Corissa's Minot Cuisine to the Extreme

Well if you have read some of my blogs you know I am hard pressed to find exotic and out of the ordinary items in the Magic City of Minot.  So I was a little hesitant to try this next recipe, but fortunately for me I was able to find EVERYTHING, well minus the Thai chilies which I substituted with dried chile peppers.  This recipe comes from, you guessed it folks, my favorite blog thefoodinmybeard.com.  Here is the Thai Chicken Tacos that I copied from him.  I highly recommend following and /or checking out his site daily. 

So my first decision is should I take the easy way out using the store bought red curry paste????...

It looks like it might work, you notice I say might...

Well it would cut a lot of time out of roasting spices, grinding them up and also making my own curry paste out of garlic, lemongrass, shallots and fish oil.

I REFUSE TO TAKE A SHORT CUT YOU SPICY TEMPTRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ooooooooooooooohhhh now that's more like it.  Way to buck self and make this recipe the correct way.  The ghetto 80's cupboards are making their token appearance in at least one picture.  All jokes aside if you have time, roasting your own spices and then grinding them up makes a whole world of difference.  In the lovely Magic City I could not find a spice grinder so I ended up buying a coffee grinder.  If you use this contraption make sure you are never going to use it for coffee beans again, unless you would like curry flavored coffee, although you could pass it off as an exotic blend from over seas to snooty friends.  I roasted all the spices for around 2-3 min make sure when using cardamon seeds that you split them in half and use just the inside teeny weeny seeds.  These are very potent little suckers and the recipe that the food in my beard guy posts does not specify this step for people like me who are not curry savvy.

Now onto the cucumber salsa.  I usually make this ahead of time due to the fact it is somewhat time consuming and also is better after marinading.  I start with mixing the rice vinegar, sugar, lime juice and minced garlic. This salsa truly makes the tacos pop due to the fresh taste of the mint and cilantro combined with the cucumber, tomato, red onion and green pepper .  If you have anyone that has an aversion to cucumber *cough, cough Dad* you could also do some pico de gallo.

Me likey!!

WHOA that's quite a close up, but you can see all of the beautiful colors that make up this lovely little topping.

Well since we are having tacos we should probably have a fun drink to pair them with.  This is my version of the skinny Margarita.

The recipe is as follows 2 shots tequila ( I prefer Jose Quervo), 1 shot of Cointreau ( or if you're like me and want to take the cheap way out Triple Sec) and a good glug of lime juice.  They are yuuuuummmmmmmmy!!  The glass looks so big because I bought a mini bottle of tequila.  Also in front the lovely beverage is my awesome penguin pot holder compliments of my mom.

For a garnish I added mint to mine.  I know it's not traditional, but it looked so pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next we move on to the chicken.  When I make this I don't fry them in oil as the recipe calls for, I boil them in water on medium until cooked through.  I fry the curry paste in oil as the recipe instructs, but instead of high-test coconut milk I use the lite.  I really can't taste too much of a difference and it cuts down quite a few calories.  I then add the half can of water, a few dashes of Worcester, 1/4 cup of light brown sugar and 2 tbsp of molasses ( I don't know if the molasses is necessary, but I skimped on every thing else so I figured what the hay).

 
Sorry for the quality of the picture I was in a hurry and the sauce smelled so good.  After letting it simmer for 20-25 minutes I shredded the chicken and let all the curry goodness soak in.

We also added mashed up avocado and feta cheese, which is best if you buy it in the block and crumble it yourself.  These tacos are what I refer to as a party in your mouth, hey get your mind out of the gutter folks, in other words it was full of spicy curry perfectly paired with the cucumber salsa, crumbled feta and mashed avocado.  I would give this recipe a solid 9 out of ten.

The finished product.  It's a little blurry, but only because I was way to anxious to take a bite out of this sucker!

And after the dishes are almost done it is time to relax.  What's that you say?? I'm watching an Iron Chef America after cooking and scarfing a most excellent dinner, yes I am, game set and match beotches.

Puzzles, Forts (not farts) and Golf...We refuse to grow up!!!!

"If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!" - Peter Pan

Trevor and I always marvel that at a certain age people use the phrase, "well then I had to grow up", or "at that age I realized I needed to start acting like an adult".  I myself refuse to ever "grow up".  Yes I will take on adult responsibilities and act somewhat mature in certain situations in life, but I will not stop finding humor in life, will not resist the urge to do a cartwheel on the fairway, will not quit making goofy faces in the mirror, will not discontinue dancing like Elaine from Seinfeld, will not refrain from making up weird songs for Trev and Charlie, will not quit my random outbursts that I yell out at a really loud volume (which often times weirdly sounds like Buddy the Elf), will not give up building forts made out of quilts and a couch (or even a card table for that matter) and will not quit playing games. Sorry for all of the "will nots" in that sentence I know I could have made that sentence more grammatically correct, but I preferred it this way. I have so many more childish antics that I partake in, but I won't bore anyone with listing anymore of them.  Plus many of them could be considered in bad humor and/or very embarrassing.  So here's to never growing up.....Oh and some pictures showing how Trevor and I practice our immaturity and carry on our quest to fight off boredom.

"Golfing".......

I know golfing does not necessarily make us kid-like or seem less "grown-up", but the way we golf does.  This is the platform they have on hole #5 at the Minot Country Club.  The purpose of the platform is to see over the hill that lies in the middle of the fairway, otherwise you wouldn't know when the people in front of you have exited the green. 

Below is me showing my rock star pose.  Nothing says rock star like cropped cargo pants and golf shoes with white Hanes socks showing.

Next we have me still on the platform yelling, " I am on the front of this boat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" a/k/a "I'm the King of the World".  This was an homage to  Larry King's interview with James Cameron and the cast of "Avatar" about the making of the movie.  Larry tries to quote the most famous line from the movie "A Few Good Men", and fails miserably by saying, " remember that famous line,' you wouldn't know the truth'".  This quote can be found when he is speaking with Stephen Lang towards the middle of the whole transcript I have linked above.  So here you go Larry...

One picture is missing from the golfing excursion and that is my cartwheel on the fairway of #4.  Sadly my Kerri Strug-like abilities are way too awesome and could not be caught in action, or Trevor just didn't have the camera out yet.  Y'all can decide for yourselves which one is the truth *wink wink*.  We are also missing a picture of Trevor riding his driver like a bucking bronco.  It is quite amusing hopefully I can capture it in the near future, but for now you'll just have to take my word for it.

"Forts"...

Next we have a photo showing what it is like in the Seely household on a rainy and very windy Saturday.  This is the start to a most lovely Fort that Trevor built for me so we could watch a marathon of  "Lord of the Rings", which once again is an indication of our coolness.  Don't worry more quilts were added for extra protection from the harsh conditions that we must withstand in our living room.

And the side view...

 Please note the dog bone that was hiding underneath the "davenport" as my Grandparents would call it.
Here comes the single mattress that will provide extra comfort for our movie extravaganza. 

Inside the most awesome Fort we have a man with his most loyal and fierce companion, that was said in the crocodile hunters voice by the way.

"Puzzles"......

My sister-in-law Julie gave us this idea to fend off boredom.  She absolutely loves puzzles and pretty much has one done every week.  Sooooooooo Trev zipped on over to Walmart, where let's just say the selection was not the greatest, and bought us one of the best ones in the joint.  The puzzle was a picture of the castle Neuschwanstein.  It is a 19th-century Gothis Revival palace that lies on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenshwangau near Fussen in Southwest Bavaria.  The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as an homage to Richard Wagner.  There's your random piece of knowledge for today folks.

As you can see there were a lot of pieces, 1000 to be exact.  Unfortunately our end result was only the outside pieces and a few that were right next to them.  We were sidetracked by me moving back to Superior and Trev packing up the duplex, I will post about that in the near future. 

And if you are wondering, yes the glasses in the background contain a beautiful white wine (adult kool aid) and yes those are plastic wine glasses from Walmart.  Better to be safe than sorry or something like that, WAIT that's something a "grown up" would say.  Hmmmmmmm hand me a firecracker and let's see how far this plastic sucker can fly.  There that is much better