curry & cobbler

I had a bit of a seesaw weekend. Parts were great, parts I'd rather forget. But it ended on such a high note, I can still hardly get over it. My friend and I bought tickets to the National Symphony Orchestra's Christmas concert on a whim. It featured the Washington Children's Choir and the Canadian Tenors.

Neither of us had a stinking clue who the Canadian Tenors were, and we were both utterly exhausted from the weekend's adventures. We honestly thought about throwing in the towel all together. 

The minute the show started, though, we were awfully thankful that our guilt complex about already having paid for the tickets prevailed. It was incredible. The choir, the tenors, the symphony music. It was perfect. I couldn't even come close to describing it properly, but just know that a lot of heart squeezey moments were experienced by Neha and I.

Monday morning, though, my Christmas spirit was totally railroaded by the realization upon arrival at work that I had left at home my ID and my computer access card. I knew I couldn't do a thing without them, and ended up having to go home at lunch time. When I got home, I promptly realized NONE of my stove burners would light. Which was an issue considering a)I was starving and b)I was supposed to cook dinner for a friend later in the day. 

Thankfully the handy man in my building restored the stove, and thus the LKTC, to full capacity (which was actually an improvement over the fact that only two burners have worked for months now). My plan to make red coconut curry noodles wasn't foiled after all, which was good news for the pre-prepped ingredients hanging out in my fridge (and my sour mood). At the last minute, I decided to use a few apples that were approaching their expiration date to make cobbler, which I based on this recipe (from my often-baked peach variety). Very non-congruent, I know, but once I get an idea in my head...  

not sure exactly what happened to this butter, but judging 3/4 of a stick was interesting

unexpected afternoon off of work = plenty of time for detailed prep work

coconut milk cream + fresh ginger + red curry paste + onions

with chicken broth, coconut milk, cilantro, and Thai chili sauce added

plus noodles and red pepper

finished product!

mini apple cobbler + vanilla bean ice cream

So, there's a little up-front investing to be done for the curry noodle recipe, namely in the form of the Thai chili sauce and red curry paste, but nothing was prohibatively expensive. And aside from a bit of chopping (red peppers and cilantro) and grating (ginger), the prep work is easy, and everything gets cooked in the same pot, which I love. And Sophie and I agreed that it was pretty good for a one dish meal, even without the chicken that the recipe suggests. 


And I am happy to report that the apple cobbler turned out beautifully, despite the whole odd shaped butter quandary. I love dessert, but rarely crave anything fruit-based, so I'm happy to report that this oddly hit the spot. There's just something so simple but perfect about ice cream on top of steaming hot cobbler, no?  


Oh, and I got to give Sophie her present, which helped reinvigorate the previously bubbling Christmas spirit that had been compromised thanks to my severe case of the Mondays.