Still here!

Still here, but haven’t had time to post. I just got back to Chicago after three weeks in Thailand, San Francisco, and Indiana. Here’s what we cooked today and will post up for you soon:

• Paula Deen’s Spinach & Artichoke Dip
• Red-wine braised ox tails w/homemade gnocchi
• Spinach, egg & cheese breakfast bread pudding
• Shrimp & pork dumplings
• Thai pizza

Also, Joel got me bacon jam for Christmas which I’ve already used to spruce up some plain pasta with alfredo sauce. I think it will be amazing tomorrow with the breakfast bread pudding, too!

Happy new year, y’all!

Thailand

Been eating my way through Thailand. Here’s a sneak peak:

Crab & Garlic Noodles

Back in San Francisco, my friends and I used to have a crab feed at least once a year. We’d lay out the checkered plastic tablecloth and hunker down over some steamed dungeness crabs. I was craving a taste of home, since the “-er” months are typically crab season.

Well, who knew it was so difficult to find dungeness crab out here in Chicago? I called around and found only one place, Dirk’s Fish, that sold them whole/live…but for $12.99/lb. I called my dad and learned that they are available in SF for $3.99/lb. That’s ~$20 more per crab here!!

So, when I got to the store, I decided on Stone Crab claws instead. Less work, more meat. I’ll wait til I’m home for Christmas to get some dungeness crab…plus my dad always cleans the meat for me! Mmmm brains.

And what goes well with crab? Garlic noodles (a la Crustacean/Thanh Long) and some vegetables, of course.

The recipe for the garlic noodles was found on Rasa Malaysia. The only recipe adjustments I made: 1) used wheat spaghetti noodles rather than Chinese noodles. I slightly overcooked them so they had more of an Asian noodle texture. 2) threw in hot pepper flakes for some heat.

I also roasted some cauliflower and leftover carrot sticks in the oven (salt, pepper, olive oil @ 350 until they’re cooked) and served the crab claws with a dipping sauce of salt, pepper, and lemon. Soooooo tasty!