Don't make me tongue Thai'd: Coconut Curry Shrimp

I like Thai food. And coconut. A lot. I made that chicken coconut soup a while back, and I'll be sharing my semi-successful first attempt at Pad Thai... someday.

Recipes containing "Thai" and "coconut" have a 99.999% chance of getting pinned. The .001% accounts for the possibility of an accompanying terrible ingredient like raisins. Or hair (but mostly raisins). Lucky for me, Skinnytaste's Red Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp contains neither.

I was a little nervous going into this, as my biggest successes so far have been soups, salads, baked goods and crock pot dinners... AKA dump stuff in a bowl then either eat it right away or wait until it's done. This was easy peasy though, and so good! I love the way it makes my whole apartment smell like coconut.

I linked some of the ingredients below so you can see which brands I used. Your local supermarket should have all of this stuff. This recipe moves fast, but you'll be fine as long as you chop and mince everything beforehand. With rice, it made enough for 4 lunches.

Red Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp
From Skinnytaste

Ingredients

• 1 tsp oil - Canola, vegetable, something bland
• 1 tbsp Thai red curry paste
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 6 oz light coconut milk
• 4 scallions, chopped - Separate the whites and greens
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined - Go with the frozen kind, less work for you!
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet on medium-high.
2. Add scallion whites and red curry paste, saute for about a minute.
3. Throw in shrimp and garlic, season with salt, cook for 2-3 minutes.

4. Add coconut milk and fish sauce, mix well, and simmer until shrimp is cooked through (2-3 minutes, longer if shrimp is frozen but still pretty quick).

5. Remove from heat, then add scallion greens and cilantro.
6. Serve over rice and eat your heart out! 

I have yet to perfect the art of cooking rice, but that's a whole other blog post.

Christmas Cookies and Memories

Taken at Easter, not Christmas, but similar setup.

When I was a kid, my mom baked cookies every Christmas. She'd go all out, baking dozens of cookies for friends, family, coworkers, teachers, you name it. It was quite the undertaking. Each batch went in a holiday-themed tin, which I suspect she bought on clearance after the holidays. Frugal, she was. I would "help," but as I was but a young reluctant domestic, I probably just got in the way. She didn't mind.

My brother and I spent Christmas 2011 apart, but thought the same thing at the same time a few days before: We should bake Mom's cookies this year. Perhaps because it was the tenth anniversary of our last Christmas with Mom.

So, we took to the internets to find recipes.  The AKA's are what we called the cookies as kids.

Peanut Butter Chips and Jelly Bars (AKA "PBJ Cookies")

From Hershey's

• Fair warning: The dough will be dry and crumbly when you prepare it. It's OK, I promise! The jelly moistens it up.
• Not a grape jelly fan? Use whatever flavor you like. I prefer raspberry.

Magic Cookie Bars (AKA "Coconut Chocolate Bars")

From Eagle

• The Eagle Company is smart to create a recipe which requires 14 ounces of sweetened condensed milk. Know why? Because Eagle is the only company that makes 14 ounce cans of sweetened condensed milk. The other brands at the supermarket came in 12 ounce cans. Would the cookies have missed those extra 2 ounces? I didn't want to take that risk. Eagle don't play.
• It's way cheaper to buy graham crackers than graham cracker crumbs. Besides, crushing graham crackers by hand is a great way to release pent up aggression. Not that I have any.
• I do not recall Mom including nuts in her bars, but I used chopped almonds and thought they were a nice addition.

Those are the only two recipes I attempted. They are both incredibly easy to make, incredibly hard to screw up, and incredibly delicious. No pictures, because I eated them (I shared!). 

Other cookies recalled from (mostly my brother's) memory include:

• "Spiral cookies with sugary glaze"
• "Something with saltines, chocolate, or caramel, or maybe both"
• "Cornflakes covered in chocolate"
• "Chocolate balls (heh)"

I'll give myself more time and try more recipes next year.  Maybe someday I'll make them with my kid.

If you remember additional cookies made by Mom, leave a comment and let me know! Even a vague description will probably jog my memory. Dad actually unearthed her recipes, so I will be making copies next time I visit.