'm so happy I get to take care of him & be his best friend!

He didn't like the beach much though. We did. It was beautiful.

Hunger got to us, and we made our way to the Rogue Public House, which I highly recommend. We thought about touring the brewery today as well, but we decided to save that for another trip. I had the Chipotle ale, which came in a fun glass! I'm happy with all of the chili beers Oregon has to offer (This was my third). Before this week, I'd only had ONE in my own college town. The Pub's food was also delicious. We shared a hummus plate before Aaron devoured some fish & chips, and I enjoyed some comforting and delicious mac & cheese.

After our meal we got to see some sea lions! We heard these guys ...barking? rawering? Making whatever sound they make, so we decided to go investigate. They were so much fun to watch!!!

And also this guy. He was talking to us, and Boone was intrigued by him. I'm obsessed with the way this photo came out, so for now, you can see him at the top of this blog as my banner image. :)

I hope you're having great weekend adventures wherever you are.