One of the best things about having a baby, besides the new life of course, is friends and family bringing you meals. When I had a baby generous folks brought me meals and bless their heart it seemed they consisted of mostly desserts and casseroles. The casseroles were always cream based and some variation of rice and hamburger or chicken. Don’t get me wrong, when your tired and hungry anything made by someone else is a God send, but what I wouldn’t have given for spice, variety or a chop salad. But when dinner rolls around and the hubs and other kids start the, “I’m hungry” or “honey, what’s for dinner”? It’s wonderful to pull out a ready meal that can be hot and the dishes thrown out instead of cereal, toast and eggs or microwaved chicken nuggets.
Our Pastor and his wife had a baby girl. She’s adorable – it’s their 4th child. I asked them if I could make a meal. What’s funny is the Sunday morning when I offered, I said I wanted to make Thai food. I had no idea until during the morning message, Pastor Doug talked about the trip him and his wife took to Thailand. PERFECT – I love theme food.
I chose Pad Thai and I used this recipe from about.com http://thaifood.about.com/od/quickeasythairecipes/r/onepagechickpad.htm
This is how I did it.
Saute the chicken.
Poach the shrimp in ginger and garlic infused water and then shock to stop the cooking. I got some great large gulf shrimp from Hyvee. Already deveined, raw and ready to cook.
I blanched the rice noodles
I got out my WOK pan and fried the egg, removed – toasted the garlic and then added the noodles.
I made the sauce – it was a little intense and crazy with all the ingredients and such that I forgot to take photos. Blogtastrophe!
Finally, I add in all the remaining items and simmered on low for a bit until the sauce thickened. It smelled so good. I’m glad I tripled the recipe so that we could have it for dinner too and lunch the next day, etc. We don’t have a Thai place here in Fort Dodge.
The most labor intensive part of this meal prep was making the Ginger poached shrimp spring rolls that Sincerely shared with us a while back. There was an assembly line going in the kitchen. Good thing I had my intern (my new sitter Madi) as my sous chef working the line.
Oh, your wondering about the sauces for the spring rolls?
It was Soy ginger dipping sauce, thanks Alton Brown and Hoisin peanut sauce. The cup of Sriracha is for Jim to add to his already spicy Pad Thai so that he can sweat through his shirt…
It’s always fun to deliver the goods.
But the BEST part of the delivery is getting to see and hold the baby.
Harper Joy!
Honestly, Amy
P.S. When I got home I found this message, “The meal was amazing! And inside my Thai coconut fortune cookie it said this, “Feeling gratitude without expressing it, is like wrapping a gift without giving it.” So thought I would express my gratitude to you!! DELISH! That was the icing on the cake!
