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Tom Ka Gai Recipe

A high school friend from Facebook asked me to give her a recipe for a WONDERFUL Thai soup we love. It's a coconut milk based, spicy soup with lots of yummy stuff.
Read on and see if your taste buds start to water!
OK, so the cheating easy way to make it is to go to an Asian food market and buy a packet of Tom Ka (or Tom Kha) mix. It's a pouch-type thing with a kind of paste in a sealed pouch inside. Just ask the clerk, they will know. Also, buy a 2 cup can of coconut cream (not milk-- the richer the better).
When you get home, just follow the directions. What it will say is basically to boil some chicken in the coconut cream, then add the flavor packet and perhaps water or chicken stock. Mine also says to add lime juice and fish sauce "to taste," so you might want to grab some fish sauce while at the market (I know, sounds gross, but things like that are often the "secret" taste that is definitely missed when excluded).
We always add the "chunks" we like from how we see it served in restaurants. There are SO many variations, but what we like and usually see are onions, button mushrooms (sometimes shiitake too), cilantro and Thai chilies (or serrano).
If you REALLY want to go native, you gotta buy some more things while at the market: ginger, lemongrass, galanga root & Kaffir lime leaves (GOTTA have those). But this is really duplicating what the paste offers. The soup just looks better & more like they serve at Thai places.
I suppose if you had time to let all those things simmer together it would duplicate the paste, but I just add them cuz the paste's directions don't seem to make as much as we like-- so I can either add all that extra "native" stuff & some chicken broth to increase volume, or just do two packets of paste at once (+ the chicken, onions & shrooms).
Oh, and we like to put a scoop or 2 of rice in the bottom of our bowls before ladling the soup. It makes it more like a meal.
OK-- so I cook just "adding a little of this and that..." If you need amounts, write me back and I'll give you my "Troy-quivalents." :)
Enjoy!

Blurbs

I've been thinking....
The world has had some big news lately. Lots of events have been unfolding in rapid order.
I just came from Facebook where I never cease to be entertained how people seem to be so jazzed about every little this and that.
I think it's funny how people get so wrapped around the axle about some issues only to have them COMPLETELY turn around in a relatively short time. If only people could chill out a bit more!
And then there are such fickle people!!
I just have to make some comments...

Haiti Shaken and Stirred-- "Help! We can't deal with the magnitude of the destruction and the amount of help needed!" (Enter USA) "WHOA! Are you TAKING OVER?!?!!! Wait a minute!"

Air America-- The left-wing liberal radio experiment is DONE! I guess the liberals with money only want to take more from others instead of giving of themselves to keep it running. Headline: "Liberalism exposed and filed Chapter 7!"

Tiger's Woody-- (OK, that may be a little indelicate) Although I am proud of him for going to sex rehab & ashamed of any tabloid that would dare to publish "his tearful therapy secrets," I can't help but see his situation as a statement on "having it all" and it not being enough. Too bad he didn't heed Solomon's life advice who had the Nth degree of EVERYTHING and discovered that, indeed, life apart from God is meaningless; that too much is never enough.

Kennedy's Seat-- The Massachusetts election to replace Kennedy in the US Senate delivered not simply a Republican, but a wake up call? Holy cow!!!

Health sCare-- Now that Obama's congressional "supermajority" is gone, is socialized medicine gone with it? It's just so amazing how it seemed a "done deal"-- against all dissenting (majority?) voices-- and now it seems a slim hope of success. What will the end result be??

Global Schwarming-- Old news: "Anyone this side of neanderthals knows it is FACT." New news: "Too bad we got busted fudging the numbers in order to 'prove it.' " Latest news: "ANYTHING THAT NEEDS LIES (OR "FUDGING") IS **NOT TRUE**! An important/true case will make itself and stand up to all scrutiny!" HELLOOO!?!?!?!?!!!!!!

Bon appetite!

Tonight I used one of my christmas presents & cooked my second recipe from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child. My first recipe was a cheese souffle & tonight was Filets de Poisson Gratinés, à la Parisienne (Poached Fish Filets in White Wine, Cream & Egg Yolk Sauce).
I can already hear the moans: "Oh boy. ANOTHER 'Julie and Julia' copycat."
Although I cannot claim that I have never seen the movie (I could say that I was forced to watch it on a flight home from Mexico, but I enjoyed it too much to say that), I can claim that I have been cooking for years. What the movie did for me was to encourage me to truly begin following my passions which also happen to be cooking and writing. Although not necessarily writing ABOUT cooking... except now. Or when things turn out REALLY good. Like tonight.
It turns out I should've written about cheese souffle night too, but I was too busy eating.
I guess if a picture is worth 1000 words then I am just about done writing.
What I want to say about cooking french food a la Julia Child is this:
1) She really does make it easy. You simply follow her directions (exactly) and you have perfectly completed french delicacies.
2) I believe you can save thousands of dollars by cooking according to a book like this instead of going to culinary school. Yes, one has to have some skills & a certain appreciation and understanding for cooking already, but her book casually explains certain "secrets" & clearly details what you are looking for in various steps of the cooking process.
3) You'd be surprised how easy some of the most impressive dishes can be. I can already see myself recreating certain aspects of a dish by memory! Cooking french food can be THAT easy!
4) A person HAS to be working out if they are going to cook this way because, the butter.... OH! THE BUTTER!!!! And the delicious, velvety, subtle richness of roux with cream... Let's just say that you never would've seen Julia on "America's Biggest Loser." Ever.
5) Just because I enjoy it so much and am so proud of a great result, I will be posting pics of my dishes as I progress. As always, comments and questions are welcomed and WILL be replied to (if desired)!

Faithful atheists

I have been having an on again/off again "debate" with a old military chum via Facebook comments. And I'll tell you what, it is FRUSTRATING!
My old buddy is very similar to me in age, personality, and even skills-- we both went through Naval Aviation jet training together, both flew for airlines & are even both drummers (although it appears he is earning money at thumping the skins-- which I could only dream of). That is where the similarities end however.
This guy-- I'll call him "Junior" since, well, that's what callsigns are for-- is one of those "preaching" atheists. He can't help but post snide, arrogant, condescending posts that take snips at anyone "foolish enough" to believe in God.
I've seen that kind of thing over and over again through the years. Haughty atheists just love to broadcast their apparent intellectual superiority by "humorously" belittling "gullible, overly-simplistic christians."
The thing is, I've had my crisis of faith and I went from trashing it back to validating it all over again. I have deeply weighed and intellectually examined the things I purport to believe; and my faith has been powerfully verified as based on Truth in very personal and powerful ways in my life-- ways I cannot deny.
Now here's the thing that Junior cannot seem to understand: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is-- at its core-- deeply personal and must be explored & worked out on one's own, inside one's soul. My personally powerful experience was meant to impact ME & not necessarily anyone else, much less Junior (evidently).
Junior cannot get past a mental block that demands PROOF for anything he claims to believe. Although, as I am attempting to illuminate to him, his blind belief in science's explanation of the Origins of Life (the very essence of the explanation) come down to a faith position similar to believing in God or Creationism. Let me see if I can explain easily...
The Big Bang (which is the current best explanation for the creation of everything) was an explosion of an infinitesimally dense & small mass (the "dot") which accounts for EVERYthing in the universe today. But... where did that dot come from? Was it "always there"? As christians believe God always was? Or was it created out of nothing-- thus violating science's own Law of Conservation of Mass/Matter? So as a scientific atheist he can scoff at someone idiotic enough to illogically believe in God, but he can believe an equally ludicrous option & still consider himself so intellectually superior??
The frustrating thing is that he is so arrogant yet so obviously NOT well-thought out in his position. He's a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black!
I suppose I should be humored by his hubris & parroting of illogical quotes that were meant to strengthen his position as a member of the atheist elite. But from the standpoint of loving TRUTH and the search thereof, I think my frustration lies in seeing someone who espouses the same desire, but won't make the full jump to the logical end of his own arguments.
Here's what I think I've come to understand: Atheists cannot make certain logical next steps within their own belief structures because of their PRESUPPOSITION that "there cannot be/is not/no such thing as god." My simple explanation of the logical basis of the Big Bang theory (ie, where did that dot come from?) will NOT be answered by an atheist-- they simply will not do it-- because the answer shows that they have to have as much (similar) faith to believe in a godless creation of everything as a person does to believe in God & Him creating everything.
Atheists ridicule faith; so how can one ever admit to having some?
Perhaps a brave atheist will admit to having faith in science or man's ability to explain all eventually. But they will likely never be intellectually honest enough to look at science's ultimate end at it's virtual statement of faith: "Something HAD to come from nothing because... there CANNOT be a god! We cannot prove this, but... it HAS to be true." Belief in something unprovable sounds EXACTLY like faith to me!
In the meantime, I essentially told Junior that as long as he keeps posting his vitriolic tripe that I am up to the task of refuting it.
If he wants to preach, yes, he should have as much right as the next Jesus-lovin' Christian. But at LEAST have the cajones to answer the deeper/further questions that your own belief system brings you to and deal with THAT! I did.

What a start!

What a wonderful holiday season and what a start to the new year! I truly hope you had a great season too.
I just wanted to post a picture postcard my wife took of our two daughters one evening. Doesn't it look better than a Norman Rockwell? I need to brag on my wife and girls for a moment :D It wasn't posed... just a moment caught of a big sister reading to a little sister by the fireplace one evening near Christmas (or "Pxmas":). This shot warms my heart.
Another reason for the great start to 2010 is that I started writing my book! I can already tell that my attention will be severely torn between writing here or on my book project. But now that I think about it, I believe I can use my blog to help get ideas flowing and maybe even get feedback from anyone who reads this. Stay tuned for more!!
Speaking of which: PLEASE feel free to leave a comment on here whenever you can. Anyone who blogs can probably tell you how thrilling it is to actually have someone care enough to jot a note... ANY note telling how the blogger's words affected the reader. Better yet, become a "Follower"! It encourages me to blog more and give more thought to possible topics.
OK, well... I think I hear my future novel calling!!
See you in the blogosphere :)