A few randoms, II

I am so ready for the weather to be anything other than what it is now. The rain, snow, hail, and cold are getting to be quite tiresome. 

This past Monday afternoon, Theo pointed out the window and shouted, "Appa! I found the blueness!" He was referring to the first patch of brightness we'd seen for a while. 

Hashtag Seattle kid.

I have zero motivation to write anything, so I figure it is a good day for dumping all the stuff I've been collecting.

It's cool to see people continue to talk about reading goals more than two months after the new year. Is it just me or are a lot of people talking about how they want to read more?

Related to that, I think David came up with this helpful motivation to read more: the number of pages you read per day is roughly equivalent to the number of books you'll finish in a year. (This is based on the assumption that a book is 365 pages long, and most books are less than that. So you actually read more.) Isn't that amazing?

I loved this article on giving your (older) kids a way out.

This post made me think about the difference between self-care and "me time."

Pre-ordered and am so excited for one of my favorite blogger's first book!

Crushing on these cute earrings.

I've been doing something lately (most often in my morning pages) called "writing to my intuition". At first, it seemed kinda woo-woo to me, but I've gotten over it and have found it super helpful. I stumbled on the concept through Jess Lively (you can also read a powerful letter re: world events / news in the show notes of this episode, you don't have to listen to the podcast). My default mode is to operate from fear, striving, and anxiety. This exercise helps me (re-)parent myself from a place of faith, maturity, and peace. The message I need to hear over and over again is "all is well" or that "all will be well." I'm not ready to share examples on the blog yet but if you're curious, you can email me and I can share it with you. This is also a good reference of questions to ask when you're feeling stuck.

A beautifully written essay on motherhood.

Pickles! The Koreans and Taiwanese are all over this already, but I'm always excited when I remember how easy and delicious it is to use pickles in your food. I love kimchi but dislike the way it stinks up the fridge. Enter: regular ol' pickles. (Kosher/dill always. Never bread and butter.)

Eating these pickles with my breakfast sausage one morning reminded me of Taiwanese ground pork sauce with pickles and inspired me to make some with rice noodles earlier this week. Chinese peasant food for the win!

I didn't use a recipe but just made it up as I went. It turned out great and we devoured it. I know 16 oz of rice noodles looks like a lot (and side bar: this is totally what I think is weird about so many pad thai recipes that talk about only using like 4 oz of rice noodles. Huh?!) but this is so good that you'll want to make that much.

Ground pork sauce with pickles over rice noodles

1 16 oz package dried rice noodles (I used banh pho noodles)
1 lb ground pork (ground beef would be okay too)

2-3 gloves garlic, minced

1 T red miso paste

2-3 T soy sauce

1-2 cups chicken broth 

1 T corn starch, or 1/2 T potato starch, dissolved in a couple tablespoons of water

1/3 cup chopped pickles

chopped green onions

sesame oil, shaoxing wine, and white pepper to taste

Soak rice noodles in a pan of cold water. 

Heat up 1 T oil in a wok, then add garlic, ground pork, and miso paste. Stir fry until pork is mostly cooked. Add 1.5 cup chicken broth and soy sauce. Pour in starch slurry and bring to a boil to make gravy, and add more chicken broth if desired. Add a little shaoxing wine and/or sesame oil (both optional). White pepper is probably not optional.

Keep the sauce warm on low and bring your noodles to a boil. When they are almost done, drain them and add to the sauce. Add more broth if needed (we like it brothy, but it's totally personal choice), stir in green onions and pickles (or serve on side), and serve with extra white pepper. Picked jalepenos or thai chiles are also recommended here.

We had soup with mustard greens on the side, but if you wanted to put a green in the noodles, I'd recommend baby spinach wilted in the gravy before you add the noodles.