cooking with kids is a moving target: cold sesame noodle / salad

the little monkey used to help me make granola. it was really sweet, and fun for me because i ended up with granola AND a nice together activity.

today he wanted to "help with the noodles" so i enlisted him to stir up some sesame sauce. he's a pro at holding a measuring spoon, and dumping it out on command (ok, he sometimes jumps the gun, wha-ev).

it did not work. he got frustrated at some point - with a toddler, it could have been a cool breeze on his nose - and had a little spazzz which led him to pick up the sauce. as I watched him do that, I also watched the impulse go out of control and the tahini, rice vinegar, sriracha garlic MESS was all over the kitchen as he threw it to the ground.

i improvised another sauce which turned out great, but that was after i hosed down the rug outside and cleaned a goopy gloppy mess from my cabinet and counter, and had a good talk about when it's ok to throw things and when it's not (throwing shoes in the kitchen, for instance, is on the buzzkill list).

he even helped clean up, once we had calmed down.

So! here's the sauce. dress some noodles with it and eat it cold thank god!

1/4 c tahini
2T soy sauce
2T fish sauce
2T rice vinegar (i used the last of this in the first batch, so i omitted it from the one i actually tasted. i didn't miss it?)
generous dash of powdered ginger. fresh would be good of course.
chopped garlic clove
1T (or less) sriracha

1) i used a bag of brown rice spaghetti instead of the fettuccine Cook's Illustrated suggested, and dressed it with a splash of sesame oil while the noodles cooled.

ooh! here's a tofu lesson!

2) drain the tofu, cut it up, put it in a sandwich of paper towels, and let it get strained for a few minutes (or an hour?) then put it in a pan with hot hot oil and just leave it there for a while. a few minutes or whatever. the recipe said 8-10 minutes, but i think mine cooked for a half hour! who can tell though, when you're going up and down the stairs trying to fold the laundry and lure the kid inside. it took a while. i kept thinking of Julie & Julia, "don't crowd the mushrooms", just leaving it be and trying not to overflip.

omg i got crisp, browned tofu cubes, with creamy delicious interiors, instead of the mess of crappy tofu crumble i used to get before i gave up on the Curd [almost] altogether. (did everyone else know this? how was this information not in my "welcome to Oregon" vegan starter kit???)

3) mix the sauce into the noodles, with a little bit of noodle water (or plain water if you dump the noodle water down the drain)!

4) add in some vegetables, preferably semi-julienned and semi-cooked, and brightly colored because otherwise everything is beige and ew! (garden-picked zucchini, lettuce, and arugula did the trick tonight) the recipe calls for scallions for just this purpose.

on second thought: use greens! it's so much nicer to have a salad with some noodles in it than a bunch of noodles with a rare veggie. ignore this note if you're taking it to a party, greens don't keep.

Enjoy with white wine and later a bunch of cookies. <3 r

the mulch

I need to document The Mulch, which took over much of my mental space, a lot of my lung capacity, and a fair amount of the boy's vocabulary for about 3 weeks of last month. I requested it (free! delivered! too good to be true!) to mulch the berries.

I had read that you should cover your berries with at least three inches of wood mulch for the winter. I thought I could also use it in the front beds...so I requested a truckload. AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA. it would have been funny, and absurd, if it had been delivered as promised. A truckload of wood in my smaller-than a truck front yard. And the neighbors (all around, not just the special ones) would have noted what a nutjob I am, and maybe they would have taken some of it, and that would be great! But the tree service delivered it to the wrong side of the street.

this photo was taken AFTER about 30 wheelbarrow loads and 500 phone calls. I took it to post the mulch on criagslist for the second or third time, and I am happy to report that it is completely gone thanks to one final gallant effort by those amazing neighbors I mention here and there.

AY MEN

MIA helped me cook Thai food

oh my GOD i was bored with butternut squash. i love squash but sweet squash is a key baby food and i feel like i've been steaming squash non stop for the past year-even the munchkin was spitting it out-BLEH.

so when a coworker gave me some of her curry with acorn squash in it, i rejoiced. for serious.

SING THIS WHILE YOU COOK - you'll understand soon...


i found a recipe. i like how flexible she is with the ingredients, and that it doesn't include "curry paste". you know the thai ladies aren't buying jars of curry paste, why should i? anyway, i also took the opportunity to enjoy the bounty of bay area markets and learn about kaffir lime leaves and galanga. there was some old lemongrass in the fridge, too...

things i changed: sub 325 degrees, use one .5 lb fillet of cod (not farmed, not endangered). round two included turnips, carrots, broccoli. i have no idea how long i cooked it, whoops. i put it in a pie dish because i need a casserole dish :/

it's delicious. baby likes it too. but i forgot the butternut. whoops. so after i cooked everything, i pulled out the chunks and replaced them with slivered butternut (the thinner the slice the easier the knife goes through?!discoveries!). baked for approx 20 minutes at 375.

TO MAKE THIS EASIER-

there's no reason ( i don't think?) that you couldn't make a ton of this stuff and freeze jars of sauce for the next time. one day i'll try that.

And for more homework- GROW YOUR OWN
thaitable says "If you live in a nice and warm place with no frost try grow galangal in your yard. It has beautiful flowers that resemble orchids."

garden development v. 4

there are sprouts! the garden is alive! i was dreaming all morning (the babies and i all took a lovely nap) about mulching and building soil, waiting until next year for a big garden etc etc and then boom! there it goes. sprouting.

greywater watchmen, watch this.

lesbians!

i think i found some lesbians in my neighborhood! it's an older, african american neighborhood, and there are lots of guys in big clothes hanging on the corner, and lots of incredibly friendly older people who want to check out the babies, but not so much on the gay tip.

Today the babies and I took our walk early, and in a totally different direction, and we met Lydia and Cheri (Sherry? there are an infinite number of ways to spell that name), who were out gardening. Sheri told me a nutty story about some twins who were born a month apart, and then i asked about their garden. That's when Lydia piped up. Lydia had two dreads hanging in the front of her face, and the rest of her head was shaved. you know what i'm saying: lesbians. Anyway, hallelujah AND it gets better because: Lesbian Gardeners. Thank you jesus.

I walked away with two agapanthus (the same plant i hacked to bits and gleefully ripped out of the garden here, but it's not a water eater, so i'll give it another shot) and a lovely sunshine daisy thing.* She told me the name about 4 times as she fondled the blossom (hehe) and told me to look it up on Annie's Annuals, but I can't remember. Anyway, it's beautiful and I love makin friends with the neighbors.

* update. the daisy is the Ring of Fire. I'll let you fill in the rest.

weekend and the future

this is where I was on Saturday:


On Sunday I did "le menage" and had donuts and a crib delivered by wonderful people. Wow. Thanks, friends.

Now I'm thinking about the fun I want to have when I get my house. I want to:

Plant a lemon tree by the front door
Transplant my lavender from its pot to the border by the house
paint up the guest room and make it comfy
paint the "nursery", cut out a door, thicken the wall between it and my bedroom
kill the grass and get gorgeous with herbs and other no-water goodies.

I'll keep dreaming for the next couple of weeks....

proud mama

these are my babies! aren't they beautiful?



come on over & eat em, cause I can't keep up!