"The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way atoms are put together. The cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff; we are a way for the cosmos to know itself." - Carl Sagan
Pasta is a frequent meal at our house. Its cheap, good, and easy to make a variety of it. This dish was originally made for us by Ryan's brother Rodney while he was visiting us last year. He cooked up some smoked sausage and diced green peppers, added the sauce, then cooked bowtie pasta. He let it all simmer for about 10 minutes. I loved it! I have made it quite often ever since.
This time I added mandarin oranges to the mix, a recommendation from Rodney. I didn't have bowtie pasta, but any will do, and spaghetti was what I had on hand. This is my favorite twist on pasta sauce.
PS...a few days ago my friend Jen, a vegetarian, came over and made a sauce using zuchini, yellow squash, and green bell peppers. This was great as well!
This past Sunday our neighbors came over and we introduced them to the lovely drink now pretty well known: a Mojito. While enjoying the refreshing drinks I entertained them with the following instructional video featuring my family. If you have seen this, then here is another chance to enjoy, and if you haven't seen it, then I hope you have fun. It really does teach you how to make a delicious Mojito, but it also shows what a day in the life is like back home @ my parents' place in Utah.
So, I love a good, refreshing iced tea. Arizona's brands are delicious, except I really do not care for the high fructose corn syrup that they put in them. So because of that and the fact that making your own tea is significantly more affordable, I decided to come up with a way to make my own.
I simply brewed some green tea, and figured about 1/4 of local honey (here it is orange blossom, naturally) added to it would do it right, and it did. So there you go...make your own "Arizona" green tea with honey (I guess you could add ginseng if you want, but that stuff makes me twitch!) and enjoy the remaining days of summer, which for us in Florida is about another 2 months. ;)
Ok, so, a staple most everyone loves is also one of my favorite quick fix meals: grilled cheese. There are two 'trick's I recommend to everyone that will get you the best results.
1) Use olive oil - I heat my pan slightly, drop a bit of olive oil, just enough to dip one side of each slice of bread into it, lightly covering the side you'll be cooking. This makes the bread crispy and flavored nicely. It cooks faster than butter or margarine, and is much better for you.
2) Use multiple flavors of cheese, and have fun with it! Its best to use cheese that melts quickly if you can, because the bread will cook pretty fast at medium heat. If however your cheese isn't melted all the way, pop the sandwich in the microwave after it has been grilled...just long enough to melt the cheese but not to make the bread soft.
The sandwhich I made had a shredded italian mix, a small amount of smoked gouda, and some horseradish cheddar. The horseraddish gave it a great kick...I love some heat, and this gives just the right amount where you still get to enjoy the food.
I love making curries. They are easy and amazingly delicious. While I primarily will make Indian curry, Thai makes a nice alternative for 'curry night'. Many people think of the simple cumin curry when they hear the word "curry", but in all actuality a curry is a type of dish with food in a sauce, kind of like a thick stew, typically served over rice. There are many curry recipes. Curries from India typically are tomato based, heavily seasoned, usually with cumin, are served with Basmati rice, while curries from Thailand are coconut based, seasoning includes lemongrass and ginger, and served over sticky rice. There is an Indian curry that bridges with Thai, a coconut curry called Korma, which is one of my favorites. I will post that someday soon for sure.
Today I worked on a Thai Red Curry. I had two different sources for flavoring the coconut milk, one being the standard red curry paste that you can find at your grocery store, and the other being a packet of dried herbs I got in St Augustine at Old Spice Traders. You can get the seasoning packet online, along with the special rice I used, a green bamboo flavored sticky rice.
Thai Red Curry typically has potatoes, various colored red bell pepper slices, choice of meat or tofu. I didn't have anything on hand but tofu and chick peas, which I consider my "curry staple" since that mix goes great in every curry I have tried. I also added green peas to the red curry, which added a little more flavor and was quite yummy.
To make the curry with the dried herbs I used 2 tsp of the powder, 1 tsp olive oil, stirred to a paste, then added half a can of coconut milk (the other half was used for the store bought paste). I simmered this for an hour to get the flavors to mix together. Then I added my 'curry staple' of tofu, chick peas, and green peas, simmering for 20 minutes, then served over the sticky rice.
The image above is of the curry I made with the standard paste, the one to the right with my spice packet. Both were great, but the one made with the spice packet seemed to have a little more kick, which Ryan and I prefer.
Zelda is sleeping in way late this morning, so I am going to take advantage of this and catch up on my blog. She is so cute, she stayed up watching the third Star Trek movie with us, eventually falling asleep toward the end although she tried to fight it. (I know, I'm actually watching Star Trek now…Shauna, I know you are proud ;) ) The cat also decided to sleep next to her…see how sweet:
Ok, so anyway, I've been wanting to write about my last little trip. My mom flew out on June 12 so she could watch Zelda while Ry & I went to a few shows in Miami. It was great to see my mom, she is looking good, and I know the trip was good for her. The drive wasn't too bad…about 3 hours. Our hotel was on the beach in North Miami Beach, right between the TrumpTowers. No…it wasn't as posh as Trump, but the beach was so nice I could have stayed in a shack and have been just as happy. The weather was gorgeous, little rain in the afternoon that kept any insane heat at bay. The ocean water was a stunning turquoise, like the Keys, but unlike the Keys there were beaches to hang out on. Zelda was still a bit intimidated by the water, but she loved to try out every seat in every cabana, and wash the sand off her feet using the little sprayers.
She and my mom had a great time while Ry & I were at our shows. The resort we were at was very family oriented, so they always had something going on. There was almost always live music, which Zelda adored. She would go right up to the band to be able to dance. My mom even got hit on by a Cuban guy asking her to dance, too. Wish I was there!
Speaking of the Cubans…going to Miami was the first time I took a trip in Florida when I actually felt like a tourist, as in I didn't feel like I was in Florida. Very few people spoke English as their primary language. I really enjoyed the rich cultural difference. It was refreshing. We found an awesome Cuban restaurant nearby the hotel, one frequented by locals, and it was amazing.
So our first night Ry & I headed out to see The Cure in Sunrise/Ft Lauderdale. I was so blown away from their performance. Having recently come from Duran Duran, a band of about the same age, I was expecting a similar show…enjoyable, fun, but good enough to see once and be happy with it. I didn't expect to have the band full of energy that reminded me of seeing Placebo back in the day. They filled the whole arena with it. Robert Smith's voice was as clear and beautiful as can be. The music spoke with its own aura. Their opening act, 65daysofstatic, was quite impressive as well. After this show I definitely plan on going to see The Cure as often as possible. I'm so glad I actually had a chance to catch them this time around.
A camera phone pic of The Cure from our first seats...we eventually moved lower because the people around us were lame and sat down through the entire show
The next day we drove down to SouthBeach and I was immersed in memories from Grand Theft Auto 3: ViceCity. I'm glad I wasn't driving, as I had impulses to ram into lights, buildings, and honk @ the hoes. ;) I love that game, heh heh! We stopped off at Escondido which was an area that was highly Spanish influenced, even more than the rest of the town. It was gorgeous, but not wanting to spend money we left after walking around a bit, heading back to enjoy our resort. Later that evening Ryan and I took the bus back down to SouthBeach, enjoying the variety of architecture and different neighborhoods.
We then got to enjoy a wonderful show from Eddie Izzard, who was brilliant as ever, and who made a sure point in a tactful way that red-neck ignorant Americans need help ;) ha ha…even though that was just a little snippet, the rest of his act delved into daisy eating dinosaurs, the insanity of Moses and that his followers believed in a guy who talked to a burning bush, followed him from a desert to another desert, staying for decades…to the ridiculous fashion of the length of words in latin....believe me he made it work. A definite must see, I will so go to him again if the chance arrives.
Walking around South Beach @ night, we almost got hit several times, it was crazy, as was our bus ride back to the hotel which took half as long as the bus ride previously, since they were going twice the speed limit and had run some red lights. I felt like I was getting my just rewards for running people down and stealing buses in Grand Theft Auto. Karma! ;) We enjoyed the beach @ night, then the next morning the water was as still as a lake, which made for a wonderful end to a great little vacation.
My mom stayed a few more days, and it was not long enough…never is. Zelda had a wonderful time and easily recognizes who Grandma is now. Hopefully we'll all get to visit again soon….I'm trying to make a way to come out to SaltLake again this year.
I've been craving going back to Miami since leaving. I just really enjoy going places that are exiting and tropical at the same time. Every time I see the sign on I95 showing how many miles to Miami, I think how awesome it would be to get some girls together and stay a weekend in South Beach. I'm going to start saving up for that very idea, and any of you ladies reading this that want to join in, you should! It would be a blast!
Ok, now that I've gotten that down, I'm going to go wake Zelda up before she sleeps through half the day. What a cutie.
Zelda is now taking a nap, prior to which we were dancing and singing Karaoke Goldfrapp & Muse. Zelda loved it so much that she was giving me kisses and hugs during the songs. She is so awesome.
LOST season finale was amazing...ran through all emotions, completed some circles and opened more doors...love that show!
Not surprised Hilary is going to conceed, but I am surprised I feel a bit bummed about that. Perhaps I cared more about it than I thought, perhaps its just pms.
I'm so getting into plants...my backyard is going to be an awesome oasis. So far I have some hibiscus, birds of paradise, butterfly bush, avocados, queen palms, and other goodies. I'm expecting even more plants in a few weeks...my back yard was naked when we moved in so we couldn't have enough.
I almost called this little entry 'musings', but I'm not that silly
This blog is a way for me to share with whomever reads whatever it is I'm thinking of at the moment. Life, profound and mundane. Nothing specific. Could be family, spirituality, something I'm working on, stories, poems, experiences, fangirling, thoughts on this or that...I think you get the idea. Consider it a part of a long discussion we are having. Please join along.
