Put an octopus on it.

I have had an ikea Leksvik dresser (no longer available as far as I can tell) for 6 or 7 years now. It has served me well, and survived multiple moves, having yet to fall apart. The only major scratch on it came from when my boyfriend (at the time) helped me initially assemble it (which was disastrous.) It has nice deep drawers (actually even big enough to store my sewing machine in one), and is actually sort of nice looking. There is really nothing wrong with it.


But it needed something.




So I put an octopus on it.

Ah, much better. 

Octopus decal purchased from this Etsy shop.

This Time Last Year- February

Only one month until my 2 year blogiversary! I am getting excited. I think I might buy myself some flowers for the occasion. Mmm, or chocolates. Or maybe make myself some chocolates.

Last February was a pretty productive month for me on this blog- I revealed my newly painted blue kitchen, made some brie and puff pastry hors d'oeuvres, fried up some sweet potato chips, made some decadent lemon buttermilk pudding cake, and continued redecorating my painted kitchen with a paper craft project, an etsy find, and some well placed vintage cookbooks.

Curious to read some of those older posts?

You can find them here:

Painted Kitchen Reveal
Sweet Potato Chips
Lemon Buttermilk Pudding Cake
DIY Paper Bunting Project

And those are just some highlights from the month. If your interested in seeing more of my past projects, you can read the archives on the bar to the right, Select February 2010 to see more of what I was up to one year ago.

Tom Kha Gai

Thai food is one of my favorite cuisines. When I go out for Thai food the part of the menu I get most excited about is the soup section. This probably isn't surprising to any of you who have been reading my blog for any length of time...I seem to be a bit obsessed with soup. I once joked that I should officially change my food blog into a soup blog. In fact, a quick search shows me that the word "soup" was mentioned in 17 of my 45 cooking related posts.  17 is the same number of posts in which I mention the word "flour" in the baking section, and actually several more mentions than the word "project" in my home and DIY themed posts, which I often feel ridiculous for overusing. What can I say, I am a lover of soup.

Should I officially convert this into a soup blog, guys? Do you all love soup like I do? Think of all the possibilities...I have never even posted a chilled soup, such as cold cherry soup or gazpacho! And I have never posted a chicken matzo ball soup recipe (what kind of nice jewish girl am I?)  But anyway, back to Thai food, alright?

I can never decide if I prefer Tom Yum Goong, with its spicy-sour broth and decadent shrimp, or Tom Kha Gai with its lively coconut milk, cilantro and lime combination.   I have made Tom Kha Gai at home several times, and have yet to attempt Tom Yum...maybe soon! I think I would rather not choose a favorite. I will just settle to like them both equally. 

If you, like me, dig Tom Kha, and its aromatic coconuty broth, I think you'll be happy to know that making it at home is really quite easy. I had success finding most of the ingredients I needed by going to a big asian supermarket near my house, Super 88 (psst...click that link to read an old post I wrote about Super 88 and omelets...it also includes a funny Japanese commercial), but in my search for recipes I also discovered a lot of helpful substitutions which may come in handy if you don't live around the corner from a mammoth Asian specialty grocery store.

Here are some of the ingredients I used:

fresh cilantro, scallions, lemongrass, thai peppers, galangal, coconut milk and lime

I also used: chicken broth, chicken breast, sliced white mushrooms, fish sauce, a bit of brown sugar, and some thai curry paste. They didn't make it into the picture.

If you are worried you won't find thai specialty ingredients, I urge you to be optimistic! Check your local grocery store in the international section. My local Stop&Shop carries thai curry paste (which can be used in place of the thai peppers), coconut milk, fish sauce, and a whole slew of other basic thai ingredients. I have found lemongrass at whole foods in the past, and occasionally thai peppers, too. In the past I have had trouble finding galangal (though I got lucky this time) an aromatic root similar to ginger, but more floral. I have substituted ginger in its place on two occasions, and though it may not be the most authentic, it still came out delicious. So never fear, substitutions can be made. 

I have unfortunately never been successful in finding Kefer lime leaves, so  I end up leaving them out, and including a little bit more lime juice than the recipes I have found call for. Believe me, it still turns out delicious. 

Because when I make soup I don't usually stick to a recipe but rather a guideline, here is the basic process I followed. Taste as you go, and alter things as needed...don't be afraid to experiment a bit!

Ingredients:

2 cans of coconut milk

thinly sliced chicken breast

juice of 1 or 2 limes (at least 3 TBS)

fresh cilantro

lemon grass, (just the bottoms, bruised)

galangal, roughly chopped

thai chili peppers

chicken broth

scallions

white mushrooms, sliced

fish sauce (roughly 2 tablespoons)

Process:

• Start with the aromatics- Chop up some galangal (I used about an inch by inch piece, chopped roughly) and put it in the bottom of your soup pot over medium heat with a bit of oil. Add a few pieces of lemongrass, bruised to bring out the flavor, and chop a couple of thai peppers, removing most of the seeds and ribs, or throwing them in whole, depending on the level of spiciness you desire. Add a little bit of chopped cilantro, too. 

• Cook until fragrant, adding the chicken broth, one can of coconut milk and fish sauce at this time. Give the liquid some time to simmer, and then strain the broth to remove the aromatics. 

• Next add the remaining coconut milk and mushrooms. 

• In a saute pan, lightly cook the chicken in thin strips, then add to the soup.

• Remove the soup from the heat, add the lime juice, taste and add brown sugar, more chili peppers or curry paste if desired. 

• Serve hot, garnished with plenty of sliced scallions and chopped fresh cilantro, and some thai peppers for color and extra spice. 

Have you made Thai food at home before? Have you experimented with cooking a new cuisine lately, or tried to figure out what to substitute for ingredients that are hard to come by in your region? Are you obsessed with soup? What is your favorite thing to order at a Thai restaurant? Let me know in the comments, maybe I will try to make your favorite dish next!

Egyptian Lentil Soup

 

Lentil soup will heal you. It will make you whole. And fix all your problems. And find you lasting love. And lower your cholesterol.  Ok, only the last statement has been scientifically tested, to my knowledge. Well, and to be even more fair, I should mention that I made this soup a couple of weeks ago, and it has yet to find me lasting love. But it totally fixed all my other problems. And it was delicious.

I went to the grocery store hoping to find brown lentils to make a lentil soup recipe by Martha Stewart, to tack on to the end of "Martha Stewart week" (a theme I may have to revisit...I didn't even do any paper crafts, or creatively set a dinner table!) Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately!) the grocery store was out of both brown and green lentils, and only had red. Now anyone who is worth their salt in lentil-knowledge (does this sentence make anyone else chuckle a bit...I did while writing it, but that's probably just me) knows that brown and green lentils each keep their shape much more while cooking, while red lentils tend to be...fall apart-ish or mushy. So a soup like the one I had picked, which intended the lentils to hold up, would not be a great choice for substituting red lentils. That being said, even though mushy, red lentils are particularly delicious- just think of your favorite lentil heavy Indian dish.

So I got home intending to find a recipe for a soup using red lentils, and most of the other ingredients I had brought home with me. This is best part, guys. I got home to find my most recent Food & Wine Magazine open on the kitchen table. I hadn't read it yet, so one of my roommates must have been looking at it there. The page it was open to? Egyptian Red Lentil Soup. Seriously. It was a sign from somewhere. And besides the ingredients I had already picked out, the only other things it called for were things I had on hand, like lemon and plain yogurt, and certain spices. Meant to be.

So I made this soup. And I ate it. And it healed me.

Egyptian Lentil Soup
From Food & Wine Magazine February 2012


Special Equipment: A large soup pot (I used my beloved Mario Batali dutch oven, which is currently on sale, FYI), an immersion blender (though if you only have a standing blender you could blend this in batches*)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, finely chopped
• 3 celery ribs, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• Salt to taste
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander 
• 1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder
• 1 pound tomatoes, seeded and diced  (I used a can of diced tomatoes. It worked out great)
•  2 cups red lentils (14 ounces)

•  Plain yogurt, lemon wedges and warm pita, for serving 

1. Start your cooking process by preparing a mirepoix-  heat the butter in the bottom of your pan, add the chopped onions and cook for a few minutes, then add chopped carrots and celery, and lastly garlic. Cook until both onions and celery become translucent and somewhat soft. About 5 minutes.

 2. Add the spices to the pot, and heat until fragrant

 3. Add the tomatoes to the pan

 4. Add the lentils and the water

 5. Simmer for 30 minutes or more, until the lentils become very soft. 
 6. Removing from heat, use your immersion blender* to blend the soup until smooth

 7. Serve with a dollop of plain yogurt and a squeeze of lemon

 

This Time Last Year

I started this blog in 2010. I am actually only a couple months from my second blogiversary. Recently I have been looking back and noticing what posts I was working on at the same time, last year.

So here is a round up of my 3 favorite posts from last January, and what I was up to then. In the future I plan from time to time to recap some favorite posts from the same month, 1 year ago, and perhaps even two years ago after my second blogiversary rolls around.

This time last year I...

...Posted a recipe for Balsamic Glazed Brussels Sprouts.  I'll have to make that again soon- the glaze was sweet and tangy and I always forget how much I love Brussels sprouts! This was early in my food blogging history, and I was much more concerned at the time about recipe ownership. Now I usually use recipes I find in cookbooks, credit the original author, and note any changes I made. Back then I made up of my recipes, which made for a more interesting process, but also a more risky one. I would have to make a recipe at least three times to work out the kinks before I could post it. It was fun and taught me a lot about cooking, actually, but turned out to be too time intensive for me in the long run.

...Started my Foyer Table Update- turning a drawer-less yellow dresser I found on the street into the table that now holds my printer, record player and records, as you can see here. I also learned while writing that post that my foyer was capable of becoming a workshop.Who knew?

...Made Seedy Snowday Cookies, using only ingredients I had on hand, while snowed in! Today it's snowing, too. I have been transfixed looking out my window all morning, it's been so long since it snowed. Who else finds the lack of snow so far this winter (not counting the freak October storm... Guys, October= fall, not winter) totally confusing? Actually, that post is one of my favorite I have written to date.

I think it's fun to revisit old posts and remind myself of the recipes I made and projects I was involved in, one year ago. I had totally forgotten that Brussels Sprouts recipe, and now I want to remake it. And actually, I could go for one of those seed-y cookies, too. I can't wait until I have multiple years of archives to look back on, it makes me wish I had started blogging sooner!

Rereading the posts also reminds me of other things going on in my life in that moment in time. Walking down memory lane after only a year is sort of funny, but thinking back to the details of last winter, remembering what I was up to, all of the minutiae of my life at that time- what was on my mind, where I spent time and with whom, the movies I saw, the dinners I made- it actually seems like a fairly long time ago. Funny, huh? So, what were all of you up to this time last year?