Terrific Tom Kha Gai (Chicken Coconut Soup)

I am so sorry for not posting on Wednesday! I have been extremely busy and sick as well as my homework load has tripled from last year. So I did not have any time to write a blog post and I did not want to post a draft and have it be bad. I figured it would be better to just wait and post something way better. So in honor of me being sick here is a delicious Tom Kha Gai (or Thai Coconut Soup) recipe. The original recipe is delicious and can be found at http://pin.it/DmmYiq3 by the food blogger Carls Bad Cravings. I did change the recipe to better fit my own tastes and so it would taste more like the version I get at my local Thai food place. Also here are some added benefits to this recipe, it can easily be made vegan, vegetarian, or paleo. It is already gluten free and dairy free! This is great for when you are sick because it will completely clear out your sinuses and definitely will improve your mood. Plus when you are sick it can be hard to taste, but this soup is so flavorful that it will overcome those horrible flu symptoms! Please enjoy and make sure to comment your thoughts and opinions!

Becca's Perfect Pound Cake

I don't know about you, but I love pound cake. Before my dairy allergy emerged, every time I went to Starbucks I would get the lemon pound cake. Sadly I have not been able to successfully create a dairy-free lemon pound cake, but I have made a delicious regular pound cake! So I found a recipe from all recipes that I think was taken down where I got the original recipe from, but I am unable to link it as I can not find it now. Honestly, this is delicious and perfect for dessert and breakfast. (Or if you are me just eat a whole loaf for every meal!) This is a super easy recipe, so beginners have no fear! It only takes around 5 minutes of prep time and 1 hour of baking (Which means 1 hour of Netflix and chips!)

Lately I have been having trouble making time for my blog and its making me very sad. School starts in a couple of days and I have been scrambling to make the most of the end of my summer. This is why I have only been posting poetry because I already have it written. As of today I will be posting only on Monday and Thursday because I am not going to have enough time to post every other day. This makes me super sad because I love blogging, but balancing two jobs, school (I am going for an IB diploma which means like three hours of homework a night!), and debate (I am at practice every day I am not working) means having to give up that third blog post of the week. So Basically no one is as disappointed as I am that I am having to cut down on my blogging, but this will hopefully allow for more reading time and for longer posts. I really hate having to post a bunch of poetry in a row because I didn't have the time to put together a post, because it feels like I am letting you all down. (This is not to say that I don't love sharing my poetry with you all!) In other news, I am writing a book!( I know pretty cool right?) It is a science fiction romance novel with a billion characters and an extremely confusing plotline. So it is basically my perfect book! So writing this book is also taking up some of my time, though because I have no deadines as it is just for fun, I am pretty flexible as to when I write it. So far I have about 50 pages written (Like 13,000 words) and a lot of notes about the characters and the plot! Please don't ask me to post my writing of my book as I am not going to. It will not be read by any one other than my very close friends and family until it is finished, so you are only going to get to enjoy my poetry for now! Now back to the matter at hand, my amazing pound cake! I chose this recipe because it always cheers me up and I am really sad about going to only two posts a week. I hope it is able to cheer you all up too! I was going to take pictures of it as I had some frozen, but before I could get any my mother ate it! Moral of the story, this pound cake is just as delicious after it has been frozen as it was fresh out of the oven! Alright lets get cooking!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar 
• 1/2 cup butter, coconut oil, or vegan butter alternative (I love earth balance)
• 1/2 cup sour cream or vegan sour cream (I use sour supreme which is by tofutti and is made with tofu)
• 3 eggs (The fresher the better! My friends gave me some of the eggs from their chickens and they were so good!)
• 1 pinch baking soda 
• 1 pinch kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (Or 1 vanilla bean, which I had a try and they loved!)
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (This is optional, but I wouldn't recommend not using it)

Directions 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
• Grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan (I would use Crisco, but butter or coconut oil will work too)
• Cream butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and almond extract until light and fluffy
• Add in sour cream (Putting around 1 tbsp at a time)
• Add in eggs one at time beating well after each one
• Add in flour, salt and baking soda and mix well
• Pour into a pan
• Bake for one hour or until a knife inserted comes out clean
• Create glaze with powdered sugar, almond extract, and milk/milk alternative

Book Recommendation 

Do to a time crunch I couldn't write a recommendation today! This is why I have to go down to two posts a week. Don't worry I will write an extra long recommendation list to make it up to you!  

Becca's Best Banana Bread!

Ever have an excess of bananas on the verge of going bad? I know we always seem to! Besides eating terrible, mushy bananas, you can make delicious banana bread! I love this stuff! It is super moist and yummy and just all around great! Perfect for breakfast, dessert, or a midday snack. This makes about 2 loafs of bread.

Becca's Special Stir-Fry!

As you may know, I love to cook. Also, as I hope you know by this point, I love to read! So I thought to myself, why not combine my two loves! So from this point on, I will be including recipes (My own and my favorites from other blogs). With these recipes I will include the kind of books that pair well with the recipe, as well as a specific book recommendation. So here we go! Today's recipe is one of my family's favorites that I created a long time ago, and only recently wrote down and configured into a recipe, Becca's special stir-fry!

So this recipe is super flexible and while the ingredients I put in are what I like, there are so many other vegetables you can include to make this even better! I know I don't give exact measurements for the amount of ingredients in this recipe, but that is because I never use a set amount of vegetables or rice. I have to thank my middle school cooking class teacher (who was also the choir, and orchestra, and sewing, teacher because she was amazing) for inspiring this recipe. It was one of the first days in class that we made stir-fry, and from that day this recipe was born. I also want to thank my grandmother for having me write down this recipe for her. In the moment when she asked me to write this recipe down, I realized that I not only loved cooking, but I also am good at it, and should record my recipes for myself and others.  

Ingredients:

Here are the basic ingredients, which are obviously variable and can be tailored to many dietary needs (I feel your pain! Finding flexible recipes for my dairy allergy is so agonizingly annoying!)  

Meat:

Shrimp or chicken or *salmon or tofu/other meat substitute. I don't recommend beef because I don't think the sauce works quite at well, but you can try it if you like!

Vegetables: 

Anything you want, but I usually have a staple of onions, zucchini, garlic (you can substitute garlic powder), bell peppers, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots

Sauce:

Brown sugar, garlic powder (or fresh garlic but it won't be cooked for very long, so I don't recommend it unless you mince the garlic, and love a strong garlic flavor), fresh grated ginger (or ginger powder, it tastes very similar), red pepper flakes, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, olive oil, honey, sesame seeds, chicken stock ( depending on desired thickness and amount of sauce and if stir fry contains no meat, then I recommend chicken stock, or vegetable stock.)

My Basic Sauce:

So, this how I make basic amount of sauce. I usually have to adjust to taste because every time I make it, I want it to be a little be different.

• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 Teaspoon garlic powder or 1 clove fresh garlic 
• About 1 inch piece of fresh garlic grated or 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder (this is more or less to taste, this is how much I like to use, but not everyone likes this much ginger) 
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or if don't like spice, then use 1/8 teaspoon)
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar 
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons sesame oil
• 1/4 Cup olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• Sesame seeds to taste
• Chicken Stock (if using) I would start out with 1 1/2 cups or to taste

Directions:

Cut up meat and vegetables into similarly sized pieces. Stir fry the meat and vegetables in sesame oil. Start with your onions, garlic and meat (I am not sure with tofu, I can not eat it, as I can not have large amount of soy, so I am sorry I can not explain how to cook with it). If you are cooking with shrimp, then cook all of your shrimp first, then remove from pan, and cook vegetables, then add all ingredients back into the pan when you add in the sauce. You are going to want to use medium low heat, because sesame oil does not cook well on high heats. If you are impatient and want to cook things faster, then use olive oil, and you can cook on medium high heat. How long you cook your vegetables and meat depends on how much you are cooking, and how large your pieces are. The general rule is cook your chicken and beef (unless you are making the beef rare, I'm just trying to prevent food poisoning) until it is 165 degrees Fahrenheit, or the chicken is completely white and the beef is to the pinkness of your liking. Shrimp should be cooked to 120 degrees Fahrenheit or when it changes in color to pink and shrinks slightly, if you see it shrink a lot  (which is basically every time I cook it, because I always cook meat to death) you have over cooked it. Heat chicken stock (I recommend better than bouillon). Mix together sauce in another bowl until well mixed. Add other sauce ingredients to chicken stock, mix well, and remove from heat. Once all stir fry ingredients are fully cooked, add sauce, and stir well for around 30 seconds, so sugar does not burn. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and serve over rice, ramen noodles, rice noodles, or eat as is. Enjoy your meal!
*If you make this with salmon cover the salmon in the sauce without chicken broth and then bake or grill the salmon and stir-fry your vegetables, then serve together.

Recommended Reading to Pair with Meal

I would recommend an adventure story with this meal! Stabbing into those veggies while you are reading about swashbuckling pirates, is honestly a perfect night in! As versatile as this meal is, it will pair with any book with lots of action, but I would recommend something in the vein of a hero's journey. (I know, so specific!) I would also recommend sitting in a comfortable area, like your bed, or your couch, putting on some energetic music, and having a glass of lemonade (Or wine for those of you who are old enough to drink, unlike me) while you eat this meal, and read your book. This is actually what I'm planning on doing this Friday night!

For a specific book recommendation, you should read Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller  

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller
My rating: ❤❤❤❤

Readers will love this nontraditional tale of swashbuckling pirates, and fierce female main character, in the fantastic adventure story that is, Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller. Alosa is the daughter of the fearsome Pirate King, and she packs quite the reputation herself. Sent on a secret mission by her father to find a treasure map, Alosa has to allow herself to be captured by a group of less then terrifying pirates, in order to search their ship. Alosa feels she has this one in the bag, that is, until she meets the ships first mate, the surprisingly smart and handsome Ridden, who is making things just a little bit difficult for Alosa. But Alosa doesn't scare easy, and a little romance never hurt trying to get information right? I read this book all in one sitting because I absolutely could not put it down! Its a pretty average sized book, but the story is jam-packed with adventure and action, and it totally transported me to a pirate ship! Alosa is a great character and her self discovery in this book is so relatable to young adult girls everywhere. This book does a great job of showing how women don't have to act like a man to be a badass, and how just because you may love dresses, it doesn't mean you can't take someone down in a fight. This was a very entertaining read, that definitely gets your adrenaline pumping, and I would highly recommend it to fantasy, romance, and adventure lovers!
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