Fish Sticks

A article about a study where scientists are surprised that fish can distinguish shapes and colors from the New York Times. Duh. Oh and by the way fish can definitely feel pain as well. Thanks.

Pizza It

We made a pretty hot pizza last night with cabbage and thinly sliced red potatoes. Also on hand was some fresh rosemary and Teese from Chicago Soydairy. Put all that on top of a whole wheat beer crust and well - I wish I had taken a photo so it would've lasted longer.

Credit is due to my friend's new pizzaria Fame Du Lupo for the potato on pizza idea. Also to Silvio's Organic Pizza in Ann Arbor, Michigan that lists cabbage as a topping although I was too chicken to try it there. I wish I had because it was pretty darn good.

Dress It.

Recently I have been working like a madwoman on winter hats - as in I have 32 to make this week - but as the stars align I ended up reading in my Daily Bite about Vaute Couture's vegan outerwear. I would love to expand and become as successful as they appear to be. I think they are also located in Logan Square - who knew!

All that to share with you a really great reason from their blog not to wear wool.

Bring it.

My aunt just brought me (1) butternut squash, (2) huge spaghetti squash, (2) onions and about (10) pounds of wild oyster mushrooms. Yes. 10 pounds.

So tonight is sauteed oyster mushrooms with spaghetti squash : ).

Shoe it again.

These and These are also rad.

Shoe It.

The shoe bug is biting. Hard. I want these boots!! On sale at Vegan Essentials now... need to sell some hats...

Peanut Sauce

So I promised about four and a half months ago to post a recipe from Thailand. Well here we go. I am going to give you an easy one for now - easy for me to explain and post that is. I know you can buy this in a jar. But it tastes so good made at home...

Peanut Sauce

Raw peanuts
Oil
Red curry paste (I had to use my trusty stand-in siracha)
1 quite ripe tomato (medium or two smaller plum), chopped
Coconut milk
Sugar
Soy sauce (light and dark)
Lime juice or vinegar

Remove all skins from peanuts. In a wok on very high heat stir around peanuts (one soup spoon full for this recipe only, more if you need to roast peanuts) until they are well roasted (brown... not burnt). Set aside. Or now that I think of it you could probably just use a soup spoon full of un-salted peanut butter as well...

Anyway now that your peanuts are roasted in the same super-hot wok add one soup spoon of oil and fry one half of same spoon full of red curry paste (or siracha to taste) and the chopped tomato. Turn down the heat a little and fry until the paste is fragrant stirring frantically all the while. Add three soup spoons of coconut milk and one soup spoon of your roasted peanuts. Add one soup spoon of sugar, one of light soy sauce and a half of the dark soy sauce. Keep stirring! Now watch the consistency and add three more soup spoons of coconut milk. If it is still quite thick you may add soup spoons of water one at a time. Keep stirring for five minutes - the peanuts and tomato break down to make a rich and glossy sauce. Right at the end add one soup spoon of lime juice.

It helps if you imagine a cute Thai lady yelling faster!! as you stir and toss in ingredients.

Enough sauce for dipping spring rolls or what have you for two people.

Notes:

The soup spoon I am referring to is like one you would get at an Asian restaurant when ordering soup. All recipes I picked up in Thailand from our cooking class measure simply in bowls and soupspoons. It's great for doubling up recipes to feed two (since everything we cooked was for a single serving) and you can use one spoon for the whole recipe.

I have been able to find light soy sauce here in the states but not the dark. So I just use a combination of regular old kikkoman or san-j soy sauce along with the light in these recipes.