Cooking Adventures - Thai Noodles

At work we have a small Food Club, and each week two coworkers bring in treats for the club. This week, one of my coworkers brought in Thai Noodles. I thought it was so delicious that I asked her for the recipe and made the dish for myself tonight. The recipe is originally from Ina Garten and she calls it Crunchy Noodle Salad. I'll just keep it simple and call it Thai Noodles. I made a few adjustments to the original recipe based on what I like and what I wanted. The original recipe was really heavy on the oil, so I reduced it. The dish was still too oily for me, so I halved the amount of oil in my recipe here. Next time I make it, I might reduce it even more and maybe try a different oil, like olive oil. I think the best thing to do is to just add the oil gradually. The great thing about this dish is that it can be served both warm and cold; I prefer it warm.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup smooth/creamy peanut butter
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon ginger, dried or freshly grated
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon chili paste (Sambal Oelek), or more to taste
1/2 cup vegetable oil, more as needed
3 tablespoons toasted white sesame seeds, divided
1/2 pound spaghetti
1 14-ounce block extra firm tofu, drained, pressed, and diced in cubes
1/2 pound sugar snap peas, ends removed, and cut in pieces
1 large or 2 medium red bell pepper, cored, ribs removed, and diced
4 scallions/green onions, sliced

Directions:
1. For the dressing, combine the peanut butter, garlic, ginger, honey, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, chili paste, and vegetable oil, and 2 tablespoons of the sesame seeds in a medium bowl. Whisk until smooth. Taste, adjust seasoning if necessary, and set aside.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

3. While the spaghetti is cooking, saute the tofu in a large skillet on medium heat with a bit of vegetable oil. Cook, tossing occasionally, until the tofu browns.

4. Combine the spaghetti, tofu, sugar snap peas, bell peppers, and scallions in a large bowl. Pour half of the dressing over the spaghetti mixture. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds and toss everything together. Save the remaining dressing to top individual portions.

Down and Out

So far this has been another lazy weekend, more by force than by choice. I slept in a bit yesterday but when I eventually woke up and got out of bed, I realize that I had a terrible headache. I took a shower, made some breakfast, and had some coffee, and hoped that I would start to feel better. My head was still throbbing so I took some migraine-strength Excedrin and crawled back in bed. I managed to sleep a little bit, but it mostly felt nice just to lie down with my eyes closed. I got up later in the evening to eat some toast and to watch a little bit of TV, but then I took a Tylenol PM and went back to bed at about 9:00. I woke up this morning feeling a little bit better. Instead of feeling like I was getting kicked in the head repeatedly, it only felt like someone stabbed a spear into my eyeball. I guess that's a bit of an improvement. I had some breakfast and took some more Excedrin, and my headache is more or less gone. I still feel a bit tired and weak, but at least my head feels better.

This type of thing has always happened to me. Whenever I'm coming off of a stressful week, my body eventually shuts down and I get really bad headaches. I never get sick otherwise—I haven't had a cold or flu in about 10 years—but I do get stress headaches. I got them when I was in school and I still get them now that I'm working. This past week at work had been especially busy and stressful, so I guess I shouldn't be surprise that I got sick this weekend. I'm just sad that it happened this weekend, because this is the first beautiful weekend we've had in a long time. It's sunny and clear, and temperatures are in the 60s. Oh well. I guess the good thing about all of this is that I've been forced to relax this weekend.

Food of the Muse

I just started yet another new blog. Why? Well, just because and why not. You can never have too many blogs, apparently. My new blog, Food of the Muse, will be devoted to all things food, the ambrosia and nectar that make the Muse happy.

Naturally, being the obsessive-compulsive person that I am, I will continue to write food-related posts here, but I'll also post them on my new food blog as well. That might seem kind of stupid, but I guess if you want to look for food-related posts without weeding through all the other mundane posts, the Food of the Muse is the place to go.

Baby, It's Still Cold Outside...

Yesterday our office was closed because of the bad weather. We didn't have a blizzard and we really didn't get much snow. It did get really cold, however. Temperatures were well below zero for most of the day, and with the wind chill it felt like -25 degrees. The local school district closed the schools because of safety concerns, and, because of that, our office was also closed. Even though we have nothing to do with the school district, we have an unusual rule that if the schools are closed, most likely our office will be closed. I'm not going to argue with the logic, because it was really nice to stay in and work from home for the day. Things were still really cold and a bit icy outside, so I was happy to stay inside and off the roads.

All day yesterday, I was checking the school district's website to see if the schools would be closed. I've never been so eager for a school closing since I was a kid! Late in the afternoon, it was finally posted that the schools would be closed. And late last night, it was finally announced that our office was also closed. When I woke up this morning (after sleeping in an extra hour), the temperature was about -11, and the wind chill made things feel like -30. Temperatures, however, are going in the positive direction. We're finally at 5 degrees. Yes, that's still extremely cold, but it's the "warmest" we've been for the past few days. It's sunny and the sky is clear and blue. Temperatures will probably drop below zero again tonight, but it is supposed to warm up to the 30s tomorrow. We might get some more snow tomorrow evening, but they said that the temperatures should stay relatively "warm" for the rest of the week and into the weekend. Even 30 degrees will be a welcome relief after the past few days.

Even though our office has been closed, I've still had some work to do. So it hasn't been all fun and play for the past few days. But fortunately I've been able to take a lot of breaks between spans of work. I've been productive but much more relaxed while working. Most likely the office will be back open tomorrow. I almost feel like I'm coming off a weekend, so I don't feel ready or excited to go back in.