Pad Thai

More years ago than I would like to admit, we took a Thai

cooking class from our friends Saluay and Cheri at Hut 10

at McMurdo Station. Cheri had recently taken a similar

class at the Baan Thai Cookery School in Chiang Mai, Thailand

and was willing to share her new-found knowledge with us.

Our friend, Saluay, who is originally from Thailand acted as

co-teacher and we learned how to make all sorts of great

Thai dishes. In Antarctica, of all places! We even received

a great cook book to take with us. Ever since then, I've loved

to make Pad Thai. It's one of my favorite dishes since I love

Thai food and I love taking all the steps to make it a great

dish. Lynn claimed that my latest effort was possibly the best

Pad Thai she's ever had and I like to think it was pretty darn

good as well. Darn...now I have this urge to go back and visit

Thailand again...

"Vandalia" Onions

Almost twenty years ago, I was living near Chicago and I saw a banner
posted alongside the road. Whatever charitable group it was, they were
selling onions to make money. Makes sense. It was onion season after
all. What didn't make sense is what they were calling them.

"Vandalia Onions"

There is a small town in central Illinois named Vandalia. It was once
the state capital of Illinois and is certainly known for many things, but
I'm pretty certain growing onions isn't one of those things. I am pretty
certain that whoever made the banner knew there was a Vandalia and
had never heard of Vidalia...Georgia, where the onions are indeed
famous. Even though it's been many years ago, I still chuckle to myself
whenever I see Vidalia Onions being sold and wonder if those folks in
Vandalia ever decided to capitalize on the similar names.


For those of you that have never tried a Vidalia Onion, you really
should buy a couple. I've heard of people saying they are so sweet,
you can eat one like an apple. I wouldn't go that far, but they are
definitely worth buying a few and using them in your cooking. We
bought a case (since onions don't tend to go bad quickly if kept in
a cool, dry place) and I've been enjoying them in just about everything!
They're only around for a short time, but make sure they're the ones
from Georgia...not Illinois!

Happy 4th of July

We had a very laid-back holiday at our house with a nice
visit from Leslie and our friend, Valerie. Instead of the typical
hamburger and hot dog meal on the grill, we had Green Chile
that Valerie brought which with the beans that Lynn cooked,
made great wet burritos. Combined with the Tamales we
buy from the Helping Hands Kitchen at Child & Migrant Services,
we celebrated with a Southwest flair. In the evening, we walked
over to 12th Street and the Mesa State College campus, where
we watched the fireworks in Lincoln Park. A nice ending to a
fun day.

Cookout Season

The weather is starting to get warm and it's the perfect time
for warm weather cookouts. We went to our friend Dave's
house tonight where we met a few friends for a nice little
gathering. Dave went all out and cooked salmon on the grill
and these wonderful veggies!

Lynn's Breakfast Burritos

For someone of Norwegian-Welsh descent, Lynn can cook
Mexican food with the best of them. Besides her outstanding
Green Chile, she also makes fantastic Breakfast Burritos.
Just today, she put together about two dozen of them that
will last us a while and are even great to take camping.
This time, she used potatoes, eggs, green chiles (Hatch
are the best), chorizo sausage and of course, tortillas.
They're great eaten by themselves, or can be smothered
with chile or sauce. Yum!

Tamales

Today, we picked up tamales that we purchased from the Helping
Hands Kitchen at Child & Migrant Services (CMS). A large
part of Mesa county's agricultural harvest, including it's orchards,
is picked by migrant workers. CMS is a non-profit organization
that serves the migrant and seasonal farm workers and their families
in Mesa County. By purchasing tamales, we help support the CMS.
They are totally authentic and delicious!

Back in The World

The highlight of my first day back in the real world was visiting
my friend Leighton at his house for an ATO cookout and get
together. Leighton is the manager of the Christchurch Travel
Office for the US Antarctic Program. He and his wife have a
wonderful house a few miles north of downtown in Northlands
and there was certainly a good crowd. Lots of folks from both
the Ice and from the office in Christchurch. Leighton and his
wife of course were very gracious hosts and served up great
food and beverages.


One of the entrees though I can definitely live without in the
future was Whitebait. Yes, I tried it and yes, the Kiwis love it.
However...I did not. It's funny that it has to be covered up in
kind of a hash brown-type substance to even make it close to
palatable. Picture udon noodles with eyes. That's what it looks
like...and actually tastes a bit like as well. Ugh.


Before I left, Leighton was proud to show us his garage. I have to
say, this is the only garage I've ever seen that is carpeted. Yes,
carpeted! Someone asked what he would do if his car leaked oil
and he exclaimed that Chevrolets never leak oil. Hmm...they must
have different Chevys in New Zealand than they do in the States!

Almost Time to Go

I can tell that it is time for me to leave
The Rock. The smallest things are starting
to aggravate me. I went through the breakfast
line this morning and decided that pancakes
looked good. However, they had no syrup. Ok,
that can happen. They ran out of syrup midway'
through breakfast right? No...they had no
syrup when they MADE the Pancakes! If you know
you have no syrup (which probably 95% of the
world's pancake-eating population puts on their
pancakes), why would you make pancakes to begin
with? Yeah...

Happy New Year!

Since we are in the time zone nearest to the
International Dateline, we will be amongst the
first to celebrate the New Year. I'm at work
so it won't be much of a celebration for me,
although it's always worth looking ahead to a
new year, hopefully better than the old one.

A family tradition that I won't be able to
participate in this year is eating Kielbasa and
Sauerkraut on New Year's Eve. Supposedly, if you
have sauerkraut on New Year's, it is good luck
and you will make lots of money in the coming
year. Something similar is the tradition of
eating black eyed peas in the South. Eating
sauerkraut has never has seemed to make me wealthy
in the past. Maybe I'd be even more broke if I
hadn't eaten any. In fact, one year it even cost
me money. The first year Lynn and I lived in
Estes Park, Colorado I explained the tradition to
her and we went out to buy our sauerkraut at the
local Safeway. Neither of us like the stuff, but
we had our obligatory forkful. After gagging it
down, we threw the rest down the garbage disposal.
Wrong move. The sauerkraut wrapped itself around
the disposal mechanism and clogged our sink,
causing us to call a plumber on January 2nd, which
of course was not cheap. We enjoyed the kielbasa
of course but have regularly not endulged in
sauerkraut since.

So on this New Year, I wish everyone a happy one,
and the piece of advice to eat your forkful of
sauerkraut, but throw the leftovers in the trash!

Frothy

I pride myself on my Barista skills and I
especially like making coffee for everyone
at work. So when one of the flight crew
offered to send down something from
Christchurch, I asked them to send me milk.
I don't drink milk, but I figured people in
the office would like it in their cereal and
coffee, and the rest I would put in the instant
pudding mix I have in my room. We don't get
real milk here...only the powdered variety.
I forgot that I had packed my milk frother
that we bought a few years ago in Krakow and
since the powered milk doesn't froth very
well, it would be the perfect time to use it.
So this morning and afternoon, everyone who
wanted one, got a latte or a mocha...with
real milk!

Liverwurst

I've been jonesing for Liverwurst lately for
some reason, and today, it was actually brought
up twice by people around me...and not by me!
It must be a Midwestern thing, because I like
it...Susie, who grew up in Iowa likes it and
Lynn who didn't grow up in the Midwest, doesn't
like it. In fact, Lynn calls it Liver-the-worst.
Yes, it is bad for me, but yes, I like it
anyway. The best sandwich ever is liverwurst
and mayonaise on wheat bread! Only 4 more months
til I get to have this again!

It's Chile Season!

It's nearly autumn and with that comes chiles. Most
of them aren't grown commercially around here, but
we're close enough to New Mexico that we get more
than our fair share. At several places around town, you
can see them. At stands large and small, with barrell
shaped roasters turning slowly, you can smell them
all the way down the street. Today, Leslie brought
some Big Jim Chiles home from her friend's farm and
they look awesome! I'm looking forward to growing
some just like them next summer in our garden!

Wax Beans!

My Mom and I snapped Wax Beans this morning. I LOVE Wax Beans!
Especially how my Mom makes them. First you boil the beans.
Then, you fry cracker crumbs in a frying pan with butter. When
the cracker crumb mixture is crispy, add the beans and continue
to fry together. This recipe is AWESOME!!!!!!

Yum...Sweet Corn!

I have waited for today for almost three years!
Sweet Corn! I love to eat corn on the cob and since we've
wintered the past two years on the Ice, it hasn't been
available to us. The Hallbergs brought Mom some
corn from their farm so we cooked hot dogs on the
grill and had corn for dinner. I was in heaven!

Asian Shopping in Christchurch

New Zealand is very much a multi-cultural country and Christchurch
is definitely a hot spot for many different nationalities. As a result,
there are several great options for folks to do their grocery shopping
when looking for international foods. We've been going to the
Asian Food Warehouse for several years now and so have lots
of other Ice folk, stocking up on all kinds of great things to cook while
they're in McMurdo. They have mostly Chinese products but have
recently expanded their Indian and Japanese section and even have
started stocking one of my favorite Mexican hot sauces...Tapatio!


An aspect of not having a car while in Christchurch is you do a lot of
walking. Today, we stumbled upon Moshims Indian Supermarket
on South Durham Street. We didn't buy a lot since we haven't been
doing a lot of cooking, but we certainly could have. The biggest
selection of Indian Food I've ever seen anywhere. We did end up
buying Cornmeal, which we haven't been able to find anywhere else
in the city. Now we have two great options for Asian food grocery
shopping.

Olives?

I try not to complain too much about the food here.
Especially since the kitchen staff is given a set
number of ingredients and they have to do their best
with it. However...tonight I have to put my foot down.
Who the f**k puts olives in Tuna Salad. Sorry, for the
bad language but on a mid-rats dinner night where a
sandwich was going to be the star attraction due to
an occurrance of Chicken Pot Pie Soup, I was drawn
quickly to what seemed like enticing tuna salad. Not
so fast Tuna-boy! What is that stuff in there...onions?
Oh no...God-forbid there be onions in the Tuna Salad.
Someone might be allergic to a diced vegetable that has
been around for thousands of years. Yes, tonight we
had Tuna Salad, generously filled with...Olives. Not
even big pieces of olives that you could pick out.
Someone had to go through the paces to dice them into
tiny pieces. This is yet another case of "Just leave it
the heck alone". Sometimes the galley just tries too
much. Comfort food is not a bad thing. Especially
when the nearest comfort food is thousands of miles
away. In the meantime...hold the olives.

Table of Condiments

This is the time of year when everything gets cleaned
out. What am I going to use? What am I going to throw
away? What gets Skua'd? This includes the rather
"interesting" job of cleaning out the fridge. Most
fridge cleaning events are like archaeological digs.
Hmm...I think this used to be meat... I ran across this
fun chart that will help me in my endeavor. "The Table
of Condiments That Periodically Go Bad". This must
have been created by someone from Australia or New
Zealand...who else would even buy Vegemite...let alone
keep it for 2 months!

Pierogies!

A little over a week ago, I ran across the website for
the Pierogi Fest in Whiting Indiana. This is not far from
my parent's house and although I've never attended, it
made me miss Pierogies an awful lot. On a whim, I copied
the website address and sent it to Angie in the Galley and
asked her when we would be having Pierogies in the Galley.
Expecting a flat out "No", instead I received a "No problem.
We'll make them this week some time". I was pretty pumped!
So Francis spun his creative web of Eastern European cookery
and fixed Pierogies tonight for dinner. Not for everyone
though. Mostly for the Galley crew, a few others and Lynn and
me. Wow! I was amazed. These were awesome and just the
perfect pick me up for this time of year. We even had Ham
and Scalloped Potatoes with the Pierogies for dinner. It
felt just like Easter! So, Thank You Francis! Dziękują!

Happy Independence Day!

I've heard from several people today that they don't
celebrate the 4th of July. They celebrate Independence
Day. Independence from our rule by Britain. To be
honest, I didn't think most people gave it that much
thought. Apparently some do. We went to the 4th of
July...I mean Independence Day, party at the MEC and
generally had a good time. I was a chili cook-off
judge and there were some pretty good entries and one
that tasted somewhere in between excrement and excrement
on one's shoe. Not a good choice. After watching many
younger and braver (or dumber) than I, stand on up to
ten crates at a time while harnessed to the ceiling,
we watched Moose and Barb conduct the annual auction of
stuff (mostly crap). Although Lynn entered a couple of
knitted hats and they fetched $20 and $25. The money
then went to a big pot where tickets were randomly drawn
for cash prizes. Alas, we were not big winners, but it
was fun to watch. The highlight of the evening though for
me was celebrating my Independence from being Corn-Dog-Free.
The cooks made homemade corn dogs for the event and after
many months of jonesing for a corn dog...I left satisfied.
Now if they can somehow find a way to replicate a Taco Bell
Bean Burrito!