THE GREATEST TAI PEANUT SAUCE I EVER MADE

Actually the only thai peanut sauce I have ever made, period, but my god was it good.  You know how when you make cookies the best part is licking out the bowl?  Well tonight I licked out the pan that I cooked the shrimp and sauce in.   It was so good that I'm going to attempt to share it with you all.

Now notice that I say attempt to share, and that is because I am not really one for following a recipe or doing measurements of any kind.  I just kind of wing it and go by taste, i.e. does it need more sweet or tang...  So the following are the list of ingredients that went into the sauce:

Peanut butter
Tahini
Lime juice
Chicken broth
Agave
Ginger
Garlic
Chilli Flakes
Pepper

Now the rough estimate of measurements/instructions are as follows:

Mix 2-3tbsp of peanut butter with 1tbsp of tahini and 2tbsp of lime juice.  This turns into a weird thick paste-like consistency and makes you think "oh good god, what have I done."  Meanwhile, microwave 1 cup of chicken broth until it boils over and causes a huge mess in the microwave.  After you clean up the mess and the chicken broth is cooled down to a temperature you can handle pour about 1/4 of it into the peanut/tahini lime paste and whisk well.  Add one clove of minced garlic, one tsp of grated ginger, 2 tsp of agave and one tsp of chilli flakes.  Whisk some more until the peanut/tahini paste is totally dissolved in the chicken broth.  Now this is the important part.  Taste the sauce and see what you think. I found that it needed more peanut butter at this point to counter act the chicken and tahini flavours.  Then I found that it was a bit too sweet so I threw some more lime juice in.  

Now for the cooking part.  This got a little hairy and I'm thinking that next time I do it, I'll do it differently.  I decided to cook the shrimp in the peanut sauce (raw shrimp).  It turns out that when this concoction gets heated the chicken stock just disappears altogether and the peanut/tahini paste makes a reappearance.  Thinking quickly (or rather panicking a bit, it was burning) I tossed some more chicken broth from the remaining 3/4 of a cup into the pan and stirred like mad until the paste was back to a sauce consistency.  The next large problem I discovered was that it was very hard to tell what colour the shrimp was once it was covered in peanut sauce making it difficult to tell when the shrimp was cooked through.  So I left it on there a bit longer until the paste reared its ugly head and I had to throw more chicken broth in.   In the end I took a guess at how long I thought it should take to ensure the shrimp was not poisonous.  I put the whole mixture overtop of some rice and voila, dinner was served, and, as I've previously mentioned, it was fantastic.  I was worried that, with the excess amount of chicken broth I'd added, that I'd have lost some of the peanut-ty flavour, but it turns out the broth just evaporates right off and eaves the flavour more robust then ever before.

Tomorrow I'm going to try my hand at chicken in peanut sauce over rice!

Cheers,

THERE MUST BE SOME KIND OF MISTAKE, THIS CAN'T ALL BE MY JUNK??

Well it is spring, and inevitably ones mind turns to new beginnings and fresh starts.  Some come in the form of renewed diet pledges or goals of long lustrous hair.  Others come in the form of house work and gardening.  Or in some cases, things turn to both.  In any case, there is a sense of renewal in the air and a need for change, big and small.

In addition to this spring cleanse, I am in the unique position of a potential up and coming move which means I am putting forth serious effort into re-arranging things to give the illusion of a house well organized and with loads of space.  In deed this is an illusion as I've just loaded 6 boxes full of crap, four full bags of garbage which went to the dump and two boxes for the salvation army/food bank.  And this is only for the 3 rooms that I've partially started to tackle, one of which being the kitchen.

How on God's green earth does one person accumulate so much crap??  I am one person and a cat (well I have a cat, I am not some weird cat person fusion) and I have only lived in this house for five and half years.  I can not account for this incessant collecting of stuff.  It's like I'm some kind of hoarder only I've gotten very good at hiding what I've hoarded.   Take the fridge for instance. Yesterday I spent two hours gutting and cleaning it, right down to the very last nook and cranny.  Dismantling it and building it back up to what it should be.  Wading into that fridge, was like wading into a foreign land full of hidden jars and preserve that time had forgotten.  Some of which I believe were beginning to breed and form new life altogether.  Perhaps I should have called in a scientist, but then they might have wanted to cordon off the whole scene for the safety of society.  I managed to find four jars of dill pickles, all in various states of fullness.  There were two half full bottles of ketchup that had turned a shade of brown that I do not believe is meant for consumption of any kind, and a plethora of jams and jelly's which made appear as though I'm an active member of the jam and jelly monthly club.  The strangest part about the whole scene was how all this had been hiding in my fridge all this time.  Like these jars managed to find secret hidden caves and build forts out of the hot sauce and milk carton, in which to hide.  How could I possibly have let this colony live for so long??  Nevertheless, they've all been evicted now and I have reclaimed ownership of the fridge and the rest of the kitchen, for the most part.  The pots and pans are still putting up a resistance, but I will break down those walls also.

Next weekend I'll tackle the great and powerful laundry room, aka the room where I put things I have no idea where else to put.  Is it possible to rent HAZMAT suits for the weekend??

Cheers,

WARNING: HAIR RAISING EXPERIENCE AHEAD

I've made a decision.  It's a decision I've made several times over the course of the last several years, and while it may seem trivial to some, to me it is the pinnacle of patience and success.  I have decided to grow my hair.  Yes, that's it people.  No Mount Everest-like conquests for me, just a good old fashioned waiting game and increased consumption of protein in a misguided attempt to aid the growing process.

Now here's the situation as it stands.  For most of my life, my hair was kept short, and I mean very very short, because of unruly while curls that no one could maintain and always seemed to turn into a mullet at the first attempt to grow it out.  So I cut it it short.  Way too short.  For many many years and then, when I was in my late teens I decided to grow it long.   There was a lot of pain-staking styling mishaps over the years, but eventually I found a rhythm.  And then I lost my patience.  5 years of steady growth had got me just below shoulder length.  At that point I decided to cut it, not as short as it had been, but shorter nonetheless.  And I kept it short for quite some time, in a short fun bob.  Now all that has come to a head after years of straightening with flat irons, blow dryers, highlights and die jobs has left my once curly hair, in a straight and scraggly mess.  So I decided to cut the blow drying straight, only thing is, when your hair is short and bob-like, it's very difficult to pull it back into a pony tail and get he scraggly mess under control.  This is what prompted the decision.  Originally, I thought I'd just grow it out enough to be able to put it up so I could stop all the damaging blow drying, but then I decided that I would grow it long.  Longer then ever before.  This is going to take some considerable time, since right now it is just below ear length.   I have sent word to my closest friend, so that when I start to freak out about how slow its going and about how out of control things are getting, she will remind me of  my mission and has been instructed to use whatever means necessary to stop me from making a rash hair cut decision.  With any luck, by next summer I'll be shoulder length and in another 2 years I'll be close to my goal.

Cheers,

THERE WAS A SMALL SPEED BUMP WHEN I ATE THE WHOLE BAG OF SMART POP

I have a confession.  My battle of the bulge has been a loosing battle as of late.  Thing were going along well up until about February, when, I think, the winter blah's got the best of me and let the food monster in me get out.  Things came to a head when I ventured on the scale for the first time a week ago and found that I gained back significantly more then I realized.  I had gained back weight that I had already worked hard to get off and now I have to do it again.  So I'm back on the Weight Watchers plan.  Sometimes we think we're "not really eating that bad" but when you do something like Weight Watchers, it makes you really accountable for what you're putting in your mouth.  Suddenly you realize how far off "not bad" you actually were.  They say that keeping a  food journal is a very good idea for helping with weight loss and I guess I have to agree. I'm on day two of WW and I've gone over my allotted points value both days, only by a little bit, but the fact of the matter is, I have already cut a few things out that I was having pre WW when I thought I was doing alright.  This is going to be tough, but tough love is what we need sometime.

Tomorrow marks the kick off to the weekend, the weekend being a time that I have traditionally struggled with to keep myself on track and not eating like everyday is a carnival.  There's just no structure to the weekend, it's a free-for-all and everything tastes so much better on the weekend!  Not to mention the wine.  I mean, I could skip a whole meal just to be able to have some extra wine on a Friday night!  Also, I'm thinking, just to make things accurate, I'm going to have to start drinking right out of a measuring cup.  Maybe I'll invent my own WW wine glass, it's just a measuring cup with a stem on it.  I feel like the people of WW could really be cashing in on this.

So anticipation of a measuring cup full of wine tomorrow night, cheers!

"IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL PONY, I MEAN, IT LOOKED JUST LIKE A LITTLE HORSE"

Well fellow inhabitants of planet earth, wherever you may be, it's been a rough week for many of us.  The scenes that have unfolded in Boston since Monday's marathon, the terrible explosion in Texas, and now we are hearing of a devastating earthquake in China.  These are troubling times, and it would be easy to hang our heads, throw our hands in the air and say "what's the point?"   The point is, in spite of what might feel like overwhelming odds, we must not give up hope and most of all, we should not turn on our fellow man.  It is times like these where we must learn to lean on each other more then ever.  People are tribal by nature, we need the pack and we are the only ones who can heal each other.  Senseless acts of violence should not been given precedence over the human triumph to push through and find the positive light.  I fear, over the coming weeks, we will be barraged with endless images, stories and analysis of the Boston bombers in the media.  It is more important to remember the survivors and the people who ran into the danger to help others in need.  The reality is there were two bombers, but there were hundreds of people, civilians and first responders, who ran to the aid of others.  That's the true story here.  Around the world, terrible things happen every day, but there are more good people who come to help then there are those who would do harm.  It is time our media and our governments focussed on that and put their energy into shining light on those stories and those people.  If for every two people who are out to do harm, there are 100 people ready to do good, then maybe things aren't as hopeless as we are sometimes led to believe.  Lets all try to keep that in mind and maybe we can be the change we want to see in the world.  I think someone much more wise then I said that...

I really didn't intend to start off like that, but I think it was worth saying.  Now in other, more ridiculous news, I have spent the last few hours battling what will hopefully be the last blast of winter (fyi, two days ago it was 22 degrees c and we had a tornado, today it's a blizzard) in order that I should go maple syrup shopping.   I am blessed to live in a small region of the world where the sugar maple gives us glorious sap which can be boiled down into a delicious golden nectar of the gods.  Each year small communities around the area I live in hold maple syrup festivals.  An entire festival dedicated to the stuff, complete with pancake breakfasts and every kind of derivative of maple syrup you can think of.  Today's expedition saw the purchase of two medium syrups (medium refers to the colour) one jar of maple sugar and, of course, the delicious maple candies, of which I have now had three and am vibrating from the maple sugar content.  I am also quite sure it is the only thing that kept me warm whilst braving the 80km/h wind gusts which make this 0 degree day feel more like -10 (again this is in c).   But it is a tradition and so, wind, rain, shine or blizzard, we will go to the maple syrup festivals to get our yearly dose of sugary goodness.  Here's to hoping next spring will actually be, well, springlike...

Cheers with a big glass of syrup!

I SAID A WAP BAPA LULA A WAP BAM BOOM

Ahoy hoy my good and juste reader!

I am high on exercise and one too many Snackaroons.  Snackaroons you ask?  Well let me tell you; they are my new favourite raw, gluten free, organic and vegan snack.  To be fair, I'm not sure I had a favourite raw, gluten free, organic and vegan snack before, so becoming the was really just a matter of showing up for the job, sort of like some of my co-workers...

Snackaroons, as you my be able to tell from the name, are a branch of the macaroon family.  Little did I know the macaroon family had a branch, but far be it for me to judge.  I found them at my local Bulk Barn retailer, which I have also recently become a regular at.  The thing I like best about the
Snackaroons is that there is not one ingredient on the list of 5 ingredients, that I don't recognize.  Actually not only are they all ingredients I know, they are all ingredients that I have in my pantry.  In theory, with a little experimentation, I could make them myself.  But why go to all that bother when the good people of the Laughing Giraffe company have already gone to the trouble to make them for me.  There are 4 kinds Snackaroon, Vanilla Almond, Banana Coconut, Pineapple Macadamia & Goji Cacao Maco.  My Snackaroon of choice is the vanilla almond.  I like the so much in fact, that last week I devoured an entire bag like they were candies.  I don't recommend doing that.  Tonight I've had three, one in the truck on the way home from the Bulk Barn (road Snackaroon) and then two when I got home, only because the were stuck together and it didn't seem right to separate them when they clearly wanted to be together... Now I'm debating a 4th, but will rain myself in.

I'm realizing that a better title would have been "SHE FEEDS ME LOVE AND TENDERNESS AND MACAROONS."  Of course this is only true if my readers are familiar with the lyrical genius of a scrappy (I'm taking liberties here) Canadian band called The Stampeders.

The point is, nothing beats a Snackaroon after a hard spin class (the first one I've been to in nearly 2.5 months).  Actually a glass of wine would be better, but seems somewhat counter productive.  That is all for now.



Cheers,

SO I WROTE A LITTLE LETTER TO THE PUBLIC BROADCASTER

Well my usual witty banter will have to take a back seat for a moment.  This afternoon I was listening to a radio program that I occasionally listen to, that deals with issues affecting the people of the province of Ontario.  Today's guest on the show was the new Premier of Ontario (this is like a governor of a state for those of you who are not from here, for those of you don't know what that is either, I can't help you).   Now I think its safe to say that around the globe economic issues and debt are at the fore front and we, in the province of Ontario are no exception.  Recently our governing bodies, at both the provincial and national level, have been attempting to reduce the debt by forcing cuts to the public sector. This affects people like nurses, doctors, health and food inspectors, teachers, police and firefighters and many others.  All the people you'd like to be disgruntled and unhappy in their work creating low moral and a lack of care for the quality of their work.  Since the beginning of these "austerity measures" we've already had a massive e-coli outbreak from a meat packing plant that was violating all kinds of health and safety codes which caused illness and deaths (this might have been caught if the inspectors hadn't been cut in half) and now we've had an incident where over 1000 cancer patients have been given a watered down dose of chemo treatment.  Teachers in the province of Ontario had their bargaining rights taken away and had a contract enforced on them.  Much the same for police and firefights.  All and all its not a great environment.  The cherry on this little sundae is that many of the general public, who I can only assume are incredibly short sighted and jealous, would like to see those of us in the public sector have our wages slashed.  On today's radio show, one such man called into ask out Premier what she planned to do about his very cause.  Please find below the comment I sent into the radio station regarding this man's ideas:
Two other things I realize now that I should have mentioned was the reference to the sunshine list and the tax evaders.  The sunshine list is an annual list that comes out stating the names of those who cleared the $100g mark for the year before tax.  As for the tax evaders, a recent list was published of very rich people who've been hiding their money off shore in order to avoid paying taxes.


I'd like to address comments made by one of the callers who called in today to speak with Kathleen Wynn and, in turn, to address the Premier's response.  The gentleman called in to voice his concern over paying taxes for private sector wages and what the government’s plan was to "rein that in" and make it more inline with the private sector.   First of all, this gentleman, who is clearly disgruntled about public sector wages, perhaps should considered (as should the Premier) that those of us who are in high paying jobs are also paying significantly higher portions of taxes to alleviate the strain on those who don't make as much.  Second of all, he also suggested that the sunshine list has ballooned over the last few years.  For as long as I can remember the sunshine list cap has been $100,000.00 while inflation and cost of living has increased at a significant rate.  The reality is that making $100,000.00 (before tax) does not, by any means, make a person rich.  In addition, the people who make those lists, work hard and long hours to get there, providing services that we all depend on.  This gentleman also suggested that public sector wages need to be brought more inline with the private sector.  I can assure you, that the recently published list of millionaires who have been stashing money in off-shore accounts did not get rich by working in the public sector.  Our wages are no more out of line with professionals in private sector doing similar work, in fact, with the latest round of government intervention, in many cases we are now making less.  I'd also like to suggest that, when people think the solution is to cut wages, perhaps they should consider what would happen to their private sector jobs?  Do they not think about the fact that if people are making less, they will intern spend less?  And that suddenly everyone's wages are affected including their own?  I think it's time people stopped being jealous of others and tearing them down, and started supporting each other so we can all help each other up.  To address Ms.  Wynn's comments about wage freezes etc... My contract is currently being negotiated, and I understand that times are tough, and as such I do not have an issue with taking a 3 or 4 year wage freeze to help out, but I do not see a solution to the debt problem on the backs of the working people who are paying some of the largest portions of the taxes for a debt that we did not create.


Petty jealousy is one of my least favourite characteristics in people.  Ignorance and narrow-mindedness are also up there.  I truly believe we are far better off standing united together than standing divided and squabbling over who makes more money.  We can only help each other.  I know that I am fortunate to have the job I have and I am grateful for it.  I work hard and am very conscientious of those who are not as fortunate.  I donate weekly to local charities right off my pay check, I donate to many organizations in need through sponsorship of activities through out the year and I also put a lot of my own time and energy into organizing an annual charity event for a local charity which typically raises between $3500-$4000, every penny of which goes directly to the charity.  These are all things I would have to give up if I was suddenly forced to take a huge cut in pay, now how does that help anyone?  It's very easy to judge and say the "grass is greener" but until you walk a mile in someone else's shoes you are in no position to make accusations.  We are all in this together so stop wishing you had what someone else has and tearing them down because of it.  Be glad they have what they have because it means that you and your children have a chance to have it too.

Cheers,