thoughtful consumption

Sunday night

I’ve never been happy with my stir-fries. In the spring and fall, we get all these wonderful veggies that say, “Stir-fry me!” It seems like such a great way to use fresh vegetables. But mine always end up mushy or burned.

Finally, I had some success Sunday night. The first key was the Annie Chun’s Stir Fry Sauce I splurged on at Kroger. The second key was rereading the stir-fry section of How to Cook Everything more carefully.

It turns out that I wasn’t adding enough liquid as the veggies cooked.

So here’s what I started with Sunday evening:

green onions, broccoli florets, watermelon radish, and onions and garlic

I had planned to have some shrimp, too, but I got forgot to defrost it. And we had a big lunch, so veggies were enough for supper.

Here’s how it turned out. I was very pleased, and we ate it all up.

Monday night

Since we skipped the shrimp Sunday night, I made scampi instead Monday. I started with “The Simplest and Best Shrimp” recipe from How to Cook Everything. It calls for warming the olive oil over low heat before slowing cooking the garlic. It takes so long to warm the olive oil! But at least I was prepared this time and brought a book to the kitchen. The wait was worth it.