Trying Thai!

I am so excited about this post because tonight I made my first ever Thai dish!  I made Giada's veggies in yellow curry, and it was a great experience!  I had gotten the yellow curry in the Strip over the summer for like 2 bucks, and ended up spending about $4.50 on two cans of coconut milk at Giant Eagle.  I know it wouldn't be that expensive at an Asian food market.  In any case, those ingredients, along with two chicken breasts I added, were enough for five big servings.  (Side note - I now have two full weeks of lunches in my freezer!  Woot!)

The only changes I made to the recipe are: I used about six tablespoons of the yellow curry instead of the said 1/2 cup; I omitted the Serrano chili because I figured the curry paste would be spicy enough for me (it was); and I left out the lime leaves because I couldn't find any.  When I make this again, I'll make sure to go to the Strip and get those lime leaves, because the dish was just missing a little "something."

Those of you who know me well know that I'm not a spicy food person.  I love buffalo wings with blue cheese, and I enjoy mexican food, but the spice needs to be mild for me to enjoy it.  That being said, I've had curry now four times, and it is by far the spiciest food I've ever had.  But the fact that I like it enough to buy all those weird ingredients (fish sauce) to make it myself might be a sign that I'm coming around to spicy foods!

And now for the pictures!

The curry paste actually came in a bag inside of the container.  You can see it 

peeking around the corner on the right side of the coconut milk.

Was able to find this at Giant Eagle for about $2.50.  But it is stinky

and super potent.  And boy does it taste and smell like unpleasant fish!

But I guess it just adds depth of flavor to the dish since you only add a tablespoon.

It's not really "yellow"

My dinner!  I also ate several ... several ... spoonfuls of the curry straight out of the pot about 20 minutes after I'd finished my plate.  I made 1 dry cup of rice, which I used with four dishes (one for my dinner and the other three went in the freezer).  But I have enough curry left over for two more medium-sized portions, so I'll probably make some more rice tomorrow for lunch.

If you're scared to try making this, don't be!  If curry paste freaks you out, it shouldn't.  Some ingredients in the yellow curry are lemongrass, basil, and chili pepper.  Really, I don't do spicy, but I love this stuff!  The coconut milk is what makes it for me.  The potato was creamy, the carrots were soft and sweet, and everything just melded so well together.

I hope maybe I've encouraged you to branch out and try cooking something you never have before!  Have fun!

The past month of goings-on

I have certainly been neglectful (is that a word?) of the blog lately.  Moving is no longer my excuse since I've been at my new place for 5 weeks now and have been settled for about 4.5 of those weeks.  The main thing I'll talk about today is the red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting that I made for my mom's birthday party yesterday, but here are some other things I've been up to lately ...

M&M cookies are my new favorite thing to make.

I've made them at least 3 times in the past month.

Delicious M&M peanut butter sandwich cookies!!  I could eat these all day.

This was the fourth time I made meatloaf.  The first 2 times I put it in a loaf pan and there was waaay too much liquid in it to slice it.  Then I tried putting it in a 9x5 inch pan, which was probably the best turnout as far as the liquid issue goes.  However, I saw the Barefoot Contessa make meatloaf this way, so I wanted to try it.  I either used to lean of mean (93/7), or too much fat and liquid escaped onto the foil.  I'm guessing it was the fat ratio.  Also, I am never putting garlic in this recipe (Kim's Ultimate, see former post) because it just doesn't go well with the sweet and sour thing going on.

 I make darn good scrambled eggs, if I do say so myself!  This was the second time I'd used Yukon Gold potatoes, the first being mashed potatoes I made a couple of weeks ago for Eric and me.  I diced them up and fried them in butter, olive oil, salt and pepper for about 5 minutes, turning them frequently until all sides were browned.  Then I put a lid on it for about 3 minutes, and they were perfect!  Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

Now for the main event ...

Creamed the butter and sugar, eggs waiting patiently on hand ...

My kitchen.  Yep, all of it.  As in about 3 square feet of counter space.  

Note the small folding table that saved the night.

After taking 10 minutes longer than the recipe said, they're finished!!

I didn't take a picture of the batter beforehand because it looked disgusting.  Just sayin.

And now the grand finale!

I used this recipe after reading some surprisingly negative comments about Paula Deen's.  I think the reason other cooks said hers was bland (which was the main complaint) was because she uses vegetable oil instead of butter, buttermilk, or sour cream.  I actually modified the McCormick recipe a bit because I didn't have sour cream.  Instead, I used 1 cup buttermilk and 1/4 cup vegetable oil instead of the 1 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup milk.  However, I DID use Paula's recipe for cream cheese frosting but used real butter instead of margarine (what was she thinking?!?!?).  Next time I will take her advice and use 1.5 recipes of the frosting.  Even though my mom's favorite frosting with red velvet cake is the cooked flour icing with sugar, she was pretty happy with what I made (although she really doesn't look it!)

 This is all the reassurance that I need!