my 365: march

Oh dear, I've moved on to labeling them merely by month, that's a bad sign. I'm about a month behind so bear with me...

1. Finals cram sessions are not complete without a Red Bull. I'm living the stereotype here.  2. This was, if I remember correctly, around 2 am during my typeface design all-nighter.  3. And this would be the results of that all-nighter.  4. My picnic lunch that I treated myself with while finishing up my Art History research paper. My sister turned me onto grapefruit soda and now I'm addicted.  5. My pretty new (and very painful) shoes bought with birthday money.  6. Reading at the coffee shop while being serenaded by a violin player at the next table.  7. St. Patty's Day in Savannah!  8. The greatest book of all time -- The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern  9. Picking my sister up at the airport.  10. First visit to the beach of the summer.

adventures in cooking: tom yum soup

 

My sister turned me onto this recipe when she was here visiting. I love Tom Yum soup and was excited that this recipe has easy to find ingredients in addition to being quick and easy to make. The nice thing about this recipe is that there is a lot of wiggle room in ingredient choices. This was the original recipe and I've made some small revisions (alterations are in italics) that are reflected in my version below.

This recipe yields enough for 2 sizable servings and it keeps really nicely.

The recipe:

3-4 cups chicken stock

1 stalk lemongrass, lower 1/3 finely minced

zest of 1 lime plus a squeeze of it's juice

12-14 medium or large raw shrimp, shelled

2 Tbsp fish sauce or 1-1 1/2 Tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

3 cloves garlic, minced

generous handful fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced thinly

1 green and/or red bell pepper, sliced (I prefer to skip the peppers)

1/2 can coconut milk

1/3 cup fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1 fresh jalapeno, sliced

2-3 stalks green onion

Preparation:

1. Heat stock on medium to high heat in a deep cooking pot. Add minced lemongrass, including upper parts of the stalk, to the broth and boil 5-6 minutes, until fragrant.

2. Reduce heat to a nice simmer. Then add garlic, red pepper flakes, lime, green onions, jalapeno and mushrooms to broth. Continue simmering for another 5 minutes.

3. Add shrimp and simmer 5 minutes, or until shrimp are pink and plump.

4. Turn heat down to low and add the coconut milk and fish (or oyster) sauce. Taste the soup and adjust to taste. If too sour, add 1 tsp. brown sugar. For a richer, creamier soup add more coconut milk.

5. Serve garnished with fresh coriander.

music monday: fun.

I'm a little late to the "fun." party but this is seriously one catchy tune. Upon looking into the band I am not at all surprised that I like them because I was a fan of the lead singer's former group The Format as well.

my 365: week nine & ten-ish

I'm embarrassingly far behind in my photo-a-day resolution in posting and a little in taking. There's been a few days missed here and there and I'm trying to get back into the groove.

1. A rainy day  2. My empty birthday drink  3. Making corrections to my S  4. The Savannah Theater marquee  5. My favorite drink, an Iced Americano, out of a mason jar at Foxy Loxy  6. A rainy day of wandering for type inspiration  7. My computer set-up for type design  8. My birthday present from my sister that was the hardest box to track down  9. Fish-eye lens experimenting in class  10. A beautiful blue sky