This recipe, loves, is a little magical thing. Simple, super quick to throw together and the sauce – YOU GUYS THE SAUCE – I could drink it with a straw.
I’ve been accused of hyperbole. But that does not apply in this instance. Nope.
A couple of things. 1. I’m not a blueberry OR a white chocolate lover. 2. Somehow this cookie STILL tops my list of cookies I actually dream about at night.
I’ve not posted this recipe before because I was protecting it… hoarding it away for myself because when I make one this good I have a difficult time surrendering it to another set of human hands. {I have my faults… I recognize this}
However, so many people have asked for it recently that I am caving. Caving like a scared little kid who tried to no avail to protect their swiss cake rolls from the hands of the sweaty bully at lunch time. HERE YOU GO. TAKE IT. JUST STOP STARING AT ME WITH THOSE EYES AND THOSE MUSCLES AND THOSE NEEDY EYES.
As soon as we have a day that is below 80 degrees I start pulling out the cider + boots + soup!! Cider gives me an excuse to drink Hot Toddy’s every night. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT?? Boots just look cool and they are NOT FLIPFLOPS!! And soup? Soup is about the coziest thing ever ever.
I’m going to give you two options for this recipe. One for all of you that adore your animal proteins and one for those of you plant based friends. {I see you, loves!} This is also easily made GF.
I’ve had some major life changes recently. That seems to be the way it goes for me. Smooth sailing then an upset. Bills being paid then NOPE. My pants fit then WAAAAAIT JUST A DAMN SECOND!? The latest life shock has caused me to really take an honest look at how important my integrity is.
Lovely carrot and collard ribbons {instead of rice noodles that you usually see in Pad Thai} and a few other things you probably have in your kitchen already, are thrown together to create this divine + spicy + earthy yet bright + healthy dish that you will want to make ALL THE TIME. This is one of those dishes that would work so well for a dinner party where you have a lot of different diet preferences to accommodate. It will make your vegan and GF loves’ toes curl right on up and your carnivores can eat one up right next to their bowl of curry with crispy duck or Momofuku style chicken wings.
Everyone can be happy and hold hands and sing campfire songs. See? World peace just from some Pad Thai Spring Rolls. We are making miracles around here, loves.
Things happen. Everyday. They just keep on happening. The beautifully joyous things. The surprisingly intoxicating things. The unexpectedly motivating things. And yes, the devastatingly shocking things that send us into a tail spin when we least expect it. Those happen, too. A lot, yes? Yes.
The challenge lies in that overlap part of life – when the joyous and the shocking collide like a hurricane-churned wave on the shoreline. It is simultaneously devastating + beautiful. It is painfully bloody + blooming. It is both HURT-full + GRACE-full.
I’m going to talk straight to you today. There will not be mincing of words or unnecessary flowery language. The last thing we need right now is vagueness and ANYTHING ELSE that will make us cock our heads in confusion. I came across the picture above a few days ago. It was taken at a wedding a while back during a time that I was giving a lot of attention to taking care of myself physically, mentally and spiritually. I was investing in myself in ways that I have since strayed away from. Seeing this picture was a wake up call to get back there and FAST. I was happier then. I was more in control of what brought me joy then. Life has a way of getting in the way of life, you know? It takes work to reign it back in.
I moved a couple of months ago. And then I helped my parents move a few weeks after that . There has been a monumental amount of packing and sorting and purging and brown boxes and tape ripping ripping ripping from tape guns.
I found so many skewers+tea bags+wandering Q-tips+stacks of magazines+scribbles of recipe ideas+1st grade spelling tests. But even when we say goodbye to more than we think we should, we still end up with exactly 47 boxes too many.
We pack up all of the material things into paper boxes and move them with us because we think they ARE us.
One of my favorite things ever is cooking for the people I love. There was a season in my life where my door stayed unlocked and people came to my house to eat by the dozens on a weekly basis. My kitchen had an open door policy for a while and it was everything my heart needed.
One Sunday night I was hosting a large group of friends for Brinner. On the top of the list of MUST-HAVES was bacon, obviously. Right under bacon on the list of necessities was SPICY. I was trying a recipe for a sweet/spicy bacon from a cookbook that I absolutely trust but something went terribly wrong.