right!

[fox]

Things I have learned today:

• How to make a lovely peanut sauce without resorting to something powdered in a packet:
  • pour a can of coconut milk in a saucepan over medium heat
    
  • add a couple of gobs of peanut butter; don't go too crazy, because the stuff will thicken up plenty
    
  • dump in more chili powder than you think is wise; no kidding, either my chili powder lost a lot of its heat since this time yesterday or I still didn't use enough
    
  • better shake a little salt in there, too
  Boil the whole mixture together until the peanut butter melts and it all starts to boil slowly. Turn the heat down and let it keep simmering until the food you intend to pour it over is done. Stir once in a while to stop it sticking too much to the sides and bottom of the pan. This probably makes three or four servings, depending how saucy you like things. It also occurs to me that you could mix all the ingredients in a blender (or food processor?) before cooking, and that might stop quite so much oil from separating out of the peanut butter? Whatever, it's not actually hurting anyone.
  
• My cheapish little plastic yarn winder is better than the fancy wooden one they've got at the yarn shop. That one, every ball I've wound has had big ol' clumpy snarls in the middle, from how tight the core gets, and plus the very last bits tend to fall off the shoulders of the ball and get messed up; this one, the insides stay inside and the outsides stay outside and it pulls smoothly from the center without dragging out the whole middle of the ball. Hurrah.
  
• Some work stuff none of you cares about.
  
• ;-)

Comments

[reginagiraffe]

Peanut sauce recipe I got from a friend:

Peanut butter (maybe 1/4 cup or so)
water (enough to thin the sauce to the desired thickness)
Schezwan paste (start with 1/2 T and add more if you like)
white pepper (very little! start with 1/8 tsp)

(Note: You don't cook this. You just mix it all together in a bowl.)

Serve over angel hair pasta.

Yours sounds yummy. Must try it.

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I frequently make a peanut sauce (for peanut noodles and the like) by stirring together, over low heat, a bunch of peanut butter; some peanut or sesame oil; hefty splashes of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar; grated ginger or ginger paste; and chile paste. Proportions to taste; usually I add a splash of this and a spoonful of that and melt it and taste it and add more. Requires some whisking/stirring, because the vinegar wants to break the peanut butter apart, but it turns out quite tasty.

I like the idea of using coconut milk, though. I'll have to try that sometime.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

do you have a brand name on the yarn winder? I am in the market for one.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

It is the Royal New Wool Winder; it was a Christmas gift, so I'm afraid I don't have the faintest idea where it was bought. (I don't think they ordered it off my Amazon wish list, e.g.)

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

thanks! i'll look around for it.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

It really does look and feel the same as the plastic one they had at the yarn shop before they got their fancy wood one, though. (The fancy wood one is sturdier and will probably last longer, but, well, you've seen how I don't think it works as well. [g]) Plastic bobbin, plastic handle, and a yarn guide that looks like a bent paperclip.

I've got a swift that looks like the demon child of a collapsing clothesline, as well, and I'm stunned by how smooth and non-snaggy it is. Calls itself "reeling machine" and has Japanese text on the box.