Tag team back again

I've been out of the blogging picture for some time now. I had some nasty sinus infection that had me out of work for nearly a week, and I didn't really want to give updates as to what I was up to. -Today, I slept fo fourteen hours and my snot is green! - That sort of thing. Then I just fell out of the habit. My convalescence didn't afford any interesting tales.

I had a fabulous Thanksgiving. Aych and I drove out to Iowa in his darling new car to spend the holiday with Persephone, Paul Bunyon, Saraswati, and I really can't think of a name for Saraswati's husband. As soon as I do I'll update this blog. In any case, we all either went to school together or married someone who did. And a college prof showed up as well. It was a wonderful weekend. Persephone and Paul are warm hosts, and everyone in attendance helped out with things here and there. It felt really good to see old friends and for all of us to be gathered in one location without any family stress. Everyone brought something or cooked a dish. I brought Sweet Satan's Seed. I got the recipe out of an ultra lounge how to guide on party throwing, hence the risque name of the dish. Sweet and spicy mixed nuts. Here's the recipe:

1/4 cup honey
2 dried Ancho chili peppers sliced into fine flakes (I used a ~1.5 tbsp of crushed red pepper)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (don't be afraid to shake in more)
3 cups mixed raw nuts

I've tried this recipe with roasted nuts, and it's no good. Go raw. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Through all the ingredients sans the nuts into a microwave safe bowl and heat in the microwave until it gets to the consistency of pancake syrup. Stir it all well and add the nuts into the mix stirring again coating all the nuts. Spread the mix in an even layer on an oiled baking sheet and shove in the oven for ~25 minutes, stirring about every 7-8 minutes. Keep an eye on it for the last eight minutes or they'll burn and it will suck.

I've been doing some cooking recently. I decided to learn how to cook Indian and Thai food as part of my money saving plans, and I started last night with a coconut cashew chicken dish which required around a hundred ingredients. It really wasn't that bad. Prep time was minimal, and I was totally done - with time to clean during cooking - in about an hour. I found the end result a little disappointing as it's not very coconutty or cashewey, but I'm chalking that up to vague directions on what is no doubt a complicated concoction. It's not to say that the meal was bad. It just didn't come out as expected. That's one Thai Indian fusion recipe that I'll just let go. Too bad. My next selections are palak paneer most likely subbing tofu for the paneer and chicken tikka masala.