Sometimes life lifts you up. Other times it drags you down. Then there are the times when life pulls on you from both directions, bestowing gifts with one hand, and punching you in the face with the other. When I think of life embodied this way, she appears to me as a boxing Kangaroo wearing a Santa Claus costume. Life isn’t necessarily cruel or benevolent, it’s just weird. Every day that weirdness takes on a new face, and we’re all strapped in to this crazy rollercoaster car together, wondering how everything will turn out in the end.
Whenever these kinds of thoughts start consuming my brain I turn the kitchen. Cooking gives me something to focus on. An evening meal is a task that I can complete and feel satisfied with. When life leaves me very little that I can control, I make soup.
This week it was Coconut Soup that helped keep me sane. My version of classic Tom Kha is vegan, gluten-free, and balls-out flavorful. I like garnishing it with fried tofu and diced sweet potato, but really, you can put just about anything in Tom Kha and it will still taste fantastic. Need a recipe?
- Simple Vegetarian Tom Kha Soup (Flip Cookbook)
- The Best Coconut Soup Ever (My New Roots)
- Southwestern Green Curry Coconut Soup (Mary Makes Dinner)
By the way, I’ll be teaching a class on Thai Cooking at Faraday’s Kitchen Store in Austin on August 17. Vegans and Gluten-Free eaters are most welcome, as are omnivores of all kinds. We’ll be making Coconut Soup, Pad Thai, and Sticky Coconut Rice. You can reserve your seat through Faraday’s website (linked above).
I found out that my tomatoes had stalled out in their growing and ripening process when temps hit 100. I harvested a huge pile of lovely green tomatoes using my gardening hat as a basket. I’m working on a baked/fried green tomatoes recipe in the kitchen this week. I plan to ripen the biggest of them, but I’d really love to lacto-ferment the cherry tomatoes. If only I could get my hands on a dill head.
Speaking of fermentation, I jarred up a batch of home fermented ginger curry saurkraut last week. It was delicious, but noone seems to want a jar. Dang picky family. I’ll just have to wait until the next food swap to share this tastiness.
Scott begged me to go see World War Z with him earlier this week. I used to love horror movies, but now they give me bad dreams and leave me feeling ill over the violent side of human nature. I know. I know. I’m a real Debbie Downer. Anyway, it was a real treat to get to look at Brad Pitt for a solid 90 minutes, but other than that the movie pretty much stunk. Scott insists that Brad Pitt is not actually a good actor, and that people only love him because he’s so so pretty. He challenged me to name one movie where I thought Brad Pitt had acted exceptionally well. I was like, uhhh, Fight Club, Seven, Legends of the Fall, and so on. He remained unconvinced. What do you think? Is Pitt a good actor or is his fame soley due to his being the sexiest man ever to live?
Photo by Scissorina via Flickr
I’m an Auntie! These tiny little fingers belong to Fox, my sister’s new baby boy. Fox is the first grandchild for my parents, and the first boy since my Dad! I come from a family of all girls, so it will be a lot of fun to watch my sisters and parents discover the magic of raising a little boy. Scott and I, on the other hand, are very familiar with boys. Fox is our fifth nephew, seventh if you count our two male god-kids, Nico and Anthony. Boys are a joy. Welcome to Austin, Fox!
I shared my recipe for Blistered Shisito Peppers in my last blog post, along with a little story about waiting. Waiting has been an ongoing theme in my life for a while now. I’ve been going through something, and until now I haven’t felt like sharing it on the blog. I can be really private about certain things, especially on the internet, but I’ve decided the time has come to open up a little bit more. I have a theory that all you blog readers might be able to send some good vibes my way to help us out.
I’ve shared the details on our little drama on my crafty/diary blog, Mary Makes Pretty. If you’d like to read about it, please check it out there. Spoilers: It involves lady parts, but not in a sexy way.