Thai Coconut Green Curry

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I love Thai food, especially green curries. There is a specific flavor in there that I really enjoy, but I haven’t figured out which one it is yet. Regardless, making green curries at home is a cinch with some green curry paste from the supermarket. It’s an easy way to make a delicious and healthy meal, especially if you’re looking to load up on veggies.

Start by dicing and browning a chicken breast in some vegetable oil, and set it aside once it takes on a brown color (but is not fully cooked). While the chicken browns, chop up your vegetables. I used string beans, bok choi, carrots, onion, broccoli, and shiitake mushrooms. Eggplant would also be a welcome addition. When your chicken is out of the pan, add 2 tablespoons of the green curry paste to the remaining vegetable oil (or add in 1 tablespoon if you skip the chicken) and stir it around for 30 seconds until it becomes fragrant. Add the veggies to the pan and stir fry them for about 10 minutes until they begin to soften.

Add the chicken and 1 can of coconut milk to the pan and let it simmer for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are fully cooked. If you need more liquid, you can also add in some water.

Serve the curry over rice with some basil leaves sprinkled over the top. I love this meal. I made it in North Carolina when our usual Thai delivery couldn’t just drop some off for us. Roughing it can be delicious!

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food.

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Winter Fun in NC

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Winter in North Carolina’s mountains is mighty cold, but there are a lot of fun and cozy things to do. The best activity is enjoying nature. The mountains are totally different than they are in the summer when the trees are lush and green. Instead, the forest curtain is fractured and it’s easier to see the surprisingly blue mountain ranges.

The Blue Ridge Mountains…I understand the name now. Each layer of mountain takes on a different beautiful hue. The views remind me of layered edges of shredded fabric. That description might make more sense in my head.

Much closer than the ragged ranges are colorful berry plants to admire. I like this one because it reminds me of pomegranate seeds, which I love, and also of seasonal, twinkling lights.

There are other beautiful patterns to admire as well. I really enjoyed the ice crystals that formed on top of the pond. They were so delicate that they didn’t last for long. Once they melted, Stella and I became mesmerized by the wind ripples that were forced across the water’s surface.

The weather didn’t stop at being cold and frosty. We also watched the fog roll in across the pond and cloak the house in haze. Spooky! The winter chill and pitch black nights gave us a good reason to take refuge inside with cozier entertainment.

Lighting a decent fire was our most challenging activity. The wood just didn’t want to burn. We tried igniting newspapers, twigs, birch, and cotton. We used matches and even a flint. We eventually resorted to fire starter logs, but even they couldn’t catch our wood on fire. At least they made a nice flame and enough heat to keep things extra toasty. But I hope we never land in a real survival situation because we’d end up smeared with enough soot to look like chimney sweepers, and we’d definitely get black lung.

Frying up some turkey bacon was much more successful.

But the pièce de résistance was clearly our gingerbread house. It was so cute! I love the snow, icicles, candy decorations, scary witch peeking out from behind the tree, cute puppy (that kind of looks like a pig), and happy couple. Or could they be Hansel and Gretel before being cooked? Well, it’s cute anyway. And no, we didn’t eat the house. There were egg whites in that icing!

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Stella’s Mountain Adventure

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David, Stella, and I traveled down to North Carolina’s mountains to spend a few rejuvenating days over the new year. All three of us made both seven hour drives without puking! It was such a feat. Well, it was a feat for Stella.

Ever since we’ve known Stella, she has had severe anxiety about riding in the car and has thrown up at least once during most of our rides. We have done so much driving over this holiday season that the repetition is starting to ease her fear. Repetition also solved her anxiety surrounding elevators, stair cases, industrial doors, sliding doors, and the bath. Stella’s lingering fear of the car is one of the few reminders of her shelter doggie days. And even that is slowly melting away, hooray! Once she conquered the drive, she had many mountain pleasures to indulge in.

There was some snow on the ground when we arrived in North Carolina, and Stella LOVES the snow. She hasn’t gotten to play in any yet this season, and she was very happy. She buried her nose in the snow, licked it up, and rolled around. She also made a whole lot of the cutest paw prints. What a joy!

Stella also ran her little heart out. She is a very fast and athletic dog, so getting to run around mountains with new smells is a real thrill for her. See… she smiled!

After all of that excitement, what can a puppy do but rest and sleep? She found plenty of cozy spots to relax in. She especially liked curling up on a large pillow like a princess.

Stella also loved getting to explore nature and take in new smells. Each morning, she led us straight to piles of black bean deer poop. She also had a great time following animal tracks through the woods. Unfortunately, she led us right through a thicket of thorny rose bushes. She is very agile and was able to dodge them, but David and I have cuts on our hands and tears in our jeans to show that we could not. Stella also loved drinking from icy, flowing streams and gazing up at the unimaginable number of night sky stars.

And all too quickly, it was time to drive home again. Despite Stella’s lingering anxiety around the car, she was much more alert of her surroundings on this trip. We kept the windows down for her, and when we passed pastures of cows, she caught wind of their moist, manure stench. She popped right up, and her nose started twitching out the window. How many poop mentions are too many in a single post? Well, I don’t apologize! Anyway, at one of our rest stops, Stella was able to look out over real live cows and their cute little babies. I think this was Stella’s first cow encounter. She was really curious and wanted to bolt down the hill towards them. The cows were suspicious of her too- they kept looking up the hill at her. Like everyone else, they probably thought she was a fox. Or as one little girl we saw in town said, “A big chihuahua!”

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