car crashes

On what was his 2nd day of stickshift driving lessons after getting his permit, my 17 year old son crashed the car & totalled it. Thankfully, it wasn't the new car (It was the 13 year old beater we got for free that my husband uses sometimes to get to work if I need the main car.) & no one was injured aside from some bruising & shoulder pain. He was going up the block to Rally's to get some ice cream with some BOGO coupons we had after taking the recycling out to the neighbourhood bins. My husband said he saw the oncoming car, but that my son apparently panicked when releasing the clutch & slammed the gas instead of the brake at the same time, T-boning the other car, deploying their airbags. The other car's occupants were pissed until they found out he was  a teenager with a new permit just learning to drive. They had to call a friend to come get them, since they were a couple hours from home, but we've been in contact with them & the insurance companies, since we were at fault. So, we're a one car family again & I just wonder how much my insurance will go up after this. :(

Banh mi

We had banh mi sandwiches again tonight. If you don't know, it's a Vietnamese sandwich stuffed full of goodness. OK, really-it's a sandwich stuffed full of disparate ingredients that somehow end up tasting great together. Most of them have bbq pork or shrimp, but I made up a quick marinade, pressed some tofu for an hour & then mixed it together & baked it for an hour, The do chua I had already made, sitting in the fridge from the last tine we had banh mi. Do chua is the ingredient that makes people look at you weird when you mention what it is. It's quickly pickled daikon & carrots. It smells like fermented farts when you open the container, but tastes slightly vinegary, slightly sweet, & imparts a slight crunch to the whole affair. Top everything w/ mayo, cilantro, a splash of soy sauce & jalapenos or a splash of chili oil. I left it out since I had added some sambal oelek ( Indonesian chili sauce) to the marinade. Traditionally there should be some pate ( I keep meaning to do a mushroom pate) & Japanese mayo, which is apparently richer. I don't think I've ever had it. Anyway, makes a quick, surprisingly tasty, & unusual sandwich. Once you've had it, you'll find yourself craving the tangy crunch of do chua mixed with mayo. Ours was vegetarian, & only missed being vegan because of the mayo. Obviously, vegan mayo totally works here too. Yum!

This week's menu

OK, here's what I'll be making this week for dinners: Egg sandwiches w/ schug (kind of like an Israeli aji sauce)
a big green salad w/ edamame, roasted beets, not sure what else, & a loaf of crusty bread, sage brown butter pasta & roasted Brussels sprouts, BBQ seitan sandwiches topped w/ broccoli slaw w/ watermelon gazpacho, & banh mi sandwiches, which is a leftover from this week I haven't made yet because I didn't buy enough tofu. Meijer seems to have some good sales, so I'll hopefully get some good deals between that & coupons. I'll post pics of the meals when they get made.

menu planning

I'm sitting here in front of the laptop w/ the baby sleeping on my lap. He's been taking 5 minute naps all day, totally frustrating. Whenever I try to move him to the crib he wakes up-not great for trying to wean him to his own bed. My hips & arms are killing me from the extra weight supported on them while I'm stuck on the couch for hours. I love him, but he's been extremely needy the last couple days, needing constant entertainment. I know, he's teething, but it gets frustrating. Anyway, I'm looking at Tastespotting trying to figure out what we're having this week & match it to coupons. Haven't really found any good coupon matchups for stuff I want. Why are there never any cloth diaper coupons?! Yay disposable society. So far I've got a large entree salad, possibly w/ some roasted beets & edamame, but not sure yet, some pasta w/ brown butter & roasted Brussels sprouts, & an egg sandwich with a spicy Israeli sauce. I need to get some local eggs this weekend. I really hate buying eggs that aren't from humanely treated, loved as pets chickens. I still have banh mi to make too, but I didn't get enough tofu last week, seeing as how I used both packs last night. I've apparently been feasting on cilantro since I've had 2 recipes this week with it & (so far) 1 with it for next week. Interesting fact: If you hate cilantro, you can train it out of you. There is a gene whose only job pretty much is to either make cilantro tasty to you or taste like soap. If you fall into the latter, the more you eat it, the more the gene will change until eventually you like cilantro. I can see how people say it tastes soapy, but I still like it, but it wasn't always the case. Anyone cooking anything awesome this week?

Introductory post

I'm sitting here watching ABC Family programming. Whee. Boring. Figured I'd demolish my old private blog & create a public one people could actually follow. Not much to see in this post.