Garden Salsa!

My tomato plant yielded its last two tomatoes- and what better way to celebrate the fresh harvest than in salsa!!

Garden Salsa

Tomato, finely diced (it helps if the tomato is not soft, but just ripe enough to be firm and bright red)

Onion, finely diced

Cucumber, diced

Cilantro

Salt to taste

Fresh salsa is one of my most favorite cooking ingredients.. I love to use it on breakfast burritos, quesadillas, as dressing for salad-- Potato even eats the fresh salsa on his hot dogs! (He swears this is one of the best ways to eat a hot dog)

Crab Pasta Salad

I got this recipe from all-recipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pea-n-Crab-Pasta-Salad/Detail.aspx in an attempt to use some leftover imitation crab from an earlier sushi extravaganza. It was amazing. In the time it took to boil the pasta al dente (7-8 mins, according to the box of medium shells) I was able to get all the other ingredients together. Mix and enjoy! Potato is generally not a big fan of spinach or peas, but he ate them up with no complaints!!

Cooking Club: Thai Food!

September Cooking Club. The Menu: Tom Yum Soup and Chicken Satay to start, then Red Curry, Drunken Noodles, Thai Green Beans, and Pad Thai for the main entree, and to cap of the night: Mango Sticky Rice!!

The Tom Yum Soup featured Kaffir Lime Leaves and jumbo shrimp in a delightfully spicy blend that had some of our cooking club attendees crying! For the more sensitive pallets, Amanda (the creator of this fiery soup) suggested adding coconut milk to the broth. This was delicious! The Chicken Satay was marinated with turmeric, cumin, and other savory spices before being broiled and served hot with Thai peanut dipping sauce. The dish was very reminiscent of Indian spices, which might be due to the fact that Sundhu (chef for the satay) is, in fact, Indian.

The red curry was fantastic, with fresh snow peas and red peppers, and despite Lindsey's (chef) personal wishes: fresh broccoli. The curry wasn't very spicy, which was actually a welcome relief since we were still recovering from the soup! The thai green beans (chef: Allison) were seasoned in a divine sweet/savory sauce including (I believe) cashew butter and sesame oil. The overall flavor strongly hinted at peanut sauce.

For a dish that was proclaimed to be "an utter disaster," the Pad Thai was actually pretty good. Chef Julia used buckwheat noodles as a measure of desperation after failing to find pad thai rice noodles at the grocery store. The end result was a more casserole-like pad thai, but all the flavor was there so we were just as happy! The drunken noodles (my contribution) were not spicy at all, and the tofu was a bit vinegar/lime juicy (I guess the word I am looking for is tangy)-- but the dish gets plus points from me for the complex flavor attributed to the fish, oyster, soy, sauces and the rice vinegar. The recipe came from a food blog: http://www.desertmodernism.com/blog/2006/01/thai_drunken_noodles_pad_kee_m.php

I of course, rarely follow recipes with 100% accuracy.. and in this dish I added snow peas, thai eggplant, and one of those long yellow-green banana-pepper (but bigger) peppers. I loved the veggies.. and recommend adding some if you want to try the recipe.

Alas I did not take a picture of the mango sticky rice (chef: Sundhu)- by that time in the evening my stomach was full and my camera tucked away from the food carnage that ensued immediately after the photos were taken. Oh well, Shes just going to have to make it again! bwahahahahaha!

Archive Posting Begins

Many of you might have noticed the recent lack of posts-- never fear, I have not stopped cooking! Due to some computer issues, I was taking pictures and saving them to post later...well.. I just uploaded ALL of them: I have my work cut out for me! Hopefully I will be posting a few posts per day to slowly archive my recipes. Enjoy!

Harvest! and New Farmers Market

My bell pepper plant yielded a mighty harvest of 5 peppers yesterday...coupled with a few tomatoes from the vine (total harvest so far: 6 tomatoes), I had an amazing burrito with fresh garden salsa!

Also- There is a new farmers market in town, near the King Street Metro station, across from the Hilton in the small park demarcated by King Street and Diagonal Road. Wednesdays 3-7PM. I've had great luck with the produce from the market-- especially the collared greens (they lasted forever in the fridge!)