What's for dinner?

The age old question that all house-persons ask themselves on a daily basis. I can recall my mom saying, "I don't mind cooking, I mind having to come up with the idea of what to cook every night." Now that dinner is primarily my responsibility, I can certainly relate to that sentiment. Though, I feel we modern chefs de cuisine of the home have an advantage over those of the past. We have the internet. And Pinterest. And did I mention Pinterest?

Pinterest has catapulted my blossoming interest in cooking into a full on love affair. Each day I discover new recipes and new fabulous food blogs, which I will keep a running list of here. 

I've already tried and experimented with many of the recipes I've "pinned." It has been an awesome way to increase my cooking repertoire and  a great resource for the times I've come across a new ingredient that I am not sure how to use. Oh, and Eric seems to be enjoying this new hobby of mine as well. Can you believe it? Someone actually excited to eat my cooking! Before recently, I had a little trouble imagining this possibility.

So, what's cooking? Well, last night it was Thai Pork & Noodle Soup. A Real Simple recipe that I found through another "pinner." It was a quick meal; perfect for a cold winter's night. 

Few things smell better on the stove than these two. Except maybe bacon.

I pretty much stuck to the recipe with a few exceptions.

Ginger. I did not have fresh or ground ginger so I omitted. 

Mushrooms. I did not have shiitake mushrooms, but I did have these dehydrated mushrooms that we had picked up at the local Thai store (be still my beating heart, Altus has a Thai store!). Now, do I know what to do with dehydrated mushrooms? Not really. Did I opt to turn to Google for advice? That would be a negative. I decided to re-hydrate them in the broth itself. Even after cooking for a good 30 minutes in the broth, they still had a chewy consistency. I didn't mind the consistency, but curiosity lead me to seek answers regarding the re-hydration of 'shrooms.

Dehydrated Shrooms, the package did not come with instructions (that I could read).

Oops! According to Mississippi Natural Products Association, a rural farmers' cooperative, you should first rinse mushrooms as thoroughly as possible and then let them soak for SIX HOURS in clean water. Oh well, you live (you hope), you learn.

Mushrooms taking a re-hydrating bath, turned out it was too much of a quickie!

Chili Peppers. Because Eric and I cannot truly enjoy a meal unless it is painfully spicy, I snipped Thai chilies into the boiling broth. We also garnished with sliced chili peppers of the Serrano variety.

Thai chilies. Most people use with caution, we use with reckless abandon.

Pho noodles. I used these in substitution of wonton wrappers; these should probably be added about three minutes before you are ready to serve.

Pho Noodles

How did it turn out? It was delicious! But it would be wrong to pretend the changes I made to the recipe didn't affect the final product. The substitution of the noodles (in the amount that I used) made the end-result more of a Ragu than a soup. I also probably let the noodles cook a tad too long as they were a little on the mushy side. And then there was the mushroom lesson... 

Because of our personal preferences, next time I will also snip a few more Thai chilies into the mix. The "soup" had decent spice, but produced no tears. In that sense, it missed the mark. All that aside, I have to say it was quite delicious and very satisfying.

Looks healthy & fresh, but clearly not much soupage going on here!

If you are a fan of Asian flavors or if one night you just can't seem to find an answer to, "What's for dinner?" I'd definitely recommend giving this recipe a try! In fact, I plan to give it another try because I believe there is room for improvement and I know Eric won't mind going through a second (third, fourth, etc.) round of taste-testing.