Thai Noodle Salad - Rachel

This is one of my favorite recipes. I don't know where I found it anymore, but I fell in love after the first time I made it. Plus, it's so easy to make that even if I only have noodles and the ingredients for the sauce, I will still make. I have made it so much in fact, I have the basic recipe memorized. So, when mom had shingles and I was visiting one day, I offered to make it for her because, as we all know, noodles are a comfort food. It may have been the drugs, but mom loved it too and we've tweaked to recipe several times to make it just the way we like it, so here's the recipe first and then take a look at the variations because that's where the real fun begins.



6 oz dried vermicelli
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
1 red pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
3 green onions, cut diagonally in 1/2" pieces
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
lime wedges for garnish

Cook vermicelli according to package instructions, drain and set aside.
In medium saucepan, combine soy sauce, broth, peanut butter, lime juice, ginger, and crushed red pepper. Cook over medium-low heat until peanut butter is melted.
Add cooked pasta and toss to coat evenly.
Stir in cooked chicken, sweet red pepper, green onions, and cilantro.
Serve with lime wedges.

Variations:
So, I'll be honest. I have never made this recipe with vermicelli. I usually use spaghetti noodles because that's what I have in the house. I prefer the thin variety. Angel hair is too thin and regular spaghetti is really too thick. I usually add broccoli because I really need to eat more vegetables. The broccoli can be fresh or frozen and I throw it in to cook with the noodles. Hooray for multi-tasking. I also never cook the sauce in a pan. It microwaves well in 1 minute and you dirty far less dishes. Finally, the meat in this recipe can be whatever you like, or none if you prefer. As I said before, when I just want something quick, I have made this meatless and it's just as good. In the picture, I made mine with shrimp and it was fabulous. I've also used beef. Depending on what kind of meat I use, I will usually change what kind of broth is added to the sauce. I've used vegetable before and it was OK, I normally use chicken broth, and I use beef broth when I cut slices of steak for this. One final variation, I normally saute the red pepper strips with the meat. That's just a personal preference because I like my red peppers a little caramelized. This recipe is fabulous because it's so flexible, so get creative and enjoy!!

Our recipes and how we roll. - Audrey

Last week I got an email from Jeanette, asking me for a recipe that had been mentioned in a comment on Facebook, and after she asked for that one, she went on to say she would really like a copy of a lot of good recipes she remembers from when she lived with us. She suggested making a cookbook, and the more I thought about it, and talked about it, the more it sounded like fun.

Rachel and I started listing favorite recipes, and a lot of them are already typed up and stored in my computer, because I've sent them to my kids. As they've moved out, gone to college or missions or gotten married, they always ask for recipes for their favorite foods so they can make them at their new home, so I've got them stored in a Recipes folder in my computer.

Kim was very organized about it (as Kim always is), and before she went to college, she looked for specific recipes to take with her in a notebook, and she has added to it over time, so my first thought was to use her personal cookbook as a starting point, but then the idea got bigger!

Rachel thought it would be a great plan to make a family cooking blog, and include pictures of the food, and I thought we should put in pictures of the family, too, especially of the kids from the years when Jeanette lived with us. So eventually - I hope by the end of the summer - we will have a recipe collection that we can have printed into a cookbook.

Our plan is to present the recipes, with pictures and comments, and also probably with notes on our substitutions, because I am famous for making substitutions when I don't have exactly the ingredients a recipe calls for, and my children learned the art of substituting from me.

True story: Diana gave me a recipe for an easy and delicious (according to her) chicken and rice casserole. I didn't have rice in the house at that moment, which is surprising, because we always have rice; we eat a ton of rice! So I used bulgar, which is cracked wheat, in which the grains are about the same size as rice kernals, and I used something else in place of,I don't know, cream of mushroom soup, I think, and then there was a third thing that I didn't have so I used another thing.

When I told Diana about it later, I said I had made the recipe and it wasn't really as good as she said. She was surprised, and I told her that I had made a couple of changes, and by the time I got done telling her what I had used for this or that, she said, "So you really made an entirely different recipe, didn't you?" And yes, she was right, and I don't think I ever did make that casserole the right way.

These are our favorite recipes, so they will be good, or at least we think they are, and they are the recipes that I make for my kids when they come home from a hard semester, or a hard day, or just to hang out. They are the recipes that they call me for when they are away, so they can make the comforting home food that makes them feel better. Where I can, I will give sources, but some of them are things I've been making for so long that the original sources are long gone.

You can look forward to Harold's Good Meatloaf, Mom's Good Yellow Cornbread, Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls, and Killer Brownies, and if there are any good stories that go with them, we'll tell you about them. Through the magic of the Internets, Rich and I even found the source of the Pigs in a Blanket recipe that Kim started making for us when she was about 8!

Rachel and I are really excited about this!