Thai a Yellow Ribbon...

Round the old oak tree.  I did it!!  I finally got over the unfounded fear of Pad Thai, making not eating it.
I have had these rice noodles in the pantry for a while and always found a reason to not make the Pad Thai.  Truth is that I had heard that it was difficult to make well and I love Pad Thai and really wanted it to be good.  Blah, blah, blah.  I finally decided that I was going to tackle this and just do it, regardless of how it turned out, I was determined to eventually make good Pad Thai.


I looked at a few different recipes then decided to go with the one on the box of noodles (find the recipe here).  It sounded pretty easy and the ingredients were all things that I had in the house.  OK, so here I go.  Chop, chop, chop.  I had heard that you have to have everything ready to go once you start the cooking process because it goes fast.  Is it weird to allow food to make you nervous?  I had everything ready and I got the wok out and cranked up the heat.  I must have read the recipe 20 times as the wok was heating then......it kind of felt like being on a roller coaster.  I moved everything around the wok so that it wouldn't burn.  Chicken, shallots, garlic went in first.  When they were done I took them out as the recipe told me.  "Add the noodles and sauce and stir till well coated."  CRAP!  I was reading the recipe off of the box of noodles and forgot to soak them.  OK, soak the noodles.  Wait, wait, wait.  As the wok heated up again, I prepared myself for the final salvo.  Then, as suddenly as it started, it was over.  I tasted it and was shocked that it tasted really, really good.  As good as what I get in a restaurant.

I feel very proud of myself for just making this fairly easy dish.  I did it and I will do it again.


I was so happy that I got over this speed bump that I decided to make something that I felt confident in.  For the holidays I got a subscription to Cook's Country and received my first copy last week.  There was a recipe for Fairy Gingerbread Cookies that made my mouth water just looking at it.  My father and I share a love of ginger snaps and all manner of ginger cookies.  It was a done deal.

This was such a strange recipe.  It created a tiny amount of batter and I couldn't believe that this would make the 4 dozen that the recipe claimed.  After my noodle issue with the Pad Thai, I decided to set out all the ingredients and I made sure that it was ALL of them.  As you can see there just isn't that much of anything in this recipe, well, except for the ginger.  There is a lot of ginger.  After everything was mixed together you have to spread it onto parchment.  The thing was that this little bit of batter was suppose to cover 2 12x15 sheets.  I just kept spreading and it just kept getting thinner.  I am talking impossibly thin!  No really!  See!  This is so thin that the wrinkles showed through the batter.  It was about the thickness of a business card, seriously.

 Sometimes when I run across these weird recipes it reminds me of jumping out of an airplane or bungee jumping, there is always a point where you just have to trust that everything will turn out alright.  In the oven they went and fifteen minutes later they came out a beautiful golden color.  You have to score them quickly while they are still hot.  When they are cooled they break easily and then dip into milk even easier.


My dad was REALLY happy that I decided to make these, he became the recipient of half of the batch.  If you like ginger cookies these are an absolute must.  They are light and airy and oh so gingery.  They are a lot like potato chips, it is really hard to eat just one.

Peace,
Monkey Queen

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