Peanut Sauce Recipe

After searching around, and trying a number of peanut sauces, I have finally found the best one. It came from allrecipes.com, and it was the sauce for Chinese Chicken Salad. The salad was good, but the peanut sauce was outstanding. I put it over spaghetti noodles with green onions, fresh cilantro, and freshly shelled unsalted peanuts. It was even better the next day. 

Cook Pasta. When the pasta is cooled, add the peanuts, cilantro and green onions. Then mix in the dressing. 

Dressing:
Mix together with a whisk:
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce (available at Kroger on the international isle)
2 tablespoons of peanut butter
2 teaspoons of brown sugar
¾ teaspoon hot chile paste (also available on the international isle)
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar (same place as above)
1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil (located in the cooking oil isle)

July 2nd was my birthday. My girlfriends and I went to lunch to celebrate. Betsy's entree was so unusual, I thought it deserved a photo. It kinds of reminds me of Dr. Seuss. How about you?

Nature’s Bounty

Went by the community garden on my walk this morning and found the mayor picking tomatoes and purple hull peas. She gave me a batch of peas and I hulled them when I got home. It’s been a while since I did this, so the peas popped out of the pods, jumped the side of the bowl and landed on the floor.  It took a while to perfect my technique and now I know why they are named purple hull peas because my fingers are now purple. I plan on cooking them tonight with some chicken stock, half a slice of bacon, salt & pepper. They will go good over rice. 

At the same time, the tomatoes came in and I’m overwhelmed. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon cooking spaghetti sauce. Well, actually I should call it chicken zucchini spaghetti sauce. I used up half the tomatoes and was able to get 6 dinners out of it, which I then put in the freezer. Tomorrow, I plan on doing the same with the tomatoes below. 

Nutraderm Therapeutic Lotion, Original Formula

I have used the above lotion for almost forty years. Over that period of time, it has always been available at any large drug store. It used to cost about $8.00. Over the years, the price has gone up some, but I never paid over $15.00 for it. When I moved from California to Mississippi, I had to rely on the Internet for my supply. Now that my birthday is approaching, when asked what I would like, I said Nutraderm. The next thing I knew, I got a call late at night from a friend who said he’d like to buy it for me, but he wasn’t going to pay $100.00 for it. I was aghast. So this morning, I looked up Nutraderm on Amazon, and sure enough, there is was. $100.00. I am guessing that the company either went out of business, or stopped making the product. What amazes me even more, is you can buy it new or used. Now why would anyone buy a half-used container of moisturizer? The thought makes me gak. This is a fine example of why change isn’t always for the better. Tarnation! Now I'll have to go find another lotion.