Curry Bracket Part One: Thai Curry

The Background:
So Michael asked me if I would make a few different Curry recipes so that he could find one that he liked and then I could show him how to make that one so he could have curry all the time. I agreed because it seemed like a simple, good girlfriendy thing to do for him plus I like trying to cook new things. I thought that I would make one curry dish every week or two weeks and he would pick his favorite. HE thought I would make ten different curry sauces in one day and he would pick his favorite. To compromise I came up with a Bracket Idea (playing on someone's love of Basketball) and it was a big hit. So, I am making 3 sauces at a time, they are tasted, a favorite is picked and after we do this three times there will be a championship showdown.

Michael is picking the recipes and seeding them based on the website pictures. Which brings us to . . .

Part One: Thai Curry
#1 Seed: Yellow Curry
#2 Seed: Massaman Curry
#3 Seed: Northern/Burma Curry

The #1 came out looking the most appetizing (to me) because the yellow color was quite appealing. The #2 was kind of an unappetizing dull taupe color and the #3 was a rich dark red-brown color. I figured the #3 would be the least appetizing because it did not use coconut milk (just water) or actual chilis (just powder) but in a surprising turn of events the #3 Seed came from behind to win it! The #2 stayed where it was by being quite tasty and the #1 seed went down the drain (literally) for being mostly tasteless except for an overpowering lime flavor.

Northern/Burma Curry
2 stalks lemongrass, sliced finely OR 6 Tbsp. frozen prepared lemongrass
6 cloves garlic
1/4 cup chopped galangal or ginger
2 tsp. turmeric
1 heaping tsp. shrimp paste
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. dark soy sauce
3 Tbsp. fish sauce
2-3 Tbsp. palm or brown sugar
1/2 Tbsp. tamarind paste
1 Tbsp. ground bean sauce
1 cup water

Throw everything in a food processor or blender to combine.

(I used the frozen, chopped lemongrass and the shrimp paste was left out because we couldn't find it)

Now the recipe says to put some oil in a wok and sautee one large onion then add sauce and two pounds of pork, bring to a boil then simmer covered for 20 minutes, then add like 2/3 of an eggplant, cook for 8 more minutes. (That is from memory not sure if it is totally correct)

What I did: (first I halved the recipe because that is a lot of curry for basically one person) I put the sauce in a pot with about 3/4lb. of chicken, 1/2 a large potato, and 3/4 of a bell pepper all cut into bite sized pieces. Brought to a full boil then covered and simmered for 20 minutes.

FAIR WARNING: this is VERY spicy. Michael liked it but even with rice and milk my tongue was still burning 10 minutes after I took one bite. I will be cutting down the chili powder and cayenne pepper next time.

VERDICT: Delicious

Sleepy Post

Today was a big breath of fresh air day.

Today was also the start of the new semester, what is going to be a total crap semester. In calculus this evening I learned that it is possible to be completely all over the place AND have OCD at the same time. In other words my teacher is adorable. He can't read his own notes or remember how to check his voicemail but carries the eraser with him at all times because if he doesn't like the way something looks on the board he will erase and write it over again. One thing I do like is that when he erases the board he does so completely, no extraneous marks here and there but the way he does it is so ocd. Not big sweeping motions like most people but straight horizontal or vertical lines. He is super excited about calculus too, he was upset that he ran out of time and couldn't show us the proof of the Evaluation Theorem - we don't need to know the proof but he thought it was so cool he was sad he couldn't show us.

I entered a blog contest today in which you had to admit your biggest tv shame. I admitted to liking 1 vs. 100 so much that I tivoed it while I was housesitting last year. Then later I realized that while I was at home over christmas I watched like 7 hours of John & Kate Plus 8 . . . in a row . . . and an hour of the Duggars.

Why don't people buy boxes or envelopes appropriate to the size of what you are shipping? Why did I get a box from Office Depot that was 12"x12"x16" that had four AA batteries in it? Why did I get a 12"x10"x8" box with one book in it?

Yeah, I'm sleepy. Sleepy equals random, rambling blog posts. Wish me luck with tomorrow's fun filled day of Organic Chemistry and Cellular Biology!

Charlie Bit Me

If this is not the funniest thing you've seen in a while you have something wrong with you. A british kid, a baby with a slightly maniacal laugh, and the realization that this did not go as planned... who could ask for more?

You Have Kids. I Have a Dog.

Go Fly a Kite

Guess what I haven't done in years, well up until yesterday?

Ok so we finally got to the kite store while it was open (3rd time is a charm) and it was super windy yesterday so we went and flew a kite. It went really high.



And it even worked really low...



It is a viking ship in case you are wondering. After kite flying we got lost leaving because the road out of the park was closed so we had to take this windy back way through a sketchy neighborhood of multi-million dollar gated homes but don't worry... We made it out alive.

Oh THATS why it is stupid. I never knew.

I would like to state for the record that I do not want to get into some philosophical debate for or against abortion. What I want to do is share with you the dumbest paragraph I have read in a REALLY long time.

This was on a facebook discussion forum entitled, Abortion (stupid) and this was the opening discussion topic.

"Abortion,(if you think about it) is good and bad ( Mostly bad but...). For instance it is good if an innocent women is raped and doesn't want the baby of a crook. But it is bad because this is giving an unfair chance of life. Even if the baby the survives abortion, it don't have near as many rights as one that wasn't. So, because I am a strong Christian I am going against the law."

What? When I began reading it I was annoyed by the fact that apparently John Major believes that non-innocent women who are raped must keep their babies but that is merely opinion and I stated before that I wasn't posting this to start a debate on the issue. PLUS, I didn't what kind of idiot goldmine lay ahead.

Let's repeat one of the sentences because it bears repeating: "Even if the baby the survives abortion, it don't have near as many rights as one that wasn't." Not only does this genius think that fetuses (not babies yet) survive abortions but they somehow have fewer rights than ones that weren't aborted.

I think the part that really kills me is that there were 865 responses to this comment and after scanning the first hundred or so NO ONE tell this guy he is retarded if he thinks babies survive abortions AND have fewer rights that ones that aren't aborted. Seriously people, what is the internet coming to if no one tells you that you are stupid?

On top of that his grammar is atrocious.

I am not prepared for this sort of thing.

So growing up in Santa Barbara there is something that remains constant: The Weather. You really know that it isn't going to change much and if it is going to change you usually have about two weeks notice. This is not so in Texas. In Texas (at least in my experience) no weather report is accurate more than like six hours in advance and even then you should really plan for anything. Case in point, yesterday.

At 11am I walked my dog wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops. I was hot. I contemplated turning on the AC in the house because it was warm and humid. I did use my AC while driving to school and it was very refreshing.

At 11pm, a mere 12 hours later, it was snowing. Yes, snowing.