It's Monday! (You can take that with excitement or dread depending on how you feel about Mondays...)

It was a fairly low-key weekend for us as we didn't have anyone from our ski lease come up to use the house for the holiday weekend since passes were blacked out. It was so quiet!  The weather is also still confused on whether its supposed to be winter or summer, with rain instead of snow at our house. So we decided to skip on skiing.

We never do very much for Valentine's Day each year since our anniversary is only a month later, but we did do a little something to celebrate.  I made Dave an awesome, decorated, handmade card, and he brought home some gorgeous pink tulips -- my favorite!

He also surprised me with my all time favorite dinner that he cooks -- Seared Ahi Tuna! It's marinated in orange juice, soy sauce and cilantro and he adds a macadamia nut crust. Delicious! If you're in Tahoe and need some fresh fish, we highly recommend Overland Meat & Seafood Co. They get fresh fish delivered every Friday straight from Hawaii. They also have a wide selection of organic, grass fed and free range meats.

We also opened a bottle out of our special case of wine from Ernest Hill Wines. This winery was a favorite of mine when we lived in Australia so we joined our wine club.  Before we moved back to the States, we picked up a full case of wine that we've been working our way through over the last 4 years on special occasions.  Unfortunately, the 2008 'Dam' Merlot (the only merlot I've found I actually like) had already turned bad. Damn! Dave thinks it may have been seal fail that caused it, but talk about a disappointment! We decided to open the 2009 of the same name to see if that was any better.  Luckily it wasn't a complete fail, but it was definitely past it's prime and needed quite a bit of time to open up -- like 24hrs... We ended up drinking a bottle from Safeway that was much better although rather ordinary.  Fingers crossed the last 3 bottles we have hold up one more month till our anniversary!

We also enjoyed the beautiful weather with a walk down to the beach (yes the beach in February!).  Other than that, it was quite the low-key weekend with plenty of time spent in front of the fire catching up on HBO and Netflix. So excited that House of Cards is back!

How did you spend your long holiday weekend? 

Thai Peanut Chicken Curry

There are few things I love more than peanut sauce. Seriously. It goes great on pretty much everything -- noodles, rice, chicken, shrimp, veggies, etc! Up until now, I'd been relying on the peanut sauce in a bottle from the store.  Sure, it's easy and convenient, but it's also not the same as a truly fresh.

I was really intrigued when I came across this recipe at Closet Cooking for Thai Peanut Chicken Noodle Soup, and it had been in my list to try for a while. I shared it with Dave, and while he's not a huge fan of soups, he does love curries.  So with a little tweaking, we were ready to experiment with this dish and turn it into something of our own.

We have a winner! It turned out so tasty and delicious, definitely a success.  The best part was I was able to make it completely gluten free! I'm experimenting with eliminating gluten from my diet (more on that later), and this was really easy to adapt. We substituted noodles for a bed of rice, and switched out soy sauce for gluten-free soy sauce. Who knew there was wheat in normal soy sauce?! We also sped up the cooking time by buying a pre-sliced mushrooms and pre-roasted chicken at the store, shredding the breast meat, and adding it at the end.

Thai Peanut Chicken Curry

(Adapted from Closet Cooking: Thai Peanut Chicken Noodle Soup)

Ingredients:

2 tbs olive oil

1/4 c. red curry paste

1 (14oz) can light coconut milk

2 c. chicken broth 

1 c. sweet potato, butternut squash, or yams, peeled and diced

1/3 c. peanut butter

1/4 c. lime juice

2 tbs gluten-free soy sauce

2 tbs brown sugar

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 pkg pre-sliced brown mushrooms

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 rotisserie chicken, breast meat shredded

2 c. brown basmati rice (prepared in rice cooker)

Garnish

1/4 c. chopped peanuts

2 green onions, sliced

2 c. bean sprouts (optional)

1/4 c. cilantro, chopped (optional)

lime wedge (optional)

1) In a large pot, heat the red curry paste with olive oil over medium high heat until fragrant, about 1-2 mins.  Be careful, it will start to splatter.

2) Add the coconut milk, chicken broth, butternut squash, peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, brown sugar and turmeric to the pot. Bring the contents to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

3) When the butternut squash is tender to be pierced by a fork (about 10-15 mins depending on the size), add the sliced mushrooms to the pot.

5) Once the squash is completely cooked, add the sliced bell pepper.

4) Continue simmering until mixture has reduced and thickened to your preference.

5) Turn the heat to low and mix in the shredded chicken meat. Once the meat is hot, the dish is ready to serve!

6) Serve over a bed of brown basmati rice and garnish with green onions and chopped peanuts.



A few notes from the first time making this -- we only used 1 c. of chicken broth and let it reduce a bit too much so we weren't left with as much liquid at the end as I would of liked. As a result, we didn't add all of the chicken meat that we shredded.  I will definitely increase the amount of chicken broth next time.  The dish also had a really nice creamy flavor, but not as much heat as Dave would of liked. Next time I'll experiment with adding some sliced red chiles to the pot and have some for garnish as well.

Now we get to battle out who gets the left-over serving for lunch today! :)  Enjoy!

Rustic Guest Bedroom

Wow, it's already the middle of February! Time has been flying by this year! It's been a busy few weeks with a trip out to Colorado for some more skiing and a conference for Dave, lots of friends visiting on the weekends for some skiing, and my marketing business picking up!

Rustic Guest Bedroom 
bedframe // duvet // curtains // lamp // burlap monogram // wall art

One of the main items on my to-do list for the year is to finally get our guest bedroom finished. We already have the bed frame, wall color, and rock lamp, so we only really need the bedding and some finishing touches to pull the room together. It's just been tough to get over that last hump and put the room together.

Let me know what you think of this design scheme in the comments below. Would love some input and suggestions! Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend!