Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Productivity... and NOODLES!

I won't lie - in many ways I love that right now my life includes lots of sleeping and cooking and TV-watching. I'm not always psyched about -why- my life consists largely of these things these days, but that's for another day. Everyone who's ever met me knows that I'm not a morning person, and recently I've been gloriously indulging my desire to sleep in. However, tomorrow morning I have to get up at 8:30am to be at an appointment. And here's the weird part: I'm kind of excited about it.

I'm -actually- looking forward to getting up, getting out of the house, getting stuff done. Pretending for a few hours to be a productive, participating member of society. (I know, I know, school counts, blah blah blah...) But really - the idea of having some set of little goals to accomplish during the day, a list of places to go, things to do other than homework... well, is it weird that I'm excited about that? I guess it's just good to feel even the slightest bit of forward momentum.

In other news - I'm learning to cook something that calls itself Pad Kee Mao, and while I will not swear to its authenticity as a Thai dish I will swear to its deliciousness. I might become addicted. With the chewy rice noodles? and the Thai basil? Oh man. The recipe I'm currently excited about is one from the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/dining/052grex.html?_r=2), though I used only about 1 tablespoon of palm sugar and will probably leave it out entirely next time. Oh, and I ignore all the stuff about chicken, and cabbage, and use tofu and bok choy and yummy things like that - and I ignore most of the stuff about peppers, being a wuss when it comes to heat.

But a tip: if you take the plunge and buy fresh rice noodles, do not - I repeat DO NOT - refrigerate them. If you do you'll have a lumpy block of rice starch so completely cemented to itself that you'll throw a small tantrum and need to leave the kitchen. Okay maybe that part's just me, but still - don't do it.