It's Thai Tonight: 9 '20

Last night we decided to make Thai food for dinner, using ingredientswe had on hand. A quick inventory  of what we had in our fridge, and the menu was set.  We were Chicken Pad Thai with a side of Thai Basil eggplant.

Both dishes required a lot of ingredients, so I soon had the  counters covered with small bowls of chopped veggies and greens,  backed by jars of exotic smelling spices.  I cooked  the eggplant dish first, and then kept it warm in a lidded container set in a warm water bath, while I stir fried the ingredients for the Pad Thai.

Bruce loves Pad Thai

And was more than happy to 

eat a large helping, but his real favorite was my  eggplant dish.

So, today we made a grocery run for  more fresh veggies (for tonight's Ratatoulle), and what did I find by the checkout counter, but the latest edition of my favorite cooking  magazine: 

Forks over Knives

And what was inside this issue?

You guessed! 

Pad Thai (with Tofu)  and

Thai eggplant.

The FOK version  of the eggplant dish looks prettier than my recipe (probably due to the way they chopped the ingredients), but the two recipes were remarkably similar.

(For the eggplant recipe I followed see:

https://www.cookwithmanali.com/thai-basil-eggplant/)

White Chicken Chili Dinner: 9 '20

 

I made white chicken chili for dinner tonight following this recipe ( except I used ground chicken instead of chicken breasts). Using my instant pot, it only took 30 minutes to make and tasted every bit as good as the batches I've slow cooked for hours in my crock pot. But for those of you without a instant-pot, the directions do tell you how to adapt the recipe to a slow cooker:

https://www.thereciperebel.com/instant-pot-white-chicken-chili/

Celebrating Rosh Hashanah Evening II: 9 '20

After spending the entire afternoon listening to prayers in Hebrew on a virtual Rosh Hashana service, Bruce was more than happu to participate a private celebration of Rosh Hashanah at home this evening. 

Today's celebration was similar to yesterday's

but with different foods.

I'd made a fresh loaf of Rosemary Challah

(which tasted wonderful with honey).

The main course was a Sephardic dish of chicken sofrito

( Roasted seasoned chicken thighs) )

Appertizers of Apples with honey, pomegranite, and gefilte fish,

and side dishes of 

rice with broccoli

and roasted varietal potatoes

( sweet, white and red potatoes)

Plus Apple pie for desert. 

If this High-Holiday lasted much longer,

we'd both be atoning for gluttony. 

Celebrating Rosh Hashanah 5780, First evening: 9 '20

This Friday evening marks the first night of the two day Jewish high-holiday of Rosh Hashanah 5780.   

We celebrated  the holiday with a review of the significance or its rituals,  followed by  traditional High holiday meal

I spent the day cooking traditional Jewish delicacies which included:

Apple Challah Bread 

and a loaf of  Braided Challah 

Quinioa stuffed tomatoes with goat cheese

Tzimmes

Which Bruce has  now decided is is favorite  root vegetable dish. 

( Link to recipe incuded at end of this post*)

and of course roasted lamb, honey, and and wine.

I informed Bruce that we should dress for the  evening

and he happily complied

Actually, thats not quite accurate,  

it's more like sorta complied

SIGH

Some people never change!) 

But, all things considered it was a beautiful and joyous evening.

*Tzimess recipe available at: 

 https://www.thespruceeats.com/roasted-simanim-tzimmes-4082889

Honda's a wash out: 9"20

 As a follow on to my post of September 9 about Bruce's Honda  getting stuck in a  puddle at the entrance to our street, our trusted mechanic tells us that all the electronics are ruined  and the vehicle is no longer safe to drive.  He advised Bruce to sell it for parts.  Needless to say Bruce is not a happy camper.  Even so one look at the waterline on the rear and sides of the vehicle, says just how deep the water was.

Even 5 days later there is still  standing water inside the car

Both the back and front seats are covered with muck from how high the water rose inside the vehicle.

Sadly, there is little we can do but  retrieve the few  personal items we had in the vehicle's trunk,  and start calling salvage yards to find one which will take the car from our mechanic's yard.

PI Beach Walk: 9 '20

 

Nice Day for a walk on Pawleys Island beach. Not too hot, and not too cold, with plenty of room for social distancing. BJ even had his own island all to himself. LOL..

Home-made Honey_Buttermilk Bread andRolls

 

I seem to have mastered rustic bread making, so today I decided to expand my repitoire to include a sandwich loaf bread. I used a "No fail" honey-buttermilk -bread/roll recipe. The rolls are made with the same dough the loaf but are smaller and bake for less time than the loaf. ( I mix the dough and baked both the rolls and the bread at the same time). The recipe lived up to its name,

and both the bread and the rolls came out perfect on the first try!

Bread recipe : https://www.restlesschipotle.com/buttermilk-bread/

and I used this recipe for for how instructions on how to cut the dough for rolls and how long to bake them.

https://wildwildwhisk.com/honey-buttermilk-rolls/

Honda's Flooded: 9' 20

 

Bruce's car got stuck in deep puddle caused by a low spot on one of the roads in our community. The water was deep enough it stalled the engine and flooded the interior of his car. He had to have it towed to a repair shop. Fingers crossed they can get the engine to turn over again once it dries out.

Moonflower, Queen of the Night: 9'20

 We had our first Moonflower bloom for us last night. It's blossom is larger than my hand and glowed so beautifully beside the dark entry path to our home. It is inspiring me to plant a moon garden next year by our entry- way.