thaithaithai

 I feel like the last time I bummed around at home for about 3 weeks was when I was 12. The start of this summer consisted of blowing the remains of my pitiful income from the semester on grocery shopping when I was too impatient to wait for the weekend to go with the rentals, watching endless FoodNetwork shows [and Friends] (as per usual), and collecting/dreaming of recipes [goal: finish recipe book before July]. With the occasional gawking at cooking ware in various craft stores and such (which reminds me, Southern Season is supposed to be having their cleanout...or whatever.. sale. Note to self: make excuse to leave work early).  And thus starts some dishes I've been meaning to do since the start of the school year - also a yummy way to clean out the fridge and ensure my family misses me before I head across the world and out of this terribly depressing atmosphere. Yay.

Starting with pad thai for the fam...and Alicia.

 Got the shrimp (head on of course... OF COURSE seriously).  Got the scallops.  Noticed parents were defrosting chicken breasts...had to take that naturally.  Found some tofu at the bottom of the fridge.

But first. The sauce. Yes, Daddy bought a little jar of pad thai sauce from Harris Teeter.. but... that's so... easy.

So, keeping in mind that we didn't have peanuts anymore, I made a sauce using the stems of the cilantro garnish and peanut butter and all the other good stuff pad thai sauce consists of...with brown sugar in place of palm sugar.

Prepared the pad thai following any random recipe from the Internet (I had just watched a pad thai Throwdown episode so used their method there).

Ate about three heaping bowls of the stuff (plus the bits I snacked on along the way), and even had leftovers for lunch the next day.

But the kitchen sink was piled with about 16 pots/bowls/pans and a wok (exaggeration...it was more like 10 pots/bowls/pans).

Dessert.  Always need to prepare a dessert.  Because at home, I have this nasty habit of snacking way into the night on sweets.

Brewed some Thai tea (most deliciously fabulous stuff...if you don't already know) and incorporated that, almond milk, raisins, and a drizzle of dulce de leche  from Ian's cheesecake into a rice pudding.  Yummy starchy goodness.