Books Books Books: Simple Thai Food by Leela Punyaratabandhu

I'm finally getting back into the book reviewing! I'm excited and hopefully you are too! Here goes my first book review back from my time off. :P

When I was in high school, we had a foreign exchange student come and visit from Thailand. Until then, I had never really been exposed to the Thai culture, all I knew was they had elephants and spicy food. My foreign exchange brother, as my sister and I called him, had a dream of someday opening his own restaurant, which of course led to him cooking for us once or twice. He also found a delicious restaurant in Milwaukee where we ended up going several times throughout his stay that served authentic Thai food. I think it was at that point that I fell in love with Thai cuisine. Nearly eight years later, this cookbook has fully renewed that love for Thai food.

Leela Punyaratabandhu has done an amazing job with bringing out the beauty and subtle complexity that Thai food offers. As soon as I opened the book, I was struck by the colorful pictures and ended up paging through the book first just to see the bright colors of the food that I could not wait to cook in my own kitchen. Her descriptions of each dish at the start were funny and felt homey at the same time, with a friendly voice to the narrations and optional American alternatives that make each dish more available to those of us unable to order completely authentic ingredients.

As with many different authentic cuisine books, some of the ingredients were a bit more on the pricy side, so for people on a limited budget it is a bit more difficult. It also is not a cookbook that is friendly towards certain dietary restrictions, just as a forewarning. Another thought to be noted is that this cookbook is not for those looking for a quick meal; the recipes are complicated and require several ingredients that most households would not normally have in order to attain the unique Thai flavors. However, the aroma that filled my apartment as I tried my hand at Leela's recipes is one that will bring your friends and neighbors knocking to try a taste.

I hope that you get the opportunity to try out some of these recipes, which I will be posting a few of my own vegetarian alterations as well as possibly some chicken recipes as soon as I get my act together.

Love,
Sara :)

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

Spicy Thai Noodles

It's been a while since I've had the time to sit down and make a meal. Since moving, my apartment mate, Morgan, and I have found ourselves in a bit of a conundrum. We have quite different work schedules which lead her to leave the apartment by 6:45am and get back after school gets out, but due to her early morning she is in bed pretty early (by my standards). I, on the other hand, get done with work much later and by the time I get home Morgan is getting ready for bed. Suffice to say, we hardly ever eat dinner together.

However, this month we are home together for dinner two nights during the week, which is awesome! This lead us to think about making food, which is something that I enjoy doing (when time permits) and she enjoys as well. So, what did we do this past Tuesday night? Wine and cooking! It was great!

We found this recipe on Pinterest (as do so many people) and connected to a clog called A Small Snippet. It's pretty cool, and we used this recipe with a few adjustments of our own, so enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 box linguine pasta (we used whole grain cause it's yummy)
1 tbsp. crushed red pepper flakes (unless you are actually Thai, I would not recommend adding more than that, it's quite spicy!)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sesame oil
6 tbsp. honey
6 tbsp. soy sauce
toppings (we used carrots, but couldn't find peanuts at our grocery store...fail)

Directions:
1. Cook noodles according to directions until al dente. Drain.
2. Heat both oils and crushed red pepper over medium heat un a small pan for about 2 minutes. During this time the red pepper will infuse into your oil mixture making it hotter. After, make sure to strain out the red pepper flakes, you can leave a few more in if you want some extra heat, but that's kinda crazy.
3. Into your oil mixture, whisk in your honey and soy sauce.
4. Toss mixture together with the noodles and refrigerate.
5. Slice up your carrot or peanuts or whatever topping(s) you have chosen.

They will keep for a few days, you can eat them cold or warm, and serve with milk and enjoy!

I had to add in a picture with our glasses because I think they are super fun and cute with the polka dots :)

What did you guys think? Worth trying? I think for sure! What types of food should we try next?
Also, as a hint, red wine does not really go with spicy food, so make sure to have milk with these noodles to help with the spicy-ness.

Love,
Sara :)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

So when I decided to make these muffins this morning, the only thing I realized I didn't have were milk chocolate chips (who'd of thought?!) and the pumpkin purée. The chocolate chips were easy enough to find, but the pumpkin purée proved to be harder to find. I went to four different grocery stores before I found a can of pumpkin purée. Sigh....how was it so hard? Apparently, it has been a bad year for pumpkins.
Anyways, pumpkin purée problems aside, there's a fall recipe that I want to share with you all! I haven't had goo luck with muffin recipes in the past, but this one actually turned out really well, so I'm excited!! I'm writing this as I watch a marathon oh 'The Haunted' on Animal Planet. This recipe is for a batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, which a perfect not only for fall but for Halloween because of their orange and black coloring!

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup canned puréed pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400F and grease a muffin tin for 12 muffins.
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk,  oil and pumpkin until smooth.
Fold in your chocolate chips. Use as many as you want, depends how chocolaty you want your muffins to be!
Scoop evenly into your muffin tin. (For this you can also use smaller muffin slots if you want, it's up to you and depends how many muffins you want to make.)
Bake for 20-30 minutes.
Best when they are warm, but delicious no matter what!

For me, this recipe made 12 good sized muffins.

I am sorry that my grammar has been going badly over the past few posts, that's what I get for typing on an iPad instead of my computer and for not double checking my work after...apologies!

Love,

Sara :)

Beans and Barley

I have been looking around for a nice cafe in the Milwaukee area that is great for vegetarians, such as myself. For my upcoming grad party (Sunday! Scary!), we found a place called Beans and Barley where who specialize in vegetarian and vegan meals. Don't panic, you meat-lovers, there is chicken offered there as well. Located in Milwaukee on 1901 E North Avenue, this restaurant also doubles as a deli where you can buy delicious and healthy food or order catering or pick up containers of food for your next party.

The restaurant is very neat, with an open feel to it and a friendly atmosphere presented by friendly staff who know the food and drinks like the back of their hand. I will share with you what I had to eat there because it really made a lasting impression on me! There are pictures to accompany my review. I'm feeling organized today :D

They have a good assortment of teas and smoothies, as well as espressos, coffees, ciders, and juices. However, unlike most restaurants, they only carry root beer, lemon lime soda, and ginger ale as far as soda is concerned. I tried the Citron Oolong tea and it was quite good.

Moving on to dinner itself, I had one of the most delicious burritos I've had in a long time. When I first looked at the menu, this item caught my eye and when the waitress was recommending food, this one came up as having a following of customers. It sounded like a good choice so I chose the Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burrito. OMG! If you ever go to Beans and Barley, this is something that you HAVE TO TRY, assuming you like black beans, sweet potatoes, guacamole, corn, and rice. It was absolutely delicious! You could taste every aspect of the burrito and it was filling but healthy so I didn't feel bad eating nearly the entire thing, along with all the nacho chips and salsa on my plate. I highly recommend this dish! I am thinking of trying to replicated this dish sometime...when I get a handle on cooking...

As soon as I saw the desert menu I knew that I couldn't leave without trying some dessert. So, between my parents and I, we ordered a slice of Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie and a Mango Smoothie. These were also both well worth getting. The pie was interesting because instead of dicing up the rhubarb, they actually left it in large chunks but cooked it down enough so that it was not bitter much at all and was quite sweet, tasting more of strawberries. The Mango Smoothie was a combination of mango, banana, and mango juice and tasted as such.

Summary: I recommend anyone who is in the Milwaukee area to try out the restaurant or at least some of their food when you get the chance :) It is completely worth it!

Also, sorry for being absent lately, I'm working on a very strange schedule that involves overnight shifts three nights a week while working days and planning for a grad party with over 50 people on Sunday and trying to find more jobs, and thinking about moving and yea....it's getting kinda crazy, and I was under the impression that things got easier after college. That would be a no go my friends! It's just as complicated and crazy, if not more so in the real world. I find myself already missing that college bubble I had...

Love,

Sara :)

Purchase from Amazon

I officially have a job as of now (yay!), it's not exactly what I've been wanting, but I won't complain too much because I've been trying to find another and it's quite difficult to get hired around here apparently... Anyways, it's an income. I made my first purchase of things I don't need but really want this past week and I wanted to share with you these things! I should add that both of these purchases are from Amazon.

The first thing I got was a complete set of the six movie series starting in 1934 called The Thin Man. I saw this movie for the first time this past semester and loved it! I would encourage all of you who enjoy witty banter, mystery, and humor to watch at least the first in this series. That's my favorite one! I also got an extra DVD in the set which is one where the dynamic relationship between the two main characters (who are Mr. and Mrs. Nick and Nora Charles) and follows the careers of each actor. Loving this set, it was worth the purchase!

                                          

The second item I purchased was a espresso maker. I have a close friend back at college who used this to make some espresso over the past semester and when it was done right and with good beans, it was quite delicious. It's a simple little device that simply requires you to put water in the bottom and then add a little funnel with coffee grinds. The top section is added next, and acts as a sort of teapot, holding the hot coffee mixture. Once together, the pot is placed on the stove and as the water boils it absorbs the coffee grinds and somehow makes its way all the way up to the top part where you will end up with your coffee! It's it cute! It's pretty handy :)
Now, anyone who knows me knows that I wasn't a big coffee drinker before college and I'm still not really big on it now. But when it' made right it can be delicious, plus I was watching Brunch with Bobby, on Cooking Channel, and he had a recipe that involved using this to make lattes and mochas, which in my opinion also made this a worthy purchase. Once I get around to giving this a try I will let you know how it ends up going!

                                       

What do you guys think? Any suggestions for other things to save up for? I am saving up to move out of my parents' basement hopefully within the next 6-8 months also, so that will be exciting once it happens!

Love,

Sara :)