Vegetarian Curry

I made vegetarian curry in the crockpot Thursday morning, so we ate it Thursday night. We didn't have celery (we never have celery--I strongly dislike celery), vegetable broth, or plain yogurt, so I put onions in it instead (onions belong in almost everything) and substituted beef broth and sour cream. I also added some green peppers (they, too, go in most anything) and skipped the peas (Ryan didn't seem to excited about them). We didn't get home until 8ish, so we didn't bother with rice or naan, but we did have bread that I'd made earlier in the day. So, no, I didn't exactly follow the recipe (surprise!), but I would like to note that this recipe basically says it doesn't need to be followed (at least the vegetable list). It was good, but not amazing. It has gotten better with age, however. And rice. Rice makes it better.

Indian Spiced Chicken

Thursday afternoon, I went to Costco with another grad student who has a membership. While there, I purchased a 3 lb. bag of dried apricots for less than $7. I also purchased two gallons of milk for $5.39 (the cheapest it is anywhere else in town is $7.50/two gallons), but that's not relevant to this story. Ryan was excited when I got home because we could put the apricots in Moroccan Vegetable Stew (about which we shall have to report another time). Then we remembered that we had once made this recipe using apricots instead of raisins, and it was really good. So we made it again tonight, except that we made the rice separately, skipped the baking step, and therefore the phyllo dough, used sour cream instead of plain yogurt (somehow, I don't think raspberry yogurt would be a good substitute for plain, and I was wary of using vanilla), cut the chicken into tiny pieces instead of as described, used ground ginger instead of fresh, and didn't really bother to measure anything. It was really good, and the point of this post was not so much to inform you of that as to document the location of the recipe for ourselves so I don't have to search for it every time. However, it's very easy (at least, when you do it our way), very tasty, and makes really good leftovers.

Indonesian Peanut Sauce Chicken

We decided to try this recipe before we realized that it called for chili sauce, which we didn't have, so we went to Albertsons to pickup some. There were only a couple of options so we got a hot one from the Asian food isle and a mild one next to the BBQ sauce. When we checked out the expensive one rang up wrong so we got it for free. The recipe we have wanted us to cook the chicken pieces whole for 20 minutes, but that would have taken too long, so we treated it like a normal stirfry and cut the chicken into little pieces and cooked it without any oil for about 5 or 6 min (until it's done). Oh we had onion and red peppers in there too. Once the chicken was cooked we took it out and put in crunchy peanut butter and chili sauce (about equal amounts) stirring constantly and adding water in small amounts until the peanut butter is all melted and the whole thing is boiling. After that we added the chicken back in just in time for the rice to be done.



The chopsticks are authentic southeast Asian utensils (a wedding present from Pierce Baehr out of Papua New Guinea). This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Beef Peapods and Friends

We really enjoyed this last night and the leftovers for lunch today. It probably would have been a little better if we had cooked the onions and red and green peppers in a separate skillet, but it was easier this way and still excellent (the difference would have been in less mushy more flavorful peppers). To thicken the sauce we used flour instead of corn starch which worked out well. Next time I think I would like to flavor the beef with a Korean BBQ sauce (sugar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil).

Beans and Rice

Last night we had a staple meal that we both love, black beans with rice. We usually warm the beans out of a can to save time. Rebekah chopped and added red and green peppers to the beans as well as some spices (cumin and chili powder) and green salsa. The rice and beans get mixed together when we serve as well as the optional/to taste ingreedients:

• Cheese (cheedar and/or pepper jack)


• More salsa (usually chipolte)


• Sour cream


• Salt

This morning I am making waffles for Rebekah. I have to go wake her up now (I think I will let mobius do most of the work).