Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
Posted by Sunday on Jul 20, 2010 at 12:10 pmHi.
I haven’t been cooking this last week. Southern California has been experiencing a “heat wave”¹ and more often than not that translates to “video games and take-out food” in the Anger Burger household. Bloggers; they’re just like you!

My dad picked up a new oven mitt at a yard sale that had this tag on it. I suspect it wasn’t made in the US, because in America we tend to avoid combining the words “Challenger” and “Flame Retardant” and “BBQz”. BBQz?

It cooled down enough last night that I cooked some whitey-ass gai pad krapow made especially inauthentic by the addition of fresh pea shoots.

The pea shoots were a lucky find at the Asian market – they taste like fresh peas, but act like bean sprouts. You don’t want to cook them as much as allow them to get warm in whatever it is you’ve already cooked. In this instance, I turned the heat off on the turkey and then stirred in a few big handfuls. They wilt almost instantly, but the stems stay a little crispy and they taste fresh and vegetal without having much personality of their own. I mean this in a good way. It was delicious and we overate before collapsing into another round of Dragon Age: Origins.
It’s hard out there for a wimp.
¹ Wow, who knew Angelenos were such pussies? First of all, the summer of 2010 has set a record for being the coldest in over a decade. Do you understand? It’s been unusually cool and comfortable here. Then! The temperature slowly ramped up to normal heats, spiking in the 100′s in the usual places where only scorpions and Vietnam Vets live and keeping around 90° here in regular ol’ Los Angeles. THIS IS NORMAL. And 90° in Los Angeles is pretty tolerable — it’s dry and cools the fuck off at night. I never thought I’d say this as a born-and-bred pasty white Pacific Northwestern newt-lady, but if you can’t take the heat then get out of the MOTHERFUCKING DESERT.













