You will need:

• 2 small cans or 1 jumbo can of baked beans (I like the kind with bacon and onion in it)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 cup of raw pork, cubed (I like the stewing kind)
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 T garlic, minced
• 4 T olive oil
• 1 t seasoned salt
• 1/8-1/4 cup brown sugar
• One slow cooker/crockpot

Step one: put the raw pork, onion, garlic, olive oil, ketchup, apple cider vineagar, salt, and brown sugar(until it tastes barbeque-ey and not too sour or salty…alternatively, you could use BBQ sauce but I never have any on hand and it always comes out tasting strange after the slow cooking) in the crock pot on high for at least 4 hours.

In any case, some people (my mother among them) have been bugging me for a good Thai Green Curry recipe.  Today, I finally have one (it’s actually kind of a riot how much more authentic my Thai food is now that I’m back in the states and am concentrating on making it good…in Thailand I’d just throw whatever I had into a pot with some curry paste.)

And putting my lazy cooking aside, here is what you’ll need:

• 2-3 cups of Thai eggplants cut into fourths (these are the size of clementines and round and green with some beige markings…if you can’t find these, regular eggplant is just fine but the little purple Chinese eggplants (versus the huge purple Italian ones) are better)
• 2 medium white onions, diced
• 3 purple shallots, minced (optional)
• 2 T garlic, minced
• 1 t dried lemongrass (optional)
• 1.5 T fish sauce (don’t use soy sauce, it’s too heavy for this!)
• 1 t white sugar (you may need to add more: if you have palm sugar, use about 2t palm sugar instead, it’s fantastic in this!)
• 3 kaffir lime leaves or the rind of one lime
• 2 stems of basil (Italian basil is fine, but sweet or holy basil is better…sweet basil has a tiny leaf, and holy basil has a large, jagged leaf with deep purple buds and a thick stem)
• 3 large carrots, cut into round slices about 1/4 inch thick
• 1 and 1/2 cups of coconut milk
• 1 and 1/2 cups of water
• 1 cup of cubed tofu or chicken (cooked)
• 2 T oil (I used vegetable oil, use any oil you like)
• 2.5 T green curry paste (again, I wouldn’t use the Thai Kitchen brand…it’s expensive and disappointing.  At my local Chinese food mart, I found one about six times the size of that little jar for a third of the price!)
• If you like things really firey hot, you can add 1 t chili paste in soybean oil (available at Chinese food marts) or 1 t dry ground chili (the kind that go on pizzas are fine). The curry paste is spicy, so only add additional spice if you’re confident in your spice tolerance.

So, I woke up this morning and didn’t feel well. But I still need to eat. And eating is a lot more enjoyable if you don’t resort to cereal and half-cooked ramen when you’re ill. So I’m going to share this fantastic recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup which is about the easiest thing to make. It was given to me by my soon-to-be sister-in-law, and I’ve made a few adjustments but it remains easier than ever!

You will need either a crock-pot or about an hour and a half and a regular pot.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of beans (I used black beans and red beans (the black beans had jalapenos in them, too!) but feel free to experiment with pinto, garbanzo, and even lima beans.)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies
• 1 can of chicken (I actually had leftover roasted chicken I’d cleaned from the carcass, so I used that)
• 1 can of corn
• 2 cans of tomato soup (I used condensed)
• green onions (optional)
• sour cream (optional)
• cheddar cheese (sort of optional but almost necessary)
• tortilla chips (pretty much required…if you’re worried about health I actually baked a few whole-grain tortillas and used those!)

Dump cans into a crock pot, draining ONLY the chicken (you’ll need the liquids from the rest). Add a bit of salt and/or spice if you like, and if you’re using a crock pot put it on low while you’re at work. If you’re using a pot, let simmer a little for about an hour and then top with green onions, a dollop of sour cream, cheddar cheese, and crumbled tortilla chips.

As a note, the first thing to dispense with is the idea that Thai food is healthy. It can be healthy, and it can be unhealthy. This particular dish does involve some oil. I suggest you square yourself with that upfront or you will end up with a gummy mess.

The other thing to know about Pad Thai before you start is that you really can only make one serving at a time. That’s a bit of a drag, but the good news is that you don’t need a wok! If you have a large wok, you can probably get away with two servings but I wouldn’t risk it.

You will need (for one serving):

• About one cup of fresh or soaked rice noodles (these should look like fettuccine noodles but clear – don’t get the really skinny ones or you will end up with an impossible nest of gummy noodles!)
  • If you have fresh noodles, soak them very briefly in hot water to soften and then remove
  • If you have dried noodles, boil water, turn off the fire, and soak them for about 10-15 minutes
• 1/2 cup of bean sprouts (fresh or canned)
• A chunk of very firm tofu cut into small rectangular slices (the chunk should be about the size of a deck of cards)
• 1 egg
• 1 T of chopped pickled white radish OR pickled cabbage (these are optional, I just had pickled cabbage in the house.)
• 2 T of crushed roasted peanuts
• 1/3 cup juice of ripe tamarind (and for the rest of us, I use about 2T of apple cider vinegar and about 2 T water)
• 1 T sugar
• 1 T fish sauce (you can use soy sauce, but it won’t taste quite right)
• 1 stalk green onion, cut into 1-inch segments and sliced lengthwise in half
• 1t of dried hot pepper (the red pepper that goes on pizzas works just great)
• 3-5 T oil (I used olive, palm or soybean is more authentic)
• 1 T minced garlic

The precarious adventure:

Heat up the oil in the pan on medium/high heat until it begins to smoke slightly. Toss in the tofu and fry until browned (tofu tends to stick, and if you try to use soft tofu this is where it turns really mushy and gross…stick with very firm and make sure you use enough oil!) then turn the heat down and add the garlic and pickled radish/cabbage and the dried red pepper.

In the mean time, your noodles should have been soaking in the hot water and should now be soft and limp. Move your tofu to one side of the pan and put the noodles in the other, tilting the pan so that the tofu is “up in the air” and add the water and vinegar to the noodles. You will probably need to add a little more oil to the noodles to keep them from gumming together. You want them to become clear, but remain loose! After the liquid has been absorbed, stir the tofu into the noodles and push to one side of the pan and tilt so that the mixture is “up.”

Add a little bit more oil to the “down” side of the pan and crack in an egg. Scramble the egg and then mix together with the noodles and tofu. Add the fish sauce, sugar, salt, crushed peanuts, bean sprouts, and green onions and stir fry for about 30 seconds on high heat (just long enough to warm everything through). If you’re having trouble stirring it, add a little more oil or just give up (this isn’t that important of a step)

So here are some sweet and slightly wheat-y yeast rolls
You will need:

• 2 eggs
• 1T yeast (not quick-acting)
• about 5 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup wheat flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3T honey (optional)
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• Extra butter

The (long) adventure:

Put about 3 cups of flour in a bowl, and mix the yeast in.  (Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature or you’ll end up with denser rolls than you’ll like!) Add in the sugar and salt and stir.  Heat the butter, milk, and water (with honey, if you choose) until they reach about 130 degrees F (it’s okay if the butter isn’t completely melted, but it makes it easier if the butter is room temperature when you start…it’s nicer to not have to worry about butter lumps when you’re stirring). Make a well in the middle of the flour, and pour in the warm liquid.  Crack in two room-temperature eggs and stir well for about two-three minutes.  Stir in the rest of the flour slowly until you get a stiff dough (make sure you add in the wheat flour first, so that it gets time to soften) and then turn out the dough onto a floured surface.  Try to use a warmer surface (really cold counter-tops will inhibit the yeast) and knead for about five minutes.

Slightly grease the bottom of a large bowl, and place the dough in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let sit in a warm place for an hour.  Once risen, pull the dough out and cut in two pieces.  Stretch into long logs, and cut into tangerine-sized chunks.

Here comes a tricky part.  Stretch the dough into itself…take the edges and push them down and around until it looks like a balloon.  Then, tuck the edges up into the roll and place it in a well-greased cake pan (I’ve drawn a little step-by-step to help you out here!)  Continue until two 9″ cake pans are full, then grease tops lightly with butter and bake for one hour at 350 degrees.