All the Pages Are My Days

Thai Green Curry is one of my favorite dishes, and a fine restorative as well! Until recently, the only way to enjoy it was by dining out, and our hands-down favorite Thai restaurant is a 3 day drive away!

So, desperation drove me to try a bottle of green curry paste. I made the dish more or less according to the directions on the bottle, and while enjoyable, it didn't come close to the taste of a truly great Thai green curry.

It seemed that the paste mainly added heat, and the rest of the expected flavors were muted. The potential was there, so I took a close look at the ingredients that made up the paste. It was easy enough to add fresh chilis, onions, ginger, etc. and the result is much closer to what a good Thai green curry should taste like.

I'll likely refine the recipe over time, but this is a good starting point; enjoy!

Thai Green Curry with Chicken

Ingredients

1/2 chopped onion
2 carrots, sliced for stir-fry
2 celery stalks, sliced for stir-fry
1/2 small can bamboo shoots
2 roasted long green chilis, chopped
1/4 roasted poblano chili, chopped (optional)
1-2 minced garlic cloves
1-2 tsp minced ginger root
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp curry powder
salt to taste

2 chicken breasts, cut into small pieces

1-3 Tbs green curry paste (Thai Kitchen brand is the only one we've tried so far)
2 Tbs brownsugar
1-3 Tbs fish sauce
14 oz can Thai coconut milk
1/2 C frozen peas
1/3 C chicken broth

Preparation

Saute the first group of ingredients until the onions are slightly browned. Set aside and saute the chicken, along with a bit of garlic and ginger.

Mix the curry slurry and heat slightly on the stove or in the microwave.

Combine the meat and vegetables and cover with the curry mix. Simmer for at least 15 minutes, taking care not to boil. Garnish with fresh basil (if available) and serve with steamed jasmine or basmati rice.

Posted by mike 11:39 AM | Comments/Permalink (0)
Categories: Recipes | top of page

You know it's cold when the local temperature, measured in Farenheit, is far less than the temperature expressed in Celcius at your remote office locations:

And I thought it was cold when it was 6F in Lindsborg and 6C in Bristol!

Posted by mike 8:55 AM | Comments/Permalink (0)
Categories: General | Lindsborg | top of page

Artist: Richard Powers
Album: More Important Than Facts

This was a fun little diversion! From Texas Trifles, via a long path back to Eric.

To make things easier to play along, I've copied the rules from Eric's site:

Here are the steps:

* Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

* Visit http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the last quote on the page is the title of your album.

* Visit http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture on the page is your album cover.

I modified rule 2 by dropping an article ("the") from the quote I used.

I hope the very talented photographer who provided the image enjoys this if he sees it.

Posted by mike 11:10 PM | Comments/Permalink (0)
Categories: Humor | Music | top of page

I'm pleased to announce my return to local radio! My new show airs on Saturday mornings at 8:20 on KVOB, 95.5FM. The show is called Lindsborg Town Talk, and attempts to be "your source for news about upcoming events and activities in Lindsborg", in as much as that's possible in 2 minutes, once a week.

In addition to the over the air broadcast, Lindsborg Town Talk is available as a podcast from Little Sweden, USA and the iTunes music store (search for Little Sweden).

My previous show, the Lindsborg Update, went off the air last July when it lost its sponsor; I'm pleased to once again be able to share what's happening in Lindsborg with radio and internet listeners!

Press this listen link to hear this week's episode, and press this read link for a text version.

Posted by mike 9:25 PM | Comments/Permalink (2)
Categories: Lindsborg | Personal | top of page

We recently spent a few days down in Galveston, where we rang in the new year on the relatively warm coast of the Gulf of Mexico. We were primarily focused on exploring the coast but still managed to sneak in a couple of good seafood meals. I had a shrimp po-boy sandwich for the first time; it won't be the last!

We spent a lot of our time wandering the beaches searching for sea shells and taking photos of the wide variety of birds in the area. We rode the ferry over to the Bolivar Peninsula a couple of times and had great luck there in both the shelling and shooting categories. There was one kind of shell that we only found there, and the birding at the oyster beds during low tide was incredible!

During the 4 days we were there I took around 600 pictures, not too much above average for such a trip. I've winnowed that set down to 85 which are posted on Flickr, and my favorite 15 are shown below.

The sunset paints the beach; very nice visual effect!
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Above is a roseate spoonbill coming in for a landing.
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Mother egret with young.
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Unidentified shore bird.
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Great heron feeding in the surf. I'd never seen anything like this, as usually herons and egrets feed in the quiet waters of ocean side marshlands.
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Pelican at rest.
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Great blue heron (looks like a mouthy one!)
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White pelican; we have those at Marion Lake.
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Leader of the band (pelican coming in for a landing.)
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Unidentified wading bird.
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Seagull by the seashore.
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Egret at sunset.
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Egrets and ibis feeding in the oyster beds.
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Another beautiful sunset concludes our trip.
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Posted by mike 12:56 AM | Comments/Permalink (0)
Categories: PhotoBlog | Travel | top of page

Here's a photo of the first sunset of the year, taken on Galveston Island, Texas:

We spent the last few days down here, beachcombing and taking lots of photos; I plan to post some of my favorites in the next few days, but wanted to share this sunset to kick off the new year.

I also posted an image of the last sunset of 2007 on my photoblog, ::luminosity::

Posted by mike 11:28 PM | Comments/Permalink (0)
Categories: PhotoBlog | Travel | top of page