Peach Salsa

Ingredients

• 3 ripe peaches (1 lb)
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup red onion, diced
• 1/4 cup bell pepper, diced, seeded
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 tbsp mint, chopped
• 1 tbsp basil, chopped
• juice of 1/2 lime
• salt and pepper

Peel the peaches by cutting an x into the bottom of them and dropping them in boiling water for 1 minute. Remove them and put them in an ice bath. Peel them when they're cool enough. If they're ripe, the skins should come off super easily. Dice them.

Combine the peaches with everything else. If you'd like, you can pulse them in a food processor for a sec or two. Chill for an hour to let the flavors come together. Eat it.

Thoughts: Super easy, super delicious. What else is there? OM NA NOM NOM NOM.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Tomatillo Salsa

Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh tomatillos
• 1 large onion, cut into chunks
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 hot pepper, any kind you'd like
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• salt, to taste

Peel the tomatillos and scrub them until they're less sticky. They probably won't be COMPLETELY unsticky, but just do your best. Cut them into quarters and put them in a food processor. Put everything else in the food processor and pulse it until it's the consistency you want. I don't like my salsas super smooth, but whatever. Do anything you feel like doing. 

Put it all in a small saucepan and cook until the salsa is less watery. This might take a while. 

Chill it, then eat it.

Thoughts: Pretty legit, though we had to cook the salsa FOREVER for it to get less watery. Maybe next time I would chop the onion and then drain that sucker. Onions are watery, yo. But the flavor was pretty good. I wonder whether we would even cook it in the future. But maybe you have to cook tomatillos? Maybe we would blanch the tomatillos and leave everything else raw? Anyway, we used this as a substitute for enchilada sauce, and it was serviceable. 

Disaster Index: 3/10

Ginger Beer (syrup)

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Ingredients

• about 1/2c of ginger, minced. Don't bother peeling it.
• 1 small lime, sliced thin
• 1/2c brown sugar*
• water to cover, plus a little

For ginger, I used about $1 worth of fresh ginger. I don't know how to measure this. It must have been about a 6" long piece with two branches? I don't know. The more ginger the better for this.

Toss the ginger and lime into a saucepan with the water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes. Pour through a cheesecloth, then (here's the important part) squeeze out the ginger and lime that's in the cheesecloth. There is a LOT of liquid in there.

Add 1/2c brown sugar for each cup of liquid. Or, if you're like me, add 1/2c at a time until it tastes about right. Mix with soda water in a ratio of 1:3.

Thoughts: This is slightly different from brewing ginger beer, but much faster and much easier. I discovered that the secret to a good syrup for mixing with carbonated water is to filter out as much of the particulate matter as you can from the syrup so the bubbles don't all come out of solution at once. Anyway, I think this recipe worked pretty well. Ginger beer can never be ginger-y enough to be satisfying to me, so I wonder how I could improve that. Maybe if you cook ginger less, it's more punchy? To test this theory, next time I will use less water. I will grate the ginger FINELY, then cook for 2 minutes and (again) wring the ginger dry afterward. We'll see what that does? HOWEVER, this WAS fairly potent. One good option would be to use less sugar and then just use more ginger syrup to water.

Disaster Index: 1/10, good show.

Tonic

We had our first attempt at making tonic water, based heavily on the recipe found here, by Jeffrey Morgenthaler.

Ingredients

• 4c water
• 2tbsp powdered lemongrass
• 1oz cinchona bark powder
• zest and juice of 1 lemon, 1 lime, and 1 orange
• 1/4c citric acid
• 1tsp mixed baking spices: cinnamon, clove, allspice, cardamom
• pinch of salt
• 1/2c sugar*

Okay, this is easy. 1) Throw everything in a pot. 2) Boil and simmer for 20 minutes. 3) Strain the mixture - we used a french press followed by several layers of cheesecloth. 4) Add 1/2 sugar per cup of remaining liquid.

Mix in a ratio of 1:3 with soda water and enjoy!

Thoughts: I like my tonic a bit more bitter than this, so next time I think we may use less sugar or more cinchona bark powder? I'm not sure. Claire thinks the flavor is, and I quote, "fantastic," so it may be just me. We also discovered that when we let this sit for a week in the fridge, we could decant and get rid of a bunch of the particulate matter we had missed earlier. In the future, we will probably experiment with different spices. Thoughts have included: Szechuan peppercorns, grains of paradise, black pepper, nutmeg. Finally, we tried to mix the tonic with water and carbonate it in our sodastream. Let me just make a suggestion if you try this: do not try this.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Ginger Beer

OK, fine, I'll post something.

I made ginger beer. Ingredients include:

• about 1" ginger, finely grated
• juice of a lime
• 3oz simple syrup
• 6oz water
• 6 more oz cold water
• a pinch (like 1/16tsp) yeast

In a saucepan, heat the lime juice, simple syrup, ginger, and 6oz water to boiling. Simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, clean out some vessel to put the ginger beer in. I used empty soda bottles, cleaned with warm, soapy water. When the ginger mixture is done boiling, strain through a fine meshed strainer (or cheesecloth, or paper towel, or coffee filter) into another sterile container. Add the 6oz cold water, then pour into the bottle (when it's no longer hot enough to melt the plastic). Add the yeast. Screw the cap on VERY tightly and shake. Leave on the counter for about 36-48 hours, returning to shake periodically. Be careful, though, because that stuff gets carbonated. When it's carbonated enough, put it in the fridge.

Thoughts: I didn't know you can make your own ginger beer. We have to try this with other stuff, like adding spices to the boiling syrup mixture to impart other interesting flavors. I should probably get glass bottles for a more sterile/professional method of bottling, but it's expensive. The fizz that you get from this method isn't like your standard coca-cola carbonation - the bubbles are much smaller. It has a great texture and flavor.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Roasted Corn Guacamole

Ingredients

• 2 cups frozen corn, defrosted, or kernels from 3 fresh ears of corn
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp finely chopped red onion
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• the juice and zest of 1 lime
• 1 jalapeno, stemmed and seeded, finely chopped
• 1 avocado, pitted and chopped

Preheat oven to 450. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper or tinfoil.
Spread the corn kernels in an even layer over the sheet. Drizzle olive oil over it and sprinkle with enough salt and pepper to make it tasty.
Roast for 20 minutes, until the corn turns a golden brown. You want the corn to caramelize a little. It might be a little crunchy. That's ok.
Remove corn from oven and set aside.
In a bowl, combine the roasted corn, red onion, cilantro, lime zest and juice, avocado, and jalapeno. Mash it all together. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with corn soup.

Thoughts: We probably didn't roast the corn for long enough, and it probably wasn't totally defrosted when we put it in the oven. At least, it certainly wasn't at room temperature. Next time I would make sure to cook it until it caramelizes. The flavor was pretty intense as it is, but it would have been better caramelized. This tastes a lot like Chipotle's corn salsa, actually. It's hella spicy. If you're going to serve it with the corn soup, I might recommend taking the jalapeno out of either the guacamole or the soup. You don't really need two of them. Also Dan thinks that the flavor is good, but the texture needs work.

Disaster Index: 2/3-10

Fresh Lime Custard Berry Tart

This was a little complicated.

Ingredients

• Crust
  
  
  • 1 stick butter
    
  • 2tbsp neutral oil
    
  • 1.75c flour
    
  • 0.25c sugar
    
  • generous pinch of salt
    
  • 1 egg yolk
    
  • 2-3tbsp milk
    
• Filling
  
  
  • 1/3c sugar
    
  • 2tbsp corn starch
    
  • 1c milk
    
  • 2tbsp butter
    
  • zest of one lime
    
  • juice of half a lime
  • 3 egg yolks
  • berries - I used about 2/3 a pint of blueberries, 6oz of blackberries, and about 8 strawberries
    
• Glaze
  
  
  • Juice of two limes
    
  • 2tbsp jam - I used guava
    
  • Honey to taste
    
  • 2tsp corn starch
    

First the dough. Whisk together the dry ingredients. Then chop the butter up into small pieces and cut it into the flour. Next time I'm using the cuisinart like I usually do for making a pastry dough. Whatever. Then add the milk and combine, being careful not to overwork the dough or heat it too much with your hands. When it JUST sticks together (it will have the consistency of wet sand), wrap it in plastic wrap and form into a disk. Stick it in the fridge for 4 hours to chill.



When that's done, take it out and, on a well floured surface, roll it out. Fit it into a springform pan or tart pan, if you have one (I didn't). I lined my springform with a little waxed paper. Make sure the dough goes up the side a little bit. I had to actually press it into the pan with a well-floured drinking glass. It works. Anyway, put some more waxed paper or parchment paper in the middle and weight down with dry peas (classic) or the change from your change jar (my way), being careful that it doesn't actually touch the dough. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, remove currency, and bake for another 15 minutes. This is called "blind baking". I'm just saying.



Now the filling. Set the crust aside to cool. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, lime zest, and corn starch, whisking thoroughly. In a sauce pan, bring the milk to a simmer. When it's simmering, take it off the heat and (TEMPERING FIRST), whisk into the egg/sugar mixture. Tempering means you add just a LITTLE, stir it together, add a little more, whisk thoroughly, and then add the rest. This is so it doesn't scramble the eggs.



Now return the mixture to the sauce pan and set over low heat, whisking constantly. In about a minute, the mixture will seize up (it's really sudden) probably because of the corn starch. Ok. Take it off the heat and stir a little more, then add the butter and stir until it's melted. Now pour it into the cooled crust. Dot with the berries. Actually mine had ridiculous piles of berries. Anyway, try to arrange them radially. It looks nicer. People will appreciate that.



FINALLY, the glaze. Juice those limes you used - mine were the driest limes I've ever used, so I needed two of them, but you could conceivably use one. Mix in the jam and whisk thoroughly. Then add honey until the sweetness is well balanced. Add the corn starch and whisk together, then pour it into a sauce pan and cook over low heat until it thickens. Take it off the heat and spoon it liberally over the tart. Cover the tart and fridge it until completely cooled - at least four hours, though I just made mine like two days ahead of time, so that's possibly a better option.



Thoughts: difficult to make alone. Especially in the B-more heat and humidity. I've NEVER had that much difficulty with pastry dough. It was ridiculous. I think that if I had a tart pan, that would have simplified things a LITTLE, though also the pastry dough recipe is not my usual pastry dough recipe OR method, so next time I'll try my usual and see how that works out. There were confounding factors here, is what I guess I'm saying. Berries were super cheap at Giant Foods this week, so that is the origin of that. By the time I got to the glaze, I had no sauce pans left so I actually microwaved it for 30 seconds at time (stirring in between) until it thickened. It got a little weird - corn starch does that - but it thickened well and the whole thing was pretty amazing.



Disaster Index: 1/10

Margaritas

Ingredients


Makes two drinks.

• 3 oz tequilla
• 2 oz citronage/triple sec
• juice of one lemon (2 tbsp)
  
• juice of one lime (2 tbsp)
• salt
  

Thoughts: Feel free to add other juices to this, as long as you keep the lime juice. The acidity needs to come from somewhere. We recently made grapefruit margaritas and originally left out all the lime juice, and we had to add some back in. So even grapefruits are not acid enough. Bear it in mind.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Cold Avocado Corn Soup

Ingredients

• 1 fresh or frozen ear of corn, shucked
• 4 cups + 2 tbsp water
• 1 garlic clove, smashed
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1.25 cups chopped white onion
• 2 fresh chilies -- we just grabbed two chilies that looked medium hot (our grocery store doesn't label the chilies) -- I think it was one Serrano and one Jalapeno
• 2 ripe avocados
• 3 tbsp fresh (or bottled, honestly) lime juice
  
• 1/4 cup sour cream

For the cilantro oil:

• 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (we used WAY more and this was not necessary)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt

Roast the corn over your gas stove (or use a grill, if you have one), until kernels are charred in spots, about 4-5 minutes.
Transfer corn to a cutting board, and, when cobs are cool enough, cut the kernels from them. Then cut the cobs into thirds. Don't throw them away.
Chop 1 cup of white onion.
Put the kernels, the cobs, 4 cups water, garlic, salt, and 1/4 cup of the chopped onion in a pot and boil it for about 20 minutes, or until there are 3 cups of liquid remaining. Remove from the heat. Discard the cob sections.
Chop the chiles, discarding only the stems.
In a blender, puree the corn mixture, the chopped chiles, and the rest of the onion (should be 3/4 cup).
Strain this mixture through a fine mesh sieve and into a bowl. Press on the solids to get all the moisture. Discard the solids, and return the remaining broth to the cleaned blender.
Peel and pit and avocado, and add it to the blender. Put in 2 tbsp of lime juice. Blend everything together until smooth.
Transfer soup to another bowl, cover it with plastic, and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

To prepare the cilantro oil:

Puree the cilantro, oil, and salt in the cleaned blender. You'll probably have to scrape the blender down several times. When smooth, remove mixture from blender and strain through a paper towel over a bowl for 15 minutes. Don't press on the solids this time.

To assemble the soup

Peel and pit the remaining avocado. Scoop out small sections with your melon-baller (or use a 1/2 tsp measuring spoon) and toss them with some lime juice.
Whisk the sour cream together with 2 tbsp of water until the mixture is smooth.
Season the soup and ladle it into the bowls. Put some avocado balls in each bowl, and drizzle with cilantro oil and sour cream.

Thoughts: This was pretty easy, all told. The cilantro oil didn't work out as well as we were hoping. I think we used a higher ratio of cilantro:oil than we were supposed to, so it didn't yield a whole lot of oil and the straining process left more solids than it should have. Otherwise, I think everything else was pretty awesome. This recipe says that it's supposed to yield something like six servings, but it doesn't. It yields like, maybe four. So I would go ahead and multiply everything in this recipe by 2. We went through it way too quickly. I also think that it could have used a little more flavor -- I suggest red pepper flakes, and maybe also some sort of cumin? I'm not sure what Dan thinks of this. I'll ask him later.

Disaster Index: 2.5/10

Key Lime Cheesecake

Incredibly successful
Ingredients

• Crust:
  
  
  
  • 12 graham crackers
    
  • 1/2 tsp salt
    
  • 1 stick butter
    
  
  
• Filling:
  
  
  
  • 16oz neufchatel cream cheese (2 packages)
    
  • heaping 2/3c granulated sugar
    
  • 2 eggs
    
  • 3tbsp key lime juice plus a little more to taste
    
  • 1tbsp lime zest plus more to taste (we used a lot)
    
  
  

Preheat the oven to 350. Crush the graham crackers with the salt. When they're ground fairly finely (we used a cuisinart) add the melted butter. Spread evenly and then press into the bottom of an 8.5" springform pan. Make sure the crust is really good and compacted. Bake for about 5 minutes or until set.

Meanwhile, just beat all of the other ingredients together. We used a whisk and did it by hand, though a kitchenaid would do wonders at this. Pour filling into cooled crust. In a separate pan with deep sides, add some water. Put it in the oven on a low rack and let it sit (oven closed) about five minutes to create a humid chamber. Now add the cheesecake onto an upper rack. Bake until the filling is set but still jiggles a little in the middle when you shake it, about 45 minutes. Let it cool completely and then cover with foil and refrigerate at least three hours before serving. Overnight is better. Serve!

Thoughts:This turned out great. The crust didn't release very well from the first slice, but I think there are ways to work around that. Otherwise, I would say this was just the ideal cheesecake. I just hope I transcribed the recipe correctly (we didn't write it down and it was sort of made up and cobbled together from a few recipes).

Disaster Index: 1/10

key lime shrimp with mushrooms and rice

This is based off of a Bobby Flay recipe. The original calls for lobster tail, so...yeah, we didn't use that. Because we have no money.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces of cremini mushrooms, sliced
  
• 2 cups of small shrimps
• 1 scallion/green onion, sliced
  
• 2 tbsp white wine
• 1/2 cup key lime sauce (1/2 cup margarine, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, generous pinch of pepper, generous pinch of cayenne pepper, 2 tbsp fresh key lime juice)
• 1 cup medium-grain rice

Heat some olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add sliced mushrooms and scallion and cook until the mushrooms start to sweat.
At the same time, start the rice. Add 1 cup rice with 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Then reduce to simmer, cover, and let it sit until done (about 10-15 minutes). Don't stir it too often or check on it too often, otherwise it will get soggy.
Make the key lime sauce. Just mix all the above ingredients together.
When the mushrooms are tender enough, add the key lime sauce and white wine. Let cook for about 2 minutes.
Add the shrimp. Since we used pre-cooked shrimp, we only had to cook them for like, a minute to heat them through. If you're using raw shrimp, you'll want to add them sooner. But don't overcook them either way.
Remove from heat, serve with the rice. Nom nom nom.

Thoughts: I would have preferred a little less lime juice in the key lime sauce. It was a little too citrus-y for me. But Dan liked it. He actually added more lime juice than was in the original recipe. Maybe next time we'll add the normal amount of lime juice and serve key limes on the side so people can add the amount they want. Overall, pretty darn delicious.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Chicken Curry with Bamboo Shoots

This is also based off of one of my dad's recipes.

Ingredients

• 1 lb boneless chicken breast
• 1 can sliced bamboo shoots
• 2 tbp red curry paste
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1 cup fresh Thai basil leaves, torn
• 1 tbp fish sauce
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp brown sugar
• 12 kaffir lime leaves
• 3 segments of lemongrass, bruised.
  

Wash the chicken and cut it into whatever size you want. If the bamboo shoots aren't already sliced, slice them. Usually they come sliced though, so it shouldn't be a problem.
Pour 1 cup of the coconut milk into a pan. The recipe says "wok", so use a wok if you have one. We don't, so we just used a saucepan-type-thing. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly. Add the chili paste. Cook until the coconut milk is reddish. Add the lemongrass.
Add the chicken and saute until the chicken turns white. I don't know how you'll be able to tell, since it's sitting in red sauce. Just do your best. Don't eat raw chicken.
Add the rest of the coconut milk, the bamboo shoots, fish sauce, salt, brown sugar, and lime leaves. Bring to a boil again. Then add the torn basil. Turn off the heat.
Eat.
Steam some rice with this and eat it.

Thoughts: This was totally killer. I could have used another tbp of fish oil, but Dan doesn't really like it all that much. He actually doesn't want to put any fish sauce in it. So we'll have to think about that. Next time Dan also thinks we should steam the rice in a rice basket rather than like, cooking it on the stove top. Jasmine rice would be better too. We just used plain long-grain rice. I would eat this all the time. And it took like, no time at all.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Tom Yum Soup

This is based off of a recipe that my dad sent me.
Ingredients

• 4 cups chicken stock (or veg)
  
• 15 kaffir lime leaves
• 3 large lemongrass stalks, cleaned, bruised, and cut into 2-inch segments
• 3.5 tbp freshly squeezed lime juice --> should be 1 tbs
  
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
  
• 10 ounces firm tofu
• 1 can straw mushrooms
• 1 tbp roasted chili paste
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup rice, mixed with 2 cups chicken stock (or veg) (if you want to eat this with rice) --> should be 3 cups
  

In a large soup pot, bring the chicken stock to a boil over high heat. When stock is boiling, add the lemongrass and half of the lime leaves. We cracked them down the center (without breaking them) to release the flavors a little bit.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes, until the lemongrass turns sort of a brown color.
While the soup is cooking, mix the green onions, the lime juice, the rest of the lime leaves (again, cracked down the center), and some cilantro in a large serving bowl. Stir to combine. Set aside.
After the soup is done simmering, scoop out the lemongrass stalks and discard. You don't want to eat these.
Raise the soup heat to high again and add the straw mushrooms, the brown sugar, the soy sauce, the salt, the tofu, and the chili paste. Stir well to combine. When the soup begins to boil, remove the soup from heat and add it to the serving bowl.
We cooked the rice with chicken stock and ate it with this soup. But you don't have to. Or you could use rice noodles as well (this might work better, actually).

Thoughts: This was really easy to make. It took like, 40 minutes (rice included). By itself, the soup probably took closer to 20.
Also, I misread the original recipe that my dad sent me and accidentally put 3 tbs of lime juice in the soup, so it was a little citrus-y for me. In the future, I would put like, 1 tbs in and then serve the soup with lime wedges on the side so people can control the amount of lime juice in the soup. If you find that the soup is too sour, add more brown sugar and that should cut the sourness.
Also, I intentionally put in half of the chili paste as was in the original recipe, and I'm glad I did because there was quite a bit of heat from just the 1 tsp.
I would say that shrimp would probably be good in this recipe too, if you aren't fond of tofu.
Overall, pretty killer recipe.

Disaster index: 2/10. pretty solid. thanks dad.

Lime Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup flour, heaped
• 1/8 cup cornstarch
• 1 tbs lime zest
• granulated sugar for flattening cookies (you'll see)

For lime glaze

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp lime juice
  

To make cookies:

Using a kitchen aid, on medium-high speed, beat butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add flour, cornstarch, lime zest and vanilla extract and mix until well-blended. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheet. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
Grease bottom of a large flat glass with butter, press into granulated sugar and gently press glass on dough until dough is about 1/4-inch thick. Repeat, pressing glass into sugar each time, until all cookies are flattened.
Bake 9 to 11 minutes, or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make lime glaze:

In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar and lime juice until a light glaze forms. Using a knife, spread glaze across cookies.

Thoughts: These were ok. The glaze didn't work out so well, I don't think. It wasn't thick enough, so it just sort of made the cookies wet. And it was sort of "limey". Too much citrus.
The cookies themselves were ok. They were pretty much your standard sugar cookies. Overall, the cookies were unobjectionable, I guess. I don't know that I would make them again. They were moist, which was a plus. Maybe more sugar in the glaze? If we made them again, Dan says he would use a cream cheese-lime frosting rather than a glaze, and he would go for a moister cookie.

Disaster Index: 3/10

Chicken Coconut Curry Noodle Soup

This is adapted from a couple recipes. When we make it, it's sort of "until it tastes good," so this is really just a general guide to how to make it:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chicken broth
  
• 2 (14-ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk
  
• 1/2 tablespoon (sweet) curry powder plus or minus a tablespoon to taste
  
• Sriracha to taste
  
• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (say 1 squeeze of half a lime)
  
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion
  
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (to taste, we prefer more toward 1/2)
  
• 2 packages ramen noodles (just the noodles! Not the flavor packets!)
  
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  
• Fish Sauce to taste (we go about 1/2tsp, or you can substitute with mushroom sauce or just leave this out entirely)
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Bring the broth, coconut milk, and curry powder to a simmer in a soup pot. Add chicken and simmer until it's just barely cooked through, about four minutes. Add the ramen noodles and cook until they're tender (about another minute). You may need to add a little more water at this point. You decide. Now, take it off the heat and add everything else (lime juice, green onion, brown sugar, fish sauce, salt, pepper, and sriracha or other hot sauce, and cilantro). Taste it. Adjust seasoning as you desire. We usually use a lot of curry powder.

Thoughts: This is very good, and hard to mess up. Problem is that it's kind of annoying to cook with meat sometimes. There's a lot of room in this recipe for adjustment to your own taste, as well. Don't be afraid of over-seasoning (except maybe with the salt) - you can always add more stock or water.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - good, hard to mess up.

Guacamole

This recipe is taken from a bunch of FoodNetwork chefs. I think we have about 2 parts Tyler Florence, 2 parts Bobby Flay, and 1 part Rachel Ray.

Ingredients

• 2 avocados, scooped out of the rind and chopped
• 1/4 red onion, chopped
• 1 lime, juiced and combined with chopped avocados
• 1/2 garlic clover, minced
• 1/2 tomato

Mix ingredients. Chill.

Thoughts: This was not a shining moment. The red onion was far too strong, as was the lime juice. The tomato probably should have been a roma tomato, or no tomato at all. After a few days, the guacamole got kind of brown anyways. Maybe I would have used yellow onion rather than red onion? Furthermore, we didn't ever add cilantro, which was a huge mistake. Even after adding a third avocado, the lime juice was far too strong. Maybe cut the lime juice in half while adding another avocado.

Disaster Index: 6-7/10 - Needs work. I wouldn't eat it again.

Pad Thai

This is based on a recipe Emily gave me (and showed me how to make) after she took a cooking class in Thailand or somewhere like that. I can't remember. Anyway, it's authentic, more or less. I messed around with the proportions, and the ones in this recipe are only an approximation of what I actually used.

Ingredients

• 1/2 block of tofu, cut into .5cm x 1.5cm x 1.5cm blocks (or so).
  
• 2 cloves garlic
  
• some oil
  
• ~7oz 'rice stick noodle'
  
• 2T brown sugar
  
• 3T soy sauce
  
• 3T mushroom sauce ('vegetarian stir-fry sauce')
  
• water
  
• 1 egg, beaten
  
• 1/3c scallions, chopped
  
• limes, bean sprouts, and crushed peanuts to top
  

Heat a small amount of oil in a big pan (wok, if you have it) and add the garlic. After about 30 seconds or a minute, add the tofu and cook until the tofu is getting brown and crispy. Then add the egg and scramble. Once the egg is cooked, add the brown sugar, soy sauce, mushroom sauce, scallions, and noodles. toss those around a little, and then add about a cup of water. Stir around a little more, and then cover. The steam cooks the noodles. Stir the pot around periodically so things don't stick. If the pad thai ever looks like it's starting to get dry, add more water and re-cover. When the pasta is cooked through, adjust seasoning, add water and possibly more soy sauce, hot sauce (maybe sriracha, if you have any) and serve. Feeds about 3-4, depending on how hungry you are.

Thoughts: This went pretty well. Next time I'm thinking I'll add a little rice-wine vinegar or tamarind juice (or both), a little more brown sugar, a little fish sauce, and a little more water / soy sauce / stir fry sauce. The recipe works very nicely, it's just a matter of adjusting the seasoning to taste right.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - this is workable. Give it a shot.