Whew! I barely made this one.
My internal calendar broke this week. I knew without a doubt that the recipe this week was the onion rings, and I had made peace with skipping them since it's kinda hot and we don't have air conditioning (so turning on the oven isn't so appealing). Then Peggy posted about these noodles last night and I thought "Peggy's confused about what the recipe is this week." Never occurred to me that I could be confused (which is ironic since I'm confused most of the time).
A quick check of the Craving Ellie in My Belly website confirmed that there's nothing wrong with Peggy's memory. Mine however, not so good.
Since everyone raves so much about this recipe, I wanted to make it, but I was out of peanut butter, snap peas, snow peas, fresh ginger, limes, peanuts... And I was DETERMINED to make the actual recipe this week, not some hybrid aberration that is food on a plate but that's where the similarity to the recipe ends. So, even though I am beyond busy at work this week, at lunchtime I left the office, left campus and headed to Whole Foods. I'm sure people who saw me there thought I had won one of those contests where you get to run through the store and grab everything you can in five minutes. I resisted the urge to run all of the red lights and stopped by the house (wouldn't you know practically everything I bought had to be refrigerated), waking the cat from her nap with the same take-no-prisoners ninja attack technique that had startled so many at Whole Foods. Rush back to work and settle in my office as if I had been there all along.
When I got home from work, I decided that I would nix the steaming of the vegetables and would instead boil them briefly in the pasta water. Otherwise, I made the recipe EXACTLY as Ellie wrote it. I know, I was shocked too. Well, I did double the sauce and use fusilli instead of spaghetti and use a full pound of pasta (the bag ripped and it all fell in the pot) and add lime zest but it was EXACTLY the same as the recipe.
Things were going well until I turned on the food processor and somehow, soy sauce and peanut butter sprayed out of it ON TO THE CAMERA. Primal scream, drop everything, clean clean clean. Cooking is so relaxing.
M. walked in the door just as I had plated the serving for the photo and was thrilled that we weren't eating leftover lentil chili again. Really, I could have given him cereal and I think he would have been happy. But he loved this, and even had seconds. In fact he ate so much, he turned down chocolates after dinner. That's how good it was. It made a ton of leftovers, and I'm glad, because you can dress this one up with grilled portobello mushrooms, chicken, fish, shrimp, or tofu.
Thanks go out to Beth at Supplicious for choosing this wonderful recipe for us. And of course to Peggy, for being my reminder of what week it is.
13 comments:
Hahaha, I love the mixup!! This recipe ticked all the boxes for me: lots of veggies, pasta, easy to make and tasty too!! On to next weeks onion rings!
Phew! I'm exhausted reading about the ordeal in prep. of cooking the recipe. You went to great lengths and it sure is a good thing it turned out to your liking. Sorry about your camera. Maybe the spots would have created some really cool looking effect.
haha, I am glad you were able to make this one! Don't you hate it when you just know you are 100% right, and then it turns out you couldn't have been more wrong.
Also, I love the image of you running through the whole foods like a maniac reminiscent of some super market sweep!! :) Remember that one?
-Sara/imafoodblog
I've actually been craving peanut noodles lately, I can't wait to try this. I check out Ellie's book from the library and have renewed it once already, which I think means I like it enough to buy it!
Great post! I'm glad you got to make this one and that it was very much enjoyed! My FP sprayed out the PB and soy sauce, too. Luckily, my camera was hiding somewhere else!
Looks delicious and quick! I love broccoli and peanut sauce!
I'm glad you made it for this!!
Haha great post. That's part of the reason I never take process shots. I'd probably drop the camera in a pot or the KA mixer. Glad you guys enjoyed the recipe!
This is so something I would make and love. Thanks for sharing!
LOL - I could almost hear your internal scream as stuff sprayed onto the camera. I coated mine with dough by grabbing it with grubby hands on the weekend - thought the camera was hungry, I did. What a wonderful sounding dinner - I love Asian flavours, so I am soooooo there with this one.
I loved reading your account of the midday provisions "run" (literally!) And boy, isn't it great that it was worth it? Love the recipes where you can leave it as is or dress it up. Great job with this one.
so good you turn down chocolate? That must be a good recipe!
LOL @ "cooking is so relaxing"
I have found that sometimes the blogging aspect of cooking can be a challenge. Trying to get things to look right in the picture, remembering to take said picture, spilling things on the laptop, splattering things on the camera... all good times :)
Glad I'm not the only one who does the mid-day run for ingredients. Luckily there is a fridge at work I can stash food it. I really loved this, glad you did too!
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