Self pity and peanuts

Life after college isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be. Surprisingly there aren’t a thousand jobs fighting with each other to hire you. Believe me I was just as surprised as you are to learn that people don’t look at your diploma- with high honors mind you- and just throw salary offers at you.  Its baffling.

So after a day of endless job hunting and useless self pity parties, I came to the conclusion that the only solution to my problem at that very moment was simple. I needed some comfort food. Now I’m probably one of the weirdest girls around and I hate chocolate. I think chocolate chip cookies only serve one purpose- to hold ice cream in a perfect ice cream sandwich and brownies are only worthwhile if someone decides to make them “cosmic,” and even then I still have to be bribed to devour one.

I’m pretty sure I’m more broke now than I was in college…if that’s possible. So I am limited as to what to have for some comfort food. Sorry Ben and Jerry, I have to raincheck. So what to make……

I had some peanut butter. And I had some chicken and a box of brown rice noodles I bought on one of my many useless tirades of “getting healthy.” Hmm….yup. pad thai sounds good.

Only problem was….I’ve never made it before.

So here’s my adventure with one of my favorite dishes…Here’s to hoping I don’t screw this one up because lord knows I am in desperate need of that comfort food.

Started off with marinating some chicken boobies. I made a simple peanut sauce as a marinade:

Minced Garlic                         1 tbsp

Ground Ginger                       1 tbsp (fresh would be better but gotta make due)

Peanut Butter                                    1/2 C  

Warm Water                          1/2 C

Soy Sauce                               1 ½ tbsp.

Apple Cider Vinegar                         1 tbsp

Wickles                                   2tbsp (if you don’t know what these are, you should)

Brown Sugar                          1tbsp

Toss all the ingredients in a blender and have at it till its nice and smooth. Pour into a gallon sized zip lock  and toss in 3 chicken breasts. Make sure chicken is completely covered in sauce and leave in the fridge for a few hours- 24 is best.

This stuff just smells amazing. Next, soak some bamboo/wooden skewers in some water- that way they wont burn to a useless crisp when you grill up these saucy chicken strips.

Take the chicken and cut into thin strips- you could do so before the marinade like a smart person, or you could be like me and make more messy work for yourself…..

After I so graciously sliced the already marinated chicken into strips

After you’ve cleaned up your cutting board like a dope, skewer your chicken in a zig zag fashion and leave in the fridge while you prepare the pad thai.

zig-zagged like a pro

3 Chicken boobies gave me about 18 skewers

NEXT! Here’s the cheating part. I looked up a ton of recipes and found that to make authentic pad thai sauce I needed thai fish sauce, tamarind paste and other ingredients my oh-so-empty wallet just couldn’t swing.  Amazingly I had a 5 dollar winning lottery ticket tucked in the pocket of  my wallet just screaming to be cashed in and the change in my middle console of my jeep housed another 4 bucks. 9 dollars here I come.

I managed to find 2 different pad thai sauces, and compared the ingredients, only one having tamarind paste. Figuring that was the best bet, I grabbed that, and a few other ingredients I could add to zazz it up since I knew it would automatically have that weird “I’m fake but you’re going to pretend I’m not” flavor. You know what I’m talking about.

So anywho.  I took my rice noodles, and put them in a big bowl. Poured hot water over them and in ten minutes viola! They were ready. Meanwhile I threw on my chicken skewers on the grill.

While the chicken was grilling away, in a big sauté pan, I sautéed some minced garlic and ginger root in a little olive oil. I scrambled 2 eggs and cooked them quickly in the garlic/ginger oil. Then mixed in the make-due-store-bought-sauce and added a TEENY TINY splash of sesame oil. I added a tbsp. of wickles, lime zest. I noticed the sauce was wicked  thick. So I added about ¾ cup of water and then tossed in the noodles and thoroughly combined everything together.

I don't even remember when I actually bought this...but it paid off tonight!

If there was one thing I learned in culinary school, it was that presentation is everything and every dish deserves a garnish. SO I got my fancy on and chopped up some peanuts and scallions and served up my home made padthai and chicken satay with a lime wedge.

My garnishes all organized in little bowls- all fancy like

I dug in and FUCK YEA my comfort food necessity was met. Fazsha- who is notoriously VERY picky with food, even went back for seconds. Success! 

Comfort food dinner for two!

Also, I have 3 dollars left. Maybe I’ll splurge tomorrow and buy myself a coffee. HA!