I made a mess. (tofu veggie red curry)

So, I have a sweet friend who I have been infrequently attempting to school in domesticity for the last few months-ever since I was given permission to interfere. Thus far she has affected an appreciation for the artful display of tchotchkes. She may be soon moving on to the artful draping of colorful fabric. These are both crucial aspects of my decorating style, though my current living space is undergoing a facelift. More updates on that later.

She generally lets me inflict myself upon her in any way I choose; what this means is we made red curry with tofu and vegetables without a recipe.

So I pan-fried the tofu in garlic and oil, chopped up and threw in a couple potatoes and an onion, and eventually some peppers. This culminated in me pouring some coconut milk on top, mixing in red curry paste, and cooking until everything was done and serving on top of brown rice.

It was unremarkable, but it was amusing to be cooking for someone who would ask “Is the rice done yet?” and I would say,”No, or at least it doesn’t smell done.” That blew her mind, though whether I was making that up is a mystery to both of us.

The trouble arose in that cooking everything together, and stirring it frequently to make sure nothing was sticking or burning (I believe frequent stirring is one of the most crucial elements of cookery) resulted in the tofu disintegrating. Everything I make turns into a hearty stew. I’m a little bored of it.

In other news, I haven’t gone food-shopping in over two weeks so I ate out for pretty much every day today. Planning on resolving that soon but feeling unmotivated to change. It’s winter and I’m feeling apathetic. Although; I applied to grad schools and my friend came out to her family this week, and today I took her out to eat fried food and talk about her feelings, and she said, “Maria! Our lives changed this week forever !” And I said,”How, what did I do?” Applied to grad school. Remember, that thing you did yesterday? Oh, yeah. That.

January needs to chugga chugga along. And I am open to the idea of cheap new hobbies, though right now I seem to be preoccupying myself knitting and redecorating, and am not doing the things I promised I would do after applying to grad school like writing zines or falling in love or joining a gym. I get so productive when people tell me things I don’t want to hear. A couple of months ago some friends I love told me I was allergic to nice (in terms of folks I wanted/tried to date) and I got so cranky and set out to prove them wrong. Earlier this evening someone said my room was messy and I was irritated and have been rearranging things ever since. Reconceptualizing living space is so productive.

I want my next culinary adventure to be making Vietnamese spring rolls. We have the rice wrapping paper; I just need to pick up some veggies and vermicelli and make peanut sauce. YUM.