[Inez] Birthday dinner, group effort: Part II

 It was Elise's birthday. We'll tell this one in pictures. 

Extra yum!

My best guess here is that this is the result of Chloe's licking confectioner's sugar off the floor. She was laying on the floor, totally stoned like this, watching us eat dinner for about ten minutes.

[Elise] Birthday dinner, group effort: Part I

I had a nice, small birthday dinner last Friday, where I got to debut my peanut sauce (something I've been tinkering with for a month or so now). A brief synopsis:

Veggies

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

5 carrots, cut into pinkie sized strips

1 large bell pepper, sliced

2 small onions thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic

Peanut Sauce

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup soy sauce

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup rice cooking wine

1 Tbsp. ginger

1 tsp. nutmeg

2 dried chilis, crusched

1 Tbsp blackstrap molasses

2 pans of veggies.

Heat two skillets to medium-high. Add enough oil to coat veggies in each. In one pan put the sweet potatoes and carrots, move them around to coat in oil, then let them sit for five minutes to brown on one side before stirring. In the other, saute the onions and bell pepper. After the five minutes are up stir the orange veggies and add garlic to the onion-pepper mix. Season both to taste (I used basil, nutmeg and salt). Now, move the orange veggies around every few minutes, if it's taking them too long to soften up you can add a little bit of water and cover, but I like them on the crunchier side. After about 10 minutes add the onions-pepper mix to the orange veggie mix. Turn the heat to low and move around every few minutes while everything else finishes up.

Lots of sauce.

Start by putting the heat on medium-low. Start with the peanut butter and one of the liquids (I like to start with the wine or the soy sauce). It will start a little clumpy until the peanut butter starts to melt, and then it should get pretty smooth. Once smooth add another liquid, and stir slowly until smooth again. Repeat with the third liquid. Once all the liquid is mixed in I add the spices and keep the heat on low until the noodles are ready.

Lots of noodles.

In a large stew pot (much larger than the one we tried to start with shown below). I cooked up a package of Pad Thai noodles. They were supposed to soak for 30 minutes before boiling for 5 minutes. Having not noticed this 30 minutes before needing to start the noodles, we got a pot big enough to hold the noodles without breaking them up, and then covered with enough water, brought to a boil, and cooked for maybe 7 minutes. This worked out just fine.

It is so satisfying using all four burners at once.

Putting it all together!

I drained the noodles, rinsed them under cold water to keep them from sticking to each other, and put them back in the big pot. Added all the veggies, all the sauce, mixed and served! Topped with peanuts I crushed while waiting for the noodles to boil.

Yum!