Peanut Sauce Stir Fry

Tonight, I made a stir-fry with chicken, pea pods, red peppers, onions, and a moderately homemade peanut sauce. I attempted the walk the fine line between documenting the cooking process and setting off Calli's smoke detector (again).

Here's a close-up of my pretty quasi-mise:

...and the peanut sauce looking fairly unappetizing:

Basically, I combined curry powder, peanut butter, milk (not coconut milk, unfortunately. The grocery store I went to didn't have any!?!) and white vinegar.
I promise, when everything came together it was tasty.


Just LOOK at it!



deeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious.

Tuesday Notes from the Road

What? The road?

Yeah, I'm out of Madison for the week. It's a little strange traveling again, and I have a hunch that it's not going to last for very long. For this week, anyway, I'm up in Black River Falls doing some archaeology with Norm, Susan, Rodney and Kevin. Here are some things we found/saw/learned today:

1. Surprising nobody, I got sunburned.
1a. Despite my best efforts, glove tans are probably not going to ever get cool.
2. A bunch of taconite pellets in a fill off the side of the road.
3. More evidence against my skill as a word creator - after seeing a jeep/truck mutt thing at the diner during lunch, my suggestions of either 'treep' or 'juck' were...not received well.
4. The Holiday Inn Express in Black River Falls has 17 steps, which is bad, and eight (8!) pillows in my room. That's good.
5. The Orange Moose Bar and Grill has a piano! I never find pianos on the road - it would be fun to go over there and play some night. Unfortunately, I tried it briefly and...nope. It's not anywhere near being in tune.


I'll end with this gem of a song:

Feasting on the Lake

Sunday, my roommate Greg graduated. In honor of this momentous event, I was given a blank check and complete control over the party menu. I had spent the week before getting the menu lined up and fairly planned out, and looking back at the party...it was as close to perfect as we could have hoped. The food turned out really well, everybody was really happy for/proud of Greg, and the weather was sublime. I was pretty anxious about cooking for the party - did I get enough food? Did I pick the right food? Would I be able to make the food well, and would people enjoy it?

Historically, when I've planned things like this, they've tended to, ah, not go all that well. From all sorts of hare-brained schemes with Joe to the ill-fated "Green Man Group" performance in French class to carving a chicken in the extended stay hotel in Green Bay this year, I have a history of not executing my plans as well as I imagine them.

But Sunday was different. Everything worked. Here is the menu that we enjoyed:
Appetizers:
Shrimp Ceviche
Guacamole
Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
Artichoke Dip
Smoked Salmon Spread
Caprese Salad Skewers

Entrees:
Tequila Lime Chicken
Mahi Mahi with Mango Pineapple Salsa
Vegetable Kabobs with an Herb Garlic Marinade
Garlic Chili Grilled Shrimp

The entrees were served right off the grill, with a bed of rice available if people wanted it.

Dessert:
Summer Fruit marinated in White Wine and Mint

You can see pictures from the day and also from a a sunday afternoon two weeks ago here. One of the things about the menu that I really enjoyed was that I bought probably 90% of the food in the produce section or from the fish guy at copp's. None of it was pre-prepared, unless you count me cooking at 2:30 sunday morning.

What really made the day perfect was Alissa calling me at 6ish and inviting me to Cosi to help her eat s'mores - that, I believe, is going to deserve it's own post however. Some issues arose focusing on proper cooking treatment of marshmallows!