a venemous beast bit my doggy

I took her on a walk and a copperhead bit her right between her toes. She got all woozy and was limping and shaking...it was really scary :(

But on the upside the vet gave her this adorable paw cast. She's a brave pup.

i've really outdone myself this time

Words cannot express how brilliant I feel right now. I have done something that I've been trying to do unsuccessfully for the past five years. Ever since my first visit to Teapot Chinese Restaurant in Northampton, I have tried to recreate the little blocks of goodness that are known as sesame tofu. Anyone who has had the pleasure of ordering a plate of this stuff knows that its not just for fagetarians like myself. The tofu is perfectly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and the sauce tastes like God. Earlier this week, I found a recipe for Pan-fried sesame tofu on wholefoods.com. I was initially skeptical because anyone who has had the premade sesame tofu at Whole Foods knows that it is incredibly mediocre. Their Szechuan tofu, on the other hand, is magnificent. But that's another story.

Tonight, my Mom and I decided to buy all the froofy ingredients like rice wine vinegar (wtf?) and give it a shot. I'll spare you all the details of the cooking here and just include the recipe (with my amendments) below, but seriously, we totally nailed it. This shit is SO TIGHT. I really could not taste any difference between our tofu and the tofu at Teapot. See pix below: 1) me and my mom, with some glistening bud light on her lip 2) heaping pile of sesame wonderment.




Pan-fried Sesame Tofu

1 package extra-firm tofu
1/4 cup flour
corn oil for frying
1/4 cup sesame seeds (lightly toasted)
1/4 cup chopped scallions
for sauce:
1/3 cup honey
3 Tbsp Tamari
2 Tbsp Sesame oil
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 cloves finely minced garlic

Having tried to fry tofu many times, I think the key to making the tofu perfectly crispy is really squeezing all the water out of it like a motherfucker. The Whole Foods recipe says to wrap it in paper towels and put something heavy on top of it for 20 minutes but that is bullshit. You really need to go at it for like half an hour, wrapping in paper towels and squeezing with your hands. Let me just say I killed a few trees doing this. Moving on. Toss the tofu cubes in a little bit of flour, making sure you get every side dusted. Put all sauce ingredients in a pan and mix them up, and put it on low heat while you're frying the tofu. Then, heat up 1/2 an inch of corn oil in a pan and keep it on medium heat the whole time you're frying. Drop the little guys in and keep flipping them while they fry for like 10 minutes. When they are golden brown and feel crispy on the outside, take them out and pour the sauce on top, and finally add the sesame seeds and scallions.

I'm not kidding, this tofu will blow your mind. Try it out and let me know what you think.

...not that anyone reads my blog :)

i got this darling new necklace

My sister gets weirder every day

Maggie has started making youtube videos of her GP, Pierre. We tried to get him on cuteoverload but it doesn't look like that's happening.

holy. shit.

so i've been on ebay the better part of today and just came across these beauties. Guinea pig Halloween costumes.

omg this is my fantasy job