Cashew Chicken

This was one of the first Thai dishes that I made and it is still one of my favorites. Most people that come over for dinner request that I make this dish. It is easy, one of the easiest recipes I have.

Two-three chicken breasts (about a pound total)
5 green onions (cut into one inch portions)
1/2 cup of cashews (unsalted)
5 garlic cloves
3-5 red chili peppers
3 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
Canola Oil

Heat your wok nice and hot with the oil, add in minced garlic and red chili peppers (don't cut up the chilies it will be way to hot, keep them whole). Once the garlic is lightly browned add in your chicken. I like to have the chicken sliced thinly about 2 - 3 inches long or so. This enables the chicken to cook quickly and absorb a lot of the flavor. Stir fry the chicken for about two minutes or so until mostly done. Add in your Oyster sauce, cashews and green onion. Stir fry for an additional two - three minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Serve over rice with lime wedges and cilantro.

Thai Yellow Chicken Curry

One of the first curries I made was a red chicken curry. I have sense made many different types. Here is a yellow chicken curry that I made last night for some friends. It is derived from my first red curry, but a little more sweet than spicy.

1/2 lb of chicken (cut into cubes)
1 potato (cut into small cubes)
1 onion (sliced into largish pieces)
1 cup of coconut milk
2 Tbsp of fish sauce
1 tsp of yellow curry paste
2-5 red chili peppers (seeded and chopped fine)
2 kaffer lime leaves
2 Tbsp of oil
1-2 tsp of brown sugar

In a pot, put your oil, chili peppers and curry paste and simmer for about a minute. Add in your onion and then your coconut milk. I usually also add about a 1/3 of a cup of water to the coconut milk. The potatoes soak up quite a bit of water. Add in your chicken and potato in to the pot and let it get to a simmer. Once it is simmering, I add in my fish sauce, lime leaves, and brown sugar. Let is stew for about a half hour and then if you want to get fancy, add in some sweet basil leaves about a minute before you serve it. Serve over rice or rice noodles.

happy eating!

New Years Trip at the Cabin (part 1)

We have had a New Years trip to my parents cabin every year since it was built. This was the third trip. Vivi and I invite a bunch of friends to come up and hang out over New Years. People bring games and snow stuff and go skiing and hiking in the area around the cabin. This year we created a little sledding run on the side of the house and made a couple of snow forts. Enjoy the pictures!

Here we have most of the gang playing games at the dining table and coffee table in the great room of the cabin. We had a total of 28 people up there this year and it was great fun! It is amazing that we can fit so many people together in one space but it works out well.

There were 8 kids this year and we made the sledding run on the side of the house for them to play in. We would take them out every evening after diner and sled with them until they got tired. It usually took and hour or two of sledding, but then they would fall right asleep and we would be able to enjoy the rest of the evening with out needing to tend to them. We also had a snow fort on one side of the drive way and Mike and Heather made a snow den to sleep in on the other side. They ended up sleeping out in their little den every night. I didn't get a picture of it, but it was a nice little set up.