Thai | theclothesmakethegirl

May 22, 2012 Posted by Mel

Thai Cooking Class: A Story In Photos

photo: www.flickr.com/photos/puuikibeach Last week, I knocked off work early and spent a few hours with my dear friend Stacey chopping and stirring in a cooking class at Thai Fresh. It’s one of those only-in-Austin places that’s an authentic Thai restaurant attached to Thrice, a super cozy coffee-and-wine bar with wireless and live music (because every coffee and/or wine bar in Austin is pretty... read more

May 8, 2011 Posted by Mel

Paleo Pad Thai

Sometimes you just want a pile of something spicy-creamy-comforting… like Pad Thai. But the original dish includes rice noodles (fail), soy sauce (fail), peanuts (fail), and sugar (fail). To make it safe for dino-chow consumption, I replaced the noodles with spaghetti squash, used coconut aminos instead of soy, recruited Sunbutter sauce as a stand in for the peanuts, and added snap peas for... read more

Nov 29, 2010 Posted by Mel

Spicy Beef Lettuce Wraps

I la-la-love the flavor palette of this time of year: lots of cinnamon and nutmeg, cranberries, sweet potatoes… everything is earthy and warm and makes me want to curl up under a blankie with a cup of tea. But we superheroes-in-training can only afford to do that on rare occasions. The rest of the time, we need foods with bright colors and bright flavors that get us fired up to lift heavy things,... read more

Jun 9, 2010 Posted by Mel

PA Eating: Crazy-Good Grill-Out

There are some foods that cause rifts between even the closest of hearts. Foods like mushrooms, olives, capers, and even celery can bring an otherwise lovely dinner to the brink of disaster. For me, that thing is cilantro. But my reaction is more complicated than I hate cilantro! – and I don’t have that genetic ‘cilantro tastes like dishwater’ thing. My problem: I only like cilantro in... read more

Sep 8, 2009 Posted by Mel

Dinner and a Movie™: Step Brothers and Chicken Coconut Curry

Dave and I, after much painful trial and error, have declared Sundays “socializing-free zones,” which means that except for major occasions – like a friend’s recent wedding – we don’t make plans with other humans on Sundays. It’s our day to sleep late, do laundry, cook for the week, taunt the cat about being a skinny-ass Zombie beast, read books, take a nap, sit in the... read more

Jul 30, 2009 Posted by Mel

EZ Coconut Curry

As y’all can probably tell from my devotion to cumin, I love earthy, warm, spicy-sweet piles of food. I found a recipe for coconut curry at Simply Recipes and adapted it for my glamorous and glitzy dino-chow lifestyle. And now I’m sharing it with you, ’cause I like you. Full disclosure: I totally cheat in the kitchen. I usually have cooked chicken, ground beef, and pork chops ready-to-go... read more

Jul 21, 2009 Posted by Mel

Sunshine Sauce

I needed a rest day, so lucky you… you get a new recipe! In the dino-chow world, peanuts are a big no-no. (Because they’re legumes, not nuts, and blah blah blah. Get the full explanation from Whole9Life here.) It didn’t seem like a big deal to me to give up peanuts until I remembered the decadent deliciousness that is peanut sauce. Veggies dipped in peanut sauce. Grilled chicken satay... read more

Jul 15, 2008 Posted by Mel

Fastest/Easiest/Tastiest EVER Thai Beef with Basil

You can fuss around with recipes from Thai cookbooks to make the sauce more authentic, but if you just want to eat something delicious, and it needs to be ready to shovel into your pie hole as quickly as possible, this recipe will do it. Very tastily. This recipe will take you from just-walked-in-the-door-sweaty to eating-and-happy in about 10 minutes. [Thanks to Thai Food Blog for the... read more

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The Redbreast: A Harry Hole Novel
I'm about two-thirds of the way through this detective thriller, and I'm hooked. It's set in modern Norway with flashbacks to WWII (catnip for me!) and features a somewhat grim hero that engenders empathy. I can't help pulling for the guy as I watch him struggle with his case and his life. The cast of characters is a realistic but motley crew, and it reminds me of other favorites set in cold, snowy climes: the Millenium Trilogy and Smila's Sense of Snow.
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I picked up this book after reading an interview with Lee Child (author of the Jack Reacher thrillers). He referred to The Lost as "the book of the century" and since I devour as much as I can about the Holocaust to try to make sense of it all, I decided I needed to read it immediately. Part memoir, part detective tale, this book was thoroughly engrossing. It's intelligent, annoying, moving, frustrating, and ultimately, rewarding and beautifully written. It challenged me in ways I didn't expect, and I was sad when it was finished.