Cranes and leaves

We hung up a bunch more strands of cranes yesterday. There's only a smattering of them left in the storage tub, and hopefully we'll have those up soon too. We didn't hang them yet because those are the only remaining patterned ones we have. All the rest of our papers are solid, and we like a nice distribution. So when we finish the final 170 cranes, we'll string all of them up together and complete the mobile. Looks pretty cool. You can actually see the inner ring between the outer strands, which is better than I'd hoped for, given that the cranes couldn't be spread out like the East West Bookshop version. I'll take a picture when I remember.

My bird of paradise has unfurled two new leaves. You don't normally really notice individual new leaves on plants, but these are hard to miss. They are longer than my arm (plus hand) and 5-6 times as wide. I think it likes its new pot. I will also take a picture of this when I can. Sorry I didn't take them before posting this stuff, but I forgot to do it last night.

We made curried veggies on mushrooms twice in the last couple nights because we enjoyed them so much. They're a dish from one of our favorite restaurants, Root Table in Ballard. I thought I'd post the recipe for them if you'd like to try them yourself. Normally they are made with white button mushrooms, but we didn't want to fool with 20 of those, so we just used portabellos. You can use whatever you like. The only must about this recipe is the cilantro. I'm not generally a fan of this herb, but I will admit that it totally makes this dish. Tastes funny without it. All credit for this is due to Patrick, who did a great job of replicating it. Here you are:

Root Table Curried Veggie Mushrooms

4 portabello mushrooms
1 bag frozen mixed veggies (corn, carrots, peas) (12oz pkg is what we used, and ours has green beans as well because they will fit on the larger mushrooms)
Curry powder
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
Salt/pepper
2 tbsp mirin
Drizzle of honey
Cilantro
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
Garlic
Peanut oil
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 450F

Remove portabello stems, brush with olive oil, place gill side up on baking sheet, sprinkle salt/pepper on gills, put in oven for 12-15 min to roast

While those cook, dice two cloves garlic and mushroom stems. Heat up 2 tbsp peanut oil in stir fry pan at medium to medium high heat, add garlic and chopped mushrooms stems. Cook for 3-4 min.

While doing that, microwave package of veggies. (Says 4 1/2- 5 1/2 mins but we do 4 because they cook a bit in the pan as well.) When done add veggies to garlic/mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt/pepper. Cook together for a few mins.

Add soy sauce, vinegar, honey and mirin to veggies. Stir well. Sprinkle curry powder to taste, probably 2 tbsp for strong curry flavor. Let simmer for few mins.

After curry powder incorporates with everything, adjust to taste. If getting too thick, add a few splashes of water. (1-2 tbsp)

Spoon veggie mixture over finished mushrooms. When ready to serve, sprinkle some cilantro leaves on top (4-5 per mushroom).