Peanut Butter Jelly Time

For those of you who shared in the 2:30 am conversation in which I shared things that can make me laugh no matter what kind of mood I'm in. Here you go. Enjoy!

Did someone say curry?

In honor of my lunch with my dear friend Patrica this week (don't know if you read this or not but thanks for the yummy food and conversation this week) I though t that I would push you all to try some Thai cooking this week. Curry is one of my favorite seasonings for food on the planet. I just love the spice and punch that nothing else can create like a good curry dish. I especially love a good Thai curry dish with the coconut flavor mixed with that blend of sweet and hot loveliness. So if you enjoy Asian cuisine and curry doesn't send you running try this simple yet oh so yummy treat! Red Chicken Curry
Gaeng Daeng Gai

Ingredients
1 lb boneless chicken breast
1 can bamboo shoots, sliced
3 tbsp red curry paste
2 cups coconut milk
2 fresh red chili, sliced diagonally
1/2 cup Thai sweet basil leaves (bai horapah) or just sweet basil, torn
2 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp palm sugar or brown sugar
Thai sweet basil leaves (bai horapah) for garnish

Directions
Preparation: Wash the chicken, slice diagonally into 1/2 cm thick, 3cm wide and 3 cm long pieces. Thinly slice the bamboo shoots (if not already sliced).
Pour 1 cup of coconut milk into a wok. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly. Add the curry paste, stir until red oil comes to the surface. Add the chicken and sauté until it turns white and is cooked through.

Add the remaining coconut milk, follow with the bamboo shoots. Season with fish sauce, sugar, and salt and bring back to a boil. Sprinkle with chilies and sweet basil leaves. Turn off the heat. Arrange on a serving dish and garnish with sweet basil leaves before serving. Sauce will not be thick so serve with Jasmin or white rice on the side. Mix a little rice in with each couple of bites to absorb the yummy sauce.

And for those of you how like curry but just not as the main attraction give this little ditty a try.

Chicken in Peanut Sauce
(Gai Pad Nam Tua)

Ingredients
1 lb Chicken breasts 1/2" x 1/2" strips
1/4 cup Green onions chop coarse
2 tbsp Curry powder/paste (Thai Red)
1 tbsp Garlic chop fine
1 tbsp Ginger chop fine
1 tbsp Lemon grass chop fine
1 tsp Chili paste (produce section by refrigerated salad dressings, usually)
Peanut oil
1 cup Coconut milk
2 tbsp Peanut butter
2 tbsp Roasted peanuts crushed
1 tbsp Fish sauce
1/2 tbsp Palm sugar or brown sugar
2 cups Snow peas or Broccoli florets

Directions
Cut chicken into strips
Mix green onions, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, curry powder and chili paste. Add chicken and toss to coat. Set aside for 20 minutes.

If using broccoli, blanch 2 minutes.

Heat wok. Add peanut oil, chicken mixture. Stir fry 3 minutes until chicken loses pink color.

Add coconut milk, peanut butter, crushed peanuts, fish sauce and palm sugar. Cook 3 minutes until sauce begins to thicken.

If using snow peas, add and simmer until color changes.
If using broccoli, add and simmer until heated through.

Serve over rice.

middle name game

Amie tagged me so I'm it! Welcome to the Middle Name Game.


1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.

4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So here we go...........

D. Dark. I am so stinkin (stole that from Amie and can't stop saying it now) afraid of the dark! Yes a grown woman of almost 30 and I still sleep with the T.V. on for comfort and have a nite light in the living room. I creep around corners and run to the light switch when DJ is working the night shift for his dad because no matter what, even knowing the house has been dedicated, I just know an axe murder is hiding in the shadows.

A. Animal softy. I have such a warm spot in my heart for animals. I have 3 cats and 1 dog all because I couldn't say no and then worry for the rest of my days that they didn't have a warm safe home to live in the rest of their days. I can't stand to see an animal hurt, even in a movie. I have been known to cry loudly and stomp out of a movie if an animal gets hurt. Kill a thousand people no problem, hurt the dog and it's on!

V. Video games. Well technically speaking it's a computer game, but I am addicted to the online role playing video game World of Warcraft. It's really not bloody or violent at all. My husband got me into it and now my whole family plays. There is a lot to it, professions, money, quests, strategy. Mostly I love it because it's something we can do together and we love it! I'll totally explain it to anyone who wants to know. Hey at least I'm not a vampire loving weirdo (only because I haven't started Twilight yet. Collectively off in the distance Jaime, Amie, Heather and Natalie say "What! Come on girl get it together and meet Edward already!"

I. Impatient. Yes I can be extremely inpatient to the point that I drive my family crazy. See I like to be on time if not early for everything. My family on the other hand runs on the we'll get there just hold your horses mentality. Drives me crazy. Especially when the movie theater is our destination. Come on people move it, move it, move it. If I miss a preview someones buying Cold Stone later!

S. Shy. Yes me, shy. I can just as soon blend into the wall and be very happy about it when surrounded by people I don't know. I always sat at the back of the class in college against the wall furthest from the door. This means that there were less people I might have to talk to if they struck up a conversation. But once I get to know you hold on I can talk your ear off!

OK, so all the people I know with blogs have been tagged on this one so I'm tagging my stalkers to do this then email me your answers. So Meggie, Rebecca, Jeannie, Jess, Richard get to hopping and write me an email. Of course you could start a blog too then just post it there.......

Preggo stories

Well since I haven’t had a baby I don’t have any funny preggo stories of my own, but I do have several stories of my friends. So I’ll share two that I was a part of.

My really good friend was pregnant with her first baby. Her husband worked long hours and traveled for work often. We hung out quite a bit. I am fascinated with the whole pregnance thing, I think it’s because I’ll never be pregnant that maes me just so curious about the whole process. Believe me when I tell you that I have done so much research starting with my best friend back in 02 that there are times I feel like I know more then my friends who have gone through pregnancy! We’ll be talking and they’ll stop to tell me that they will explain anything I don’t understand and then I end up teaching them about water births, or why you shouldn’t eat nuts while pregnant or what edema is and so forth. Call me weird, but I digress. So my friend calls me in major sobbing crocodile type tears. She’s gasping and doing that lovely snot-sucking ugly cry. I try to calm her down and find out what’s wrong, though in my head I’ve already run thru about 50 possible situations many including horrifying car accidents, death of a parent, straying husband, lost job, sick parent and the list could just have kept going. It was that scary kind of cry. So we breathe together on the phone “in 2, 3, 4, and out 2, 3, 4, remember in through the nose and out through the mouth, slower, slower, you’re ok, 2, 3, 4……” I’m putting on my shoes quietly just in case I need to make the mad dash to a hospital or jailhouse (in the event of a slimy husband being found out which had resulted in my friend accidentally doing him in, told you very active imagination). Finally she is in the right position and can talk.
“So hun tell me what’s wrong? Is the baby ok”
“Yea he’s fine. It’s just that….” (tears start welling up again)
“It’s ok, deep breath.”
“I had a good day until about an hour ago when I got stopped by a complete stranger to tell me that I was wearing two different shoes!”
“That’s it? Everything else is fine?”
“That’s it????!!!!!???? That means all day I’ve been walking around and no one told me at work, the people I know and talk to everyday that I was walking around with two different shoes on!”
“Well maybe it was darker in the office and they just didn’t notice? What was it one black and one brown? You have lots of shoes that are very similar; it’s possible no one noticed.”
Looooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg silence.
“It was one brown and one cream! I can’t see my feet and we have no mirrors that reach the floor so I couldn’t see my mistake!” (Tears resume at a heavy rate)
“Oh hunny, that’s ok. Think of the great (little bit of giggling) story you’ll be (much more noticeable laughing) able to tell everyone (full out laughing).
Needless to say she did finally see the humorous side of the situation. Hahaha!

My second story involves my best friend from CA. She was pregnant with her first baby too and we were hanging out at her house watching a movie. She lived in the country and had a cat that was the result of backyard sibling breeding on the farm. So bless his little heart, Oreo was slightly slow if you know what I mean. Well since we found him the day before her wedding at only a couple days old and the momma didn’t want to have a thing to do with the baby we bottle fed the little sweetie. I say we because I was not working at the time and she would drop him off on her way to work and pick him back up and her way home. Kitty daycare! So through this bonding time we had with him we created this intense lover type kitty that had to be in your lap to be truly happy. So it was very normal for my friend to sit down on the couch and Oreo to hop up into her lap for down time at night watching TV. Well as her belly grew he had to adapt to the changing environment in order to get in his lap time. Soon the lap was gone and he began to drape himself over her round belly, in a vertical fashion with his head by her chest and his feet stretched down towards her legs. Well as many of you who have been pregnant know babies down really like heat applied to their little apartment. So this cat laying right down the middle of the belly was creating a tone of heat. The little baby would show his disdain and at the situation by kicking and pushing. The cat would in turn sigh and adjust his position. This often took place over the course of 30 minutes or so until the cat ended up curled in a small ball on her chest so she couldn’t see without leaning to one side or the other and she was sore from the battle that took place in her belly. Then it would never fail just as soon as everyone was settled and happy, she had to pee!

and the winner is................

I took all 8 names and wrote them on 3x5 cards. Then laid them out on the carpet name down so the cat would not be swayed one way or the other. I then released the paper loving cat who promptly went over and stretched out on the treadmill Amie has lent to us. She had no intention to move from the perch with the fan blowing on her. Isn't it always that way, kids love to get in the mix until you want them to, then they act like little angels. So I decided to turn around and act as if I had no interest in her at that moment. When I came back to the great room she was stretched out on a name. Yea my plan worked! I went over to get the name from her and she kept grabbing it back from me so I took the winning picture with her paw firmly on the card. You can totally see her cattitude in these pictures lol!

Congratulations girl! I thought this was a fitting choice by Tybalt since Amie not only got me into blogging, but her Birthday is in September. If you entered into the candy drawing thanks! You will get my family and friends rate should you choose to book a photo session with me in the next 6 months! Thanks for playing everyone. Next candy at 5k.

Monsoon clouds

I just love the monsoon season and all the amazing clouds. This year has been weak when it comes to lighting so I wasn't able to get the lighting pictures I've been talking about. But there is always next year. These photos were all taken this week either right outside my back door or right down the street. So beautiful!

Fun Times

OK that time has come. I have recorded over 1000 hits. Really this should have happened a little while ago since I didn’t add the site meter right away. So I’m giving out my first blog candy. For my friends who are new to the blogging world blog cand is a free gift. Yea presents! These have mostly been in my experience crafty supplies. However, since many of my stalkers are not scrapbookers I will create different candy. I may even include a free photo session (obviously for locals only if you’re out of state you could find yourself with a fun gift card or other treaties). You never know. To enter just leave me a comment, even those of you who stalk but don’t comment. You don’t need to have a blogger account to comment just use the anonymous feature and leave me your name in the actual comment. I will draw names Tuesday night at 6pm and post that night. Since I don’t have children but I do have a cat that loves to sit on paper (bizarre I know) she will choose the winner. I promise to post photos of the process. OK start commenting.