Easy Shrimp Pad Thai

When I worked at The Richards Group, my podmates and I would always have pod lunches at our favorite Dallas restaurant - Royal Thai.  We knew what we all ordered because we had been going on these pod lunch dates for years and never deviated from our usuals.  My usual was  Chicken Pad Thai with extra egg, no bean sprouts.  I always wanted to try to make my own Pad Thai at home, but for some reason, Asian food is just seemed so intimidating to make! I found a recipe on Pinterest that looked really easy, so I pinned it and decided to make it tonight. I actually had a lot of these ingredients on hand, so only had to pick up a few things at the grocery store to make this. Here's the skinny:


Easy Shrimp Pad Thai, makes 3-4 servings. I got this recipe from here, and made some slight adjustments. They said it was loosely adapted from here.

1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons ketchup 
2 teaspoons worcestershire
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes 
7 oz. uncooked rice noodles, cooked to package instructions 
1/2 lb. uncooked shrimp (you could use chicken or beef if you don't like shrimp)
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1/4 lb brussels sprouts, sliced thin
2 eggs
1/4 cup chopped dry roasted peanuts
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 lime for serving

Stir together the first eight ingredients. Set aside. Cook the noodles according to your package directions. You want them a tiny bit under cooked. Next stir fry the bell peppers in a bit of butter until just softened. Now stir in the shrimp until almost cooked, and then add sliced brussels sprouts and cook until they are bright green, 2-3 minutes over medium heat. In a seperate skillet, scramble two eggs until almost cooked through, and then add to veggie and shrimp skillet.  Add cooked noodles to veggie & shrimp mixture, and then pour the sauce over top and cook an additional 5-6 minutes until the sauce has somewhat evaporated/cooked into the other ingredients (you'll be able to tell.)  Add chopped peanuts at the very end, and then serve with fresh cilantro and a lime wedge.  Easy peezy.

Tyler proclaimed that this is a repeat recipe.  Score. :)

Typography Prints

My goal over the next year is to finish furnishing our house (well, with two more major house projects that hopefully will happen in the next year - year and a half...more to come on those later)  I am a little ADD when it comes to things I like for our new home, so I've resorted to forcing myself to finish one room at a time.  It is just taking me forever because I tend to change my mind a lot. :)

I'm currently working on our family room - it looks SO MUCH different than it did when we bought the house.  Once it is all finished, I'll post before and after pictures, but right now I want to share something I'm sort of obsessing over - typography prints.  I think it all started when Jeff, the lead designer I worked with on Central Market, gave me this amazing screenprint he had done of a woodpecker for Christmas.  Here it is, currently hanging in our kitchen with a great view looking outside:

I mean, doesn't it just make you happy?  And I just love it that much more because it was made by a friend of mine.  So cool to have this hanging in my house. :)

Now, all of Jeff's screenprints are pretty amazing (check out his Etsy page here - bee things - I really want one of his butterflies.  If you're familiar with Crate and Barrel's limited edition teapots, he designed one of those with one of his butterflies!) but I didn't want to have a house full of cute birds and butterflies and puffins.  I found this shop - dean works - and she does a ton of things from posters to invitations to stationary.  I plan on making a gallery wall surrounding our television - I need 2 11x14 prints and 5 smaller square prints - so when I saw her typography posters, I thought it might be a fun addition to this room since we spend a lot of time there.  This is the one I ordered - just white background, black text:

via

You guys may have seen this next one floating around Pinterest, but I loved it and needed to have it immediately.  I ordered it, but it won't be ready until mid-June. I think I may actually put it in the front room though - so much for doing one room at a time! Oops!

via

I also bought these two little guys at the art festival in Charleston while we were there (not technically typography, but whatever) - these will go in our kitchen...yeah, not doing so well at the one room at a time.

Here are some other prints I like - what do you guys think about typography prints?

Cute for a bathroom - via

via

Good for a wedding gift! via

via

Typography isn't just for prints!
Loving this pillow by Alexandra Ferguson - via

Typography also comes in the form of signs! via

One Pot Spaghetti

It is no secret I'm a fan of Pinterest. I'm a big list maker, note taker, phone reminder person, bookmarker because I can never remember anything.  So to have Pinterest where I can physically SEE all of the things online that I want to somehow replicate, want to use as inspiration, or things that I just like is a HUGE help to me.  I typically am pinning things related to house decor, because that is my big thing right now, but every so often if I see a good recipe I'll pin it, and if I remember, I'll try the recipe.  Good thing I pinned this sucker because this has become one of my favorite pasta recipes (this is almost as good as Jamie's meatballs - that recipe to come at a later date.) And you make it all in ONE POT.  Now, I don't do the dishes, that is Tyler's job, so he should love me even more that I'm making his life easier with this recipe.  And now I'll make your dishwasher's life easier because I'm going to share this recipe with you!  Here we go:

1 lb ground beef
1 onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 14oz can chicken broth
1 26oz jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup water
8 oz uncooked spaghetti
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (use the real stuff!)

In a pot cook meat and onion until the onion is tender and meat is browned.
Drain any fat off and return to pot.
Add garlic and let cook for one more minute. (If you're a mushroom eater, you can add those here too.  I don't do mushrooms.)
Add broth, spaghetti sauce, and water, and bring to a boil.
Add noodles and reduce heat.
Cover and cook for 17-20 minutes or until noodles are tender.  You will need to stir occasionally and add water as needed.
Stir in parmesan cheese and serve!

That's it, guys. Now go cook yourself some one pot spaghetti and you, and your dishwasher, can thank me later.