Friday, July 31, 2009

Mostly Homemade Curries and Summer Fun

Generous Thai Curry:
One of our favorite restaurant owners in town was leaving for 10 days (closing the restaurant) and she sweetly gifted us some yummys from the kitchen to tide us over in her absence. It was so nice to be able to make Thai at home with some of her goodies. I need to talk her into giving some Thai cooking lessons because Thai food is something I can't quite seem to replicate at home. I made the Massaman Curry, but added brown rice, broccoli, carrots, and used cashews instead of peanuts. The sauce (sans fish sauce), onions, and tofu is from our friend. Now I know how they get the consistency of the tofu in the restaurant. I was also a little surprised to see that the tofu has yellow food coloring in it! Yikes! I'll just order more veggies and no tofu from now on. Even with the gifts, we can't wait for her to come back from Thailand. We adore her and always appreciate her generosity.

Revamped Local Park and Vegan Kids in Action:
A couple weeks ago, we were biking home from the Market at the Square and picked up some lunch on campus. We decided it was such a beautiful day that we should eat in a local park. Scott Park has not been one we frequent, but all that is about to change. They are finishing a complete "remodel" of the park and they have some of the coolest playground equipment around now. Above is Dema climbing on the twisty ladder. Below is Josie learning a thing or two about physics while spinning around.Parker enjoyed losing himself in imaginative play before hanging out and chatting with the adults.Dema demonstrated yet another piece of equipment which moves as you shift your body weight. I had some fun on this one myself. We'll be visiting Scott Park again soon.
Mostly Homemade Surprise Indian Curry:
I picked up a bonus CSA share this week since our friends, who we split a share with, are out of town enjoying the beach in NC (insert jealousy here). With my produce bursting out of my kitchen from our garden, CSA, and two weekly farmer's markets, I just started to saute garlic and onions and chop of vegetables with no particular plan. I do this often. I figure the "gods of the vegan kitchen" will take me in hand while I chop and send me sign of what to cook. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much, but I always feel better chopping up veggies. This particular lunch developed into crumbling tempeh with the garlic/onions, adding blackstrap molasses and some Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Still no goal, but how can one go wrong at this point. I steamed some broccoli and cauliflower while I pressure cooked the brown rice (equal amounts of rinsed brown rice and water cooked at high pressure for 20 minutes). I noticed a jar at the top of the cupboard I noticed a jar of Seeds of Change Madras Sauce.I threw everything together with the Madras Sauce, added chickpeas and soaked cashews. At the last minute, I decided to put a can of coconut milk in to cut the spiciness, but didn't really need it. The end result was tasty and the kids loved it along with the last of our frozen blueberries from the farmer's market and more Green on Green soup. Dema dipped veggie seed bread from our local health food store in his soup and I added hot sauce this time to his. I asked how he liked it with the hot sauce and he said, "I love everything about this soup!".

1 comment:

Leighann of Multi-Minding Mom said...

My daughter has always wanted to play there since it was on the way to preschool. The new equipment looks great. I only wish they would put a little fence around the playground since it borders a very busy street. Easier to keep track of my little guy that way.