This week got off on a good start. Menu planning helps keep my life sane during the week and gives me a chance to enjoy a glass of wine at the end of the day. I saw another blog post about my favorite enchilada recipe (Veganomicon’s Potato Kale Enchiladas) the other day that really resonated with me. The blogger said her kitchen looked like the Swedish Chef just got through with it before she was even done cooking. Can I get an “Amen?”

When I plan ahead, I like to make lots of batches of rice and freeze them, I plan meals with similar base ingredients, and I prep vegetables well before it’s time to cook. But this magical “when I plan ahead” experience is rare at best. (See my last post for more on this lack of planning.)

Tonight’s meal is one that I’d recommend, but it’s only suitable for a busy weeknight if you take shortcuts. I made the filling for these stuffed peppers with spiced vegetables yesterday when I had time. I also cooked lentils and rice the day before for a more complete meal (read: enough food to feed my hungry husband). BONUS: This meal is not only vegetarian, but it’s also gluten free. (And Bryant, if you’re reading this, you might as well stop now because I broke your cardinal rule to never buy yellow or red peppers. Sorry.)

Spiced Vegetable Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

4 large, evenly shaped bell peppers (yellow or red)

2 large russet potatoes, cut into small cubes

1 small onion

2-in piece of fresh ginger

3-4 garlic cloves

1-2 fresh green chillies (any variety will do, just pick the one that suits your spice level)

4 T canola oil

1 eggplant, peeled and cut into small cubes

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

a pinch of cayenne

salt and black pepper

Directions (Preheat oven to 375 degrees)

1. Cut the tops off the peppers. Then remove and discard the seeds. Cut a thin slice off the base, if necessary, to make them stand upright.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the peppers and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove the peppers from the water and drain as soon as they are done pre-cooking.

3. Cook the potatoes in the boiling water for 10-12 minutes. Drain when tender.

4. Put the onion, ginger, garlic cloves, chillies in a blender or food processor. Add a teaspoon of water to blend if the mixture sticks to the walls of the food processor.

5. Heat half the oil in a large, deep, non-stick frying pan and cook the eggplant until it is evenly browned on all sides, stirring occasionally. This takes about 10 minutes if you use medium heat. Remove the eggplant.

6. Add the rest of the oil, and cook the potato as you did with the eggplant. Set the potatoes aside.

7. Add the cumin seeds to the same hot frying pan. Cook briefly until the seeds darken and add the turmeric and coriander. Stir in the onion and garlic puree and cook until the onons begin to brown. This will be pretty quick.

8. Return the potatoes and eggplant to the pan and mix everything together, adding salt and pepper and the pinch of cayenne.

9. Place the peppers on a lightly greased baking sheet and fill them with the vegetable mixture. Cook in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. If the peppers still need more time, you can turn the broiler on at this stage, but monitor them closely.

Serve with lentils and rice and garnish with fresh mint or cilantro.

When I get a project in my head, I want to start it immediately. I don’t do well with planning. I just dive in headfirst, tending to make lots of mistakes as a result.

My enthusiasm du jour: bedroom painting.

And of course, in true Monika style, I’m biting bigger than I ought to. I’m planning chevron stripes for the accent wall of our bedroom. Up until a few days ago, I didn’t even know that zig-zags had an official name (other than zig-zag).

I’m going to try to do this right. I’ve got a bunch of DIY websites to diligently follow. I’ve painted a series of swatches on my wall, many-a-time staring and thinking of the scene in Juno where Jennifer Garner’s character says with her head cocked, “So we have custard and cheesecake,” and Jason Bateman responds, “They’re yellow.” But I digress…

So here I go. Amped now but sure to be beyond frustrated, paint-covered, and tangled in a cocoon of FrogTape later.

Wish me luck.

P.S. Here’s a little ditty, Always Love, from one of my favorite bands, Nada Surf. No relationship to the painting project, but it gets me feeling peppy.

When we run out of coffee at work, Morgan Freeman is the voice of reason.

Oh… and a big thanks to Chester for contributing the artwork on this one.

It’s Taylor Hanson’s birthday.

You’re welcome.

I woke up this morning feeling emotional. My stomach hurt. There was cat puke on the floor. My fiance is away at a conference. What a birthday.

When I realized the key to our mailbox was with him in Utah, I decided to take a pair of tongs out to our mailbox and fish out the envelopes with my arm rammed into the metal box. A pair of neighbors walked by when I was in the middle of this charade. “Don’t mind me. I’m just desperate for a card that will make me feel less pathetic.”

There were cards thank goodness and not just junkmail. Some wonderful ones from family and friends. One from my parents. One from my aunt and uncle. One from my niece and nephew adorned with all sorts of stickers and featuring a cartoonish car on the front. They picked it out themselves, my sister-in-law explained on the inside. And of course while the card made me chuckle as I opened it with my scratched up, mailbox plundering hands, it also made me miss my family desperately.

Then I opened a small package from my dear friend Chloe. Inside was one of Chloe’s sweetly penned notes and a lovely necklace she found for me at the beach. And also two magnets Chloe made herself using road atlas maps. One for Bryan-College Station and one for Nashville.

The truth is, now I know why I’m feeling so emotionally fraught today. This is a momentous age for me. The age where I get married. The age where life changes from here forth.

Chloe’s magnets got me thinking about where I’m from, where I’ve been, and how the places and people along the way have shaped me. Three years ago, when I drove the 800 miles from Nashville to Bryan, I thought a piece of me had died. But in the last three years, I’ve only just discovered newer parts of who I am. The one-inch space between the magnets on my fridge is spatially incorrect, yes, but the two locations depicted on them are very closely connected in my heart. Forever etched in me are the memories there, the people who made my experiences there complete, and the discoveries I made about myself along the way.

Who knew that two tiny refrigerator magnets could be so symbolic?

So the truth is it’s a great birthday already. I have so many amazing people in my life and am so very, very blessed. And I know for a fact that 27 will be a very, very good year.

Growing up in a city meant having access to an abundance of restaurants. You want Hungarian? You got it. Ethiopian? Sure thing. A falafel joint? Indian? Pierogis on a grilled cheese sandwich? Duh.

But College Station isn’t exactly burgeoning with culinary options. Until recently, we didn’t have good Indian food. And for me, that was sacrilege. Now that Taz is here, I think about moving away a lot, lot less.

If we didn’t have something, I learned to make it. I wanted paneer, but couldn’t find it, so I made it myself. Then I discovered this gem of a place. I wanted Thai food, so I went to the Asian grocery store and bought Thai basil for pad kra pao or Chinese broccoli for pad see ew. That’s what happens when you move to a place that doesn’t have exactly what you want it to. You adapt.

But then yesterday I got news that made my hungry heart skip a beat. A Thai restaurant, Lanna Thai, had opened in Bryan. Actual Thai. Authentic Thai. This-probably-has-fish-sauce-in-it-but-I-don’t-care Thai.**

I had to try it IMMEDIATELY.

I resisted the urge to leave work as soon as I found it to go gorge myself on spring rolls and tom kha gai soup and curry. Bowls and bowls of curry. Instead, TP and I waited until dinner to try it out.

The verdict: This place did not disappoint.

For our appetizer, we had fried tofu with sweet chili peanut sauce. The tofu was a little different than I had had at other Thai places – a bit softer – but hot and light. The dipping sauce was scrumptious. Patrick started eating the peanuts out of it with his chopsticks.

Fight for the last piece of fried tofu

For our entrees, I had panang curry with tofu. Patrick ordered a dish with a brown sauce and shrimp and veggies (I forget the name of it). We also shared a plate of vegetable fried rice.

Panang Curry with Tofu

Everything was hot and fresh, and the sauces of each of our dishes were delicious and seasoned well. The fried rice was a bit bland by my standards, but filled with vegetables and not too greasy. The presentation of each dish was lovely as well. I liked mine so much that I ate all of it. There was a small amount of sauce left in the bowl, and I asked the server to package it for me so that I could enjoy it over rice later.

Shrimp Dish - I forget the name

There’s a reason a lot of Thai dishes have the word “yum” in them.

Fried Rice at Lanna Thai

My only complaint was the water had a slightly strange taste to it. Patrick thinks they put something in it to make it more fragrant since College Station and Bryan aren’t exactly known for their delicious tap water. My initial thinking was that the glass had residual soap in it, but we ruled that out.

Other than that, Lanna Thai gets two very enthusiastic thumbs up from me. And so BCS dudes and dudettes, I implore you to go to this place. Try it out. Keep it open. Expand your horizons if you aren’t familiar with Thai food. You’ll like it. And if you don’t, at least you can say that Bryan/College Station just got a little more colorful when it comes to its culinary landscape.

*It actually got a lot freakin’ hotter in the last week (101 degrees yesterday, boo!). But I’m not speaking literally here, people.
**Side note: I care a lot less about fish sauce now than I used to. I have started eating minimal amounts of fish recently. In fact, Patrick ordered a dish with shrimp in it last night, and I ate one. You might even call it a sea change for me. Har har har.

Crap. Lots of shenaningans have kept me away. Wedding planning. A new job. A new house. An addiction to thrifting. Hours of TBS (have I mentioned the fact that I’m marrying the real Sheldon Cooper, flip fold and all?)

So how about a video to get things started again?

That was this morning. A group of us got up at the crack of dawn to watch quite possibly the coolest thing to happen in College Station since No Doubt wrote their name on a bathroom wall 20 years ago. There wasn’t much of a warning as to when exactly the building would implode, so we were all caught off guard. Hence the giggles.

Things in life are steady now, which I appreciate immensely. They’re hectic, but I can handle hectic.

Let’s meet again here soon, shall we? For now, listen to this awesome cover of “Call Me Maybe” by Ben Howard. Enjoy.